Freelance Animation School

Do you love playing computer games or watching cartoons? Well how about making them? Animation is huge these days. So how do you get into animation? actv8’s Yvonne Gill went to visit Auckland’s Freelance Animation School.

Based in Auckland’s Queen Street, the Auckland Freelance Animation School has been around for 15 years, and is one of the few dedicated animation schools in the country. It currently has 141 students and covers both 2D and 3D animation.

It has recently been awarded the Screen Mark Award by the Screen Council of New Zealand. It is the only New Zealand animation school to have achieved this. It offers a three-year diploma in character animation, as well as a selection of short courses.

Developments in animation over the past 10 years have been dramatic. This is reflected in the widespread use of animation in popular media, and its high quality. To be a successful animator now takes both traditional animation skills and a mastery of computer software developed to aid in the process.

The first year of the diploma concentrates on classical skills, giving students a firm grounding in 2D drawing and sketching. In the second year, students can then decide to concentrate on either 2D or 3D.

Attention-grabber:

We spoke to second-year student Jarod Bruce to find out how he got into animation. Jarod tells us he has always been interested in drawing. He also loves playing computer games and became interested in how they were designed and produced.

At high school he studied graphic design, art and graphics. The Freelance Animation School grabbed his attention at a careers expo, and he was sold. Jarod has now started working on 3D animation. He points out that 3D skills are becoming increasingly important for employers.

The school has a strong focus on preparing students for the workplace. It concentrates on professional practices and aims to get students’ work focused on professional applications. This certainly shows, as Jarod is clued-up on what is important for potential employers.

So, what next for him? Ideally, he says — as is true for most Kiwi animation students — he would love to go and work for Weta Workshop. Otherwise, he’d like to go into gaming or head overseas  and put his skills into practice there.

The Freelance Animation School has a strong alumni network, and a number of past graduates have gone on to work for Weta in the production and the digital domain. There are plenty of other animation courses out there, but they usually form part of more generic design courses.

Natcoll and the Media Design School also offer diploma courses in animation, and all the major university design courses offer animation modules. So, if you think this might be for you, why not check out

The Freelance Animation School’s holiday Cartoon Camp, which is aimed at 13-17 year olds.

The course teaches cartoon drawing that is both stylised and modern, and which

references both pop culture and comic book styles. You can learn how to draw

a character from scratch, from initial design to the final development.

The next camp this year runs from 14 to 18 July.

For more information check out:

www.freelanceanimation.com