UTS has joined forces with special effects studio Animal Logic to offer a new postgraduate degree in animation and visualisation, in a training venture pitched at making Australia a leader in the burgeoning virtual-reality industry.
The UTS Animal Logic Academy will offer the intensive year-long master's program from next year, with a curriculum designed by the successful animation studio and taught by UTS lecturers and industry mentors in a purpose-built workspace at the uni.
Animal Logic, founded in Sydney 25 years ago, made its name doing digital effects for films such as The Matrix, and animated blockbusters like Happy Feet and The Lego Movie.
But UTS vice-chancellor Attila Brungs says the digital animation skills gained by graduates will apply not just to the film and TV industry, but to game design, the soon-to-boom areas of augmented and virtual reality, and to jobs not yet imagined.
"UTS is trying more and more to link with industry, to create skills that don't even exist yet," Professor Brungs said, describing the real-world work environment of the course as a "very new kind of learning".
"I know companies in Australia who are thinking about resourcing overseas because we don't have these skills in Australia at the moment," he said.
"This is starting to emerge as a key skill environment around the world. I think we have a three-to-five year period in Australia to produce enough skilled people to generate a critical mass of new digital creative industries here, so we become a hub for it. If we don't, we'll miss out."
The 50 students accepted into the first student cohort in 2017 will be expected to work nine-to-five, five days a week for the year-long, $45,735 course on a range of collaborative projects, in much the same way professional animation teams would.
Animal Logic's Zoe Diamond said the course had been shaped by a transdisciplinary approach involving researchers from data science, IT, engineering, design and architecture as well as animators and producers.
"This course - while it is driven by Animal Logic and UTS - is for the whole new visualisation industry that's emerging within Australia," she said. "We want to be collectively at the forefront."
"We're at this pivotal point of technological development where it's big sky opportunity - we don't know what's in the future."
Animal Logic will be involved in selecting successful candidates, who must demonstrate relevant academic or industry experience, and provide a portfolio of previous digital animation, software development or visual effects work, as well as pass an interview process to get into what is likely to be a highly popular course despite its high cost.
Graeme Mason from Screen Australia applauded Animal Logic for its commitment to developing the new generation of Australian creatives.
"The PDV (post, digital or visual effects) work being done in Australia by the likes of Animal Logic is big business and a big employer, with the commercial agility to work on both local and foreign films," he said. "We're excited to watch this next phase of Animal Logic's development and the Australian talent they will deliver to the screen sector."
Australian firms did $325 million worth of foreign digital or visual effects work between 2006-07 and 2014-15, according to Screen Australia.
