ANTS (Animation Training School)

ANTS – Animation Training School, a first-of-its-kind animation-training studio in the country, At par with international & Studio standards, with the aim of providing quality education to aspiring youth in the field of animation & related multimedia applications. ANTS’ curriculum is developed by the technical team from the production studio background.

Revolutionizing Animation Education

ANTS, as always, strives to be the pioneer in the field of Animation Education.

As the Indian Animation Industry grows by leaps and bounds, the gap between it and the Animation Training Industry yawns wider and wider. The production industry has a desperate need for trained and skilled manpower, but though thousands of fresh faces pass through the training industry every year, most of these are not really suited or trained for a career in animation.

There are many reasons for this. Chief among these is the fact that most of the people involved in this field have never done any actual work in a real production house.

Based on our continuing research and interaction with the production industry, and our own production experience, ANTS is now ready to launch its Production-oriented Curriculum to match the real needs of students in this evolving industry.

What we have created is a course that actually creates animators, or modelers, or texture artists.
Beyond churning out people who simply know a variety of softwares, our course teaches them how to communicate through the medium of animation, an ability which is both highly required in the industry and sorely lacking in most entrants to the field.

This course has been designed to be production-oriented in all aspects, and is unique in several ways.

Firstly, it focuses on a conceptual understanding of why things should be done in a particular way, rather than just on how they are done. This knowledge arms the artist with not only the tools to do the job, but also an in-depth understanding of how and why to use them. The ability to communicate thoughts and emotions comes only through this understanding.

Secondly, after a brief overview of the software, the thrust of the course is on the specialization of the student’s choice. There are various fields in animation, and an artist today needs to be a specialist in one of them rather than a generalist who knows a little of everything, or in other words, a jack-of-all-trades. Much like a musician who plays a particular instrument in a band and adds an individual dimension to the overall experience, students choose a specialization based on their interests and aptitude and learn how to master it, through specialized modules of knowledge.

Thirdly, it focuses heavily on educated execution rather than rote-learning. Animation is a skill which needs to be honed through practice. We facilitate this through guided and graded practical assignments throughout the course, in order for the student to be able to explore and conquer all of the domain he or she chooses. The final grading a student receives is heavily weighted towards the grades they earn through these assignments.
Students are graded purely on the quality of the work they create in order to turn out true artists rather than software professionals.

Fourthly, art is taught to all students throughout the course. The objective of this is to teach students to be able to communicate ideas clearly and specifically in a visual medium.

As Venkatesh M. B., Technical Head, 2D, ANTS, puts it, ‘The objective of this new course is to turn out artists who are specialists within the animation field, and who can create content at an international level of quality.’

Finally, students are guided all the way through the process of creating their demo reels and searching for the right job that will help them to continue their learning experience.

To ensure that the objectives with which this course was designed are met, students will go through a rigorous programme, with a strong emphasis on lab work, graded exams to ensure that the knowledge imparted has been understood, and graded assignments to ensure that the knowledge garnered can be put to work. Students will receive certification from ANTS only when they pass all these check-points and demonstrate a strong work ethic.

‘This course is aimed at candidates with a strong artistic inclination. The candidates do not necessarily have to be from a formal fine arts background. Artistic ability is a skill that can be taught, and mastered, provided the candidate possesses the willingness to work hard enough to gain expertise’. F. A. Khan, General Manager, Operations, ANTS.