Welcome to Digital Design Foundation

Background

Identifying the Root Cause
A majority of Chinese animation university students graduate unprepared to enter the CG industry. Chinese traditional teaching methods while strong on the technical side, have demonstrated clear limitations with regards to the creative process. Most leading-edge firms invest heavily in internal training programs, often preferring to start with raw artistic talent or graduates of drawing programs instead of recruits who are facile with Maya or other animation software. One company reports interviewing 10 candidates with strong academic credentials -including extensive Maya experience or technical proficiency - to find one who is ready to hire. Once hired, a new recruit usually faces a 4-8 month period of on-the-job-training before he or she is ready for a production environment. Even then, many recruits filter out in the first few months for a variety of behavioral, technical, and managerial reasons.

The key to this issue lies in the disconnect between what industry needs and what academia is providing. Engaging industry on the academic process will not only benefit the students, but also the schools and the companies themselves.

The Time is Right
The recent central government mandate –including an investment of over RMB 1 billion- to establish 100 pilot vocational education schools for the purpose of implementing an experimental “half study, half work” curriculum demonstrates political will at the highest levels of government.

From Here to There
To bridge this academic-industry divide, the DDF, under leadership from the Board of Advisors, has begun developing industry-driven portfolio standards, and will be working closely with the Institute of Digital Design (IDD) (www.idigdesign.cn) - the DDF's founding sponsor - as a laboratory school to develop curriculum and pedagogy that meet these standards.

We already know a lot about the form and structure of education that works. Robin King, a founding member of the DDF is also founder of Sheridan Institute’s renowned Computer Animation Program in Toronto. He has seen many of his students go on to win Academy Awards and high positions of responsibility in the major studios. King attributes the success of the Sheridan training to a strong commitment to story and animation performance driven by an emphasis on the art and fundamentals of animation rather than simply the mastery of software.

But introducing standards-based curriculum and pedagogy to schools and industry throughout China will require tremendous support from the CG community (and later Chinese Education/Labor Ministries), both in China and abroad.