Animation Online Course by EKA Summer Academy

Students from Transform4Europe alliance universities can apply to participate in the online course. The member universities are:

• Saarland University
• University of Alicante
• Estonian Academy of Arts
• University of Silesia in Katowice
• Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski
• University of Trieste
• Vytautas Magnus University

The summer course is for anyone who wants to enhance their storytelling and presentation skills with animation. During the five-day international course, participants from seven universities will gain a basic understanding of how 3D animation works.

With a focus on typography, the students will learn the essential tools that make 3D objects move. Multiple workshops will offer practical exercises to gain knowledge about versatile animation principles and techniques to create outstanding presentations with animated texts. In addition, participants will learn how to use key frames and eases and how rigid body physics works.

As a result, through the use of learned tools and gained skills, students will work on the vision of a future university campus and create animated video presentations by working as a group.

What needs to change and what are the qualities espoused by a renowned higher education environment? Each university will create and present their vision in an animated video project. The videos will be made with the assistance of two instructors.

• Learn storytelling principles and narrative techniques
• Discover strategies for compelling visual presentation
• Learn to create 3D animated texts with Blender
• Acquire the fundamentals of Blender animation software
• Enhance critical thinking of higher education perspectives

The course is created by Estonian Academy of Arts. EKA Summer Academy together with the Department of Animation will offer Transform4Europe alliance universities an opportunity to learn basic animation skills. The animation course is the first project presented by Transform4Europe.

Hleb Kuftseryn is an animator and motion designer who works in the sphere of commercial and non-commercial animation. His work experience consists of projects for Belarusian, Lithuanian and Russian animation studios on festival and children’s cartoons along with freelance and studio work on commercial applied animation. Hleb practices both 2D and 3D animation and combines it with different experimental approaches.

Elise Eimre is a doctoral student at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Her research interests focus on the visual studies of film art. She has worked as a production designer and director on numerous video projects including stage designs for concert arenas. Elise is one of the programmers for the Black Nights Film festival and a project manager for Black Room.

Mari Kivi is a project manager at the Department of Animation at the Estonian Academy of Arts. She looks after student film distribution, projects for animation education and organising public screenings. She has been a board member at the Estonian Animation Association since 2019 and leads projects in animation heritage. She is one of the founders of the International Animation Festival Animist Tallinn, which will take place in August in Estonia.

Day 1 | 11 August

11:00—13:30 CET   Components of great storytelling

14:00—16:00 CET   Introduction to Blender

Day 2 | 12 August

11:00—13:30 CET   Animation with Blender

14:00—16:00 CET   Animation with Blender

Day 3 | 13 August

10:00—13:30 CET   Panel Discussion

14:00—17:00 CET   Group Project with Blender

Day 4 | 16 August

10:00—13:30 CET  Group project with Blender

14:00—17:00 CET   Group project with Blender

Day 5 | 17 August

11:00—13:00 CET   Group project finalisation

14:00—16:00 CET   Screening session & discussion

• Participation is free and requires registration by 1 August.
• The instructors select 21 students from the applications.
• The course will be held online via Zoom and in English.
• Participant has to be able to use computer with webcam.
• Transform4Europe will gain all rights to the video projects.
• Upon full participation and completion of the summer school, students will be awarded a Transform4Europe certificate of completion and diploma for 1 ESTC.

Submit application