Animation (2 year)

Do you fill sketchbooks with characters and dream of seeing them move on screen? Cambrian College’s Animation (2 year) programme is a four-semester Ontario College Diploma taught at the Barrydowne campus in Sudbury, built around the 12 principles of animation. Entry requires a drawing portfolio with life studies, a character study, a perspective drawing and six to ten pieces of personal work.

Semester one covers Life Drawing, Drawing for Animation, Intro to Animation Principles, Intro to Drawing and Painting, Digital Tools, Visual Language, Art and Design Communication and Decolonizing the Creative Arts. Semester two continues with Life Drawing II, Introduction to Design, Body Mechanics, Drawing and Painting, Intro to 3D, Intro to 2D Rigging and Story Concepts. In the second year you take Life Drawing III and IV, Action Analysis, 3D Animation I and II, Layout I and II, Story and Visual Narrative and Story and Visual Narrative II, Development and Design, Intro to Modelling, Character Design, Acting for Animation and Portfolio Development.

You train in Cambrian’s 13,900-square-foot animation studio with regular access to industry-standard software and hardware, including Autodesk Maya, Toon Boom Harmony and Storyboard Pro, the Adobe suite, Blender and Unreal Engine. Cambrian belongs to the Toon Boom Centre of Excellence programme, and students have the opportunity to show their work to industry representatives on a field trip to Toronto. Graduates can enter directly into the third year of Cambrian’s Animation advanced diploma to specialise in 2D or 3D.

Graduates work as animators, character designers, modellers, 2D riggers, concept artists, background artists and storyboard artists in animation studios, game companies and advertising. The two-year Animation diploma suits artists who want a compact, drawing-heavy route into the industry, with the option to add a specialised third year later.