To prepare students for the challenges of professional animation work the course includes lectures, demonstrations, workshops, and training exercises in the following aspects of Animation Production.
• History of Animation – overview of technical and creative development of animation.
• Introduction to use of animation production principles in other areas of film and television including motion graphics, visual effects and digital compositing.
• Extensive practical experience in creative development and pre-production processes.
• Introduction to character acting for animation, including expressive body movement, and facial expressions to achieve an emotive virtual character performance.
• Extensive experience creating animation sequences using digital 2D using Flash, Toonboom & After Effects, hand-drawn and 3D techniques using Maya, for character, object and effects animation.
• Introduction to Maya software interface and tools.
• Practical assignments & lectures in Maya modelling, rigging, animation, texturing, lighting & rendering.
• Introduction to digital painting, environments, matte painting using Photoshop.
• Extensive practical experience creating animation using Flash.
• Extensive practical experience in post-production techniques and compositing using Toonboom.
• Extensive experience using equipment for digital production, including photographing animation tests, scanning, graticules & field guides, importing and exporting, file set-up, practical drawing equipment, re-pegging.
• Introduction to colour theory, importance of colour in storytelling through emotional, symbolic and cultural meanings and usage.
• Introduction to camera aesthetics including camera movements, staging, framing, planning action areas, silhouette, depth, flow & continuity, composition.
• Extensive practical experience planning movement in perspective to achieve believable depth in animation.
• Introduction to and extensive experience in perspective drawing for layout.
• Introduction to post-production and digital compositing.
• Analysis and self-assessment of skill development and time management
• Introduction to lighting for storyboard & layout drawing, and pre-visualization.
• Extensive practical experience in animation studio processes, workflow procedures, systems, quotas, computer file management & file formats, image adjustments and preparation.
• Extensive practical experience in technical planning and preparation.
• Extensive practical experience in aesthetic conceptualising, planning and preparation.
• Introduction to freelancing as an animator, animation producer, concept & storyboard artist.
• Introduction to researching, schedules, record keeping and archiving.
Vincent Kusyadi completed the Animation course and graduated with his classmates in 2010. He is now working as a layout artist for a Canadian CG childrens television series. 
Course design is based on an extensive series of practical animation exercises starting with basic training exercises. These industry related practical exercises increase in scope and complexity throughout the course until in the final term, participants complete production on a complex animation assignment, demanding a professional level of competence in both creative and technical aspects. Apart from practical exercises the course also has lectures, demonstrations and workshops by industry experienced staff, tutors and industry guest tutors as well as research and self directed learning exercises to achieve the stated course objectives and outcomes.
