Lynn Seah

UNLIKE many design schools, the courses at Raffles Design Institute do not include a foundation year in which students get a broad grounding in different areas of art and design. Its curriculum appeals to students who already have their hearts set on a particular field of study.

Programme marketing and operation manager Hama Roger Que says: "Students feel that the foundation year is a waste of time. So we focus on what they are interested in from the start."

The school has bachelor's degree programmes specialising in areas ranging from graphic design and product design to multimedia, fashion, and interior design.

3dsense Media School is another institute that takes pride in its highly focused courses.

Marketing executive Michael Ng describes its flagship Diploma in Digital Visual Effects and Animation programme as "very hardcore animation".

"We focus greatly on the practical skill set that will allow our students to assimilate smoothly into the industry," he says.

Former student Louis Ng, 27, is now a 3D animator working on season two of Playhouse Disney channel's My Friends Tigger and Pooh at Polygon Pictures in Japan. He credits the demo-reel he worked on while he was at 3dsense for helping him snare an interview with the animation studio.

"3dsense equipped me with a number of technical skills that are desired by employers in the industry," he says.

Mr Ng, who holds a first class honours degree in communication studies from Nanyang Technological University, used to freelance as a video editor and motion graphics artist, but he decided to enrol in the intensive one-year diploma programme at 3dsense to learn 3D and up his value in the industry.

3dsense was one of the first schools to offer specialised training in computer graphics and animation when it opened in 2003. Enrolment has since increased at 20 per cent each year. Besides the full-time diploma programme, it also offers part-time certificate courses in animation and interactive web media.

The school currently has about 120 students. It recently moved from Paradiz Centre to a larger campus on Mount Sophia.

Raffles Design Institute has also added animation as well as games design to its range of fulltime degree courses in response to demand.

Another of its new offerings is a Master of Design programme, which gives designers an avenue to upgrade themselves.

A special feature of the course, which is already into its second intake, gives candidates the option of doing a project instead of a dissertation.

"Many designers don't really like report-writing, so we give them the choice of submitting a project," says Ms Yong Reei Pyn, assistant manager of marketing and admissions at Raffles.

Like Raffles, 3dsense has also been introducing new programmes based on demand. Its latest is a certificate course in Zbrush, a digital-sculpting software that many studios have embraced.

One way the school has kept abreast of global trends in the industry is through its international board of advisors which includes people like Andrew Gordon of Pixar Animation Studios.

It also requires all its lecturers to have industry experience. Because Singapore's animation industry is relatively young, it has to look overseas for some of its teaching staff. It currently has lecturers from Canada, Italy, Netherlands and the Philippines.

Raffles too puts a premium on lecturers with industry experience and sources them from all over the world.

In addition, industrial collaborations and internships have been built into the curriculum, so all its students - who are mainly young school-leavers - get a taste of real-world work. The school currently has over 1,000 students on its Singapore campus in Beach Road, the majority of whom are from other countries.

Nepalese student Rajat Sharma, 21, will graduate from his three-year multimedia design course later this year, but he has already contributed to the making of a television series while interning with a production house, as well as produced a video for the opening of an art gallery. He is currently working on another video which could eventually be seen by tourists riding Singapore's river bumboats.

He recently emerged champion in this year's Animania, an annual national animation competition. Another of the school's recent award-winners is Indonesian student Nadia Ardiansyah.

With fellow student Fiona Luigiparana, she topped Future Talent Awards 2008, a marketing and branding contest organised by global brand consultancy FutureBrand.

Ms Ardiansyah (right), who is in the final year of a three-year graphic design programme, also has plenty of practical experience under her belt, having undergone a three-month internship with another branding company as part of her course.

The 22-year-old lauds the school for training students to think critically and manage time and for preparing them to face clients. "When we enter the real industry in the future, we will be ready," she says.

This article was first published in The Straits Times on Aug 31, 2008.