Reallusion, a pioneer 3D / 2D software developer, has developed a partnership with Pingtung University in Taiwan to establish a real-time animation lab for young people – The Media Learning and Research Center for Youth. Reallusion supports Pingtung University 2D and 3D software to boost industry-academia cooperation. Pingtung University integrates innovative technologies from international 2D and 3D animation software to animate research projects, VFX, and previz courses that foster animation talents.
Pingtung University procures $75,000 in software to fully equip their labs and classrooms with iClone, Character Creator, Cartoon Animator, Motion Live mocap, and a massive library of assets to build characters and animation for animation, government projects, and research.
Besides training talents in the university, Reallusion is also supporting Pingtung University to create educational animation programs for elementary schools and senior high schools. With the help of this revolutionary technology, students can easily turn anecdotes into animation to promote the beauty of their hometowns. To encourage more talents, the county governments also hold animation contests to raise awareness of the importance of animation education.
Bringing a picture book to life – Malin Who Turns in A Stone
Huang Wen Ju, a professor at Pingtung University invites new immigrant women from Southeast Asia to write about their hometown tales, and then completes a picture book “Southeast Asian Bilingual Folktales Series”.
However, to fully convey the ideas of these folktales, students from the Department of Science Communication have a big ambition. They have decided to turn the storybook into animations while adding the voice of new immigrants to tell the stories with their dialects in the project. They started this ambitious animation project with 2D software – Cartoon Animator.
YU JIA HAO, the leader of the animation team, chose the Indonesian folktale “Malin Who Turns in A Stone” and made the script. The story talks about a seditious boy who did not want to accept a poor lady as his biological mother, which caused him to be cursed into a stone.
With a team of seven members, students completed the animation in one month. Animating images should have been time-consuming, but thanks to Cartoon Animator’s fast workflow, students were able to spend more time thinking about how to make the story more engaging rather than spending too much time in the animation process. On top of faster production, Cartoon Animator was also able to help with natural movements and good visual results. This really elevated the story and successfully showed the beauty of their tales.
