▲ Created by Media Design School students Arun Gnanasekhar, Andrew McCully, Jayson Simpson and Jacob Tuck, Funeral Home Pinatas is a dark mock commercial. Watch it at http://vimeo.com/45806376
Advertising feature: With a range of courses designed to make students work-ready and a roster of experienced lecturers, this New Zealand institute is a force to be reckoned with
www.mediadesignschool.com/studynz
To discover just how closely and successfully academia can work with the computer graphics industry, look no further than the award-winning Media Design School. Located in downtown Auckland – the largest city in ‘the home of Middle Earth’ – it’s hard to imagine an institute better placed to both draw from and feed into what is undoubtedly one of the world’s most exciting digital talent pools.
Founded in 1998, Media Design School was one of New Zealand’s first private tertiary education providers to offer world-class, government-approved qualifications in the digital creative sectors. Since then, the school has grown in tandem with the area’s burgeoning film, entertainment and CG industries. Having previously focused on industry training, Media Design School introduced four degree-level programmes in 2012 – with the Bachelor of Art & Design (3D Animation & Visual Effects) and Bachelor of Creative Technologies (Game Art) the first of their kind in the country.
▲ A still life by former student Donald Bradford. After graduating from Media Design School, he is now working at Weta Digital
“Degree-level study allows students the opportunity to learn the broad fundamentals of art and design, while developing their understanding of specialist areas in more depth,” says Jackie Young, Marketing and Admissions Director. “This offers graduates the ability to adapt to the inevitable changes that will come to the tools and technology that are used in the craft. And of course, bachelor degrees offer global mobility, giving graduates the ability to work right around the world, wherever their skills are in demand.”
Graduates also have the option of enrolling for further studies at Media Design School, via a graduate diploma in Creative Technologies. With specialisations focusing on either Visual Effects and Motion Graphics or Advanced 3D Animation, the graduate diploma gives students the freedom to further research areas of special interest.
The introduction of the new three-year degree courses follows closely on the heels of Media Design School’s integration with Laureate, a network of more than 65 accredited campus-based and online universities. “Within Laureate International Universities, Media Design School is considered a ‘centre of excellence’ for art, architecture and design, along with Domus Academy and NABA in Milan, the NewSchool of Architecture and Design in San Diego, and the Santa Fe University of Art and Design,” says Young. “As part of the Laureate network, students have opportunities for international study and building ties with institutes around the world.”
- Watch Shelved (MDS’ latest critically acclaimed student film) right now!
BUILDING INDUSTRY CONNECTIONS
Building ties is something Media Design School clearly excels at. For every qualification taught, there’s a panel of industry representatives from prominent studios in the corresponding creative sector. These panels not only help shape each curriculum by keeping the school abreast of trends, hardware and software developments, but also offer help with mentoring, lecturing and final grading of student work.
“We’ve always maintained close ties with the industry,” says James Cunningham, Senior Lecturer in 3D Animation. “The 3D animation and visual effects sector is maturing and becoming increasingly sophisticated, and so too is specialised education for the industry. There’s an expectation that digital artists are able to hit the ground running when they join a studio, and by working closely with professionals we can ensure our programmes produce graduates who are industry-ready.”
On the international front, the school has forged connections with and attracted guest speakers from many leading animation, visual effects, games and advertising companies, including DreamWorks Animation, Pixar, ILM, Framestore, Blizzard, and Massive Black. More locally, meanwhile, the proximity to Peter Jackson and his filmmaking empire – largely responsible for putting New Zealand on the map for world-leading post-production – provides both school and students with a truly unique opportunity.
▲ Work by Sergej Zlahtic, who graduated in advanced 3D productions
GET YOURSELF CONNECTED
“We’re incredibly fortunate to have Weta Digital here in our backyard,” acknowledges Cunningham. “It creates job opportunities for junior artists, and because the company attracts top talent from around the globe, the school benefits from amazing connections with the best in the world. We regularly have VFX and animation supervisors giving talks at the school. Students have the advantage of getting feedback from leaders in the field. And we also have a good relationship with the HR department – they really seem to like our graduates.”
Media Design School’s own faculty also brings a great deal of experience to the table. Cunningham worked on the Lord of the Rings franchise at Weta, as did Brian Samuels, an industry veteran with experience running the digital effects team over at Boss Film Studios. Senior Lecturer Paul Swadel remains actively involved in the New Zealand film industry, via Blue Harvest Shorts, while fellow lecturer Roger Feron runs the successful NZCGI forum at www.nzcgi.com.
Over on the games side, the faculty includes Microsoft and Rockstar Games veteran Mike Porter and David March, whose software credits include Far Cry, BioShock and Duke Nukem Forever. Ties with the games industry are further strengthened via regular meet-ups for the New Zealand Game Developers’ Association at the school, plus hosting of the Auckland edition of the Global Game Jam for the last few years.
INDUSTRY-READY SKILLS
“This February we also held the MDS Games Summit, the first of what is intended to be an annual event,” says Young. “The first summit included a three-day LAN party, a two-day conference with international guest speakers from Valve and Blizzard, plus local talent from Grinding Gear Games and Ninja Kiwi.” Meanwhile, the Media Design School alumni network continues to grow, with graduates working at leading games, effects and animation studios, contributing to recent blockbusters including The Avengers, The Hobbit, Prometheus and X-Men: First Class.
Working with industry-standard tools including Autodesk’s Maya, Chaos Group’s V-Ray and The Foundry’s Nuke, and with most tutorials limited to around 20 students per class, Cunningham says the highly-specced environment at Media Design School is designed to emulate the layout of a professional studio. “Media Design School focuses on specialist creative areas that are related to film, but we are not a traditional film school,” he stresses.
“Students are pushed during the course of their studies to get their work up to a professional level. The final group production replicates a small production studio and gives students the opportunity to work with other professionals to raise the quality bar. Teaching what it takes to produce quality is one of the intangibles we try to achieve through the experience of a big team production. The students then get to make their own films off the back of that experience.”
▲ Students are taught a valuable mix of creative skills and art theory
“Along with practical and traditional art classes, theory classes provide our students with the tools to analyse a creative problem and develop solutions using a framework based on design or cinematic principles and practices,” adds Steve Dorner, Programme Leader for the Bachelor of Art & Design course. “Our goal is to produce graduates who can contribute creatively as well as execute technically.”
While the school has built up a diverse faculty that contributes a blend of skills across all key areas, Dorner says that combining a broad-based arts education with targeted, work-ready skills is a fine balancing act. “One of our biggest challenges is to not rely too heavily on technical tool-based learning, providing skills that could become obsolete in the foreseeable future. Studios still require our graduates to be technically proficient, but we have an obligation to our students to ensure they are critical thinkers and are able to adapt to change,” he adds. “Critical thinking skills not only allow graduates to research and self-teach in technical areas as new tools emerge, but these skills also allow for higher thinking on a creative level.”
While once perceived primarily as a preferred destination for local students, Media Design School now attracts between 15 and 20 per cent of its students from countries as far afield as Sweden, Mexico, Japan, Russia, India, Vietnam, Iceland, Macedonia, Malaysia and the United Kingdom.
“New Zealand offers a great alternative for international students who want to experience a different country that boasts a great environment, a vibrant creative sector and close ties with globally recognised studios,” says Dorner.
“Having emerged as a major global player in visual effects and CGI – with Peter Jackson and James Cameron working on projects here – the country has access to major talent, innovation and fantastic resources.”
▲ A beautiful image of armour by first-year student Terai Tauvavau
For international students, the ability to study in one of the industry’s creative hotspots is not the only draw. Thanks to the New Zealand Government’s Study to Work visa program, they also have the opportunity to get a foothold in that local industry after their study ends. “Study to Work provides students with the option to work or look for work related to their chosen field of study,” explains Young. “Students who complete a NZQF Level 7 qualification – including a Bachelor’s Degree or a post-degree Graduate Diploma – are eligible for a Graduate Job Search Visa for up to 12 months or a Graduate Work Experience Visa, valid for up to two years.”
Looking ahead, Dorner says that the school continues to examine how best to offer education that helps to drive innovation in the industry: “We’ve just announced an exciting partnership with Saatchi & Saatchi to open The Graduate School, which will be located in Auckland’s new waterfront Innovation Precinct. Additionally, we also have a partnership with the Laboratory for Animate Technologies. Fronted by multiple Academy Award-winner Dr Mark Sagar, the Laboratory is leading the way in interaction design, creating ‘live’ computational models of the face and brain by combining bioengineering, neuroscience, computational intelligence and interactive computer graphics research.”
Back on campus, meanwhile, plans are afoot to extend the depth and breadth of training even further, with a one-year Master’s Degree course in Interaction Design, boasting a curriculum developed in conjunction with Milan-based sister school Domus Academy. Like the vibrant digital arts and entertainment sector that it has become so effectively aligned with, Media Design School is an ongoing New Zealand success story of global significance.
▲ Students produced spherical HDR images to generate the photo-realistic lighting for Shelved’s CG robots
STUDENT VIEW
Sergej Žlahtic
This advanced 3D Production Studies graduate calls studying at Media Design School “a life-investment experience”
“Studying at MDS was an amazing experience. Being part of such a creative environment definitely gave us an advantage, and studying there provided the opportunity to meet up with world-leading CG artists from films like Avatar and Lord of the Rings. I was one of a group of 11 students who worked on the short CG film ‘Dr Grordbort Presents: The Deadliest Game’, executive-produced by Weta concept artist Greg Broadmore. It involved a great volume of work over 22 weeks, but it all paid off – the final film was even presented in Wellington to Sir Richard Taylor, head of Weta Workshop. It’s difficult to believe how well the school trains you in such a short time. It’s an intense, life-investment experience – and, for me, one that paid off very quickly.”
Q&A
Shelved
Shelved director James Cunningham discusses Media Design School’s latest critically acclaimed student film
3D World: How many students got involved with the making of Shelved, and how long did it take to complete?
James Cunningham: The entire project took about 12 weeks from ideation to final comp and grade. 11 Media Design School animation students worked on the production, which included 5,460 hours of rendering and 6,300 hours of work for five minutes of animation.
3D World: How did the concept evolve?
JC: We’d been toying around with the idea of some loser robots going to a convenience store and causing chaos. Greg Broadmore, a concept artist friend at Weta Workshop, sent designs for a few robots he’d been working on and we took it from there. Once we had the characters in place, we worked with New Zealand writer Kathryn Burnett, and our robots became factory workers in a supply warehouse.
3D World: Is the involvement of industry professionals the norm with these projects?
JC: Rather than sending students out to do internships we bring the experience of industry into the school. Students get to be involved in various aspects of the production while working with professional writers, designers, cinematographers, actors and so on.
3D World: How much of a challenge was it to build models that would look original, while also allowing for a good performance and good degree of character?
JC: The complexity of the two robots Greg sent over set the standard. The students were able to research various robot styles, but they needed to work with the leads. Speciality equipment inspired several of the designs. For example, Otto, the big claw and foot bot, was based on logging and mining equipment. His rig had to be carefully balanced so that he looked big and powerful but could hold a pen daintily – a great gag from one of the students.
3D World: What tools and reference data did the students have to work with on the project?
JC: We had the help of local company Toybox, which let us
use its HDRI robot. We also have a nodal head and fisheye lens, which is more manual but faster to use. Software used for this project was industry-standard, including Maya, V-Ray and Nuke. We also used SynthEyes to do our 3D object tracks of the actor’s LED helmets. That gave us a budget form of motion capture from one camera.
3D World: Can you talk us through the division of labour and how you ensured consistency?
JC: All students have the opportunity to work on various aspects of the production. With this film, four artists did the bulk of the modelling and texturing, and two did most of the rigging.
One student worked on the cloth simulations – he was determined to nail it.
▲ The Shelved production team on set for the filming of live-action elements
QUALIFICATIONS OFFERED
- Bachelor of Media Design – with majors in Interactive Design, Motion Design, and Graphic Design (February intake only)
- Bachelor of Art & Design (3D Animation & Visual Effects)
- Bachelor of Software Engineering (Game Programming)
- Bachelor of Creative Technologies (Game Art)
- Graduate Diploma in Creative Technologies – a one year post-graduate qualification that supports research projects and investigation in 3D animation, visual effects, video game art or interactive design
- The school also offers specialist qualifications in creative advertising, and a foundation programme in digital creativity