Melbourne-based Colin Bennett - known as a top 2D rigging artist in Australia – along with Mike Aldrich, Australia-New Zealand Toon Boom Rep from Greenhills Media, conducted a free, 5-hour workshop on Friday 17th July at SIT’s Centre for Creative Industries for Screen Arts students.
Event Organiser and 2D Animation Tutor, Ruby Meades, was thrilled to have secured such high-calibre guests visit SIT and share their insights with students.
“Any kind of recent, especially 2D-animated Australian content will have Colin and Mike in the credits… They are known best in the studios in Melbourne, but they also travel around Australia and New Zealand. Colin Bennett, aka ‘Onion Skin’ has a YouTube channel and quite a following; he’s known all over the world and I have been a fan for a decade.”
A 2D rigging artist must prepare character and prop assets to be animated across multiple animators and for multiple episodes of a cartoon or feature film.
SIT’s industry participation has been key in helping to grow its profile - SIT student animation works have been selected for showreels promoting Toon Boom software; Ms Meades attends workshops online organised by Toon Boom; students and staff participate in LoopdeLoop - an international animation challenge where animators create looping animations based on a given topic each month.
Ms Meades said the event was very successful. “Everything ran smoothly; we accommodated our HyFlex students who attended online and now have this incredible recorded resource for those who could not attend.
“Several of our new International Study Abroad students were some of the most engaged students during the workshop and asked many questions, taking advantage of this opportunity they gained by choosing to come to SIT,” Ms Meades noted.
The third-year students who attended the workshop received demo-reel reviews with valuable tips on how to improve them. It was a networking opportunity for them as well, with business cards being handed out and post-graduation deals offered on Toon Boom to so the new graduates can continue having access to the software for their ongoing projects.
Study Abroad exchange student, Ana Avalis-Martoglio was “very happy” to have attended the workshop. “I was most interested in learning about the professional workflow used in the industry and seeing how experienced artists work in their everyday tasks.”
The Argentinian student, who is completing a bachelor's degree in design and digital animation, is new to Toon Boom software and enjoyed learning the tips and shortcuts for navigating the software that the guest tutors shared.
“I've been learning it for a month now and all advice is welcomed. But what stood out most to me was hearing about their real-world experiences and how projects are handled in professional environments.”
Miss Avalis-Martoglio’s highlight of the day was having the guest tutors review her portfolio of work and provide professional feedback.
“I felt heard and the feedback was incredibly valuable for me; it also gives me the chance to look at my own work from a different point of view so I can keep on improv-ing,” she said.
As the last stop of the NZ schools the guests visited, Ms Meades was pleased to say they were very impressed with SIT’s facilities and Creative Campus.
Mr Aldrich acknowledged “SIT Invercargill has been at the leading edge of international animation education for many years, so it was an absolute honour to visit the school for the first time.”
He explained SIT was one of the first institutes in the world to be accepted into Toon Boom Animation’s Centre of Excellence programme. “This status represents Toon Boom’s highest accreditation and is only awarded to schools whose teachers and students are studying at international best-practice levels.”
“We performed a full-day workshop with a highly engaged group of students. I was left with no doubt that SIT Invercargill deserves this recognition, and it is a credit to the team who work tirelessly for their students and graduates," Mr Aldrich stated.
A bonus for the visitors was giving them a quick tiki tour of the deep south – they went to the Catlins, visiting McLean Falls, Curio Bay, and the Waipapa Point Lighthouse. “I knew it would entice Colin and Mike to come all the way to the bottom of the motu and see our campus,” Ms Meades said.
Mr Bennett said after travelling to universities in Aukland, Wellington and Christchurch, Invercargill was the highlight of their trip, from the modern, professional-grade equipment to the beautiful historical church building.
“Ruby and Chris [Popham] were incredible hosts who really care about the wellbeing of their students and providing the highest quality education. The students are engaged and driven. Many wonderful conversations were had.” He noted that through community events such as LoopdeLoop, Invercargill is becoming an animation hub known across New Zealand and Australia. “There's a reason people travel to this city just to study here!"
Ms Meades has visited Melbourne to see 2D animation studios firsthand and attended the Melbourne International Animation Festival. “Our SIT graduates are making an impact in the Melbourne 2D Animation scene; they are attending events, being hired for freelance and studio work, and entering festivals.” With this connection across the ditch, there is the potential for students to also visit those studios.
“Anyone can ultimately draw and animate in any medium and software… but giving our students foundation skills in the globally leading 2D software, means it is easier to transfer skills across to other software.”