ZBrush101 (Part-time Course)

With over 30 hours of comprehensive instruction, you will be able to harness the power of ZBrush tools and plugins in your 3D workflow.

This course is taught by a former Lucasfilm artist with a character design and 3D modeling background. ZBrush has inspired a generation of new sculptors and is the industry tool for Games Modeling, Visual Effects and Animation.

More details can be found here

Introduction to Digital Visual Effects

Course Fee with GST: $535

Schedule: 4th May Sat - 10am to 5pm (6hrs with 1hr break)

                  6th May Mon - 7pm to 10pm (3hrs)

                  8th May Mon - 7pm to 10pm (3hrs)

                 10th May Mon - 7pm to 10pm (3hrs)

Duration: 15 hours

Overview

This is a 15 hour module : 3 week duration l twice a week l 5 sessions l 3 hours per session

Topics Covered

1. Applying Shaders for VFX

2. Create Effect Rigs for VFX

3. Particle Effects & Studies

4. Element Creations (Fluid, Fire, Smoke, Debris)

5. Camera Tracking

6. Rotoscoping

7. Matchmoving

8. Color Correction

9. Lighting for VFX

10. Composite for Realism

If you are interested, please call 64737502 or drop us an email to admin@cgprotege.com

David Kwok's Tiny animated ambitions

BBC created a special series on entrepreneurs.  This week, BBC News zoomed in on 3D animation studio, Tiny Island Productions, set up by Singaporean David Kwok.

After working as an engineer for many years, he abandoned his government job, starting at the bottom to carve out a new career in cartoons and animation.

Since setting up his company in 2007, it has grown from four staff to 120, servicing clients in the US and Europe, and includes an animation school, CG Protege which trains 3D modelers, character animators and visual effects artists.  Dave shares with the BBC his passion behind his success.

Watch the clip here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22088371

Concept Designs by CG Protege Students

Character Designs

Props Designs

Introduction Talk - Business Leadership in Animation

BUSINESS LEADERSHIP IN ANIMATION

We are planning to hold the talk to gauge the interest level. 

Its this Sat 13th Apr. 2pm. At e2i

For those who are interested, please register yourself with admin@cgprotege.com and under subject put "BUSINESS LEADERSHIP IN ANIMATION" Leave down your name, contact number, qualification and experience. So that we will send you the details of the talk later.

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We are exploring to launch a program to help individual start their animation company. The program has an in depth strategic plan to help grow our industry.

As this is a pilot program. We plan to select ONLY the best 5 candidates from a pool of applicants for the program.

The nature of the program is like a Master Chef Program. Each of the 5 candidates will register a company. Then an experience mentor who has experience in running an MNC and a Local Company here will attach to these 5 candidates for a year. During the year, each will be given a budget to hire a team of artists to work with them to develop a IP and a teaser (Hence creating jobs for the rest as well). And eventually we hope to take them to Cannes MIPCOM for exposures to meet global players. They will pitch to govt, investors, broadcasters and distributors. Hopefully at the end of the program, they will secure a distribution deal, co production deal or investment deal after a year.

During the year, each candidate will gain experience in

1) Budgeting

2) Hiring and managing production

3) Financial, Business and strategic planning

4) What to look out for in contracts

5) Understanding of the animation film and TV market

6) Pitching process

7) Distribution, Licensing and merchandising market

8) How to protect your IP etc and many more.

The program is not an academic program. It is more practical base. With the objective to help creative people gain business leadership skill for the animation industry which is very much lacking here. The candidates will be exposed to real contacts in the global industry. And they should make use of the year to build relations. We will share trade survival skills. And during the year. We will invite entrepreneurs in this field to share their experience in starting up their own company and investment gate keepers to explain what they are looking for.

We hope through this program. We can help to create more entrepreneurs in the animation industry like in Korea, HK and Taiwan. Only you can control your own destiny.

Those who wants to venture into this. Must be prepared to fail and take risk.

The program is opened to PR and Singaporeans only. Applicants must have strong creative and story development skills. As our focus is preparing you in business skills. Not art skill.

At the end of the course, you will have your own company, an IP / Teaser. And a comprehensive set of business skills to get yourself started. By the end of the program, you are ready to continue your journey or work for others as an assistant executive producer.

CG Protege Students are selected for JEDI MASTERS (JUMP) Program

7 of our students have been selected into the recent Jedi Masters Program for Visual Effects. All thanks to the team effort of the lecturers from ILM and CG Protégé. Some of our CGP graduates came back to help our current students. The training program has been very successful. Here’s wishing all our students the very best in their JUMP program at Lucasfilm Singapore.  May the Force be with you.

New place, New adventure - 1st April 2013

Time passed by so quickly, our new place is almost ready. We are heading off at the end of the year!

Modeling Students Work Review - 28th March 2013

These are some the modeling work in progress of our current students. (Different batches) Almost all of them are still in their first year. Some of them are only in their 4th month of the course. Generally we are quite happy with their attitude and hardwork. Most of them are able to cope well with the hard surface modeling training. They are slowly learning about organic modeling. Especially sculpting for clothing and folds. Next focus will be on environment modeling, shaders and weathering of textures. We are especially happy with some students who have taken the extra mile to do some extra work outside their assignments to sharpen their skill. This kind of spirit is very important in our field.

Thank you everyone for your hardwork. Especially the lecturers. Lets work as a team to bring the standard up in our next review. Keep going everyone. We are very proud of you.

View more artworks in the gallery  or facebook page

Interview with David Kwok our CEO

Tell us about your trip to USA

The recent trip to LA and New York has been fruitful. We have met with top executives from Blue Sky Studio, Sony Pictures Animation, Warner Brothers Animation, 20th Century Fox Animation, Bardel Entertainment, Hasbro Studios, Saban Brands and Dreamworks Animation. There is a lot of potential over there. Being good in what you do is just the first step, building relations and contacts is the next important thing.

What are your thoughts on the animation industry in Singapore today? In terms of things we are doing well and what we need to improve.

Singapore has a very good worldwide reputation in terms of doing business in this industry. And we have a good IP protection system. Many companies see us as a gateway to Asia and the trust level on Singaporean companies is very high.

Since we first started. We had been focusing a lot in building production skills, which is essential. But moving on, we should look at skills in business and production leadership, distribution, IP creation, licensing and merchandising to build the entire ecosystem.

Due to our cost, we cannot establish ourself only as a service hub for production. Or else our situation will end up like the manufacturing sector, where work is moving on to cheaper places like India and China. We do not want to just manufacture sports cars. But we need to look into designing sports cars.

We need more entrepreneurs to build our SMEs and hopefully, become an MNC someday. In this way, we can have a sustainable industry. In order to survive, we need to learn how to stand on our own two feet and create opportunities for ourselves. We need to control our own destiny.

How can we solve these problems?

One way to look at it is creating an ecosystem in the industry. This is not easy. One needs to understand the whole business mechanism and establish a strategy. We can begin with looking at establishing IP companies. It can be a startup with just a few people, like the early days of multimedia and web companies.

If we slowly establish a cluster of 50 to 100 good IPs companies. Then slowly, it would makes sense for animation production companies to grow and produce pilot episodes and teasers for these companies. Toy and merchandising companies will start coming in to shop for content. Licensing and merchandising companies will move in, followed by IP legal companies, distribution companies and investors in these areas. Other areas of growth for the IP could be games, digital music and ebooks industry etc. And then slowly we will create an industry.

In the west, due to the economic situation, many companies are looking into Asia. It is a good time to attract people here in areas where we are weak at. Previously, western companies are only in Asia looking for outsource partners. Now they are looking for co-investment and production partners, If you look closely at many government efforts in the region, e.g Korea, Japan, China, Thailand, Malaysia etc. Everyone is looking at animation and IP creation. Its a question of who is sharp enough to establish the ecosystem first. And with this, you need good business leadership in this field. Whoever establishes the ecosystem first will attract others in the region to go to them for a one stop solution.

In your opinion, what makes Tiny Island different from other studios?

For Tiny Island, we do not compete in cost. With our track record in IP creation and monetisation, our clients don't come to us because our cost is low. They come to us because they see us as a good partner. As not only do we have knowledge in IP development, we are also well connected in Asia.

On top of that, we have the ability to create what we call, Future Proof Content. Which means that we partner with technologists to ensure that our content will be able to travel beyond TV to maximise the opportunities and exposure.

If you compete in cost, you will go down in no time. As such, we began to have clients who are just investors in IP. They need someone who is be able to advise them from start to end in the whole cycle. And we come out with a business strategy to monetise the IP. On our own. We are also slowly forming our own ecosystem. And our next venture will be on licensing/merchandising/distribution.





How has the local and global industry evolved over the years, has there been major shifts economically / technologically / creatively?

Yes. The recent problems in the western economy has driven opportunities to Asia. And now the production capabilities in Asia is much better than before. Asia is now able to create its own content instead of just outsourced work.

Now you see more talents from Asia going to the West to learn from the schools over there as well as bring back work experience to set up shop here. We also start seeing more and more western talents coming to Asia. In the past. Western companies are only here to look for outsource partners. But now they are here to look for investments, co production partners etc.

The purchasing power in Asia is also getting stronger as Asians gets richer. We now have a strong licensing and merchandising market. The piracy situation in China is also getting better, companies there are now looking into creating their own IP because they see a potential in this. As the world gets more connected , Asian companies are travelling to more Western Markets and getting the best from both the East and West.

What are your thoughts on Rhythm and Hues' bankruptcy, and the branches of western studios setting up over here

Nothing is going to stop globalisation and outsourcing. Just like manufacturing, competing in price is definitely not an option. One need to relook at its company's strategy and create a sustainable business model. One needs to look at how to move up the value chain.

Is China an attractive market? Do we (Singapore) have a better chance of entering china compared to a US studio?

It still is a very attractive market given the size of the population, but it is not easy (at least for me). Whether Singapore has a better chance, to me it is all the same. Everything boils down to connections.

The way I look at businesses is not about which country they are in. Its about collaborative effort within countries and studios. It is a big world out there, we need to work together to create opportunities for ourselves. Whoever has better connections will succeed.

Is there any particular area lacking talent? Are there enough institutions supporting the supply of these talents?

I feel that we can build up our strength in pre-production work. Currently I feel that there is not enough training in such areas. Other area that we can build up is in business planning and production leadership. But these have to been done through apprenticeship, not classroom lessons.
How important is the transfer of overseas skills to the local workforce, how are you supporting it?

Yes it is important. We are bringing in the best talents from overseas to work with us in terms of training and knowledge transfer. We also send talents overseas for job attachments with the help of our government.

Any input on art education in Singapore?

Artistic education should be something ongoing that never stops even after we started working. SOTA is a good start to create such a good learning environment at a younger age.

What kind of people are you looking for when you hire talents? Top 3 hiring qualities ?

We are looking for those who value our vision and want to build a company together with us. The candidate should do ample research to understand about our company. In terms of qualities: 1.) Feel proud about what we do and want to play a part in building our company. 2.) Knowledgeable about the industry and eager to learn new things. 3.) Positive, humble and willing to start from the bottom.

Tailoring one’s reel to the job he is applying for is essential as well.

What is your vision for Tiny Island? And what is your vision for Singapore while we are on the topic.

My vision for Tiny Island is for it to be a global company that creates its own IP and eventually, handle its own licensing and merchandising. I also hope that Tiny Island can create a strong family culture for its staff.

On the education front, my vision for CG Protege is to create a hub for the knowledge exchange in this field. Where we gather the best talents in Singapore and overseas to work with us.

As for Singapore. I hope to see it becoming an ecosystem as described above. Else our destiny will be like the manufacturing sector.

What advice would you give for budding artists and entrepreneurs if they want to pursue this industry?

Be connected to the industry and be passionate in what you do. Networking is very important. Prepare to take risks and start building contacts and connections.

Something I kept reminding myself, "Are you going to be just a member of the orchestra playing the same old song, or are you going to stand up and be a part of the future of this industry?" Words from Carl Rosendahl, founder of PDI Dreamworks.

source

CG Protege presents Animation Talk with Jacques Muller

CG Protege presents Jacques Muller's Animation Talk "FROM PENCIL TO MOUSE... RIDING THE ANIMATION BEAST" A 90-min journey spanning 30 years in Europe, Asia and North America. RSVP now to know more about the feature animation industry EMAIL us at  admin@cgprotege.com or RING US at +65 64737502.

Experience@Singapore: IDM - 16 October (Tuesday), 5pm

Contact Singapore organised the Experience@Singapore: IDM running from 15 to 19 October this year. A group of 13 graduating students from UK, Germany and Central Europe universities visited us on 16 October (Tuesday). These students come from related fields of study such as VFX, Animation and Computer Science.

visit our facebook page for more pictures :) 

Visual Effects Talk with Kenneth A. Huff, Technical Trainer Lucasfilm Singapore

Visit our facebook page for more pictures! :) 

Free Master Lecture in Games Modeling at CG Protege

His portfolio

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.442552242430062.106064.127919727226650&type=3

Featured in Zbrush Central
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?959392&p=959392&viewfull=1#post959392

CG Talk Front Page.
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?s&threadid=1053833&utm_medium=plugblock&utm_source=cgtalk

Gobelins Animation Master Lecture at CG Protege

Last Sunday (24th June 2012), we had a Gobelins Animation Master Lecture at CG Protege. We are happy to receive 120 artists at the event!

The three lecturers who conducted the class were Magali Rigaudias, Myrna Gawryn, Yoshimichi Tamura. They were really fun and have shared a lot of their production experiences with us. We were truly honoured to have them.

Yoshimichi Tamura has also just won the Best in Show Award for the upcoming SIGGRAPH 2012. A round of applause and our heartiest congratulations to Yoshimichi! Check out his very beautiful short film entitled "Reflexion". 

Here is the picture taken on that day.

Thanks to Eric for bringing in the lecturers, we have certainly learnt a lot.

 Yoshimichi Tamura sharing about his work on Reflexion

A crowd of 120 animators!

Questions time! Thanks Magali for the talk!

 We sure have loads of fun with Myrna Gawryn :)

Yoshimichi Tamura, David Kwok (CG Protege), Magali Rigaudias, Myrna Gawryn and Eric Reviewer (Gobelins)

Lets look forward to more fun-filled events in future.

For more pictures, visit our Facebook page.

Gobelins Animation Masterclass at CG Protege June 2012

The Gobelins Masterclass has started since last week. It has been a great experience for the students. About 20 animators attended the class. 

We are very lucky to have Magali Rigaudias who is currently a lead animator at Animal Logic.

She has been working as a character animator for over 20 years. After working in Paris for a few years, she joined Industrial Light and Magic, where she focused on effects and animation in live action feature films including Dragon Heart, E.T. The Extra Terrestrial (re-release), Star Wars Episode I - The Phantom Menace, Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, Harry Potter: The Chamber of Secret, The Hulk, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.

After almost a decade at the studio in San Francisco, she decided to broaden her experience to work on animated films. She then moved to Australia and joined Animal Logic to work on Happy Feet and The Legend of the Guardians. Working as a lead animator for the past 7 years, Magali was also a lead animator in Happy Feet 2.

The most rewarding part of her work is to bring life to a character, giving personality to any character she works on, and injecting a whole range of emotions that bring out that personality. When she succeeds, the audience will see it as a living, breathing character rather than a computer generated puppet. Often, her job is not about making things look real but to make them look believable.

Besides Magali, we also have Myrna Gawryn who shares her exprience and skills to the class. Myrna comes from a background in dance, choreography, theatre, film, TV, human behavior/anthropology, anatomy, kinesiology and motion capture. She has worked with animators and directors to develop character, physical behavior, relationship to other characters, context and anatomical detail, all the components that make animation truly alive and specific.

Myrna has taught and consulted in the area of character development / behavior, storytelling and movement for animation at DreamWorks and Disney in Los Angeles, Gobelins and Annecy in France, LucasFilms Singapore, Griffith University in Australia and The One University in Kuala Lumpur.

Last but not least, we have Yoshimichi Tamura. He is a 2D-3D character animator, character designer, and story boarder. After graduating from GOBELINS in 1991, Yoshi worked on a number of major animation feature films for both Disney and DreamWorks, including: A GOOFY MOVIE(1995), HERCULES (1997), TARZAN (1999), ATLANTIS:THE LOST EMPIRE (2001), THE JUNGLE BOOK 2 (2003), ) SINBAD: LEGEND OF THE SEVEN SEAS (2003), A SHARK TALE (2004), OVER THE HEDGE (2006), FLUSHED AWAY (2006), and THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG (2009.

Yoshi has also participated in other international productions, such as the Spanish-French feature film NOCTURNA (2006) and the French-American production IGOR (2008). Now based in France, Yoshi was recently director of animation on the 2D French animation feature film Zarafa to be released this year. Yoshi will focus on the theme “Motion and Emotion” but also evaluate and mentor students working on the exercises begun in the master class of Magali Rigaudias during week one.

We also want to take this opportunity to CONGRATULATE Yoshimichi. He has just won the Best in Show Award at the upcoming SigGraph 2012. That is amazing. We all feel very honoured to be able to work with him.

CG Protege and Gobelins presents Animation Master Lecture (FREE ENTRY)

CG Protege Welcome Training Consultant

We are happy to announce that we have hired industry professional to join our FULL TIME training consulting team. A VFX Training Consultant.

This is our commitment to provide you the best in training and education in hope to raise the standard of the industry. We are very fortunate to have them as our FULL TIME CONSULTANT where they will share their knowledge with our students in the coming years.

 

PATRICK WOO - VFX Training Consultant

Patrick was a Effects Technical Director at Double Negative Singapore. He has been working with Double Negative from November 2007 to May 2012. On many occasions, Patrick was given a chance to work at the head office London. His production experience includes Costume Technical Director work, Simulation of costume / accessories / props. Maya and Houdini, Environment work and Matchmoving work. The movies he has worked on include Hellboy2, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Paul, Sherlock Holmes and many more. Before he joined Double Negative, he is one of the top students from CG Protege. 

More about Patrick's work here

Visit by Third Year Singapore Poly Students

Today we were visited by guests from Singapore Polytechnic. These are final year students who are about to graduate into the industry.

We had a fruitful time sharing industry insights with them. Through meaningful interaction, we also share some advice on how they can better prepare themselves for their career.

For more picture, check our facebook page

DSK Supinfocom and CG Protege Presents Masterclass in Lighting Design with Mael Francois (Lighting Technical Director, Pixar Animation Studios) , 26 May 2012

Today is the First day of Lighting Design Masterclass with Mael Francois. We are all so thrilled and pleased to have him until 29th of May 2012 to share his knowledge with us.

Group Photo, Students and Mael Francois

For more picture to this check our facebook