Training Wheels

The dog created a computer glitch in my homework

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 12:02:09 +0700

The 21st century excuse for students. Send your lecturers an intentionally corrupt file so you can have a few extra days to finish the paper.

New teaching resourses from ACTF

Wed, 06 May 2009 10:06:29 +0700

The Australian Children's Television Foundation has some new resources for school teachers that have links to Western Australian productions.

Popular kids show 'Lockie Leonard' has a multi literacy teaching and resource DVD that including lessons and activities that can be used teachers focussing on English, Media Studies, Personal Development and Values education as well as interative content for students. All together the two disc resource has 43 question sheets and 88 different worksheets that can be used in the classroom. The resource recently was awarded the Best Secondary education Resource at the 2008 ATOM Awards.

Meanwhile in the animation world, Dogstar has a free online teaching resource that can be used by primary school teachers. The series can be used a s agood springboard for classroom discussions about the environment, sustainability, ecology and technology.

No Strait Jacket

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 15:29:19 +0700

Last year we introduced an exciting new program at FTI, 'No Strait Jacket'. You can read more about it here, or even enrol for the next session which is coming up soon. Here's some photo's from last years sessions.

Animators' Zoo Trip

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 20:26:35 +0700

Each year in our animation program we make a trip to the Zoo. it's a great opportunity to draw from life, we begin the trip in the reptile house where everything stays pretty still and work our way up to the monkeys.

The WAM BAM films

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 14:21:19 +0700

The finished films from the WAM! BAM! competition can now be seen online.

Here's the winning film 'Kokarokadoo' plus 'Spermicide', 'Bee Titlated', 'Life Cycle of Bertram Beetle' and 'Crouching Tiger, Squatting Gorilla'

Forum on 'Closed for Winter'

Sat, 04 Apr 2009 15:20:31 +0700

Documentary filmmaker Megan Spencer has launched a new site that is linked to James Bogle's new feature film 'Closed for Winter'. The site features behind the scenes interviews and a discussion forum.

'Closed for Winter' starring Natalie Imbruglia opens nationally on April 23rd.

How to interview better

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 04:51:03 +0700

The Knight Citizen News Network has launched a new set of resources on how to interview people, whether your a citizen journalist or a professional interviewer there is great information and adivce within.

WAM BAM Sunday

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 16:26:46 +0700

It's the last day of the 3 day WAM! BAM! challenge and only a few minutes remain until the deadline. It looks like all five of the teams participanting are going to have something to show.

The screening is at the FTI Cinema at 7pm tonight.

Saturday afternoon at WAM BAM

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 16:13:39 +0700

So the way this competition works is that each team is given three words on Friday night, and by Sunday night they have to present a completed short animation.

Here's the teams completing, The Interpixels which is Gareth, Lindsay and Lisa scored the words 'tiger', 'coup' and 'mistake'.

The second team is The Mad Toons comprising Michael, Andrew and Daniel whose words are 'tire', 'cockeral' and 'crerate'.

The third team is The Immaculate Conception which is Mathew, Jeff, Bodie and Adam.   Their words are 'flagilate', 'tint' and 'corpse'.

The fourth team is The Fremantle Entamology Centre which includes Liam, Madeline and Simon.   They were given the words 'mutate', 'court' and tick'.

The final team is Beyond Motion which is made up of Buddhi, Andi, Mark and Andrew.   Their wrds are 'cook', 'titilate' and 'congugate'.

Some of the teams are made of people who knopw each other and work together reguarly, others have just met last night.   You might think that established teams have an adventage, but the winner last year was an improptu team.

Everyone stopped working on their project when the Beyond Motion team started their motion capture as everyone was eager to see it in progress.   Now as the sun starts to go down the pressure is beginning to build.

For the latest update why not take a look at our Twitter posts.

WAM BAM Saturday morning

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 11:28:19 +0700

The animation is well underway with five teams in the game. The team comprising Gareth Lockett, Lisa Evans and Lindsay Fleay have de-camped to the Interzone Office, while four teams remain at the FTI Animation Centre.

Two are working in flash, one in stop motion and and the other in motion capture 3D. It's a busy hub of activity as models are made, sets are built, sensors are calibrated, sounds are recorded and stylus furiously draw over Wacom tablets.

WAM! BAM! is underway

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 22:05:49 +0700

The second annual Wam! Bam! competition is underway and this year there are five teams of animators competing. The challenge is to create a short animation in just 49 hours. it would be 48 hours but daylight savings ends on Sunday morning, so everyone gets an extra hour.

Each team is given three randoms words as a source of inspiration. Tonight the teams have been brainstorming ideas and begun planning production. Some teams are doing stop motion, others flash animation, some 3D animaiton and one group is set up for motion capture.

We'll be posting some regular updates over the weekend. You can also read updates on the FTI Twitter account.

Can digital distribution save independent film?

Sat, 21 Mar 2009 12:41:54 +0700

Take a look at this great article by Steven Zeitchik at The Hollywood Reporter. The article looks at examples where all the 'middle men' have been taken out of the process and allowed more profitability to the filmmaker.

Camera Skills at FTI

Sun, 08 Mar 2009 09:59:05 +0700

Over the weekend we had a lot of fun with the first of our Filmmaking Fundamentals workshops for 2009, Anthony Hanson led a two day workshop in basic camera skills. This course is great if your aiming to begin your journey as a filmmaker or just want to take better home movies.

The next in the Filmmaking Fundamentals series is the 'Creative Video Editing' workshop, and there are still a few places left if you want to join in.

Studio Ghibli joins with Toyota for new training venture

Sat, 07 Mar 2009 15:34:47 +0700

Variety is reporting that aclaimed Japanese animation production house studio Ghibli will join forces with Toyota to create a new training facility that will utilise traditional hand drawn animation and the robotics area of Toyota.

It's certainly an usual pairing, could the Australian animation industry look to some high tech partners for assistance in development?

13 Principles of Computer Game Design

Sat, 28 Feb 2009 09:27:01 +0700

The 12 Principles of Animation are essentail knowledgefor any animator, now Matt Allmer has posted the 13 rules for game design over at Gamasutra.