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.
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)
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. 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 & Staff
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
The studio working hours are 9am - 5pm, Monday to Friday. The studio is also open for students outside these hours and on weekends. The software used in the Academy changes every year depending on what the industry is using and where it is felt that the industry is heading. The Academy has an agnostic approach to software, looking at what’s new and what their project needs are, then deciding. Having said this, they do rely heavily on a strong Industry pipeline, built around Shotgun. The main applications used are: Maya, Zbrush, Substance, Mari, Katana, Nuke, Houdini and Adobe suites.
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.
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.
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.
Matt Estela
Matt Estela has over 17 years of experience in 3D animation, most recently as VR supervisor and FX Lead at Animal Logic Sydney. He has worked on Peter Rabbit, The Lego Batman Movie VR experience, and many commercials in the UK.
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’.
- Fee type ‘Postgraduate Domestic Coursework’
- Fee year 2020
- Cohort 2020
- Course area ‘Transdisciplinary Innovation’
- Course code ‘C04322’
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.
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