Admit it, you love cartoons. Yes we know you’re a busy and important adult with responsibilities and absolutely no time for silly, childish distractions; but if you don’t secretly indulge in Naruto or Ben10, then you surely have a history with Rugrats, Ren & Stimpy or Tom & Jerry.
If you’ve got the right combination of love and talent for cartoons – enough to make a career out of it – then the Twofour54 Cartoon Network Animation Academy might be your exact cup of loony. The course is a one-year, full-time study designed by Twofour54’s Tadreeb, in partnership with the UK’s National Centre for Computer Animation at Bournemouth University and Cartoon Network. Tadreeb is licensed by the Abu Dhabi Education Council to offer technical and vocational training.
Students can’t come in fresh – well, they can if they have a serious passion for animation – but the course won’t teach you to draw if you’ve no talent, nor give you wild use of your imagination if you haven’t got one, but it will teach you to animate, and improve your skills. So if you’ve been exposed to the creative industry, or if you like to animate as a hobby, then you’re welcome to join. The instructors do, however, recommend a post-secondary qualification in a media or design discipline, or some professional experience in related fields.
The course teaches 2D animation skills, not just those related to cartoons, so whatever you pick up can translate into a variety of possible careers. And classes are small; the current ongoing class has no more than 13 students.
They are in good hands too; instructors include Badruddin Mohammed, former lead animator and art director at Inspire GLG. Badruddin has also worked on Disney’s Winnie the Pooh in Tokyo, as well as for Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon in the UK. Instructor Oliver Acker has worked as a director and supervisor for feature and TV productions in Germany, and as an animation artist on titles such as Hercules and Tarzan at the Walt Disney Feature Animation studio in Paris.
The course spreads over a year, and is divided into three trimesters. Students get about 20 hours of lectures and seminars per week, and are asked to devote just as much time to personal and group projects, which are the heart of the learning process.
And we’re glad it’s here; 2D animation was becoming an endangered art, and for a while it seemed as though its shinier 3D counterpart would completely take over the industry. But instead of dying out, 2D animation has managed to find a niche of enthusiasts, and through them a renaissance. Thanks to these brave digital soldiers more and more 2D cartoons pop up every year, and the future is looking colourful.
Cartoon Trivia
• Zorro is the most filmed cartoon character, and the first comic strip hero to star in a major film (1920)
• The most expensive cartoon poster was for Alice’s Day at Sea (1924), a short animation from Walt Disney. It was sold in London for more than $36,500 in 1994
• The single most valuable cartoon cell is a 1989 black-and-white Disney cell from Orphan’s Benefit (1934). It depicted Donald Duck being punched by an orphan, and was sold for $280,000 at Christie’s, London
• A cell from Disney’s Snow White (1937) faired almost as impressively, and was sold for $203,000
• The Simpsons is the longest running primetime animated series, and has been on the air since 1987
• Rugrats is pretty old as well, and has been around for more than 10 years
• The very first animated cartoon to be aired on television was called Crusader Rabbit, which ran from 1949 to 1951. Prior to this, cartoons were only shown in movie theatres
