MHSoC :: Concordia University, Montreal, Canada

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The Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema offers two programmes in Film Animation: a Major in Film Animation and a Minor in Film Animation.

Our Animation program has a unique place in the film school, offering a Major and a Minor in Film Animation. The program exposes the students to the full process of frame-by-frame filmmaking, its theory and practice. The rigorous approach to the classical animation process, enhanced by high-technology inputs, makes the three-year Major one of the most complete and versatile training programs in its field.

Our full-time and part-time faculty is composed of gifted, professional animators from Canada, USA, Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa, who are either working in the ever-growing animation industry or are successful independent animation directors, collaborating with the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) and other international film institutions.

Our students make their own films. They are given a solid foundation in the art of creating movement, and develop personal approaches to the filmmaking process. During three years, students go through an intensive classical and digital animation learning and training process. They experiment with a variety of animation techniques and materials, developing all the necessary skills to be professionals in the animation field. Our graduates develop a superior sense for the art of film animation as a form of expression and creation.

At the completion of the Concordia University Animation degree program, our students are fully prepared to work in any branch of the animation industry with enhanced drawing and animation skills. For more than 20 years, the animation program has produced a great number of storyboard artists, character designers, background artists, layout personnel, web animators, mat painters, special effects supervisors, 3D modelers, 2D and 3D animators, producers and star film animation directors who now work around the globe.

Each year, many of our graduates and faculty members are winners of the most prestigious awards of the industry. Recently, visiting lecturer and former student Torill Kove won both an Academy Award (Oscar) and a Genie award for the best animated short film; former student Marie-Josée St-Pierre won a Jutra with her animated short; and current student Emmanuelle Loslier won the best animation production award at the Canadian Student Film Festival (Festival des Films du Monde in Montreal). Indeed, in nine of the last ten years that awards have been given in the animation category of the Canadian Student Film Festival, one or more of our Concordia animation students has won an award. Clearly our students have the reputation for being the best in their field.




The core filmmaking courses are, in order: FMAN 202 (Animation I), FMAN 305 (animation II), and in the third year FMAN 402 (Animation III). Students in their first year in the Major program are normally required to take the following courses: FMAN 202 (Animation I), FMAN 254 (Technical Aspects of Animated Filmmaking), FMST 212 (Film Aesthetics) or FMST 323 (History of Animated Film), and FMAN 224 (Analytical Drawing). Second-year students will be required to take FMAN 305 (Animation II) as their core course, and may elect to take FMAN 354 (Digital Technical Aspects 3D) if they want to work with 3-D software. Other courses available in the second year are FMAN 319 (Character Animation), FMAN 315 (From Idea to Storyboard), FMAN 353 (Principles of 3D Digital Animation), FMAN 336 (Digital Postproduction), FMAN 398D (Sound for Animation), FMAN 398J (Experimental Optical Techniques) and either FMST 212 (Film Aesthetics) or FMST 323 (History of Animated Film), as well as electives outside the Faculty of Fine Arts.



The aim of the third-year programme is to encourage students to produce a professionally finished, artful "auteur" animated film, exploring any frame-by-frame technique they choose. Students who did not take FMAN 319 and FMAN 315 in their second year are required to do so in their final year, as these courses are required for the degree programme. Students in the Minor programme are required to complete course courses FMAN 202 (Animation I) and FMAN 305 (Animation II), as well as FMAN 254 (Technical Aspects of Animated Filmmaking), FMST 212 (Film Aesthetics) and FMST 323 (History of Animated Films), and a three-credit cinema elective course. The Film Animation programmes are situated in an intensive visual arts milieu, and animation students are required to carry out a serious exploration of the artistic possibilities in the field of frame-by-frame filmmaking.

The Bachelor of Fine Arts degree programme, MAJOR IN FILM ANIMATION consists of 54 credits for the concentration, and an additional 36 elective credits to make up the 90 credits required for the degree. Full-time students normally complete 30 credits annually for three years.

Concentration Requirements
18 credits Animation I, Analytical Drawing, Technical Aspects of Animated Filmmaking)
9 credits Film Aesthetics, History of Animated Film
6 credits Animation II
6 credits From Idea to Storyboard, Character Animation
15 credits Animation III and 6 Cinema electives; or Digital Technical Aspects 3D) and Animation III
3 credits Cinema electives


Electives
6 credits :: Visual and Performing Arts in Canada
6 credits :: selected from courses offered outside the Faculty of Fine Arts and outside the Department of Communication Studies
24 credits :: "free" electives (may include course offerings in other departments in the Faculty of Fine Arts, course offerings in other Faculties, or additional credits in Cinema)


Recommended First-Year Study Plan: Major in Film Animation
6 credits Animation I
6 credits Technical Aspects of Animated Filmmaking
6 credits Analytical Drawing
6 credits Film Aesthetics or 3 credits, History of Animated Film and 3 credits Free Electives
6 credits Visual and Performing Arts in Canada


Expenses
Animation students must pay a $30.00 per term lab fee, and bear the cost of film stock and processing, printing, and materials.

This Minor is available to those who wish to study Film Animation with a lesser amount of concentration than that found in the Major in Film Animation. This Minor can be combined with another Minor in the Faculty of Fine Arts (excluding other Cinema Minors) to form a Double Minor Programme, leading to the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Students in other programmes (excluding other Cinema programmes) may add this Minor to their current Major or Specialization programme.

NOTE: Students must bear the cost of film stock, processing, printing and materials.

Requirements (30 credits)
- 12 credits Animation I and II
- 6 credits Technical Aspects of Animated Filmmaking
- 9 credits Film Aesthetics, History of Animated Film
- 3 credits Cinema elective