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Transcript

The UTS Animal Logic Academy is a collaboration between the University of Technology Sydney and the award-winning animation studio Animal Logic. It's the only course in Australia where students can experience what it's actually like to work in the animation industry.

We offer a one-year accelerated master's degree in animation and visualisation that builds on the skills students have developed during their undergraduate degrees. By specialising in a specific part of the pipeline, our students hit the ground running when they enter the visual effects and animation industry.

Every year, as part of their studies, our students work together to produce a 3D animated short film entirely from scratch. In this video, we're going to show you exactly how we made last year's short film, "Apart".

So let's start at the beginning. When students come into the master's course, or the MAV as we like to call it, they enter into their chosen department. These teams then work together to create the short film over the course of the year.

Step one is to develop the story. We put the students into small groups to develop a range of ideas. The groups change again and again, ideas and story elements evolve, until we have a finalised script.

The story and art team then turn the idea into storyboards, as well as developing the design of the characters. After the characters, props and environments have been designed, our team of modellers get to work building the assets, taking the two-dimensional artwork and turning that into a three-dimensional model.

They then go to the rigging department, where a digital skeleton is created for the model, and interactive controls are added so that the animators can set these assets into motion.

The models are then taken into surfacing, where artists create the textures that are mapped onto the 3D models. In a 3D project like "Apart", these can include complex textures like hair, skin and fabrics.

Parallel to the surfacing team, the previs team turns the 2D storyboards into a 3D animatic, creating the camera movement for each shot of the film.

While the animation team starts to develop the look and feel of how our characters move and behave, to help define the performances.

There are often a range of effect simulations that need to be added. For these, we use specialised software called Houdini.

Lighting is where we get to see all of the elements from each department come together for the first time. Lighting artists set the tone for each shot by using light and shadow to heighten the audience's emotional response to the film.

And then there's compositing, which goes hand in hand with lighting. Compositing artists use Nuke, which allows them to layer all the elements of the shot together so that each element can be given its final polish.

In addition to the incredibly talented students we have in both creative and technical roles, we also need a good production team to keep the project on track. Good production coordinators are always in high demand in industry, and hopefully we'll have a couple on our team next year.

First and foremost, technical directors are problem solvers, and they keep all of the technical aspects of the pipeline running smoothly. They develop tools and improve processes so that artists are free to create.

So we hope that gives you a brief overview of the production process that our Master of Animation and Visualisation students follow to produce a studio-quality 3D animated short film.

So if you would like to get experience working on a professional-level short film that uses the same production processes that the big studios do, we would love to have you join next year's group of students. But be sure to think about what department you'd like to specialise in, so we can help train you towards that role in industry.

Follow our socials to find out where you can see the full version of the short film "Apart". We hope to see you next year.