A course started by a VFX boutique which has elements like faculty from the production itself and a three month internship programme in the studio sure does sound interesting.
Started nearly a year ago in August 05, the course has begun to gain traction and this year the studio run institute has got 72 students.
The course curriculum entails the following: basic designing concepts, illustration, digital photography, 3D essentials, 3D advanced, compositing, non-Linear Editing, show reel DVD authoring.
The students work as interns with the studio itself on real film footage saved from previous films with VFX work. The aim of the internship programme being that by the end of the course, the students would have a real production environment experience and a demo reel of live projects done during that period.
Speaking to Animation Xpress.com, Raj Potula, Director Visualization, Pixelloid shared, “Most of the studios who hire new comers put them through rigorous training when they the join their company. But, with Pixelloid’s training, the students are already production-experienced and ready to be incorporated into the pipeline without needing any further training.”
One of the unique features of the training center is that the entire faculty is from Pixelloid’s production department. The production team consists of 20 VFX professionals. This provides the students with the opportunity to get hands on experience as well learn useful tips and techniques from the industry professionals while learning the software. Most of the members of the production team have 5 to 10 years experience in the VFX industry.
Admission is open to interested students, the only criteria being that the candidate should have some working experience with windows XP and a passion for VFX. Any experience in drawing or a background in art (such as Bachelor in Fine Arts) would be an asset.
Nayeem Ahktar, Director Operations added, “We have been approached about placements from major animation studios throughout India. We ourselves absorb the talented students, as this was one of the primary reasons for starting up the training center. Pixelloid’s vision is to create a talent pool as properly trained animators are very hard to come-by.”
Pixelloid’s VFX department and the training center are located in the same premises. Two students are involved for every project that the studio is working on and they also assist at shoots which are supervised by the production team. Previously some students have worked on the project “Amigo” which was showcased at Visual Effects Society in Hollywood.
Elaborating on the motive behind establishing the centre, Yugandhar Tammareddy, founder and VFX supervisor, Pixelloid commented, “During the process of hiring good VFX artists and animators, we couldn’t find someone who could readily be incorporated into the production pipeline and start working immediately. They had to be trained again to be properly assimilated into the workflow. When our students go out, they don’t need to be trained again.”
“At Pixelloid, we utilize our in-depth knowledge and experience to create production environment in training, thereby giving the students a true working experience while learning” he concluded.