This is the transcript for the video Animation Production
Uh, welcome. Um, my name is Matt Gidney and,
uh, I’m the course director at the moment for the animation program here at UTS.
I hope that you enjoyed that little, um,
short show reel and featuring some snippets from animation work made by our
students over the past years. Um,
I’d like to begin by paying my respects to the traditional owners of the lands
that, uh, um, that, uh,
under which the UTS main campus sits upon,
but these folks are the Gadigal people and they’re of the Eora nation.
So we pay our respects to those traditional owners. Um, at this moment,
I’d like to introduce our panelists that are with us today. We have,
um, Deb Szapiro and Pat Grant, um,
Deborah Cameron, um, Isabel Coury and Bel Holborow,
and, um,
Sara Herner and Rosemarie Vasquez-Brown will be
helping us with the short presentation today.
Let me start with a little bit of history.
We undergraduate degree animation degree that you may be familiar with and know
about is currently that.
And the one that is currently running it has about 400 students and is currently
situated in the design school.
The degree program began in 2012,
and that’s about 10 years ago and will,
and it will be the last time that this course will be offered in the faculty of
design building and architecture because in 2022,
the complete program is moving to the school of communication in the faculty
arts and social sciences, or FASS as we call it.
The Bachelor of Design in Animation will in 2022 become the
Bachelor of Animation Production.
It’s an incredibly successful program and I believe remains the best
place in the country to come and study animation
in so many ways. Moving from the faculty of the design, building,
an architecture to arts and social sciences is common sense in
FASS,
we animators this will be right alongside our kind of people,
film students, music, students, sound designers, cinematographers,
screenwriters, and other excellent communication students.
It’s really where animation belongs.
So in 2022,
the whole animation program,
including the staff and the teaching format and all of the subjects,
we will live in FASS with a new name, the Bachelor of Animation Production,
The newly named degree
will bring everything that is excellent from the past 10 years. Whoa.
Um, since its beginning,
our staff, our students, um, the,
our industry input and our close connections with, um, um,
all of our partners locally and abroad,
exclusive facilities in studios,
then a second to none and offer the latest technologies that you will find, um,
in production.
What sort of subjects will you study in Animation?
We can group our subjects into four groups in each of the six semesters
in the degree, which is over three years,
you will take one animation studio and one animation context class.
The most important are the animation studios.
We study animation in a studio
led approach, this creates a high intensity environment where you will
learn how to work with your peers in a professional and collaborative
atmosphere.
You will learn how to observe the world around you drawing directly from life to
gain inspiration for characters in stories and projects.
You’ll discover how to think creatively and develop ideas through multiple
stages. Focusing upon character development,
narrative and performance. Studio’s benefit from an outstanding
industry connections. Across the degree,
you’ll have the opportunity to work with live projects,
such as VIVID or collaborations within the past with the Australian Piano
Quartet,
ABC, Flying Bark and Animal Logic on co-productions that we
work on in class. Then we have the context subjects,
which are fundamentally lab based classes. In these classes,
you will learn the fundamentals of 2D and 3D animation skills that help to bring
your stories and your work to life.
You will learn about software tools, techniques,
and the craft and production of animation.
You will also take subjects from the many core-
Some of the many core literacy communication literacy subjects offered in the
faculty. You’ll take two, communicating difference and understanding digital
audiences. On top of this,
we also offer specialist animation electives,
and the subjects are ones that will demand a more advanced level of craft and
learning.
In the whole degree,
it will look like this there’ll be 12 core animation subjects.
There’ll be two core communication literacy subjects.
And then you have four elective choice subjects.
Of course, it’s simple and fairly straightforward
at this stage. I’d like to hand over to Deb Cameron,
one of our tutors,
and she will talk about some of the campus facilities and the course
assessments.
Thanks, Matt, welcome everybody. Um,
the type of assessments that we run in the animation degree,
uh,
are project based, their creative practice to
creative practice, uh, subjects in studio, we,
our assessments are project-based as is the, the essence of creative practice.
We don’t have exams. Uh, we work, as Matt said,
intensely in the studio context,
working either a combination of individual or group projects,
the group projects are essential part of learning to work in a team,
which is a part from understanding your
creative limitations, understanding how to communicate with others,
learning from your peers.
It sets our students up well for moving forward.
Okay. We have exercises and tasks, and of course, industry engagements
the facilities essentially that we’re using animation labs and hubs
digital stop motion, animation suites, audio voiceover, and recording booths,
color correction suites. And we have access to leading, uh,
industry software that the students then are familiar with as they move forward
in their careers. We have a world-class render farm for computer intensive,
3D rendering, and compositing.
The students engage with each other in the labs. It’s a great place for,
uh, creative discussions and for peer feedback.
So it’s a very conducive environment for learning and growing
as a group,
the students work very well together and it’s really noted as they move forward
and start their careers after leaving UTS,
that how engaged they are and how much they understand the essence of
working as a team with these skillsets.
So with, oh, sorry.
I’d like to pass you on to Deb Szapiro and she’s going to discuss the
combined degrees.
You’re on mute.
Along with your Bachelor of Animation Production degree,
your there’s the ability to do a combined degree.
You can do a Bachelor of Animation Production with Bachelor of International Studies or a
Bachelor of Animation Production with a Bachelor of Creative Intelligence and
Innovation. Um, the Bachelor of International Studies, uh,
both of them are four year degrees.
So the Bachelor of animation Production is a three-year with an honours degree,
Bachelor of International Studies and a Bachelor of Creative Intelligence and
Innovation makes it four years. So you, uh,
study these alongside your animation degree.
So if you’re doing Bachelor of International Studies, you would, um,
do some of your cultural and your language studies whilst you were studying for
your animation degree. And then you would either do a two, two,
um, two to six week placement,
a six month placement or an honours one year overseas for your Bachelor of
International Studies,
with the Bachelor of Creative Intelligence and Innovation.
It is alongside your degree with, um,
block teaching in the winter and summer periods.
And then a one year after you finish your animation degree,
you would spend full time in the Bachelor of Creative Intelligence and
Innovation. Both are amazing because animation is, um,
a program that actually really benefits from students looking elsewhere as well.
It’s not just about animation, it’s about content.
And I think both of these degrees really add to your experience, uh,
what you can bring to for our own course, and also what you can bring to,
um, the degree in general.
Okay. Next.
Careers. Okay. Um, a lot of people say,
what kind of job can I get when I leave? Um,
I’d like you to create your own job, but there are lots and lots of jobs around.
So you can be a filmmaker director, editor, producer, um,
screenwriter, concept artist, production designer, um,
compositor, work in 2D, work in 3D,
but I think one of the really fantastic things about animation is that it runs
parallel to all of the technology that’s being developed.
So animation sits in that digital space with 360 degrees with
architectural projection on working with robots at the moment.
So animation and robots is really big. Um,
it’s a space that just keeps expanding. And along with that,
a lot about students are also carving out their own path
by, um, setting up their own studios by becoming, um,
graphic novelists by becoming animation directors, um,
creative studios. Um,
it’s kind of endless with the possibilities
now, um,
enough from us because I think what you really want to hear from is
some of the students. So let’s have a little look at, um,
I’m going to hand over to Rosemary and Sara,
who will then hand over to Issy and Bel
So Rosemary and Sarah and Issy and Bel are all graduates from our degree. Sorry.
Hi everyone. Um, yes. So I graduated, I think in 2019,
and I did the whole, uh,
bachelor’s degree and then the honors degree with a Sara Hirner,
who I met at university.
I can’t turn my video on
I can just be the face for, both of us. Um, um, yeah,
so I think one of the most valuable things that we learned was to work in a
team and it’s actually something we very much rely on, oh the camera’s working now
very much rely on, um, to create everything now.
Like I can’t imagine I’m not going to other people for critique
or advice,
but also I work better now in a partnership and more than anything.
And that’s really amazing because you become into the course is like individuals
with your own, very,
like not really knowing anything about your own style and stuff,
and you learn from each other within the course.
So I think that’s one of the most, um, yeah,
more important things that we took from the course straightaway. Um,
Sarah, do you want to go on the next point? Um, yeah.
Um, oh, we also, I think really benefited from, um,
having the opportunity to do Honours.
We had a lot of time to make what we really wanted to make and work together.
Um, but also a lot of structure, which I think helped us immensely.
Um, and we also met each other through the course and we we’ve had a pretty good
working relationship, um, even after, so yeah,
like outside of animation,
we didn’t really know just how many jobs within the pipeline
there are, into creating a whole animation when it comes to like storyboarding,
compositing, character design.
And what’s really amazing about this course is that you touch on every single
one of them and you get enough skill to feel at least a little bit confident,
um, like more confident to like master. I’ve, uh,
one of those kinds of things in the pipeline, all of them.
And it really well equips you for like a future of working in animation and that
you can, yeah.
You’re able to do like an array of different skills and thus
continually getting like a ridiculous amount of, um,
new opportunities and new projects to work on it. It’s kind of,
it doesn’t limit you in any way to the type of work you do outside of
university. Yeah, that’s true.
It’s quite helpful to be able to touch on everything, um,
in the safety of the degree.
And I think we were really surprised by how diverse the animation pipeline was
and how, um, working together,
how we could learn that having such different skills, uh,
can compliment each other.
You don’t necessarily have to be good and like everything in the degree,
but you’ll, by trying out a whole lot of different things,
you’ll definitely find your spot in the animation pipeline. Um,
yeah, that was really helpful. And Issy and Bel?
Like they’re also a dynamic duo like us and I don’t know,
you can maybe speak to like what it’s-
less dynamic
I think that Rosemary and Sarah being a bit modest about what they, their,
um, degree led to. What about your Honours film? Um, yeah.
Yeah. So after Honours degree,
we entered our film into a whole lot of film festivals and we ended up winning
the animation prize at the Sydney film festival.
And we ended up getting into Sundance film festival overseas.
So it was pretty exciting and definitely helped out with our career as well.
Just doing that one year of making a film and getting a lot of feedback from our
teachers really, really helped, um,
in terms of our whole career so far. So yeah, our whole career so far.
Our tiny career so far. Cool.
Thanks Rosemary and Sarah. Um, I’m Isabelle.
Um, I started the course back in 2017.
I was fresh out of high school, so I was very young 18. Um,
I just came into the course with a passion for art and animation.
Didn’t really know where I wanted to go with it.
It’s such an amazing course to figure out and own your own creativity.
It’s a lot of tedious work and a lot of hours,
but the people you meet make it worth it.
You do meet like-minded people because everybody kind of shares the same passion
as you, and it makes it all worth it.
You get to work together to create things you end up loving a lot of the long
hours and times you spend in the labs. It’s so worth it.
When you have people around you and the tutors as well,
they’re industry professionals,
they’re there to help you and uplift you in there to improve your work.
And yeah,
I don’t know if Bel wants to elaborate on like the friends you meet are kind of
the people you’ll be working with in the future as well. Yeah,
I think definitely, um, um,
this course really gives you the opportunity to shine and really find people who
actually make you shine too.
I think that was one of my favorite things about coming into the degree,
like Izzy in 2017
was I had a passion that wasn’t always shared in high school.
Like I was like the only one that was really arty in my friendship group to come
into a realm where everybody had the same love and like would lift me up every
day, like sharing these sort of passions. And I think to this day,
like it’s been four years since I started my friendships with all these people
in the course,
and I can still draw on them and draw on their creativity and their experiences
to really inform my own artistic practice. Um,
and I think as well, like again,
it’s all about building up that network because that close friendship that you
have with people because you’re working with them such long hours and every
single semester is one massive group.
Project is just feeling so rewarding, being a part of a team.
And I think as you, like, you know, go on in the industry,
every single project is, uh, a team like, um,
a group job.
And so it’s really like fantastic to be able to like study that and hone in on
that and become really good at working as a part of a diverse team. Um,
Issy did you want to talk about as well, um,
how this course like really helps with the skillset that you sort of develop?
Yeah, definitely. I think for me, what personally, when I started, I had some,
you know, artistic skills, not so much drawing skills.
And I think the coolest really helps you understand like
reality, you know, you get taught to draw from real life.
Don’t just draw what you’ve seen in the media. So you, the harder you work,
the better you’ll become. You know, I started kind of with a sketchbook,
try to draw every day, went to life drawing classes and you do improve.
Like you’re not there to be in this course and kind of stay with the skill set
you have.
You’re going to leave with a much more difficult and advanced skill set if you
put in the work. And w you know,
like I was saying before with working people around you,
you kind of all start at the same point,
so you can work together to kind of improve together as well as well,
like being around so many different people, your taste develops massively.
I think that’s coming into the course.
One of the biggest things that I I realized was how poorly refined my
taste was I was only interested in cartoons and Disney movies,
and this degree really helped me like every single,
I think every single week in second year,
we were shown a completely new form of media.
And that was super rewarding as well,
just to see what the possibilities were with animation. Um, and as well,
I think at the end of the day,
you studying your passion and it becomes your profession,
if you really keep at it. And I don’t think there’s something,
anything more rewarding than starting your higher education following a dream.
So that was how it worked for me. Sorry.
And again, I think you’re being modest in that, um,
Issy and Bel’s film that they made in their honors degree is up for a Dendy
Award very soon at the Sydney International Film Festival.
And it’s been traveling the festival circuit. This is,
this is your first year out from the degree, isn’t it? Yeah, pretty much. Yeah.
And you’re already a success.
Going to be two years in a row winning.
Fingers crossed. Fantastic.
And it’s a great award, but you also get ¤5,000.
And just on top of like, the people you work with on in uni is just that, like,
if you can build up a good work ethic at uni than like your co,
like your peers will see that. And then when it gets to industry,
they’ll remember that as well.
And a lot of the time the friends you make in uni are the ones that are helping
you get jobs within industry.
So that’s such a good part of it.
All right. Well, thanks so much everyone for your contributions. Um,
let’s, I’m like out of time because see,
we only had a short slot. So, um, what, um,
I guess what I’d like to leave you with is that, you know,
all those folks out there, we, uh,
really looking forward to seeing all the new faces in 2022 and
discovering, uh, together all the wonderful creative projects that you will, um,
bring to life over your time with us studying animation. So, um,
if you’re thinking about it, don’t hesitate,
it truly is a fantastic place to come and pursue that passion that you have,
I think we’ll hand over to questions now. And, um,
and, uh, again, just saying thanks to everyone, um, for contributing,
um, it was, uh, our really good, tight and informative session.
So.
There was one question in the question in the chat a little bit earlier from
Sina. Um,
is there another way of getting into the course if ATAR requirement is not
met, um,
in terms of that the main way is a
non-recent school leaver. Um, you can, there’s a couple of ways of doing that.
You can go to, um, UTS college. Um,
they have a number of degrees there, but, uh, if you go to particular one,
then you can get entry to the degree. Um,
you can also try for a degree at UTS that has a lower ATAR and
then do a transfer over to the bachelor of animation production,
or you can have a year off, gap year seems a bit weird at the
moment with COVID, uh,
and apply as a non-recent school leaver with the portfolio and interview.
Well, actually that’s changed in the future Deb,
the portfolio requirement for non recent school leavers won’t be applicable
anymore, as we, sorry. So there are some,
a lot of the, we have had a, um, a practice of entry into the degree.
That’s been pretty much the same for the last 10 years,
but there’ll be some slight adjustments as we move into FASS.
And in many ways that’ll mean it’s easier to get into the degree. Um,
uh, so there were more pathways to come into the degree. Um,
James is kind of the expert on that and all of the details are, um,
I think pretty clear in the, uh, through the, uh,
applications, uh, information that’s been made available, but, um,
does have a, just a fish for any more.
I’ve answered a few questions that were in the question and answers section
about whether our, what our focus is around, um,
drawing and storytelling and narrative, and things like that.
And quizzing about what is their emphasis and very much the emphasis over our
program over the 10 years we’ve been teaching has been all about, um,
drawing, being fundamental as a communication language. Um,
and we, uh, develop narrative through, um,
strong research, um, into characters and performance and,
um, understanding clarity around the types of, uh,
visual information that we’re trying to convey through our projects very often
that becomes a short film, but sometimes that is not.
And we use aspects of that narrative and character driven approach to,
um,
develop other interesting projects that might be quite hybrid or experimental.
You were saying you developed your drawing practice through the degree.
So in first year you do a lot of drawings. So, um,
I think he was, he was saying that her where you, um,
that your drawing improved immensely.
Yeah, yeah.
Drawing and seeing kind of go hand in glove and they are absolutely
vital for us. And what we want to see is excellence in our students.
Sorry, Deb. I think that’s a really good point.
Some people freak out when they hear drawing and think, oh, but I’m not,
I’m not good at drawing.
It’s an essential form of communication it’s a visual communication.
And it’s a way for you to record your vision of what you see in the world
and how you can transfer that into your voice and your subjective voice.
We don’t want Michelangelo drawings. It’s not about that. So, um,
if you have any hesitation, um, as Matt and Deb have both said,
there’s so much support with active drawing practice all the way through the
degree. And it’s really best to think of it as, uh,
as being a visual communicator of narrative, whether it’s experimental,
2d, 3d, linear, it doesn’t matter.
It’s an initial part of you actually being able to communicate with other
people. That’s why it’s a a really essential part.
And I think it’s a good point. You make about the 3d,
because students do at a certain point in the degree choose whether they’re
going to do it in third year choose,
whether they’re going to do the 3d or the 2d and a number of them do choose to,
they choose equally between 2d and 3d.
Um.
What, what are the class sizes in the first year? Pat,
did you want to talk about this? Answer this,
yeah. Hi.
Um, my name’s Pat, I am, uh,
I’m the person who puts the class list together for first year. Um,
I like do see the class sizes, uh, around,
um, the 20 for the, for the,
for the class groups that we’re learning in the classroom on campus.
And quite a bit smaller than that for the, for the groups who are,
who were just learning online. We’ve had a bit of a, um,
over the last two years, as you would expect, we’ve had a kind of,
a bit of a push and pull between in-class learning and online learning. Um,
but I, I generally think that particularly in, in first year, we’ve got a,
I try and foreground the social and collaborative, um, and material sides of,
uh, of developing animation skills. So, um,
so I’m trying to get people in the room together, um, socializing,
um, and, and having fun together as a way as a way of facilitating the learning.
Great.
So there was a question by Lauren in regards to industry connections,
will there be opportunities for first-time employment at animation studios while
studying? And Bel said she would like to answer that question.
So I would just refer it to Bel.
Um, I found that while studying at UTS,
there were heaps of internship opportunities.
I think in second year we actually had an internship subject. So I got to study,
um, I got to actually work for one of the main studios on VIVID one year,
and that was just so eye-opening to see how the actual studio
works. Um, and I think there are some have been some other opportunities since,
but that was the subject that I managed to undergo.
And I think as if you can like apply for a studio while you’re studying, um,
as long as you have the skills up-to-date and you seem competent,
like you can take on the workload, I can’t see why a studio wouldn’t, you know,
have you on board. So it’s always worth, you know,
reaching out throughout your study, as well as, you know, focusing on, you know,
your skills. So that’s definitely, you know.
I can probably add something to that. I mean, um, all of the tutors, um,
including myself, uh, throughout,
throughout the semester and throughout the year are constantly getting emails
from our friends who are still working in studios, um,
and our industry connections,
and that will often be fishing for whether there are students available.
They might be able to help them with this project. Um,
short-term contract short short-term gigs,
and they’re often looking for students for two purposes.
One is legitimately that there’s a good project that might, um,
be of interest for a student to get involved with so that they can, um,
um, see what it’s like to work in. Um,
in industry they’re also looking for,
they know that the quality of our students are very high and very capable,
and our recommendations carry a lot of way.
So that be getting people who are skilled and capable and good to have in the
studio,
but also it’s an opportunity for our local studios studios to see the
quality of graduates coming through earlier than others.
So they kind of compete a little bit with each other to cherry pick the best
graduates when they do come through.
There’s also an internship subject. That
we’ve run to date that I know that FASS has an internship subject that,
um, we use our connections to, um, sort of match,
make students with the right company,
with the kind of company that they want to work with in the area that they want
to work in.
And that’s been the internship subject that we’ve run to date has been quite
successful because most of the students have actually been employed after the
they’d done their internship and received some sort of freelance work
afterwards. And, um,
I would say that we’ve always gone for world domination,
which is that most animation studios now in Sydney. And, and also, you know,
our students are working in London and other places as well.
Most animation studios in Sydney are now employing UTS graduates.
You know, there’s some animation studios, um,
and even like SBS and places like that, that, um,
all of their team are UTS grads. And.
I’ll just add that. Um,
there’s also a media arts and production Facebook group where it’s a closed
group and lots of students there. Uh,
and alumni also sometimes ask if any students, um, you know,
who are skilled in animation may be able to help out in those areas.
So there are lots of organic opportunities.
Now that animation is moving into the school of communication on the media arts
and production. Um,
there was a question here from an anonymous attendee that says,
do you tend to get burnt out while working, if so, how do you work around it?
Thanks in advance.
And Rosemary mentioned that you would like to answer that question or any one of
you.
Um, yeah, sure. Um, animation is like extremely time consuming,
so it is easy to burn yourself out,
but I think as long as you manage your time properly and like use the support
that’s around you and not take on too much, like, it shouldn’t work out the way.
So like over the degree, I would leave things too last minute or something.
And that would mean like a lot of all nighters and it like is not a sustainable
way of working.
So I guess short answer just don’t take on too much and try to manage your time
as best you can and utilize the support that’s around you. Yeah.
I would like to add to that. I mean, that’s a great point. Um,
it has always been very full time, our course in that, uh,
within the structure of the hours that, that the classes are run,
the expectation is that you would do at least that outside of class.
And as you’re working, um, on often on a group project, you’re,
you’re meeting up with other people and animation is a slow long
laborious process. You know, we’re talking milliseconds, uh,
of time here.
It’s five seconds of animation can take you so long to do so.
I think, uh, some students need to work and that’s, that’s absolutely possible,
but it’s, it really is about balancing your life, uh,
a bit of self care, no all-nighters. And, um,
you will be encouraged by the staff from very beginning, uh,
to have a schedule, a weekly thing and plan your life.
And of course we don’t do it. We don’t do it. If you don’t,
you can really get yourself up in a bit of trouble. Um, but if you,
if you pace yourself, it’s absolutely fine.
Was just going to say,
it’s the time of working in the labs all together when you’ve got a deadline
that makes you such good friends.
Yeah. And also, I think it’s definitely,
I worked the whole way through the degree and it’s definitely possible, um,
to still do it.
Sometimes your standard of work definitely does fall,
uh, because of it. But I think it shouldn’t be a deterrent at all.
If you need to work, if you need to have a job during the degree,
it’s definitely, definitely doable. Um, what of.
Uh, what sort of work would you have done if you were just not working?
That would have been okay. What’s that
I could be really amazing Matt.
Uh, there were a couple of questions around ATAR, prerequisites, um,
and, um, portfolio. And I think, um, Matt is going to help,
but we wanted the question, some portfolio, which you meant,
we mentioned earlier that, um, this, for this particular course itself,
that wouldn’t be a portfolio requirement it’s just purely based on selection rank.
So if you’re not aware,
selection rank is your ATAR plus any adjustment
factors that be any schools, any recommendations,
schemes that you apply to entry schemes, um,
or a year 12 subject, uh, uh,
adjustment factor.
So particular subjects that you do and you score well in particular subjects
that you will automatically get, um, points added on. It’s a maximum of five.
Um, the,
we will not know what the ATAR or the selection rank is going to be for this year
until after the main round offers have been sent out,
because there’s always based on demand.
So we never know what’s going to be for this coming year. However,
we strongly encourage you to take last year’s, um,
selection rank from the Bachelor of Design in Animation,
which was sitting at 88.85.
That is a good guide to adopt from. So, um,
I think Matt, have you got anything to add on to the.
No, I think you covered it pretty well. Um, uh, all of that. So the main,
one of the main changes was for the non-recent school leaver pathway into the degree
that, um, we won’t be doing that with portfolio this year.
We’ll be doing it again on, um,
previous marks that you have achieved in your ATAR, but there’s,
there’ll be, uh, they’ll be looked at and accommodated, um,
reasonably.
So I would say that the pathway coming into the course is actually going to be
more open for non-recent school leavers rather than the portfolio way.
Although we did use to love getting a stickybeak at everyone’s work when they
came in with a non-recent school leavers. That was great.
I will add that for recent school leavers.
So if you’re taking your HSC this year and you have a very strong portfolio,
we strongly encourage you to apply for the school recommendation scheme.
That scheme ends on the 13th of September on the UAC websites.
So do not miss that deadline itself with regards to where you can find the
subject adjustment points,
the easiest ways to Google UTS adjustment factors. So I’ll type in the,
the link into that, but Google UTS adjustment factors,
you will find a subject there.
Hmm. Um, one of the questions is how many students we take next year.
Do we have an idea about.
I think I typed in answering to that, but I’m happy to speak to it as well.
I don’t know that I, in the past number of years, uh, uh,
when the dust has settled,
our intake in first year has been somewhere between 120 and 130,
something like that. Um, we are,
and it occasionally peaks up a little bit higher than that. So we,
we really don’t know exactly how many students we’ll be taking,
but we can accommodate students up to 135 before we
start to have panic attacks.
Oh, there’s a question that Sarah was going to answer about
concept arts. Oh, um, oh yeah.
There’s heaps of concept, um, portions in the degree.
And I actually found that one of the hardest parts of the whole degree,
but a lot of people really excelled in it. Um,
people who loved sort of combining background and character design, uh,
I think that’s one of the most rewarding parts of the degree and also one of the
pots that you’ll use forever after the degree. Um,
there’s so much concept that in the actual animation industry,
and there’s so many times that you’ll be using those skills for other parts of
the animation pipeline. Um, so yeah, if concept, that’s your thing,
there’s heaps of it and you’ll be very lucky, but like.
It also opens up illustration as a medium to work in as well.
Can I speak to that a little.
Bit? Just, uh, um, we, uh, I, uh,
organize the concept art
assignments for first year and, um,
I’m coming to animation through illustration and comics and graphic novels. And,
um, and we’ve got a really strong, um, team of artists who are,
who have come from the illustration world who, uh, who are,
who are leading the concept, art and character design, um, projects.
So I, I, I’m really proud of it. I think it’s, uh,
I think it’s like it’s tackling the, um, the, the,
um, the task of concept, um, from,
from an illustration perspective. And I think that’s really,
that’s really good for as far as, um, um, employability to opening up,
opening up the,
the things you can do as a freelancer in those first years out of uni.
Absolutely. And what I wanted to add is that outside of, um,
Pat’s specific, um,
task assessment in year one with that concept art
when you’re making, um, working in a group project or your own project,
and you’re making a film, uh, there’s multiple levels,
there’s all the pre-production, there’s the production, there’s the post-production.
So concept art is part of every project. So you may not say, oh,
I’m just doing a specialized elective in concept art,
but you will be doing design character, environment, production, concept,
art animation, and so on and so forth.
So there’s pretty much every project will involve those
aspects, just like a studio, pretty much.
Somebody else, the elephant in the room, which has covered,
how are we going to teach with COVID? And like,
I would say that having, having gone through the last,
um,
we will have gone through two years of this kind of environment whilst it’s not
one that we necessarily want. I think that, um,
one of the things that characterizes the animation degree is the culture and the
care that we bring to the degree.
And I feel that we’ve worked out systems within that,
that my students at the moment are doing beautiful work,
like really beautiful work. And we do support them within that.
We prefer face to face,
but we had actually worked out very good systems within that online space as
well. And hopefully everybody will get vaxxed and we’ll be back on track. Yeah.
Anybody else.
Can I just add, me and Issy, we did our honours film last year together,
and the first six months of that was throughout COVID and that’s the most
creative time of your honors film. And we, we managed and it has,
it turned out great and we’re really happy with it. Um,
so it is possible to make really, I guess,
creative stuff in a time when you actually can’t be face-to-face with somebody
constantly, but it still worked out and like COVID does go in and out of waves.
So there were opportunities where we could go back into UTS and actually see
each other face to face. So you just sort of hold out for those moments,
because when those small, tiny, like time, you know,
times actually arise, you get so much work done because you don’t know when, um,
you might not be able to see each other for a couple of weeks or a couple of
months, or I think like it’s definitely possible. And it definitely,
I think just changes the style in which you work.
So it’s not something that’s totally, you know, catastrophic to the degree.
I think it’s still, you can still make it work.
So it’s professional practice. Um, it does give you,
it does give you skills about working remotely. So if you’re, you know,
when you leave, if you’re,
maybe you might go overseas for a little while and work, you know,
and come here and still work with that company overseas,
or you might get a job that’s happening in Brisbane, but you’re in Sydney.
And I do know people at the moment that have got jobs in Adelaide and
Melbourne, but can’t travel, but they’re in Sydney. And I think that, um,
whilst we prefer not to be online with the COVID situation,
that situation of having been online has really enabled them to know how to work
in a team and work remotely. Okay.
I think that’s, that’s a very important point in the modern,
the modern way that animation is produced. Um, many students,
many studios are working in partnership with remote other studios and the teams
that all pitch in together and contribute for those pixels.
And that that final product can be scattered all over the world.
So learning how to work creatively with other people is a skill. Um, and we,
uh, just learning at first here on the campus.
Side. Yeah. Adding, adding to that, Matt, um,
I’m running third year studio project at the moment and it’s a group project and it’s a
really important industry engagement project. Uh,
we’re working with five of the leading animation studios in Sydney.
The students are pitching to them, they’re coming into the classroom via zoom.
Um, and all of these things are still actively working.
So we haven’t adjusted our, um, all the good things, the,
these things that make our course stand out. Uh,
we haven’t changed those because of COVID. And, um,
as Bel said,
and the others have noted that you just find another way of working around it
and all these studios that we are working with actively at the moment,
all of their staff are working from home. So people have become very, um,
adaptable.
Yeah. We haven’t really had to compromise what we teach, um, very much at all.
Um, and the quality of the work remains extremely high and the outcomes are
incredibly satisfying given,
given how much hardship there actually is that we’re trying to work through. Um,
so yeah, it’s, um, it’s, it’s good. I think.
There’s a question there about what specific courses to UTS college give to help
in transferring to this course later on. And, um,
Deb Szapiro would you like to address that question about.
There’s two courses in UTS college that I think would be,
um, of benefit. And that is, um,
either the communication or the design, um, courses at UTS college.
I think that both of them have things to offer.
I think sometimes people get very, um,
focused that they should just do animation. Um,
but I think the communication course has, um,
journalism and a number of things that would help you with animation equally,
the design degree, the design diploma at UTS college has,
um,
visual communication and things like that that would help you with the degree.
So I think that actually helped you with the degree.
So I think what we’ll do is we’ll take, uh,
one last question on IT and software requirements. Uh,
we don’t have any plans at this moment for workshop for high school students.
And I’ll answer the question the, when consideration I’m,
I guess you are coming from another university,
you might have completed one full year,
and that’s where you’re talking about when, and if that’s the case, um,
yes,
first year results are something that we take into consideration stronger than
how you perform in your ATAR.
So we’ll be looking at both your ATAR plus your first year results with heavier
emphasis on your first year results.
So we move on to what kind of software requirements and stuff before we end
this session, because it’s gone way over time. Um.
Okay. Um, uh, and I’ll just talk really briefly to this. Look it,
um, in many ways it doesn’t matter, but in many ways it’s kind of important.
So that’s, I don’t know how to answer that between Mac and windows.
That’s an irrelevant question because the software platforms that we use, um,
uh, exist on both and run happily on both.
So your own personal preference is fine. The capacity,
the power of the machine,
the capability of the machine depends on the ambitiousness of the projects that
you want to do. So if you want to do something, that’s going to haul a lot of,
um, high-end 3D texturing and rendering and all that sort of thing.
You probably gonna need a more higher spec machine.
The Mac or windows makes no difference. The curly one,
there is the iPad,
and I know Pat and Deb have,
and myself, and we all have iPads and we use them.
And by certainly have a ceiling that you hit fairly quickly with in terms of
what you can do on one. Um, they,
they produce a lot of fun, um,
for quick concept work and things like that up to a point,
but for doing animation production,
work beyond concept and idea development and document
work like that,
I would say that they not going to see you through a degree in animation.
You would need to have a reasonably good laptop, reasonably good laptop and,
or a workstation of some sort.
Can I chime in there, Matt, because, uh,
this is a very common question I get, um, in, in the,
in the first few weeks of school, when people are sort of tooling up for, for,
for first year, um, in a, in a,
in a post COVID world, um, which,
which like what we’re hoping, we’re sort of,
we’re sort of approaching at the beginning of next year. Um, there are,
there are resources on campus that, uh, you know, uh,
as powerful community computers as, as,
as you could want integrated the render farm with all the software that, that,
that you could, you could want, um, like
on the computer. So, um,
so you don’t have to,
you don’t have to plan your life around having this sort of like legendary
workstation at home. Actually, it might be better for your education if you,
if you, if you’re spending more time, um,
working in the labs web where possible,
because it encourages interaction with other students and stuff, and it,
and it better embeds you in the culture of the degree,
which is really where you’re going to get your, where you get the most out of
the, yeah, I agree with that completely.
One thing very quickly with in regards to first year,
because I run the first year context subjects, um, given the situation that,
that we haven’t been in the labs, and it should always be your first priority.
There will be some requirements. Um, for example, we use harmony, uh,
you would need to look at the requirements to run that program because you will
be working from home in that situation. And it definitely wouldn’t work on a,
um, iPad, uh, and you would need a certain amount of, um, power in your.
But the same with the 3d,
like Maya won’t run on an iPad and [inaudible],
and at the moment.
While we’re online, um, that’s what people are using in, in first.
Year. So look, I’ll, I’ll add one last thought to that. And then if that’s,
if that question was indirectly talking about costs,
which is obviously going to be on people’s mind,
I don’t have a new computer in my home, but I have many computers. And, um,
there’s a lot of second hand, um, really strong,
solid workstations that you can buy that used to be used in the studios,
Like Flying Bark and Animal Logic and they reached their end of lease and
they’re sold on eBay and for a thousand dollars or less, you can get a really,
really good workstation. Um, so it, it’s not really,
you don’t have to pay that premium price that Apple are charging or Microsoft are
charging for their latest products, you know, older ones work just fine.
But also in terms of software, I’m not, I can’t remember if anybody said this,
but, um,
Pat did say that we have everything at the university.
So in terms of equity, if you’re working in at the university,
everything is there for you, but also, um,
we are a Toon Boom,
we’re considered a Toon Boom center of excellence and therefore, um,
Toon Boom licenses are free to our students.
They don’t have to pay for them. Equally,
Autodesk makes Maya free for all students. Um,
and there is an Adobe creative suite deal if you need it
outside. Yeah.
And I think Adobe used to be free and they’ve increased.
They’ve introduced a modest annual fee,
and I don’t know it’s up to them. It’s not going to break the bank,
but it is an annual fee that didn’t exist a couple of years ago,
but it’s there now. And,
and when we consider what sort of software we want to use in the program, um,
very much on my, the front of mine decision-making tree anyway, is that, um,
we’re trying to find something that has zero cost, um,
or it’s close to zero cost to the students, um,
that is still has the professional legs that would be used in a studio.
And ideally it would be something that is given away free anyway, that,
um, is also freely used by professionals. And there are some software suites,
um, like that. Um,
and we make sure that students are aware of those so that they can go on and
keep those skills, um, relevant as they start to become professional makers.
And I need a drawing tablet as well.
Anyone who went through without it can be little,
it doesn’t have to be a Cintiq. Mine’s just the normal micro one,
but I don’t know anyone who went through the degree without one.
Yes. That’s an essential piece of equipment. And actually,
I think the lower Cintiqs these days are becoming so, um, affordable.
I think the, uh, Wacom 1 is only like 500 bucks and there’s
the knockoff ones, the other companies make cheaper versions as well,
but drawing is key. So a drawing tablet is essential.
Yeah. I wish we could see all your faces.
I hope we see all your faces. All right. I think James,
we must be close to the end. Yes. And.
Do you want to wrap up, or does anyone want to wrap up? Um.
Thanks. Thanks everyone for coming. Um, um,
hope to see you in the degree, I’m looking forward to it,
the exciting things we might do together. Um,
I don’t know all that sort of stuff. I mean,
I think if you’re thinking about coming to join the degree and you, uh,
um, uh, wanting to do animation, you will not be making a wrong decision.
It will be an excellent decision.