South Africa’s The Animation School (TAS) has announced a new partnership with the acclaimed Émile Cohl School of Art in Lyon, France.
Sealed in France last month, the partnership involves a teacher-exchange programme between the two schools. TAS will benefit from Émile Cohl’s 32-year track record in traditional art and 2D animation, while Émile Cohl will welcome The Animation School’s 3D lecturers to their Lyon campus.
“The partnership has been years in the making. We realised that if we share expertise students from both schools could benefit greatly,” says Nuno Martins, principal and co-founder of TAS.
“We are always seeking feedback as to how we can hone our syllabus to create student work that competes with the best in the world,’ Martins continues. To this end, the school has previously consulted with Gobelins, l’École de l’Image, arguably the leading animation school in the world, and has engaged acclaimed French director Alexandre Heboyan to mentor the students on their final year films since 2013.
“The advice from Alexandre and Gobelins was that while our 3D offering was strong, we could gain a lot by concentrating more on the mastery of traditional drawing skills and 2D animation. Émile Cohl is the right partner to take us to the next level,’ explains Martins.
The partnership will kick off later this year, when a lecturer from TAS will present a class at Émile Cohl in skeleton rigging and facial expressions using Autodesk Maya. Lecturers from both campuses will continue this exchange for the next three years.
The Animation School has proven their clout in 2016. Recent student films produced a string of wins for the school, including accolades at New York Film Festival, the SAFTAs and Cape Town International Animation Festival this year. To top it all off, Arid, the final year project from director Charl van der Merwe and his team, was accepted into the Official Selection in the graduation film category at the Annecy 2016 Animation Festival.
“With the help of our mentors, we’ve improved in leaps and bounds,” says Martins. “In addition to focussing on art direction, we’ve added more emphasis on building narrative storytelling skills from first year onward.” Ultimately, the goal is to provide the skills that will allow South African studios to continue attracting top international projects, he explains.
The school has won over 40 awards locally and internationally since its inception in 2000, and also placed in the Top 100 International Animation Schools published by the Washington Business Journal 2015.
