THE FIRST SCHOOL OF DIGITAL ANIMATION IS BORN. THE CHALLENGE: PRODUCING A FEATURE FILM

It was 1995 when Toy Story, the first animated feature film created entirely in CGI by Pixar, was released in theaters: a new film genre was born. Today digital animation is everywhere. The phenomenon is growing in step with an industry where the demand for skilled workers is constantly increasing. This is one of the reasons that led to the birth, also in Verona, of a training school aimed at young recent high school or college graduates who are passionate about 3D animation and want to learn a profession. A short walk from the center, on Via Fante, Side Academy, Veneto’s first three-dimensional animation academy born from a rib of Side Animation, a Verona-based computer graphics studio, opened yesterday in the presence of Regional Labor Councillor Elena Donazzan. “Looking at the landscape of small and medium-sized Italian 3D graphics companies, it is striking how difficult it is to find qualified personnel,” explained Stefano Siganakis, owner of Side Animation and creative director of Side Academy, “in this area, experience plays a key role: companies do not hire those who do not have it. The academy, starting at the end of the month, offers two training tracks lasting thirteen months each, the first in Interior design and the second in Film Animation. The main goal of Siganakis, which has a partnership with The Foundry, a company known worldwide for developing particularly innovative 3D software, is to train professionals to work with. New members will be involved right away in a project: the making of a feature film, of which at the moment there is only the main character: Beatrix, a heroine with the features of a little girl who moves in a fantastic context, set in a Verona suspended between present and past. The story is yet to be invented, the adventures Beatrix will face are still in the heads, and hands, of future students.