Lightbox Academy
Lightbox Academy is a Digital Arts School located in Madrid that came into being thanks to the most lauded Animation Film Production Company in Spain: Lightbox Animation Studios.
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Lightbox Academy is a Digital Arts School located in Madrid that came into being thanks to the most lauded Animation Film Production Company in Spain: Lightbox Animation Studios. The school’s academic offer encompasses the production pipelines in animation, series and videogames.
Having started with a foot already in the door allows Lightbox Academy to present a training program adapted to the real workflow in any studio or production company nowadays. The students learn to work in a professional manner, using the same software and the same mechanisms that are used at all major studios. And this method, the practical method, is further boosted by our teachers: working professionals in the digital industry who find a way to balance their work as teachers with their activity as professionals in the entertainment industry.
General Info
Facilities
Lightbox Academy is located in downtown Madrid, a city that hosts 50% of the Animation and Videogame Industry companies in Spain. Our classrooms and lecture halls are furnished with the very latest systems and equipment so that our students learn at the same pace that the industry advances at. In total, the school has 14 different classrooms with all the equipment needed to develop the work in hand in each area: Macs for graphic design, Cintiq rooms for illustration and modeling, and render farms for animation, 3D and VFX.
At Lightbox Academy we stress the importance of interdisciplinary work between students in different areas of expertise and in different classrooms, and that is why we also have large common areas so that they may do Networking with their different classmates and/or continue working once classes are over for the day. The students also have areas available to put into practice what they are learning, conference rooms, open spaces for filming or rehearsing, a cafeteria, a library, an exhibition hall and a screening room.
Staff
The teachers and faculty members at Lightbox Academy are working professionals with extensive professional experience in the Entertainment, Videogame and Advertisement industries. Their continuous presence in the industry allows them to know, first-hand, how it is evolving and transmit that information to their students. What is more, as they are constantly learning and training themselves, this translates into them obtaining the highest software certifications.
Employment Rates
The current employment rate at Lightbox Academy is at 80%. The school’s students are currently working across the five continents, at studios such as ILM, MPC, Technicolor and Jellyfish among others. As well, some of them have participated in the productions of Aquaman, Cats, Tadeo Jones 3...
Technology
Software
Lightbox Academy is an accredited center for the following software: Side FX, Autodesk, Maxon, Blackmagic, Adobe, Unity. And, as regards training, we also use the following software: Autodesk Maya, Arnold for Maya, 3D Max, Houdini SideFX, Foundry Nuke, Mari, Substance, Mamoset, Marvelous, Zbrush, Xgen, Speed tree, Cinema 4D, After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator, Unreal, Unity, Python, Toon Boom, Motion Builder, Mudbox, Keyshot, Shotgun, Renderman, Redshift, VRay, Oculus, Spine, DaVinci Resolve, Quixet.
Hardware
Lightbox Academy is a high performance center and, to that end, the students have access to state-of-the-art classrooms, equipment and software to develop their works in a professional manner. Accordingly, the school has Nvidia, Wacom Cintiq and Wacom Tablets technology, Motion Capture systems, 4K cameras, PlayStation development kits, Oculus headsets, Render Farm, and cutting-edge systems with the most recent updates, 3D printer and double screens in all the classrooms.
Student Showcase
Take a look at some of the traditional and digital artwork Lightbox Academy students produce during their education.
Courses
It is Lightbox Academy’s intent for students to learn first-hand what it is to work on and develop a professional project on a film production or in a videogame studio. That is why the training program passes through each of the stages in every project: preproduction, production and postproduction. This allows the student to choose the area where she or he may feel more at ease and develop her or his talent more competently.
Another of Lightbox Academy’s cornerstones is interdisciplinary cooperation between the students in all the different areas, to that end, the school encourages its students to create short features and videogames so that they may transcend the theoretical and really become familiarized with what is involved in an animation project. One of these works was the short feature Madrid 2120, winner of the Goya for Best Animation Short Feature in 2020.
Illustration & Concept Art Masters and Careers
These courses are focused on the student being able to quickly become a part of any preproduction team. Their training goes from specializing in Storyboards to creating characters to Concept Art and Illustration. And this discipline is complemented and completed with training in comics.
2D & 3D Animation Masters and Careers
In this case, students learn and specialize in the two major disciplines of 2D and 3D animation. And all with the assistance of the two great software programs applied to these techniques: Toon Boom and Maya. Our future professionals will learn to create cycles of movement that will subsequently allow them to breathe life into two-legged and four-legged characters.
3D Modeling & Sculpting Masters and Careers
These courses are aimed at the student garnering knowledge about the artistic and technical techniques needed to model sets, props and organic characters. Zbrush, Autodesk Maya, Mari and Substance are some of the software programs with which the students will reach the required levels of knowledge to quickly become part of a professional studio.
VFX (Visual Effects) Masters and Careers
In these courses, students will travel the fascinating path that goes from the creation of visual effects with Houdini to dominating postproduction magic with Foundry Nuke to color grading with DaVinci Resolve. This training will capacitate them to be able to create visual effects for cinema.
Videogame Development Masters and Careers
Becoming versed in videogames encompasses all the different stages of production, from creating the environments, the characters, the levels and programming. All with the backing of the most-used rendering engines in the industry: Unreal and Unity. Once the course is over, the students will have achieved their goal: creating their own videogame.
Motion Graphics Masters and Careers
Motion Graphics is the most used discipline in the creation of animations for advertisement purposes, as well as for the creation of title credits. By training in Motion Graphics, the student will learn After Effects and Cinema 4D to be able to apply them and create top-notch innovative pieces.
Graphic Design Masters and Careers
Designed for those who love Digital Design, this course offers a broad program focused on the students acquiring the technical, artistic and creative skills required to become a professional graphic designer and work at major advertisement agencies.
Ready to apply to this school?
You’re one step away from starting something amazing! The best part is that Lightbox Academy is a Rookies Certified School which is a formal accreditation only awarded to the very best schools that provide the most up-to-date and relevant industry training and education. Trust us, you will be in good hands when you apply to this school.
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