Explore Games, Animation and Digital Media

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Hello, my name is Mark Lycette, and I'm the Associate Dean Digital Design Discipline here at RMIT University. Today, I'm going to tell you a little bit about the bachelor of design games, the bachelor of design digital media and the bachelor of design animation and interactive media. I'm going to talk to you a little bit about their core structures, their work integrated learning, placements and industry connections, pathways into those degrees and career outcomes.

These programs are world renowned and allow students to work across a variety of disciplines to replicate the real world experience they will need once they start their careers woman.

Wominjeka. We're meeting today on the lands of the Boon wurrung and Woiwurrung language groups of the Eastern Kulin nations. We pay our respects to the elders past and present as we conduct our business on their unseated lands.

The history of digital media at RMIT university is long and varied. It is evolved and responded to the changes in industry over that time. So, we have seen areas of specialization form in animation, game design and digital media particularly. That's why these three degrees have become evident. The animation degree explores animation in all its forms, the animated character to motion graphics across linear and interactive environments. It essentially is built upon story and narrative communicating a concept, an idea to an audience.

Digital media specializes in interactive media, digital video, sound design, and digital environments. It also explores AR and VR technologies and cutting edge interactive technologies. In the game design degree, we explore gaming culture and how it affects contemporary society. We also explore the production and the publication of gaming across many platforms. The bachelor of design animation interactive media has no minimum ATAR score, but it does have prerequisite scores in English. All applicants must complete and submit a selection task that is done online. That selection task is one of the most important elements of how students are selected.

The bachelor of designed games is similar in that it has no minimum ATAR score, does have scores required an English, and also has a selection task that must be completed and submitted online. The bachelor of design digital media, however, does have a minimum ATAR score of 75. That may vary a little bit. That's a general score you can utilize. It also has the prerequisites in English scores, but there are no selection tasks that need to be completed.

There are two possible pathways into the bachelor of design digital media. One is from the advanced diploma of music industry sound production and the other is from the advanced diploma of screen and media interactive media. There is also a pathway into bachelor of design games from the advanced diploma of screen and media interactive media.

This is the core structure of the bachelor of design animation and interactive media. The whole concept of this degree is to build a student's folio. We select people from their folios to get into the degree. We then spend three years building and constructing that folio for them. We do that by combining people into studios where they work collaboratively. They work on projects with industry. They understand how to work in teams, but they also get to concentrate on particular areas of focus. That could be 2D, 3D or visual effects. While they're doing this, they're developing their concepts and ideas and how to communicate and build narratives. The whole process of this is to work towards their final year, where they do a single production, which becomes the main piece of their professional folio. They leave the institution, take that out into the world and hopefully get a job.

The bachelor of design games is also built upon studios. Studios are core courses that all students undertake. You'll also see that there are core subjects, principles of play, game cultures studies. This is where people learning a theory and understanding of what games are and how they evolve and affect society. Then there are a number of program electives where students are able to choose particular areas of interests so they can round their own production folio, their own professional understanding of games is at practice and walk out of this institution with that in hand.

The bachelor of design digital media is also built upon studios. There are quite a number of program electives, which allows students to focus on particular areas of practice in interest. Again, they can build up folios, which show and recognize what they are specialized in doing, whether it's interactive work, digital video, or sound.

The facilities at RMIT are custom made for these program areas. The animation studios have Cintiq and are fully equipped with all of the latest industry software required. In the game degree, there are fully equipped studios with all of the latest software for games development, plus specialized spaces for e-sports, gaming and broadcast. Here we have a student profile of a graduate Marigold Bartlett. She's gone out into the industry and she's had a real impact, but more importantly is she's actually returned and come back to share her experience with past new students RMIT in the games degree. That's the kind of community of practice that we are endeavoring to build here.

Our industry connections are extremely valuable to us at RMIT. This is what proves that we are successful by engaging with them, by having our graduates being employed with them, by sharing and working and building our community together. So, we do this in a number of ways. We have clients that come in and work directly in studios with us producing real publishable content. We also have students that will take part in work placements. These can be local, they can be overseas. They can be quite long internships potentially. We have students that will submit work into competitions. They selected for festivals, they're winning major awards. This means that their quality is up there with global quality. They also attend field trips. They visit studios. They learn about what practices like outside of the class environment. They also receive mentoring for industry people who return back into the classroom and share their knowledge.

We have lots of industry partners that we work with. You can see several here who are really key to us. ACMI, Australian National Academy of Music, Adobe, National Gallery of Victoria. There's many more partners that we work with. We try to build up working relationships with them in a number of ways that can be in terms of publishing content or taking on real projects. It can also be just doing an exhibition with them. It can be awards, festivals, whatever it is, we'll do it as long as it makes sense and it's beneficial for our students.

Several examples of industry projects that we undertake are Nuclear Blast. This is a heavy metal label out of Germany in Europe and in the last four or five years, each year, we've published an animated video for one of their artists. These go on to be exhibited on YouTube. They tend to get something like 10 to 20 million hits, and these are produced by students. This is part of their professional folio. Before they even graduate, they have this significant outcome of their work. Digital media students have worked with Melbourne Zoo creating and working with them to talk about recycling of animal waste. They built an interactive app to do that.

They've also worked with the likes of Orygen Youth Health, which is a youth mental health network to build content for them. Animation students have also worked with White Night for several years, producing large scale projections on the buildings. So, what we're trying to do is get real work made out there in their folios and people see what they're doing, see the quality. That's the most important aspect of what we do.

Students can extend their opportunity offshore in a number of ways. They can go and study in our partner institutions in several places. These are in Europe, America, and Asia, but they can also undertake offshore study tours. So often they're going to visit another country in the region doing some teaching or they're doing actual projects with partners off shore. This is Paige De Vanny. Paige is now working at Weta Design in New Zealand, the home of Lord of the Rings, et cetera. She started with us learning about 3D animation. She became interested, focused on lighting as a particular area of practice and 3D. She constructed a folio that showed those skills. She showed that to Weta. They were interested. They took her on as a candidate. She now heads the lighting department of 3D at Weta Design after about four years in industry. That's the kind of thing that tells us that we're doing the right thing and we're achieving the kind of success that we want to in our graduates.

The career outcomes for these degrees can be quite varied, but each degree has a particular area of focus and it's important to choose the degree that best suits your interest area. Digital media is very much focused in interactive design. Web, apps, but also VR and AR. Sound design is also a strong element. Within animation, it's strictly about telling a story, a narrative, communicating a concept through images that move whether they are 2D, 3D or visual effects. Game designers, all about level designing, interface, concepts and ideas, and ultimately producing even event production like e-sports.

It's important to consult the website and look at each of the requirements for these degrees, not only the prerequisite elements from VCE subjects, et cetera, but also the deadlines for selection tasks. So, digital media does not require selection task. It's just selected primarily on ATAR. However, games and animation have selection tasks, and they must be completed and submitted by the due date that's available on the website. So, it's important to consult that and get that right. Once you submit all of that material, then they're going to utilize that for selection and you'll go through the VTAC process as normal, and they will contact you with the outcomes from that.

What happens in the new year once we have selected people is we often invite them in to meet them. That really kicks off 22nd to the 26th of February when orientation begins, but actual formal classes begin on the 1st of March. The last day to enroll, meaning after that point you can't join the degree any longer, is the 8th of March.

Thank you for taking the time to learn about our globally recognized programs. For more information on these programs, be sure to check program information available on the RMIT website study with us page.

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