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7 skills you can learn on a free course with The Academy 

November 16, 2022

The Academy offers free access to virtual learning for the next generation of visual effects artists around the world. Our courses prepare you for a career in visual effects by working with industry experts on their creative, technical, procedural, and soft skills. They also provide a great opportunity to gain experience and expertise to build upon as you progress in your career. 

And, upon completion of the course you will have the opportunity to directly apply for available roles at Technicolor Group – and potentially receive a joining bonus if you are successful. 

ANIMATION

This course is a guide to realistic, VFX-style animation for both CG and live-action films. You will learn how to properly animate a variety of characters in a realistic manner in addition to learning proper workflow techniques and understanding how to properly use references in a shot. The course is geared towards the VFX industry, targeting a very specific animation style: hyper-realism. You will be learning from industry professionals with a studio-level focus, which includes appropriate workflow techniques and delivery expectations.

COMPOSITING

This course is a guide to realistic, VFX-style compositing for both CG and live-action films. Compositors are responsible for a wide range of compositing tasks, such as tracking, matte extraction, colour correction, paint fixes, roto, and CG/2D element integration in service of delivering the final image. Our Compositing Academy is the ideal first step to pursue a career in visual effects.

FX 

This course will support you in your transition to step into an FX career, developing and improving your abilities to deliver high-quality content on time for feature films and episodic shows. The FX course aims to improve both creative and technical skills on the software, tools and workflows used in production and to improve communication skills to collaborate with colleagues. By the end of the course, we expect you to be skilled with specific FX competencies and be able to find information by yourself without setback when encountering issues. You are expected to be able to produce high-quality simulations of particles, destruction, smoke, water and magic, among others.

TECH ANIM

Tech Anim (also known as Creature FX) is the discipline of creating simulations of cloth, hair, skin and muscles on creatures and digi-doubles. This course will develop your skillset and understanding of creating high-quality fur and vellum cloth simulations in Houdini, Ncloth in Maya and skin-finaling. Our Tech Anim course aims to improve your creative and technical skills to a professional VFX standard.

PREP

This course is the blueprint for your career pathway, where you will learn from the basic up to the advanced level of prep techniques. It is a step-by-step guide to enhance your skills. You will learn how to remove unwanted dust, scratches, cranes, wires, and crew members from a scene then recreate the scene’s characters and backgrounds by using the appropriate prep techniques that make the scene more realistic. At the end of this course, you will learn how to play with the pixels to get the finest quality and create an illusion for the audience by remoulding the scene.

ENVIRONMENTS / 3DDMP

This course is designed to sharpen your skills to be the best 3DDMP artist you can be, whether it’s working out areas of your game that need practice or introducing you to some techniques you may not have realised you’re good at. This course will help set you up with a generalist skillset and understand a bit of everything. Whether it’s modelling, texturing, digital matte painting, layout and asset management, or even helping out other departments, if it’s in the background of a shot, it’ll be your job to make it look good.

LIGHTING

This course will develop your understanding of colour theory, perspective and design theory as well as your understanding of lighting and knowing the scientific principles behind it. You will gain strong knowledge of lighting techniques and materials while also learning to use computer technology to find new ways to achieve a creative vision. In this course, you will practice working to deadlines within given timeframes and delivering on schedule while becoming adept at using 3D and compositing programmes.

Discover more about The Academy and apply for courses here.

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