Atomic.edu: Specialised Institues

We've looked at two options for those seeking a different path to educational enlightenment this month.

Australia is home to two institutes that specialise in delivering games development courses – the Academy of Interactive Entertainment and Qantm College (AIE). You’ll find a campus of at least one, if not both, of these institutes in all of the eastern mainland state capitals. Both AIE and Qantm work closely with the industry and graduates from both institutes enjoy ample opportunities to make contacts in the industry, gain real world experience through large-scale group assignments and, eventually, find employment either locally or abroad.

Furthermore, both institutes – which both started with a single campus each -are expanding both geographically and in terms of courses offered. Both institutes are undeniably world class and choosing between them is really a matter of one’s location, economic situation and career goals. For overseas readers, both institutes accept international students.

In terms of accommodation, Qantm apparently has contacts that can get students into home stays, share houses, serviced apartments and hotels if necessary, while AIE leaves students to figure that sort of thing up to the individual, although their website does provide estimates of week-to-week living expenses for both Canberra and Melbourne.

Academy of Interactive Entertainment
The Academy of Interactive Entertainment has been operating for a number of years now. Originally based in Canberra, it eventually opened a campus in Melbourne. A Sydney campus will open this month in Ultimo. The original campus still offers the widest variety of courses, but given time Melbourne and Sydney are bound to catch up.

Every couple of months, AIE comes up with a new range of short courses, covering everything from making zombie films to multi-threaded coding to MEL scripting in Maya. Some of the courses are quite obviously just for fun, while others will help you expand your knowledge on a particular software package or give you the opportunity to walk away with a Certificate-level qualification. Prices for the current batch of short courses range from $220 to $900.

For those with children, there’s a selection of short courses on offer during the school holidays aimed at geeky kids, covering basic 3D modelling, animation and the development of simple 2D games. These courses are priced at a flat rate of $220. The short courses are only available at Canberra at this stage, but as of next year the Sydney campus will start running similar holiday programmes to the Canberra mothership.

For a small, privately-run institute, AIE has a respectable range of Certificate-level courses. The Certificate II in Screen (Basic 3D Animation) is the most basic, running over 18 four hour sessions. As the title suggests, it provides an introduction to the fundamentals of modelling and animating. Year 11 and 12 students in NSW and ACT not only get a significant discount ($193.76 as opposed to $571.76), but can have this course count towards their HSC. As of March next year, AIE’s new Sydney campus will offer the Certificate II in Screen as well as the Certificate II in Information Technology (Basic Game Programming), which is already on offer in Canberra.

The Certificate III in Screen (Visual FX for Film) is on offer only at the Canberra campus at this stage. It covers working on post-production for cinema with the Discreet Combustion suite and 3DS Max. As with the Certificate II in Screen, the Certificate III in Screen (Visual FX for Film) is delivered through 18 four hour sessions. Note that AIE wants students to have some prior experience with 3DS Max and digital video cameras.

Offered at Melbourne, the Certificate III in Screen (3D Animation) covers modelling, texturing, animation and the fundamentals of lighting and atmospheric effects. There are no pre-requisites for entry. Requiring significantly less commitment than the Diploma-level courses AIE offers, the Certificate III in Screen (3D Animation) can provide a taste of what it would be like to study full-time in this field. While you would still need to show off an impressive portfolio and sit an interview, the Certificate III in Screen (3D Animation) can act as something of a pathway into the Diploma courses.

Both the Canberra and Melbourne campuses offer the Certificate IV in Screen, but with their own twist. Students at the Canberra campus work in 3DS Max, modelling and animating characters and environments. Melbourne students, on the other hand, use Autodesk Maya.

The Certificate IV in Information Technology (Programming) acts as a pathway into the Advanced Diploma of Professional Game Development and covers coding in C++. While one need not be a programming expert to gain entry into this course, some sort of experience with at least one coding language is a must. Note that the language need not be C++.

The Advanced Diploma of Game Development, offered at all three campuses, offers two streams – the Art major and the Software Development major. Students of both streams work together on various projects, simulating a real games studio in which artists and coders must work side-by-side in order to get results. The Software Development major, which follows on from the Certificate IV in Information Technology (Programming), allows students to focus their studies on particular topics, including AI, networking, graphics and effects. This course is good. AIE proudly boasts that 95 per cent of their programming graduates find employment in the industry within three months of graduating. The Art major covers a wide variety of topics including character animation, texturing, level design and game design.

The Advanced Diploma of Screen (3DS Max) and Advanced Diploma of Screen (3D Animation and Visual FX) are offered at all three cam uses and the Sydney and Canberra campuses respectively. The Advanced Diploma of Screen (3DS Max) is targeted at those who want to get into film and television and covers high-detail modelling and advanced animation techniques. The Advanced Diploma of Screen (3D Animation and Visual FX) uses Autodesk Maya and assumes no prior knowledge of the software, but does require applicants to have industry experience, a Certificate IV in 3D Animation or a Certificate IV in Screen.

One thing to keep in mind about all of these courses is that they are not covered by the HECS/HELP initiative. Various banks offer student loans if paying upfront is an unrealistic proposition for you. More information on that can be found here.


Qantm College
In recent years, Qantm College has expanded from having one campus in Brisbane to having campuses in Sydney and Melbourne. All campuses are very accessible by foot and public transport from the CBD of the city in which they’re situated. All campuses regularly run days during which year 10, 11 and 12 students can get a taste of life at Qantm – an opportunity that our younger readers would surely find worthwhile.

Unlike AIE, Qantm doesn’t offer Certificate-level courses. At the bottom end of their offerings are the Diploma of Screen and Media (Animation), Diploma of Interactive Digital Media and Diploma of Screen and Media (Digital Video Production). The latter is obviously aimed at those seeking employment in film and television. The Diploma of Screen and Media (Animation) can act as a pathway into the institute’s flagship course, the Bachelor of Interactive Entertainment, and covers all the fundamentals of modelling and animating in industry-level software. The Diploma of Interactive Digital Media is essentially a multimedia course, covering a wide variety of topics including web design, game design and animation.

The Bachelor of Interactive Entertainment, as noted earlier, is the institute’s flagship offering. It offers three majors – Animation, Games Design and Games Programming. The two-year long Bachelor of Interactive Entertainment (Animation) covers both 2D and 3D animation, starting with the fundamentals and working up to more advanced stuff. The Games Design major, on the other hand, covers various topics including the psychology of gameplay, scriptwriting, character development and level design. Finally, the Games Programming major covers C++. Whatever major students choose, though, they will dabble briefly in the fundamentals of all three fields. Furthermore, all students have to do a number of business-oriented subjects, including project management and copyright law.

Studying industry-relevant laws and project management is also a part of Qantm’s other Bachelor degree-level offering, the Bachelor of Applied Multimedia. This is more a multimedia course than a games development course, covering the design and development of interactive content for a variety of platforms, sound editing, video editing, graphic design, interface design and animation.

Qantm degree-level offerings are covered by the FEE-HELP system, although the National Bank offers $10,000 p/a student loans. To find out more about these loans, contact the bank on 132265. Qantm encourages prospective students to get their applications for loans in early, as the banks take time to process and approve applications.