University College Falmouth is part of the Cornwall Skillset Media Academy network - a UK-wide group of institutions identified as centres of excellence in creative media education and training. The three year degree course in Digital Animation was established in 2007 and is based in our purpose built and high-specification animation studios, fully equipped with Toon Boom Storyboard Pro and Animate Pro. "Our unique studio practice will ensure that you learn how to become a creative practitioner by producing animation in a professionally simulating animation studio environment" explained Andy Wyatt, Course Leader, BA (Hons) Digital Animation. The course is taught by a team of highly experienced professionals in both technical and creative disciplines whose ex students have gone on to win prizes at major festivals and secure work at some of the worlds leading studios including Pixar, Dreamworks and Aardman. Andy Wyatt has won many awards throughout his professional career and has recently directed the animation for two BAFTA winning TV shows.

"Alongside the development of 2d and 3d digital animation skills using industry-standard software such as Toon Boom Animate Pro and Maya, you'll be encouraged to work creatively across a range of subjects from traditional art practices such as life drawing and visualisation to performance, acting and motion studies. Our aim is to produce graduates who are highly skilled and creative professionals, who can work in a professional collaborative studio environment. Your strengths will be identified early on in the course and nurtured accordingly through seminars, workshops and tutorials. Group work features heavily as that is how the animation industry operates" continued Andy Wyatt

"You'll benefit from a schedule of visiting industry practitioners who'll bring a diverse range of current industry experience to the course, while the opportunity of a professional placement will enable you to practise your craft and contextualise your studies. To give your work further context, you'll also study the history and evolution of animation techniques and the process of producing animated films. Most importantly, you'll graduate with a portfolio of short animated films and the necessary skills to become an animation professional in your chosen area of animation" he concluded. [Back to the top]

The Animation department at the RITS Film Institute of Brussels offers a 4-year master course educating 2D, stop-motion and GCI animators, storyboarders and designers. All teachers are animation professionals and specialists in their dedicated field. The department aims at educating skilled professionals with a creative and refreshing approach of the animation medium. For the last 5 years Toon Boom animation software has been used to scan, paint, composite and render the 2D works, and in 2009 Toon Boom Storyboard Pro was introduced. "This clearly improved the quality and working speed of the storyboards and animatics, as it liberates students from a lot of technical hassle and workarounds, especially when producing animatics" commented Frits Standaert, Instruction and Animation Director at RITS. [Back to the top]

Founded in Lausanne in 1980, the school of visual arts Ceruleum has been focusing mainly on developing workshops and foundation class. In 2005, two new programs were launched in the fields of Classical Animation and Illustration. The complete course of these programs takes place over three years, 36 hours of classes per week, ten months per year. A Master’s in directing animated movies, spread out over two years, complete the offer of the professional programs. The Classical Animation Program proposes to learn all the process of creating an animated film, mainly from the animator point of view. Most of the time is spent drawing on paper, observing and learning to understand the motion of life. They also approach the peripheral fields such as the storyboard or the character design and different techniques like 3D or the stop-motion. Toon Boom Digital Pro (now replaced by Toon Boom Animate Pro) and Pencil Check Pro are the two principal tools used by the students. At the end of the three years, the students have to demonstrate their skills and abilities to work as animators. The Master proposes to go further in storytelling, art development and production management for those who want to tell their story more than animate the stories of others. [Back to the top]

Founded in 1991, Princess Sumaya University for Technology (PSUT) is the non profit private Jordanian university. It is a leading university in information technology, communications, and electronics. It is regarded as a centre of educational excellence and recognized as a pioneer and an advanced Arab university in the domain of ICT. In 2006 academic year, PSUT initiated the Computer Graphics and Animation program as the first of its kind, not only in Jordan, but also in the region. The program was designed to offer students a joyful, yet an artistic experience, in a scientific platform. The main goal of the program was to provide the students with the theoretical background needed in the field of digital graphics and the scientific knowledge that exists behind the concept of computer animation. PSUT has integrated Digital Pro (now called Animate Pro) and Storyboard Pro as the main tools to deliver their animation courses. The students are allowed to produce traditional and paperless animation for their class projects and to learn how to meet the standards of actual production in terms of quality and speed and to experience the full production of animated movies in their final projects. [Back to the top]

The animation program at Cégep du Vieux Montréal (CVM) will celebrate its tenth anniversary in 2009! Since the beginning, two main objectives have guided the training program: develop strong traditional animation skills in students and meet the market place’s requirements. At the end of the program, each student creates his/her own short, extensively going over all animation production steps, from character design, to storyboarding, background design, animation and compositing. As the students have to meet the highest quality standards during the production of their shorts, Toon Boom technology was the most sensible choice. In addition to Harmony, CVM has also integrated Pencil Check Pro for line testing and Digital Pro (now called Animate Pro) to introduce the cut-out animation techniques. At the end of the three-year program, graduates leave with a solid knowledge in animation production, having developed a strong sense of versatility, competence and autonomy. These assets represent a solid foundation to build their own career and become key players in the animation industry. The year-end Gala is a great opportunity for the industry to express its appreciation of CVM graduates’ excellent work, thanks to its strong and enthusiastic participation at the event year after year. [Back to the top]

Forsyth Technical Community College (Forsyth Tech) in Winston-Salem, NC has a rich history and a reputation for excellence due to high academic standards and its ability to respond to the community’s needs relating to workforce development. In an economy that is shifting to a knowledge driven one, Forsyth Tech has started a two-year Digital Effects and Animation Program leading to an AAS degree. The Digital Effects and Animation Technology (DEAT) curriculum is designed to provide students with the training necessary to become competent in creating, manipulating, and animating digital images. These skills have application in the production of a variety of moving image forms. Students will take courses covering computer hardware/software applications, computer animation, creation and manipulation of digital images and nonlinear editing. They will become proficient at using media industry standard hardware/software to generate and manipulate images, and create digital special effects.Students are currently using Toon Boom Studio in their 2D Design and Animation classes.

Completing their first year, students used Toon Boon Studio to create short animations and have entered projects in the “My Toons” competition. This fall semester the program will upgrade to Toon Boom Digital Pro (now called Animate Pro). The faculty and students are excited about all the new features and improvements that Digital Pro will provide. Toon Boon is an integral part of the program affording the students the opportunity to use software that is recognized as a standard in the animation profession. Upon completion of this program, students will be able to generate moving images and manipulate captured images for a variety of media production applications.

Graduates should qualify for employment in the creation and/or editing of a variety of media forms. This fall, the DEAT program will out reach to high schools providing information and animation experiences involving 2D and 3D applications to create a workforce training pipeline for design from high school through college to employment. Forsyth Tech’s other animation collaborative efforts in the community are with the Center for Design Innovation, Winston-Salem State University (WSSU), and University of North Carolina School for the Arts (UNCSA). Both Universities offer Animation Degrees.

This collaboration will allow students opportunities to continue their animation studies in a four-year degree program. The Center for Design Innovation fosters cross-disciplinary research and entrepreneurial activity related to design and innovation. It provides educational programming focused on design and innovation, and acts as a design-based business cluster accelerator, to make the Piedmont Triad Region of North Carolina a recognized center of design across the country. [Back to the top]

Created in 2000 by the President of Senegal, his Excellence Maître Abdoulaye WADE, La Case des Tout-Petits (CTP) is a community based initiative targeted to youth. In this program, the mandate is to establish a sound educational structure in urban and rural areas. That structure trains children up to 6 years old in order to set them for success during their schooling without losing sight of their social and cultural values. In addition, CTP promotes well rounded development, offering balanced and healthy nutrition as well as intellectual motivation and care. CTP has chosen to implement Flip Boom in their classrooms, enabling teachers to incorporate animation for pedagogical purposes and expose students to information technology. [Back to the top]

Orange County Department of Education (California) provides support, services, innovative programs and training for Orange County’s 28 school districts. The Orange County Animation Project (OCAP) was conceived as an alternative way to engage students, reducing high school drop out rates and ultimately increasing the numbers attending college. About 40 teachers participate in OCAP, many using ACME Network’s curriculum as a basis for teaching animation principles. An equipment “starter kit” consisting of a pencil test system, light box, one copy of Toon Boom Studio software and a Wacom tablet are distributed to participating classrooms. As teachers become comfortable with animation, they add more hardware and software to broaden students’ experience. Two years ago, OCAP selected Toon Boom Studio software following research on various packages, due to its robust features and ease of use. Training was arranged for the teachers, which was enthusiastically embraced. Subsequent training has been provided, and earlier this year, OCDE videotaped the training, providing video clips on the OCAP website for ongoing help or as a “refresher”. At least four teachers have purchased classroom sets of Toon Boom and last spring a pilot program with University of California Irvine, paired a “digital scholar“ (graduate student) with an OCAP teacher and her class of at-risk sophomores using Toon Boom Studio as the foundation for their curricular unit. [Back to the top]

A digital evolution is taking place in the Visual Communications Department (VCD) at the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary. With the help of Toon Boom, VCD Department head Rik Zak is moving the curriculum into the realm of content creation, motion graphics and animation. To assist with this initiative a digital animation studio was created, implemented by animation specialist Kevin D.A. Kurytnik, with Toon Boom Digital Pro (now called Animate Pro) as the key animation software. 2008 saw animation introduced into the core curriculum of Design. A second-year assignment was created around the morph component of Digital Pro to create an animated metamorphosis project from what was previously a print assignment, consisting of a letter changing into an animal themed company logo, with excellent results. In their fourth year of training the students choose to specialize in one of four streams: Advertising, Design, Illustration, or Character Design. 2008 also saw the fourth year Character Designers use Toon Boom, taking their original character designs and using Digital Pro (now called Animate Pro) to animate motion loops, again with impressive results. The success of these assignments is spurring a thorough review of core curriculum to further incorporate animation into the VCD academic structure, and the implementation in 2008/2009 to have fourth year Character Design students create their own short animated narratives. “With the VCD program’s successful strategy of emphasis on typographic design and classical drawing skills there is great potential to add to this with animation and motion graphics, with Toon Boom being the perfect tool to help the department go from strength to strength,” stated Kevin D. A. Kurytnik, instructor at VCD. [Back to the top]

Whistling Woods International is a unique educational institution, offering unparalleled infrastructure, cutting edge technology and state-of-the-art equipment. Located in the heart of Film City, Mumbai, India, Whistling Woods International gives students the benefits of an extended campus and an invaluable interface with the entertainment industry. The faculty of Whistling Woods International forms a body of academics, top working industry professionals, instructors from renowned Indian and foreign film schools and the finest guest lecturers, in the following areas: Acting, Art and Technique of Animation, Business of Film and Television, Cinematography, Direction, Editing, Screenwriting, Sound Recording, as well as Design and Music Production. The Art and Technique of Animation specialisation is a demanding programme designed to meet the high standards of today’s animation industry in areas of creativity, originality and production values.

Among other subjects, the curriculum includes training of the latest techniques of traditional and digital animation in a single dynamic programme sequenced in a focused, interdisciplinary manner. “Toon Boom Harmony has helped us achieve paperless animation and faster results. We have an entire term training the students in Harmony on how to deliver a concept as final output within deadlines and without compromising on creativity. Toon Boom Storyboard Pro helps animation students to storyboard even live action projects. Majority of Short film preproduction process is happening in Storyboard Pro helping them to achieve their creative goals, ” shared Gokul. K, Head of Department, Animation. [Back to the top]

Griffith is an innovative university committed to multidisciplinary teaching and research, and the creation and communication of knowledge. It has five campuses across the Brisbane-Gold Coast corridor in Australia. With more than 37,000 students and 3500 staff, it is one of Queensland’s largest universities. As part of its Visual and creative arts programme, Griffith offers a three-year Bachelor of Animation which gives students a thorough grounding in film animation covering animation skills, production techniques and studio hardware. The program includes advanced study of the structure of film elements, script construction, graphic processes and communication, editing and sound production, while emphasizing the refinement of imagination, wit and ingenuity. It develops skills that will enable students to produce original animation films, from script to screen. Griffith is using Digital Pro (now called Animate Pro) to adapt from analogue to digital (i.e. scanning drawing sequences) through to high-end compositing, camera moves and effects. “We like the idea that it’s almost a combo of Flash and After Effects, dealing with both vector and bitmap effectively. (..) We seem to be doing a lot of ‘hybrid’ productions now – everybody seems to be using multiple techniques – and there’s also plenty of live action, and this is great because Digital Pro can handle all that. Largely we encourage creativity in the course, combining a number of techniques, styles, genres, but also encourage creating seamless professional quality finish. I strongly believe that the idea and concept are what make a distinguishing factor, not the technology – however, playing around with an application allows you to discover things so hopefully once we get further into using Digital Pro, we’ll likely discover a distinguishing style!” commented Andi Spark, Associate Professor, Head of Animation. [Back to the top]

Based in Toronto, Canada, Max the Mutt Animation School provides an environment in which students are encouraged to work hard to achieve their full potential. Max the Mutt Animation School guarantees small class size with serious individual instruction by highly qualified instructors who are working professionals in their fields. Max the Mutt Animation School believes in giving their students a solid, well rounded education, and the encouragement to help them develop as artists. At the same time, they expect students to conduct themselves in a professional manner, which includes the ability to take direction, meet deadlines, work with each other, and fulfill responsibilities. The development of good work habits is important in preparing for a successful career in animation, concept design, advertising, graphic design, art direction, comic books and graphic novels. At Max The Mutt Animation School 3rd Year students take a series of courses related to their final film projects, which are done in Toon Boom Digital Pro (now called Animate Pro). Their story ideas have been developed in a second year storytelling course. Their characters have been designed in a first semester character design course. They have had courses that have given them the skills to design props and backgrounds, and they have had two background painting courses. They learn to use Toon Boom Storyboard Pro, and in a 12 week advanced storyboard course each student executes the storyboards and an animatic for his/her film. In another 12 week course, students learn Digital Pro and then execute character and prop breakdown, and library organization. Then each student starts the scene setups and animation in Toon Boom Digital Pro. There is a lot of pre-production in this process but the payoff is that the animation and final film production can be completed in a four week intensive course that takes place at the end of second semester. “The software is great, it’s easy to use, the workspace you can set up the way you like it gives you endless possibilities and artists are free to create whatever they want. When you work in Digital Pro you’re limited only by your imagination” shared Beverly Maguire, Lecturer Digital Pro and Storyboard Pro. [Back to the top]

The New Brunswick Community College (NBCC) offers close to 100 programs which are developed, reviewed and enhanced through the work of four schools: the School of Business, the School of Applied Arts and Information Technology, the School of Health and Human Services and the School of Technology and Trades. They offer services from seven locations, including campuses like Miramichi. Approximately 2,000 students attend the NBCC Miramichi Campus each year, including over 600 students who are enrolled full-time in their regular programs. The Animation and Graphics program is designed to prepare graduates for challenging careers in all aspects of animation and its applications. Their qualified instructors bring their experience from renowned studios, such as Disney and Nelvana, to a dynamic classroom setting. In their industry-acclaimed program, students develop strong technical and creative skills. The simulated studio environment aids students in understanding the professional standards they can expect to find in the animation industry. The campus has adopted Toon Boom Storyboard Pro in the Story Reel class. “Students were able to learn very quickly in about two three hour classes, Storyboard Pro is a really easy tool to use and gets animatics done quickly, efficiently and professionally,” shared Tara Audibert, Applied Arts Instructor at NBCC. [Back to the top]

As an international and multi-cultural program, the John C. Hench Division of Animation & Digital Arts of the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California has adopted Storyboard Pro and Digital Pro (now called Animate Pro) in their classroom. “As a class, we were a bit slow in learning the tools in Digital Pro, but the end result was quite exciting. I am always interested in digital tools that allow for individuality and expressive freedom and Digital Pro gave their projects a professional yet unique look. I hope to eventually acquire tablets for everyone in the classroom so we can take advantage of the Digital Pro’s paperless technologies. Although only half of my students used Storyboard Pro, the result was impressive. For those who did, their timing issues seemed to work themselves out more easily than for those who used other software. I plan to integrate workshops into future semesters so more students will use it,” said Trixy Sweetvittles, Instructor of Cinema Practice. [Back to the top]

Based in Oklahoma, Jenks Freshman Academy started using Toon Boom Studio in 2007. Sara Blankley, a teacher at JFA sent such great feedback that we decided to publish it as is: “We are a pilot program to bring the concept of animation to our students as an elective. Toon Boom Studio has been an interesting learning experience for me. I started working with it for the first time this summer and found it relatively easy to learn. Both my students and I are learning it exponentially. What we have learned is that the software is easy to master. It is easy for high school students to comprehend and yet it has so many capabilities. We are also using Audacity to record sounds and then soundsnap.com has many sound clips that we insert into our animation. We have done it originally as a semester long course, but next year we plan on teaching it in a year long format. There just isn’t enough time for the students to apply what they have learned in only a semester long course. I would like to see the program grow and I feel the students are gaining a lot of experience through required documentation that is necessary to support their projects. They are also learning about time constraints, deadlines, planning, and organization. They enjoy teaching the other students about what they have learned and therefore take on the role of teaching one another. The learning environment is wonderful. What they are learning can be applied to other disciplines. They are having a great time while doing it! Thank you Toon Boom for making my job so enjoyable.” [Back to the top]

The National Electronic Media Institute of South Africa (NEMISA) came into being as an institution of education and learning, specializing in teaching the production and technical skills applicable to the TV, radio and broadcasting industries. Formed as part of a government initiative in 1998, its fundamental purpose was to train previously disadvantaged individuals, particularly women, and equip them with the skills necessary to play significant roles in the broadcasting environment. NEMISA operates from a modern office and studio complex centrally situated in Parktown, Johannesburg. Gavin Winer, Lecturer, Digital Animation, has recently been trained in Digital Pro (now called Animate Pro) and will integrate it in the second year classroom, once the students have acquired the necessary traditional skills in the first year. NEMISA has adapted its curriculum based on the renowned Algonquin College of Media and Design (Canada) curriculum. “The students are extremely excited to get started. Using their knowledge of traditional animation, now they can do it all digitally,” shared Gavin. [Back to the top]

Based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Image Campus and Hook Up Animation have launched a professional animation course that trains professionals in all production stages. Under the supervision of Hook Up Animation and given at Image Campus’ facilities, a renowned training centre in digital arts, this new course is one of a kind in Latin America. As their objective is to train professionals in all techniques and tools required in animation production, Hook Up Animation and Image Campus have partnered to develop a three-year program that meets international standards. The courses cover drawing, traditional and digital animation, character design, backgrounds, scripting, art direction, animation history and acting among others. Their lab is also equipped with Toon Boom Studio and Digital Pro (now called Animate Pro) to introduce students to the tools of the trade and prepare them for the market place. [Back to the top]

The BA (Hons) Animation Production course at the Arts University College Bournemouth course looks at animation production in a broad and holistic way, providing a thoroughly intensive and team-based experience in which students develop comprehensive expertise in the whole production process. The course strives to offer the closest experience possible to that of the professional animator in industry, within its newly refurbished animation studio. This course has a strong international reputation and has been awarded Skillset Accreditation for the quality of its offering to students and the animation industry. Toon Boom Harmony is used to paint, composite and render the 2D graduation animations produced every year on the course. [Back to the top]

The BSc Computer Animation degree offered by the Faculty of Computing at London Metropolitan University offers students the opportunity to build a career as a computer animator. “We have been using Toon Boom products as our creative 2D software tool since 2003. The ability to integrate images, sound, interactivity and narrative whilst using a design tool that teaches the principles of animation make this the ideal choice for us,” stated Dr Nigel Medhurst, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Computing at the London Metropolitan University. Over the course of their degree studies, students create animation for many different types of market including the web, emerging cyber-communities and virtual environments (such as Second Life), games, mobile and embedded devices. “Toon Boom allows us to teach traditional animation skills and practices but also addresses these important areas,” concluded Dr Medhurst. [Back to the top]

For the past 6 years Staffordshire University has invested in Toon Boom Products. “Starting with Toon Boom Studio we aimed to assist students realise higher quality and controllable 2D animation content. Studio was fundamental in a number of successful national competitions for submissions such as "Ryan Blessed" by Robert Cureton in the BBC New Talent. A number of the graduates have gained employment in commercial studios as a direct result of utilising Toon Boom at University. Last year saw a step up to using the Full Toon Boom suite from Storyboard Pro Pencil Check and finally Animate Pro. A number of second year students used online resources provided by Toon Boom to make the transition to Animate Pro which has resulted there 8 team collaborative piece "Why Wash" becoming one of 5 shortlisted shorts being screened in London during the London Animation Festival. Significantly the students have now got to the point where they no longer work in Studio and are committed to the integration of the Professional 2D pipeline Animate Pro offers. Currently this is being used in a traditional manner but the development of Cut Out technique will be explored throughout 2009-2010. There is a clear raising of production standards in the artwork produced with Animate Pro and we are very excited about the outcomes for this years final Year Students. We believe at Staffordshire University that Students must equip themselves with a skill base that can be utilised globally and we feel that our Toon Boom pipeline will give them that advantage in such a competitive market,“ explained Tony Smith, Award Leader BA(Hons) Animation, Staffordshire University. [Back to the top]

Three years ago the Brazilian animation school Art&Cia decided to design a course for the purpose of teaching Arts and Digital Animation. This task fell upon the competent shoulders of Raquel Garcia and Cláudio Martins. The school’s success, based on its great teaching staff and up-to-date equipment such as pc’s with tablets, was enhanced by the use of Toon Boom’s excellent software. The school has rapidly gained support in the Arts and has become an animation pioneer in the northern region of the country. Currently, they are in great demand to provide training and lectures to many colleges and government agencies.

Courses take place in the classroom and focus on animation, taking full advantage of features provided by the animation software. At the same time, students are encouraged to make use of these tools to produce their own animation.

Art&Cia is based in Manaus and has expanded it’s courses to students who study online. Presently, Toon Boom Animate/Pro and 3D Animation are being taught online, these courses last for 9 months. Online courses are given in real-time and are recorded, with the teachers providing feedback on the exercises the following day. As well as this the students are required put the skills they have learned into practice by producing a short animation in Toon Boom.

The students not only have the advantage of learning animation from the talented teachers at the school but it is also regular practice for Cláudio Martins, chief instructor, to invite some of the top names in the film industry to talk and provide their inspiration to the students. By inviting guest speakers such as Andrew Gordon and Victor Navone from Pixar, and DreamWorks' Jason Ryan and Keith Lango to talk a little about each module, the students gain access to the knowledge provided by these animation leaders and gain confidence from their mentoring. In April 2010, courses will be launched in both Spanish and English. Entries will be free, simply send the required student documentation and have a desire to animate.
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South Seas Film & Television School runs four full-time courses including Film & Television, On Screen Acting, Animation, and Digital Photography. The campus is located in Auckland, New Zealand, and each year the school trains around 180 – 200 students from all corners of the world including New Zealand. The South Seas Diploma in Animation Production is a 2 year full time course. The course is designed to provide practical and comprehensive training in animation processes, techniques, principles, software and workflow.

Their animation students’ develop universal creative and technical skill sets that are needed to create good animation in all mediums, and essential for a career in animation. These skills include background & environment development, character animation, character design, digital compositing, concept art, digital painting, directing, effects animation, layout and storyboarding.

Their students learn and use Toon Boom throughout the course, completing practical production and post-production exercises, and many of our final projects are produced using Toon Boom for animation, ink & paint and compositing.
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