In September, Dwarf Labs (also Dwarf Animation Studio) will establish a new in-house training department called Dwarf Academy, under the direction of Pixar and DreamWorks vet Minhyung Lee as head of training. The Academy’s mission will be to keep the studio’s professionals sharp and develop the next generation of recruits.
The curriculum will be geared toward high-end CG careers in the entertainment industry, with each student being mentored by a pro from Dwarf using real-world, deadline-driven examples. Since the training is integrated with Dwarf’s production and R&D facilities, students will use a pipeline based on the studio’s using state of the art hardware and the studio’s proprietary software. The best artists and technicians out of the program will be offered a chance to join Dwarf.
Learn more at www.dwarf-labs.com.
You might check more in detail the kind of news you share dear Animation Magazine.
You might wanna check if that situation is not like another one some years ago.
Dwarf Academy is expensive (in a french way at least) : 1000 euros per month for 15 months. It’s an average 5000 euros more than Gobelins or Supinfocom per year ! Of course, if you have issues to get that money their big money friends will help you (and their friends got the interests). You get no recognized diploma there.
Students are trained for the in house lighting program, Lumiere, which is not use anywhere else.
Students will most likely work on assets of actual productions for Dwarf Lab (as it’s cool for their demo reel) for free (or even better… paying for it). And then Dwarf might offer them … an internship in the own company.
Is this situation reminding you anything ? We have no vfxSoldier in France, but it sounds to me like the Digital Domain affair ( http://vfxsoldier.wordpress.com/2012/03/26/the-paying-to-work-for-free-vfx-business-model/ ). Not mentionning how many of my friends don’t want to work there anymore because of the very bad working conditions (but every situation is different I guess) and how that company, which pretends to be the french Dreamworks, offers ridiculously low salaries.
Please, animation magazine, consider checking more your informations. Or at least dig it before sharing a press release.
First, all of the informations above are correct so no need to consider checking them again as you suggest.
Second, Dwarf isn’t hiding any of your statements when promoting the Academy.
Finally, Dwarf Labs is a young studio so if you want a good salary better than an interesting job, you’re free to go anywhere else you want, provided that you have the skills to…
I totally respect your opinion FrenchGuy, but all the information that is published in this article are True and nothing is hidden behind the words.
Dwarf Academy offers exactly what they write and say, so when you are going to enroll into the Academy, they specify the fees and all other cost related before you sign into the academy. Thus, making no confusion later in the program.
Secondly, lighting software used in every studio is different according to the needs and requirements of the pipeline and project. Lumiere is a top notch lighting and rendering engine and your job is to absorb all the information and create beautiful images no matter what software you are using, as all the artistic and technical aspects comes from you and not the software. The software is just the tool to create images but the creativity comes from you. This is what Dwarf Academy teaches you. Also this gives you another opportunity to adapt into any software and become a unique person in the industry.
Also working condition are different in each studio and they suit some people and some cant adjust to it, for that you cant blame Studio for it as it is up and running in full force with many people working to create the best images possible. Animation is about passion and Dwarf Labs gives that opportunity to you to let your imagination run wild and discover your creativity to the maximum.