82800 Animation Studio: Animation Project/Production

Warning: The information on this page is indicative. The subject outline for a particular session, location and mode of offering is the authoritative source of all information about the subject for that offering. Required texts, recommended texts and references in particular are likely to change. Students will be provided with a subject outline once they enrol in the subject.

Subject handbook information prior to 2025 is available in the Archives.

UTS: Design, Architecture and Building: Design
Credit points: 24 cp
Result type: Grade and marks

Requisite(s): 82710 Animation Studio: Advanced Animation Practice AND 82711 Animation Studio: Animation Project Pre-production
There are course requisites for this subject. See access conditions.

Description

This is the capstone project within the Honours year, building upon conceptualisation undertaken in Session 1. Students realise an innovative animation design solution to a self-initiated animation problem. These projects are self-directed and supported by leading animation professionals and academic supervisors, and students may be able to engage industry practitioners in specialist fields of animation production and postproduction/ post-visualisation processes. Students are expected to complete a piece of animation or related work of broadcast or public exhibition standard, which must show evidence that they have engaged in a lively dialogue between theoretical ideas and production practices.

Their completed project should demonstrate their professional skills, creative imagination and critical thinking in the execution of a highly crafted outcome.

Films for exhibition are subject to an ongoing editorial process, in discussion with teaching staff, which operates within the following framework. Solo projects are expected to be between 1 and 2 minutes in length. Duo projects are expected to be between 2 and 3 minutes in length. Trio projects and beyond are expected to be between 3 and 5 minutes in length maximum.

This framework is designed to focus students on maintaining achievable, high production quality animation, to promote succinct, focused and effective communication, and to avoid self-indulgent outcomes. This editorial process is a key component of students' learning experience throughout this subject. Through engaging with this process, students build their awareness of professional standards and considerations around communication to their audience. Recognising the importance of the external audience experience in relation to their story, and moving beyond the sole aim of individual expression, is central to professional development, and is a cornerstone of the philosophy underpinning this subject. Students may of course prepare a 'director's cut' for their own purposes.

Subject learning objectives (SLOs)

On successful completion of this subject, students should be able to:

1.	Execute a highly crafted animation film or related work, incorporating professional production values.
2.	Shape coherent and engaging narrative and non-narrative outcomes, which communicate effectively with the intended audience.
3.	Demonstrate willingness to explore outcomes that go beyond mainstream ideas and aesthetics, show real originality and challenge contemporary practice.
4.	Manage complex technical and organisational challenges within a strict time frame.
5.	Work fruitfully with key creative partners in order to facilitate a high level of production in areas such as sound and music design, voiceover, specialist animation, and post production.

Course intended learning outcomes (CILOs)

This subject also contributes to the following Course Intended Learning Outcomes:

Professional attitude to clarity and accuracy of communication (C.1)
Ability to present work appropriately to context (C.3)
Ability to re-imagine human practices through design (I.3)
Ability to independently develop new skills and areas of knowledge (P.1)
Ability to independently cultivate aesthetic sensibility (P.2)
Developing craft skill (P.3)
Ability to critically reflect on work by self and others (R.3)

Contribution to the development of graduate attributes

The term CAPRI is used for the five Design, Architecture and Building graduate attribute categories where:

C = communication and group work

A = attitudes and values

P = practical and professional

R = research and critique

I = innovation and creativity

This subject encourages student learning to develop these graduate attributes. The course content, learning strategies and assessment structure is explicitly designed with these attributes in mind.

Teaching and learning strategies

Weekly sessions of one hour lectures and six hours of studio based workshops and tutorials. These studio projects are focused on a Problem Based Learning (PBL) strategy. They are not intended as a directly instructional process.

Learning activities occur on a weekly basis with contact typically being three hours of lectures and five hours of studio-based learning. The synthetic design-based learning method promoted in this subject requires students to draw on past learning experiences in all course subject streams. The subject reinforces this synthetic approach to architecture by explicitly introducing new knowledge around integrated building systems. This new knowledge, by nature, necessitates a synthetic approach to design.

LECTURES
Lectures and tutorials concentrate on elaborating on the set problem, and encouraging students to take initiative in finding their own solutions through discussion, idea generation, research and iteration. The delivery of specific knowledge related to the subject context is embedded in lecture content. Accordingly, the lecture series refers to exemplary animation projects that align to the subject’s overarching themes, activities and learning methods.

PROJECT BASED LEARNING
The curriculum uses project-based group learning activities to provoke participatory discussions and encourage multidisciplinary teamwork. For this reason, studio, in conjunction with the lectures, use a progressive, sequential project-based approach to design. All students are expected to attend all lecture and studio sessions, and follow suggested learning patterns and activities. Students are also encouraged to participate actively in the group discussions that occur during the studio sessions.

STUDIO WORKSHOPS
The weekly studio contact operates as guided studio-based workshops within which students will participate in individual tutorials, group seminars and presentations throughout the session. During these sessions students will learn how to design and iterate within the parameters of a set problem in order to enhance and promote animation design integration strategies. Students explore their creativity through concept development and communication and interpersonal skills through visual and verbal presentations. Practical and professional skills are developed through design and animation activities. Students are encouraged to think critically and apply research skills through critical analysis and reflection.

COLLABORATIVE LEARNING
UTS staff believe that collaborative peer learning enhances learning. Students are required to work in groups for particular activities and assessments. To facilitate this, these assessment tasks are framed in such a way as to encourage group-based learning.

ONLINE COURSEWORK
There are a number of online resources used to support the learning objectives of this subject. A detailed overview of the pedagogy and associated tasks and assessment items are included in the subject documents. Also online are essential and recommended readings. Significantly, the readings support the lecture series by providing students with an overview of design issues that result from the creative and innovative technical systems that serve the animation industry. It is also important to note that the essential readings will introduce students to the lecture content and should be accessed prior to each lecture session.

All supporting documents are accessible from UTS Online. A detailed brief, associated tasks and assessments, and additional documentation will, therefore, be uploaded to this subject’s UTS Online portal. The location of all documents referred to in any assessment task will be detailed in such a way as to make it is easily accessible to students. To further assist learning in this subject, essential and recommended readings, lectures, as well as previous student work, will be available.

FEEDBACK
Students will have several opportunities to receive feedback during the subject. The feedback provided will vary in form, purpose and in its degree of formality:

Formative feedback will be provided during the learning process, typically provided verbally by the subject's teaching staff. It will address the content of work and a student's approach to learning, both in general and more specific ‘assessment orientated’ terms. It is designed to help students improve their performance in time for the submission of an assessment item. For this to occur students need to respond constructively to the feedback provided. This involves critically reflecting on advice given and in response altering the approach taken to a given assessment. Formative feedback may also, on occasion, be provided by other students. It is delivered informally, either in conversation during a tutorial or in the course of discussion at the scale of the whole class. It is the student’s responsibility to record any feedback given during meetings or studio sessions.

Summative feedback is provided in written form with all assessed work. It is published along with indicative grades online at UTS REVIEW. Summative feedback focuses on assessment outcomes. It is used to indicate how successfully a student has performed in terms of specific assessment criteria.

Content (topics)

The main content for this subject focuses on production of the Major Project devised in session 1.

Assessment

Assessment task 1: Major Project Production part A

Intent:

All production assets in progress or planned or scheduled accordingly. All shot work blocked and layout completed.

An expectation of half animation scenes would be in prohress or completed.

All shot based work continually being laid into Animatic and uploaded into shotgun for weekly review sessions.

Samples of two or more fully rendered complete scenes, realised in a teaser/trailer that is completed to final quality.

Colour production concept artwork for each scene.

Full shotgun schedule set up for shot based production tracking, showing tasks completed and scenes in progress.

Objective(s):

This task addresses the following subject learning objectives:

1, 2, 3 and 4

This task also addresses the following course intended learning outcomes that are linked with a code to indicate one of the five CAPRI graduate attribute categories (e.g. C.1, A.3, P.4, etc.):

C.1, C.3 and P.2

Type:

Project

Groupwork:

Group, individually assessed

Weight:

40%

Criteria linkages:

Criteria	Weight (%)	SLOs	CILOs
Aesthetics and performative depth.	30	3	P.2
Suitability as trailer or abstract	30	2	C.3
Direction, clarity of intent, awareness of audience.	20	1	C.1
Evidence of constructive production management	20	4	C.1

SLOs: subject learning objectives
CILOs: course intended learning outcomes

Assessment task 2: Major Project Production part B

Intent:

Completion of Major Project, including all post-production and completed making-of process journal.