News Article

Students earn Maya Certification


11/15/2001 3:11:47 PM


Maya Instructors, Mahyhar (Mike) Ahmadi and Rob Ormond were flown in from Ontario to teach the Maya certification courses.


Digital Animation student James Burke uses his newly acquired Maya skills.

By Cathy Burke

November 15, 2001 - If you were ever offered $6,000 US worth of free training in exchange for only three weeks of your time, would you take it? Well, let’s just say ‘free’ is a post-secondary student’s favorite word.

Digital animation students at the Bay St. George campus of College of the North Atlantic in Stephenville last week completed three weeks of intense training in industry-standard certification with Alias-Wavefront.

The company is the mastermind behind the world's leading innovative 3D animation graphics and visual effects software called Maya. This software has been used in many film and game developments with such hits as The Perfect Storm and Squaresoft's Final Fantasy VIII.

Cyril Organ, the campus’s assistant district administrator, worked closely with digital animation instructor John Brown to implement this certification training.

"Our intent was to grow an (animation) industry provincially," Organ said. "Silicon Graphics Inc. is the hardware provider for the animation studio here at the college, and where SGI is the parent company of Alias-Wavefront, we decided to call on them for training.”

The Maya certification courses are for people in the industry wanting to further their skills and knowledge of the ever-changing animation field.

"These aren't college certification programs," said Brown. "This is something that professionals seek out. These programs are usually not shared with the general public or even the student population. This puts the students in a unique position."

Teaching with Brown are two other instructors from Alias-Wavefront. Flown in from their head office in Ontario were Rob Ormond, and Mahyhar (Mike) Ahmadi.

"It's a very rare situation that post-secondary students would get to take these courses," said Ormond, an Alias-Wavefront educator. According to Ormond, this is the first time it's ever been done.

Students at the college are now certified in three Maya courses: Maya Introduction, Maya Character Animation and Maya for Games.

"The training they received is far beyond anything that has been taught at any other school, not just in the Atlantic Provinces but in the world," Brown said. "It's putting them ahead of many other students."

With daily advancements in computer technology, it’s hard to keep books up to date. The certification books that were printed in June 2001 were out dated by the time the students started their training. Instructors were kept busy updating the lessons to adjust to these changes.

Students feel more confident entering the workforce after receiving this training.

"It makes me feel that I could do a lot more now than I ever could before,” said Chad Murphy, a second year student. “It makes the work so much easier. I feel more confident with my animation skills now.”

Fellow student Holly Simon agrees.

“It really advanced our skills a lot,” said Simon. “I don’t think that we would have been able to do anything of this (animation) quality if we never had this training. We definitely would not have had enough time to learn this on our own.”

Christos Stassis, another student, praised the training by saying: “I could make it as challenging as I wanted it to be. That was great! I’d like to see more of it actually.”

With the growing popularity of the animation film industry, the digital animation students at College of the North Atlantic are prepared for the latest challenges.

“We’re on the verge of a great success story in the industry,” said Brown. “The industry is booming and is expected to boom even more. These students are full of drive and are coming out of school at a great time. There is going to be a lot of work worldwide. It's a great time to be an animator right now."

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Cathy Burke is a second year journalism student at College of the North Atlantic.


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