Animation (3 year)

Want to leave college with a demo reel ready for television, games or film? Cambrian College’s Animation (3 year) programme is a six-semester Ontario College Advanced Diploma at the Barrydowne campus in Sudbury. After two years of animation fundamentals you choose a 2D or 3D concentration in the third year, and admission requires a drawing portfolio.

The first two years run from Life Drawing to Life Drawing IV alongside Drawing for Animation, Intro to Animation Principles, Body Mechanics, Intro to 3D, Intro to 2D Rigging, Action Analysis, 3D Animation I and II, Layout I and II, Character Design, Acting for Animation and Portfolio Development. In semesters five and six everyone takes Life Drawing V and VI, Story, Character Design II and III and Portfolio II. The 2D stream adds 2D Character Rigging I and II, Layout III and IV, Character Animation and Animation Capstone, while the 3D stream adds Modelling I and II, Intro to 3D Rigging, 3D Rigging II, 3D Animation III and 3D Animation Capstone.

The 2D stream is built on Toon Boom Harmony rigging, layout and 2D animation, and the 3D stream on rigging, modelling and animating in Autodesk Maya. You work in a 13,900-square-foot animation studio within the Toon Boom Centre of Excellence programme, using software that includes Storyboard Pro, Photoshop, Premiere, Substance Painter, Blender and Unreal Engine, with your own Wacom pen tablet. A field trip to Toronto lets you show work to industry representatives, and graduates of the two-year ANIM diploma enter directly into year three.

Graduates leave with a professional portfolio and demo reel for feature film, television, advertising, video games and visual aids, in roles such as 2D animator, 3D animator, rigger, 3D modeller, layout artist and storyboard artist. The advanced diploma suits committed artists who want to specialise and graduate ready for a studio pipeline.