The Animation Workshop

The Animation Workshop, located in Viborg, Denmark, is a significant institution within both the Danish and the international animation industry. Since the late 1980s, The Animation Workshop has trained animators for the Danish as well as the international animation, computer game and visual effects industry. Teachers as well as students are from both Denmark and the rest of the world. The Animation Workshop attracts highly recognized teachers from well known studios such as Pixar and Dreamworks. The Animation Workshop consists of six departments:

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Bachelor of Arts in Character Animation is the core of the Animation Workshop with approximately 150 students. In 2003 the education obtained official recognition by the Danish Ministry of Education and after 3½ years the students becomes Bachelors of Arts in Character Animation. The Bachelor of Arts in Character Animation consists of two lines, Character Animator and the newly started Computer Graphics Artist (CG Artist) line:

The Character Animator line focuses on 2D as well as 3D animation of characters for animation films, TV, computer games and commercials.The Computer Grahics Artist line focuses mostly on 3D production and the creation of 3D universes and characters – popularly speaking the CG artists become the “scenographers” of the animation industry.

During the course of the program, an internship on a real production at a studio is mandatory for the students. Due to the mixed origin of teachers and students, all the classes are conducted in English.

Because of their superior qualifications, the majority of the graduates quickly find jobs at animation or computer game productions all over the world. Among other places, bachelors from The Animation Workshop have achieved jobs at Cartoon Network, London, and Telltale Games, United States.

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Professional Training offers further training and courses for professional animators, particularly from Europe. Here, professionals can keep up to date on the latest knowledge and attend courses on current animation technology. Professional Training offers courses at The Animation Workshop in Viborg, but the teachers can just as well train larger groups at workplaces with a special interest in animation.

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The Drawing Academy offers drawing courses as well as master classes. The Drawing Academy emphasizes classical drawing, as it is known from the great masters of the renaissance. Many of the students continue their studies at the Bachelor of Arts in Character Animation education.

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Open Workshop is a place for new talents, amateurs as well as professionals, with a desire to work with arts and animation. The Open Workshop provides the facilities and the know-how needed by talents and artists in order to complete their projects. Through a screening process, the Open Workshop occasionally chooses to provide financial means for animation projects, which are based on a good idea.

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Center for Education and Animation is a center for research and development in the area of children, youths and animation. The Center develops teaching material and teaching guides and organizes workshops in animation at schools as an alternative way to teach and learn. Center for education and animation also has a traveling workshop that travels the world and creates projects with e.g. street children.

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Midtjysk Animationsvæksthus (MiJAV) is a regional centre for small companies within animation. Currently, MiJAV houses several small companies, many of them initiated and run by former students at The Animation Workshop. Among the companies are Happy Flyfish and Markfilm, which are both producing animation for various purposes, such as e.g. commercials and music videos.

External links

* [http://www.animwork.dk The Animation Workshop homepage]