Our Curriculum

Our workshop consists of two courses: Life Drawing for Animation and Drawing for Animation.

These two courses cover all of the required drawings in an animation portfolio and together make up a typical session of the Animation Portfolio Workshop. One day of classes has a three hour Life Drawing for Animation class, a lunch break and a three hour Drawing for Animation class. Two courses, one workshop.

The end of our course coincides with the due dates for portfolio submissions to top animation schools. Successful entrance portfolios submitted in late February – to early March can receive offers of admission for programs starting in September.

Our Curriculum 1

Life Drawing for Animation

The Life Drawing for Animation course exposes students to a series of drawing exercises that help to develop the skill set needed to create all the observational drawings that comprise an animation portfolio. Gesture drawing, contour drawing, constructive drawing, basic shape and mass analysis, as well as basic anatomical drawing are all practiced relentlessly by our students to enable them to complete the life drawings, hand drawings, animal drawings and object drawings required for the observational component of their portfolio. The aim is to produce completed assignments that can be used as portfolio pieces.

At the halfway point of the course, students begin to apply the drawing skills they have been developing to the process of creating drawings for their animation portfolios. By the end of the workshop, students have completed their portfolios and are ready to submit them to prospective animation schools. 

Animation Portfolio

Drawing for Animation

The Drawing for Animation course rounds out our animation portfolio preparation program by introducing and covering solid, structural object drawing, linear perspective, layout, character body construction, character design, storyboarding and composition. APW Students focus on and develop each of these areas through carefully designed drawing exercises. The goal is to learn the fundamentals and then produce completed assignments to use as portfolio pieces.

After a period of intensive drawing and practise (roughly 3/4’s of the way in to the schedule of classes), students apply the drawing skills they have been developing to the process of creating drawings for their animation portfolios. By the end of the workshop, students have completed their portfolios and are ready to submit them to prospective animation schools.