VFXWorld recently queried a wide range of education and training institutions around the world about their individual programs and approaches in preparing students for careers in the rapidly changing 3D animation and visual effects industries. Here is a survey of their informative responses to the following topics/questions:
Please describe your core philosophy of balancing education and training and what distinguishes your program.
The Savannah College of Art and Design is possibly the only college offering BFA, MA and MFA degrees in Visual Effects. With more than 6,000 students we are the largest art school in America with the most extensive facilities. There are 1,900 students in Film and Digital Media alone. The school is committed to teaching general education, art foundation skills, and courses specific to visual effects. While other programs may emphasize technical skills only, our program emphasizes the value of a well-rounded education, artistic, technical and conceptual skills. Vfx is tightly integrated with the other departments: Animation, Broadcast Design & Motion Graphic and Interactive Design and Game Development. At Ex’pression College for Digital Arts, having a “hands-on” curriculum with special emphasis in a laboratory environment makes us a unique entity. Students are prepared for their careers using real-world scenarios in a deadline driven philosophy. In addition to basic general education courses, classroom time focuses on lecture driven presentations of course material.
This is reinforced in the lab where students are given the opportunity to demonstrate the knowledge gained in the classroom. As one employer put it: “Ex’pression students come running out of the box.” Ex’pression’s education makes sure students have the right attitude and work ethics. Our core philosophy is commercial training. We are concentrating almost entirely on character and creature animation. Therefore, we are not looking at developing skills for our students for any other purpose than to work in the business as CG artists. Obviously beginning level students who do our course will be far from industry ready upon completion; however, we replicate commercial environment and application of the software from the outset. Our core philosophies involve an emphasis upon the development of strong fundamental artistic and creative skills as they apply to animation. We balance our education by addressing other topics that are not necessarily within our animation oriented curriculum, but which we feel help to round out our students. Topics such as world history, discussions on current events, science, the environment as well as business and intellectual property issues and trends in the animation industry.
Our program is distinguished by our emphasis upon fundamental strength in one’s basic artistic skills, in developing traditional skills as they would apply to digital animation, in encouraging our students to find unique creative personal expressions, and in taking advantage of new and emerging technologies in media and marketing to promote themselves and realize successful creative careers outside the boundaries of the studio system.
Savannah College of Art and Design
Savannah, Georgia
Ex’pression College for Digital Arts
Emeryville, California
Intense Animation Studio
Singapore, Singapore
The Animation Academy
Burbank, California
At Holmesglen Institute, we have a strong emphasis on traditional art and design skills supported by in depth training in technology. Our two-year Advanced Diploma of Animation includes classes in drawing, life drawing, animation appreciation, sculpture, design principles, etc. We also teach traditional 2D and stop-motion animation; however, the majority of animation class time is devoted to digital 3D. At the beginning of the first year, students spend only a few hours a week on digital 3D, the rest of the time being given to ensuring a well rounded education in all areas of pre-production and related skills such as video production, etc. By the beginning of the second year, digital 3D accounts for at least two thirds of scheduled classes or approximately 16 hours each week and during the final semester students work almost exclusively on their major film projects, usually 3D. What recent changes have you implemented in your coursework and faculty to emphasize creative or technical trends and advancements?
We have merged previously autonomous departments and disciplines in order to facilitate programs that match the industry’s trend of convergence. Film, Visual Effects, Computer Animation, Storytelling and Information Technologies (programming, networking and systems design) are all foundation elements to our program. We have re-designed our curriculum completely. We re-focused on one of the main goals of our students: What does it take to get a job in an ever-changing industry? To us, the answer is simple: Strong foundations in technical skills accompanied by a confidence and wit to create and convey their ideas. We have revised all our professional studies curriculum to clearly relate to the career that it applies most. We felt that many schools had unclear structures and unfriendly subject matter that made it difficult to understand the benefit to the student of taking the course. We have also reacted to the needs of an emerging audience - the younger students who are in high school or have just finished. Degree programs have not been for everyone, especially those interested in the arts, technology and music. We have responded to that and created curriculum with new structure to allow people to have more freedom and access to tools that they wouldn’t have unless they were at school or at work. We have also created some preparatory college courses for those who are in high school and interested in getting an introduction to a subject before they declare a major. People are starting younger and younger, and we want to support that trend.
Design, Multimedia & Art
Holmesglen Institute of TAFE
Glen Waverley, Victoria, Australia
School of Continuing and Professional Studies
New York University
New York, New York
The Visual Effects program offers courses specific to compositing, technical direction, matte painting and programming. The visual effects industry needs specialists and we provide specialty courses to meet the needs of industry and students. The program integrates digital methods with traditional methods of visual effects. We have new animatronics and motion control studios. Our plans include a miniature shop and the expansion of digital set extension programs. As well, students take a number of classes where they work in teams as they would the real world. We changed our core 3D software from SoftImage to Maya. Introduced acting classes for all students. Introduced a longer final project for students to explore issues of particular interest to them. Engaged a specialist life drawing tutor who specializes in lifedrawing for animators. She has just received three-year research funding to be based here. Introduced a live project for students - idents for Cartoon Network. True to its vanguard and visionary nature, Carnegie Mellon University is the only university in the country to offer a Masters of Entertainment Technology degree (MET). This is not a Master of Science nor a Master of Arts or Fine Arts degree-rather a unique, specialized degree program in the interdisciplinary field of entertainment technology… The MET is considered a professional, terminal degree. It is the academic pinnacle of studies in this field, thus having greater significance than the M.A. or M.S., and the equivalent academic weight of the M.F.A. and/or M.B.A. degree.
Savannah College of Art and Design
London Animation Studio
London, England
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Studio Arts has undergone tremendous changes in just the last two years. We have re-worked our core curriculum and individual courses to reflect the huge changes in display media, storage capacity, speed of delivery and greater bandwidth that affect film, television and Internet capability. One example would be our use of HD... HDTV, its 16:9 format and its eventual incorporation into games and film, is becoming a prevalent standard and thus a logical format from which Studio Arts has begun to provide program delivery. At Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg, most teachers are guest teachers, professionals working in the industry, who come to Filmakademie for a seminar or workshop. Thus, the curriculum can permanently be adjusted to the actual needs of students and industry, and the course schedules stay flexible. Furthermore, the Institute of Animation tries to pick up creative and technical trends in animation and visual effects by contacts to various companies and studios. One example was the implementation of a new two-year program in 2002 for training to become a technical director. The most significant change we’ve made recently is to incorporate a wider set of software skills into our introductory courses. The skills needed to produce quality work always span a variety of packages rather than just one. This was something our courses factored in from the beginning, but we’ve recently expanded the software portfolio of each course to give students a deeper understanding of the discipline. For example, an introductory 3D program that predominantly uses Maya will also include the effective use of packages such as Photoshop, combustion, Premier, mental ray, as well as DVD encoding software and network render management utilities, etc. We are working now digital. Capturing each frame with a program. Who do you perceive as your market and how are you addressing the ever-changing industry needs of your region?
We have upgraded our digital cinema labs and animation facilities. In addition, we are looking at the possibility of requiring students to buy laptop computers and digital editing/fx/animation software for some of the advanced courses. Computer companies (Apple, Dell, etc.) are willing to offer substantial discounts to students and make financing possible for hardware/software. There is also financial aid available through the university. The present market is the growing 3D & 2D animation houses struggling to meet the requirements of the booming entertainment industry. By keeping the talent sharpening intact, the emerging new software, hardware technologies are introduced to the students to keep them abreast of the new production techniques. Our graduates split down the middle-half are teaching in colleges and half are animators in game or film companies. We are exploring adding a gaming track.
Studio Arts
Glendale, California
Institute of Animation, Visual Effects and Digital Post-Production
Germany
Escape Studios
London, England
Artemia Films
Santiago, Chile
San Francisco State University
San Francisco, California
Toonz Animation
India
Center for Electronic Communication
Florida Atlantic University
Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
With a national and international student cohort (New Zealand, U.K., U.S., Spain, France, Canada, China, etc.) we are a school that attracts those applicants who wish to develop comprehensive film-making skills in an environment where the story is the most important part of the process. The tools used to develop those skills are always chosen to reflect current industry practice at a practical level.
Our course development is ongoing and reflects feedback from our (industry-based) course advisory committee, current student and graduate surveys and changing methodology and technology. Current changes reflect the move to 16:9 aspect ratio for electronic post-production and the changing nature of film production (digital intermediate, etc.). Our market is primarily either current professionals who want to upgrade their skills (or “go digital”) or artistically skilled individuals who want to pursue careers in high-end computer graphics in the entertainment industries. Through our very active Advisory Board, the working professionals who teach our courses and the other FOGs (friends of Gnomon) who are extremely vocal about what the CG industries need, we get lots of input regarding what we should be teaching. We work extremely hard to steer our curriculum in the needed direction. We are creating a co-op with Cameron University to train 3D modelers and animators to get students into an internship at Fort Sill creating models and animations for the Army Base to use as fight simulators and training assistants. Please describe recent initiatives with hardware/software companies aimed at making new technology more accessible to students.
Recent emphasis on motion capture for animation resulted in the procurement of a motion capture system and its inclusion in Ex’pression’s curriculum. The expansion of ProTools towards a High Definition platform will certainly govern our efforts for inclusion in the future. Price is on the top list if we’re talking about students. Previously, around six months ago, Discreet helped a small students community to generate a short movie by providing them more than they expected. We were just persons who were standing between Discreet and the students, to make sure that their communication bridged well.
Victorian College of the Arts
Southbank, Australia
The Gnomon School of Visual Effects
Los Angeles, California
Northern Oklahoma College
MMDC – Advanced Animation Lab
Tonkawa, Oklahoma
Ex’pression College for Digital Arts
Sentra Grafika Kompumedia, PT
Jakarta, Indonesia
We have developed the Kalamazoo Animation Festival International to help Midwestern students gain insights into the professional world. Software companies like Adobe, Alias, Discreet and Newtek have partnered with us to present seminars. We’ve had a long-standing agreement with Alias (through several different parent companies). We moved from SGI to Windows in one lab, but most of our other labs are Apple platform. We developed at RIT software called Frame Thief, which is now marketed in the industry. We serve as a beta test site for lots of various software companies. What do you think about industry concerns that schools need to stress more technique than technology?
We think it is great. There are too many “gearheads” out there with no foundation skills in the arts.
Kalamazoo Valley Community College
Kalamazoo, Michigan
Rochester Institute of Technology
School of Film and Animation
Rochester, New York
Middle Tennessee State University
Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Well, they are parts of one whole. While technology constantly changes so does the approach to how things get solved. Students must have general knowledge of production -- that is the foremost reason to enroll in a program.
They should also have access to technology; if not, they are in the wrong school! Both parts are [equally] as important. The School is redesigning course studies away from technology ... and even technique, to content development dressed as case problems and real-world goals. Students act in combination on story development to work with the filmmaking and audio departments. The goal is working toward “high impact” mini productions ... with greater attention to sound and live photography. Learning every step of the standard software package is no longer a consideration. We believe good artists are the foundation of this field and this has been reinforced by our contacts in the industry. Our workshops focus on both technical expertise and aesthetics. Please describe recent outreach training programs with industries inside or outside your country.
We’ve worked in a production capacity with some area studios, with a group from Israel, with some private individuals and we maintain an excellent relationship with a video game developer in New York state. Please help…in eliminating the term “training” from the conversation on educating people that must operate in a world of color, composition, timing, choreography, making beautiful or fantastically horrifying visual magic come to life before our eyes. SKILLSET is trying to develop more collaboration between industry and education in the U.K. For example, providing work experience for both students and lecturers (who may have been out of industry for a while), getting practitioners to donate lectures and organizing mentors. Our own course liases with industry in the following ways:
All staff are part-time and do freelance work in the industry, all students are allocated a mentor who is a practicing animator, our external examiner is an animation director with Aardman and keeps an eye on us, we run a live project with Cartoon Network…, we go out and meet people from industry and talk to them about current developments, we send out a weekly e-newsletter to graduates about jobs, competitions…and employers often contact us when they are looking for staff.
Fiction Lab Animation School
Mexico
School of Communication Arts
Raleigh, North Carolina
Florida Atlantic University
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
The Animation Academy
CalArts
Santa Clarita, California
London Animation Studio
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