Fabriani Putri came to NZ from Indonesia to study. Born in Java, she was raised in Batam, which is a small island located near the border of Indonesia and Singapore.
After finishing secondary school in Indonesia, Fabriani took a gap year before coming here, and waited to enrol in the February intake at SIT. She used her year prior to arriving in NZ, to practise drawing, and improve her skills as an artist with the software she thought she would use at SIT.
Fabriani chose SIT because it is affordable compared to other tertiary institutions in New Zealand.
She first heard about studying at SIT and New Zealand from an educational consultant agency who visited her secondary school in her final year. “It really attracted me because New Zealand is such a beautiful country”.
“Moving to New Zealand was not my first option to be honest. I was thinking of going to Singapore or Malaysia because it was closer to my country. But when I found SIT and New Zealand, and compared the overall costs with Singapore and Malaysia, I feel like it was worth to move here in the long run”.
Fabriani said she knew she was in good hands before coming here. She had browsed the SIT website and found tutors, students, and alumni biographies. She saw some tutors were professionals in the creative fields, and alumni were working in the creative industries.
“During the course the tutors were extremely helpful and patient when they taught us. Besides learning the technical and practical skills, I also learned about the animation industry through their experience, and guest speakers who would visit the campus occasionally”.
In terms of facilities, as animation students, Fabriani said they needed access to industry-standard software, and she was glad SIT provided them on campus, through Virtual Desktop, and through student licenses for their home computers.
Fabriani especially enjoyed having guest speakers visit the campus and talk about their professional experience in the industry, or stories from the tutors’ experience.
“In my opinion, those are the things that benefit me to prepare myself for the real world”.
“I was fortunate to get to meet many people from different walks of life, and it helped me grow as an individual. I also got to experience the different cultures from my friends’ home countries. Studying at SIT made me appreciate the diversity in our community”.
Fabriani said usually Level 7 Animation students would annually go to the New Zealand Game Developers Conference as a chance for them to network and get to know the gaming industry in New Zealand. Unfortunately, Covid-19 prevented this from happening.
However, they were given the chance to have a conversation with stop-motion animators based in US, thanks to tutor, Traci Meek, who arranged the meeting for the students.
“It was really enlightening because their experience taught me patience, especially during this time of the pandemic”, she said.
Fabriani said she went to campus every day, regardless, if she had a class or not. Because personally, she found she was more productive when she worked on campus, with the Wacom cintiq.
“It’s also a way for me to separate my work and rest time. And I don’t get a lot of distractions when I’m at campus, if I work from home, the comfort of my bed is really distracting”, she laughed.
“The best thing about studying at SIT , has been the people I’ve met along the way”.
Fabrani was most challenged by the assessment deadlines during her study. She said especially if you have a part time job. It can be really challenging to balance study, work, and rest.
She said the students have internship paper during their final year, and it helped them gain experience working in the industry, whether it’s freelance working with a client, a small short film production, or a feature film production.
“Though currently I don’t have a job related to my field, I am still interning for a short film production under the direction of SIT tutors”.
Long-term, Fabriani’s planning to work in an animation studio here in New Zealand. She is passionate about storytelling, and hopes to work as part of a production team (whether it’s for an advertisement, music video, or film) that shares the same passion as she does.
“If you are passionate in animation, telling stories, and bringing characters to life, I recommend this course. Because learning can be challenging, and I realised what got me through these 3 years was my passion for animation”.
To finish on a high note, Fabriani graduated with a Bachelor of Screen Arts (Animation), and won the Reading Cinemas Award for best Digital Short Film – Bachelor of Screen Arts, at the 2020 award ceremony.