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Over the weekend, Old Collegian, Connor Mattson returned to the Jack Paine Centre to share his knowledge and expertise with the Year 12 and 13 Animation and Motion Graphic students. Connor is a former Animation student who excelled in the subject and understanding the pressures associated with project based learning, is a perfect candidate to share his knowledge and experiences.
Connor is passionate about all aspects of design and was a founding member of the Year 13 Design Council. He is currently completing his undergraduate degree in Engineering and Science at the University of Auckland and is a member of the Jack Paine Centre Collective, which is set up for past students who are keen to share their creativity with the next generation of students.
The two-day intensive workshop covered what could have taken up to eight weeks to cover in class time. Students were introduced to the concepts surrounding 'the illusion of movement' and were challenged to create a convincing ball bounce using vector based graphics in After Effects, hand drawn rotoscoping from live action in Animate (formerly Flash) and 3D CGI in Maya. One of the most obvious outcomes of the course is how we take animated outcomes for granted in everyday life! The course was held in JPCOM, the digital lab in the Jack Paine Centre. Here students used specialised software and the new industry standard Wacom tablets.
Animation and Motion Graphics is a specialist Technology subject offered in Year 12 and 13 and follows on from Digital Technology and/or Digital Art. It is a dedicated subject that is unique to Saint Kentigern College and has been developed with tertiary providers to ensure the content and experiences are robust and relevant for tertiary and industry.
Teaching and learning in such an environment can be challenging as students join Year 12 Animation with a wide range of experiences of the craft and software involved. All students have different interests, strengths and weaknesses so it is vital the class runs more like a studio where all members work together to share information and mentor each other. A key to success in industry is understanding how to work in a pipeline environment and effectively collaborate towards an end goal.
Following the workshop students will be thrown into their first design brief that will extend the skills and knowledge learned in the course. Year 13 students are working on an independent project that they will formerly exhibit in Term 4 with the Fashion and Spatial Design students. A trip to Weta in Wellington will hopefully follow in Term 2 to give all Animation and Motion Graphics students exposure to a leading studio, how it operates and the kinds of skills necessary to work somewhere like Weta, along with some inspiration for their own project work.
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