About School
The UTS Animal Logic Academy (UTS ALA) is Australia’s world-class digital-production education facility that offers an accelerated, industry-focused Master of Animation & Visualisation, as well as postgraduate research opportunities. Graduates of UTS ALA have gone on to work at Animal Logic, Flying Bark, Method Studios, Mill Film, MPC, Double Negative and many others.
Location:
Australia
Students:
11-50
Staff:
11-50
Founded:
2016
Type:
Public
Industries:
Game Design, Illustration, Immersive Media, Motion Graphics, Visual Effects
Success Stories
Graduates often enter the course as animation generalists or from other areas (e.g. art or coding), but find more specialised roles in industry upon graduation. The leading areas of employment include modelling, lighting/surfacing, animating, rigging, technical directing, concept art and layout, compositing and game/real-time developer.
Jessica D’Ali
Performance TD, Animal Logic
Luke Avis
Layout Artist, Animal Logic
Alessandra Grassoi
Production Coordinator, Flying Bark
Emma Cooney
Lighting Artist, Mill Film
Grace Testa
Compositor, Animal Logic
Mai Pham
Animator, Flying Bark
Alumni Employment Rates
Over 90% of graduates from the UTS Animal Logic Academy have found employment in the animation, VFX and visualisation industries within months of graduating. These include roles in over a dozen production companies ranging from animation, visual effects, virtual reality, gaming and real-time production, both in Australia and overseas.
•Matina Akes | Environment Artist, Mill Film Montreal (2018)
UTS ALA prepared me for this role by teaching me how a studio environment runs and what the process was from start to finish of animated films to interactive games and experiences. UTS ALA uses up to date studio programs which are used in the industry and that helped me understand the workflows that real life studios use. Without this knowledge of how to use multiple different programs and understanding pipelines, I wouldn't have made it where I am today
Facilities
The Academy is set up as a working studio environment, developed together with industry partner Animal Logic. It features an open plan layout, where students have height adjustable desks, dual monitor setup and Wacom tablets.
Onsite facilities include: 2 edit suites customised as VR rooms and break out spaces, Screening room, utilised for masterclasses, reviews and industry presentations , VR/AR play space, set up with 3 machines for Real Time development, Break out meeting rooms, utilised for briefings, more concise training and team meetings, and a student kitchen
Software
Autodesk Maya, Pixologic Zbrush, Allegorithmic Substance Painter, SideFX Houdini, Foundry Katana, Foundry Nuke, Pixar Renderman, Davinci Resolve, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere, Autodesk Shotgun, Pixar USD, Autodesk RV, Pixar USDView, Unity, Epic Unreal Engine 4.
Hardware
Professional graphics workstations (Dual 14 Core Xeons, 128GB Ram, Quadro M5000), Dual monitors with a Calibrated HP Dreamcolor each, Wacom Intuos Pro graphics tablets, Dedicated renderfarm, Calibrated Barco cinema projector setup, Large variety of VR devices from major vendors (Including Vives, RIfts, Quests, PSVR, Windows MR), Microsoft Hololenses, and 1 x 360degree cylindrical display.
Staff Bios
Here are three staff members from the school that represent the level of professional experience and knowledge of the faculty.
Alex Weight
Alex is the Creative Lead at the Academy. His international career spans two decades as a writer, director, animator and script consultant in senior roles across the animation and VFX industries, working at companies including Rising Sun Pictures, Animal Logic, Flying Bark and Script Central.
Dylan Neill
As Visual Effects Lead at the Academy, Dylan has over 20 years’ experience in the VFX industry as a 3D artist and supervisor. His expertise includes CG animation production, app development, game design, online advertising, television and feature film production. Dylan’s film credits include ‘Outlaw King’, ‘Lord of the Rings’, ‘King Kong’ and ‘I, Robot’. He has also worked on commercials for major brands such as Toyota, Qantas and Telstra.
Daniel Flood
Daniel Flood has nearly 10 years’ experience in pipeline, lighting and look development at Method, Dr.D and Animal Logic, and has worked on films such as The Great Gatsby, Deepwater Horizon, Gods of Egypt, Ghostbusters, and Happy Feet Two.
Student Artwork
Here is a small sample of artwork created by students during their time at the school. This quality of work is used by students' to apply for jobs.
Courses
The UTS ALA offers a practice-based, accelerated 1-year Masters in Animation and Visualisation as well as postgraduate research options. Students work alongside leaders in industry, education and research who support the students’ artistic and professional growth. By the end of their time, students will have built a robust skill-set that's applicable across a wide range of roles, from animation and software development to data visualisation, data science and across emerging technologies.
The UTS ALA is a unique collaboration located on the UTS campus, right in the heart of Sydney's creative precinct. It's been engineered to the highest industry standards, which means students engage with the tools and technologies that define the animation and visualisation industry today.
How much does the course cost?
The Masters is an accelerated qualification. We pack 2 years of learning into 1 year of full-time study (with 3 sessions a year rather than 2 semesters), combined with a 5-day-a-week workload. So even though the Masters costs around the same as other similar masters qualifications, you are out in the workforce 1 year earlier earning a salary.
Cost information is centralised over the UTS fees page, where you will have to enter the relevant course information to get the current course fees. Remember the course is made up of 72 credit points and runs over 3 sessions of 24 credit points each.
Just click on this link: https://www.uts.edu.au/current-students/managing-your-course/fees-and-payment/tuition-fees-search
- Choose ‘Search for fees by course’.
- If you are a domestic student, select Fee Type ‘Postgraduate Domestic Coursework’. If you are an international student, select Fee Type ‘Postgraduate International Coursework’
- (Please note, additional information for costs for international students can be found here – https://www.uts.edu.au/future-students/international/essential-information/fees-information)
- Fee year 2021
- Cohort 2021
- Course area: ‘Information Technology’
- Course code ‘C04423’
Graduate Certificate in Animation and Visualisation
The ALA also offers the Graduate Certificate in Animation and Visualisation, which is ideal for students wanting to gain some experience with early stage professional animation production without having to commit to a full year of full-time study.
The course introduces participants to the creative and working practices, procedures and standards of a professional digital production studio. Structured in crew roles, students work in collaborative teams to develop an early stage, professional-style animation project.
Under the guidance and mentorship of practitioners and leaders from the industry, learning takes place in a custom-built digital production studio modelled on real-world production work structure and engineered to the highest industry standards.
Students engage in the early-stage development of an animation project, working across disciplines including:
Story development (concept, storyboarding, pre-visualisation)
Art and design (concept art, character design, environment design, prop design)
Asset creation (modelling, rigging)
Layout and animation (early stage animation)
Project management (collaborative team skills and pipeline integration)Multidisciplinary knowledge is supported by masterclasses and mentoring by industry and academic experts. Students engage in collaborative problem-solving and knowledge-sharing as a dynamic process in a professional-like production environment.
The full-time Graduate Certificate in Animation and Visualisation is run over a 14 week block from the 18th of January 2021, Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm.
Successful completion prepares graduates for entry level employment and/or articulation into the Master of Animation and Visualisation program (with 24 units of credit).
Industry Networking
We take great pride in our close industry connections. We also regularly make keynote addresses at industry events such as Siggraph, Siggraph Asia, CG Futures, AEAF, Convergence, UNITE and more.
Studios Hiring
The following studios hire students from this school: Animal Logic, Flying Bark, Method Studios, Mill Film, MPC, Blackbird, Electric Lens Co, Like a Photon, Plastic Wax, Start VR, Virtual Immersive and Double Negative to name some. Animal Logic, Flying Bark and Mill Film employ the highest percentage of our graduates.
Awards
- AEAF Awards 2020 – Student Short Film (Gold)
- AEAF Awards 2020 - Interactive, VR Experience, Augmented Reality (Bronze)
- Rookie Awards 2019 - Game of the Year: Mobile
- Rookie Awards 2019 - Game of the Year: Immersive Media
- Rookie Awards 2019 - Game Design ∓ Development Schools - Production Excellence 2019: Mobile
- Rookie Awards 2019 - Game Design & Development Schools - Production Excellence 2019: Immersive Media
- AEAF Awards 2019 - Augmented Reality (Silver)
- AEAF Awards 2019 - Student Short Film (Gold)
- Rookie Awards 2018 - Game of the Year: VR
- AEAF Awards 2018 - Web/Viral (Gold)
- Shotgun Pipeline Awards 2018 - Shotty Award
Links
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