R&H Malaysia conducts Faculty Education Programme in association with MDeC

Rhythm & Hues (R&H), in association with Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC), held a Faculty Education Programme in its Kuala Lumpur (KL) facility for the benefit of faculty from local institutions teaching animation and visual effects (VFX). The goal of this collaboration between R&H and MDeC was to provide a more advanced training for the faculty, so that they could arm their students with the knowledge of current VFX/Animation workflows and practices in Malaysia. The training was conducted by Jason Scott, Senior Educator, R&H - Los Angeles, and supplemented by demonstrations from technical directors at the KL facility, Matt La Brooy and Steve Chong.

"We covered a general view of a production pipeline, from the generating and acquiring of concept art, through digital design, through shot production of animation, lighting, compositing, and other areas," explained Scott. "We also did hands-on exercises in camera tracking and rotoscoping, a session on stereo (3D) filmmaking, and finally, a discussion on the 'state of the industry'."

The sessions were full days, with breaks for meals and tea throughout the day to allow for some interaction between the participants and the trainer. MDeC provided major support by providing the initial classroom space at its MSC Malaysia Animation and Creative Content Center (MAC3) facility, coordinating with the schools and faculty, and sponsoring the entire programme. R&H also contributed by offering the use of their screening room for some of the sessions.

There were about 20 participants in the programme, no more than 2 from any one university. The participants included lecturers from The One Academy, Multimedia University,LimKokWing University of Creative Technology, and public universities such as Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL) and Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM). The feedback from the participants was very positive, and some expressed the wish to have a longer programme to include more hands-on exercises.

When asked about future programmes that R&H would be having in Malaysia, Scott said, "Since this programme covered a wide, broad spectrum of topics, we would like to do sessions where we can choose one topic, like camera tracking, or rigging, or lighting, or compositing, etc." In the past year, R&H has been conducting presentations as well as involving in industry-academy interfaces at local institutes and colleges, and plans to continue those outreach efforts.