ILOILO CITY — A free animation training program through a grant from the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) implemented by the Toon City Academy (TCA) and hosted by the University of Iloilo (UI) are looking forward to produce professional animators from Iloilo.
Seth Nono, dean of the College of Information Technology Education of the University of Iloilo, on Monday afternoon confirmed that 29 trainees have already been admitted. He said that the TCA is yet to notify other passers.
TCA and UI hold a one-day screening and assessment for interested animators on November 18 which was extended until the 24th of this month.
TCA program director Rose Gonzales said the program is unique because trainees are assured of jobs after their studies. In Manila, it is being offered as a paid course and they have no commitment of work after graduation.
“For this program, it has to be sustainable for at least two years. Toon City and TCA have to be present within the region and we will be giving work right after the training,” she said.
The DOST grant is “providential”, she said.
“DOST came at a very fortunate time. They were looking for projects to bring creative projects outside of Manila. The projects that we already started are something that were in the line of their roadmap,” she stated.
It is aligned with the 10-investment priority plan of the new administration that encourages the creation of original works, she said.
The free animation training will run from eight to 12 weeks. In January 2018, they will identify 30 of their trainees for the production work. At the end of the two-year program, she said that they hoped to produce 60 professional animators.
TCA was established five years ago. It started as extension of Disney animation.
“We feel that the first generation of animators is already aging and we need a new generation of artists,” said Gonzales.
Meanwhile, Noel Villano, the teacher handling the training, said he was amazed with the talents of Ilonggos. He first exposed the trainees on drawing enhancement.
Nono said that they are grateful that the training was brought in this part of the country. He revealed that animation is one of the specialized fields of the Bachelor of Science in Information Technology (BSIT) program of their university.
“We don’t have that industry, we are very grateful that Toon City Academy decided to have their own training here. We have facilities from drawing, clean up, production to animation then dubbing,” he said.
Meanwhile, Joeven Tansi, the executive director of the Iloilo Federation of Information Technology (IFIT) said that the talents of Iloilo are leveling up.
From customer service activity, there is a need to transform to upper skills requirement such as automation.
“What the roadmap is saying right now is we create another level of talent pool, one of them is the animation. We have come up with skills requirement to capture markets of US, Japan and the world in terms of animation,” he said.
Animation, according to Gonzales, is an “illusion of movement.”
“Based on still drawings, we turn them into drawings and create an illusion of movement. It can expand as far as visual effects but as of now we are still far from the level of animation visual effects,” she said.
TCA has for its market North America and Europe while it is also interested in finding partners in South America.
Comparing with other countries, she said that the good command of the English language happens to be the edge of Filipino animators.
“We provide quality work beyond what they expect,” she said. (PNA)
