Character Animator/Lecturer wanted

• Commercial experience essential
• Team leader for production
• Willing and able to teach

Intense Animation Studio is Singapore’s most unique animation production company and training facility. We are seeking a Maya character animation specialist to lead our production team and teach character animation in our training facility. Breakdown of the job is 60% production and 40% teaching.

This is a very good opportunity for any character animators that may be struggling to get ahead at a larger studio. We offer a pleasant and friendly creative environment in which to work, located in one of the most hospitable countries in S.E Asia. Singapore is a great place to live, work and advance your career.

Intense Animation Studio creates original content 3D animation. Developing assets from the concept stage is a very important aspect to this position and you will be required to play a leading role in character and concept development.

As a leader of the animation team you will need to supervise and mentor senior and junior animators, offer advice, counsel and if necessary kick some butt to ensure any project meets deadline and budget.

Production responsibilities include:

1. You will be required to add considerable input to the conceptualization and development of projects undertaken by the studio.
2. You will be required to perform as a Lead Animator during production work.
3. You will be required to supervise junior team members of the animation team.
4. You will be required to provide assistance in scheduling of our current projects and bidding for new projects including interaction with clients.

Teaching responsibilities include:
1. You will be required to collaborate and be responsible for the creation of new curriculum (courses) run at our training facility.
2. You will be required to deliver and teach classes of animation students.
3. You will be required to provide written assessment and critique of student projects and assignments.
4. You will be required to mentor students to ensure their final projects and show reels are of an industry standard.
5. You will be required to prepare teaching materials, scene files, provide learning references and keep abreast with new techniques and technology.
6. You will be required to perform animation demonstrations at seminars and tradeshows when necessary.

But what does it take to be a successful 3D animator?

I had a conversation with Tony Sealy, who is the founder of Intense Animation Studio, and he shared with me what makes a good 3D animator.

From Tony Sealy:

Think about these three ‘A’s:

Aptitude – All creative professionals get hired through their portfolio, not their certificates. In 20 years of working in television, I have never once been hired for my academic results – which is just as well.

It is a creative industry, so let loose your creative prowess!

Attitude – there is a work ethic that goes along with being an animator. Animation is a service industry; deadlines to be met, projects to be on schedule and within budget.

Meet expectations and you’ll get repeat business.

Aspiration – have a realistic goal, start at entry-level animator, work.

Stick to your career objectives, gain experience in production work.

read more at APLINK

Vietnam and Singapore has beefed up bilateral ties in education by signing a memorandum of understanding on education cooperation covering programs for schools to university.

Vietnam, Singapore inks education cooperation agreement

Vietnam and Singapore has beefed up bilateral ties in education by signing a memorandum of understanding on education cooperation covering programs for schools to university.

The Channel News Asia quoted the Singaporean Education Ministry as saying that the MoU covers school twinning programs, language learning, joint student activities, staff exchanges and training and university links. There will also be cooperation in joint research programs between the universities in the area of science and technology, the report said. Singapore’s National Institute of Education and its Vietnamese counterpart agency would also be jointly developing and running a customized program to train Vietnam’s school leaders. The MOU was signed by Singapore’s Education Minister, Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Dr Nguyen Thien Nhan, Vietnam’s Minister of Education and Training. Source: CNA

Foreign students applying to study in private schools here will not have to make as many trips to the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) building in Lavender.

Those applying to study in about 60 private schools with the Singapore Quality Class label can now use the Student’s Pass Online Application Registration+ (Solar+).

Solar+ is an extension of Solar, used by those applying to pursue an education in institutes of higher learning here.

Unveiled at the ICA Workplan Seminar yesterday, Solar+ underwent a trial run in January in 15 private schools bearing the endorsement of the Consumers Association of Singapore.

Since its implementation on March 15, the ICA has received 1,800 applications from foreign students through Solar+. There are plans to make Solar+ available to the Institute of Technical Education, kindergartens, and primary and secondary schools later this year.

According to the ICA, Solar+ reduces the number of times prospective students have to go down to the ICA to submit forms. They can also check the status of their application online, renew their student passes and inform the ICA of a change of school.

Another new Web function shown yesterday was the self-assessment Naturalisation Eligibility Tool, with which foreigners working and staying in Singapore can check to see if they are eligible for permanent residency or citizenship.

“To date, the system has been accessed 35,000 times, with about 16,000 users getting ‘green’ results, which means they have been assessed to be eligible to apply for PR or citizenship,” said the ICA.

From May 2, the authority’s e-Xtend service, which allows foreign visitors to apply online for an extension to their social visit pass, will be extended to nearly 180 countries, up from 94.

THE Australian Federal Government will come to the aid of filmmakers in the budget with tax rebates worth as much as 40 per cent of production costs, after the industry suffered its slowest production year since the early 1990s.

Production of television, drama, documentaries and animations will receive rebates of up to 30 per cent, and the Australian Film Commission will merge with the Film Finance Corporation.

Industry sources say the changes, to be announced on May 8, amount to the largest shake-up and funding boost for the local industry under the Howard Government. They estimate the Government’s support will rise by 25 per cent to about $250 million.

The decisions follow concerted lobbying by prominent film identities including the director of Moulin Rouge, Baz Luhrmann, who met the Prime Minister before Christmas.

The Treasurer, Peter Costello, and the Minister for Finance, Nick Minchin, met a number of industry leaders and are said to have been sympathetic to their pleas.

The Minister for the Arts, George Brandis, has supported the proposals, but would not comment on budget matters.

The rebate scheme replaces the troubled 10BA income tax deductions for film investors, as well as some direct equity funding by the Film Finance Corporation. It will ensure public money flows directly to filmmakers rather than financiers and tax scheme promoters.

“It’s simple, it’s transparent and it’s very difficult to rort, and offshore industries have proved it is effective,” said the executive director of the Australian Screen Directors

Association, Richard Harris. Other support measures are expected in the budget, including raising a tax offset for foreign films produced in Australia from 12.5 per cent to 15 per cent.

Film and television production slumped by a third last financial year to $361 million, compared with the previous year and the decade average.

The value of foreign film productions was just $23 million – less than 10 per cent of the figure for the previous year.

Some of the film industry’s leading lights have warned that the sector is in crisis.

“All of us, I think, have to do a lot more with a lot less,” said the director George Miller, who met Mr Costello. Miller won an Oscar for Happy Feet.

The extra support for the film industry was great news at an Artarmon studio where the animated feature $9.99 was being made yesterday.

The film, based around residents of an apartment block who are all searching for meaning in their lives, is being shot over 35 weeks of painstaking stop-motion animation. The characters are made of silicon and range in height from 26 to 30 centimetres. They will be voiced by Geoffrey Rush, Anthony LaPaglia, Joel Edgerton, Claudia Karvan and other Australian actors.

The producer Emile Sherman said:

“We’re likely to see a more entrepreneurial spirit from producers. It will essentially provide another substantial door for funding so a broader variety of films will be made.”

Sherman, who has also worked on Rabbit-Proof Fence and Candy, believes the rebate scheme could lead to better films.

“As production companies become stronger, they will have more clout to option better material both locally and internationally and have more money to fund the development of films,” he said.

It is believed Treasury is in the process of raising its revenue forecasts to deliver another budget windfall, thanks to the resource and profits boom. But economists say the Government will be forced to postpone any large tax cuts until after the election to avoid fuelling inflation and provoking the Reserve Bank into raising interest rates.

One of my mates sent me this LINK many of you may have seen this magazine already, but just incase here it is…

I strongly suugest you give this magazine a look over, alot of work has gone it its production !!!

Intense Animation Studio today announced that it will tap the expertise of The Pacific West Communications to drive its marketing communications initiatives across the Asia-Pacific region.

The Pacific West Communications will develop comprehensive, integrated marketing campaigns to drive awareness and lead-generation of Intense Animation Studio’s services.

“We are pleased to select The Pacific West Communications as our agency of record to assist us in developing our marketing initiatives for the region.” said Tony Sealy, Managing Director, Intense Animation Studio. “We look forward to a fruitful partnership that will see The Pacific West Communications employ various innovative new media marketing strategies.”

“We will leverage the power of new media channels including Second Life to assist Intense Animation Studio in developing important regional communities.” said Andrew Peters, Asia-Pacific Regional Director, The Pacific West Communications. “This will help raise awareness of the Intense Animation Studio brand of services.”

Furthermore, The Pacific West Communications will assist Intense Animation Studio in developing strategic business relationships with organizations and groups in the computer graphics and animation sector in the Asia-Pacific Region.

Intense Animation Studio incorporates a production company, Cheeky Animation that specializes in the creation of character animation for TV programming, television commercials, games, corporate logos and mobile content.

Intense Animation Studio aims to promote greater awareness of its animation production services. In 2006, the studio developed a light-hearted animated TV pilot entitled “11″ about the adventures of a fictional football club, Billingham F.C. The production featured celebrity voiceovers by Sheikh Haikel and Deanna Yusoff. Recently Intense completed work on another original aniamtion property entitled “The Travels of Wiglington and Wenks”, an adaptation from the children’s books of the same name. During both of these productions, Intense contracted a number of it’s outstanding graduates who gained valuable experience at the top level of animation production.

In addition to its animation production services, Intense Animation Studio also provides 3D animation training. Since 2004, it has been providing specialist training classes at its own facility.

Courses include a Specialist Diploma in Computer Animation and Professional Certificates in Character Animation, Visual Effects and Editing & Compositing. Students benefit from an extremely attentive teaching environment with a maximum 1-8 teacher-student ratio. Intense’s teaching staff have over 30 years of combined industry experience with an extensive advisory board comprised of animation and post-production veterans from the U.S., Australia and Europe.

Intense Animation Studio has been awarded CaseTrust for Education by the Consumer Association of Singapore (CASE) and students local and foreign are protected under the CASE Student Protection Scheme (SPS). Students can be assured of the quality of services provided by the studio.