What are the aims of the Animation Foundation?
The Animation Foundation is designed to prepare you for the entrance exams of the top schools.
In order to train the creative elite, the programme is based on comprehensive teaching centred on various classes, intensive preparation for exams and the creation of a portfolio.
We go over the aims of the Animation Foundation course with Catherine Totems, narrative teacher and coordinator of the intermedia animation foundation classes and the animation degree course.
Acquiring and developing artistic skills at Atelier de Sèvres
The primary objective of an Animation Foundation course, such as that at Atelier de Sèvres, is to develop artistic knowledge. While your drawing abilities are not part of the selection criteria during the admission process at Atelier de Sèvres, you will still have to acquire a solid foundation in the subjects taught.
The wide variety of classes taught on the Animation Foundation is a major asset for preparing for the entrance exams for major schools. Centred around two main pillars (drawing and animation), the courses and options that you will follow at Atelier de Sèvres as an Animation Foundation student will enable you to acquire and perfect your knowledge and artistic skills.
"It is a question of personal development at a pivotal age, in creativity and animated cinema." –Catherine Totems
During the Animation Foundation, the teachers at Atelier de Sèvres are there to teach you to develop your visual acuity and create a project as a whole.
"The teachers always advise us on the direction to take, they listen to us and explain how we can develop our ideas. They explain how a creative process takes place from start to finish." –Justine, Atelier de Sèvres alumnus, accepted at EnsAD
Portfolio creation
The creation of a personal portfolio that is relevant from the perspective of the major Animation schools is a crucial step for anyone wishing to be accepted at the leading art schools. During the Animation Foundation, as you develop your skills in the different areas of Animation, you are also required to work on the creation of your portfolio.
In some ways, the portfolio is your identity card from the point of view of Animation schools: it should showcase your artistic skills and demonstrate significant work carried out over the long-term. The portfolio created by Animation Foundation students should enable them to highlight their abilities to carry out an artistic project in full.
Throughout your year at Atelier de Sèvres, an Animation Foundation teacher will accompany you in the creation and development of this portfolio.
The objective: "to prepare a portfolio and an animated film project, to prepare for the orals, with personalised support which helps students to choose their school/schools in an informed way." —Catherine Totems
Preparing for Animation School entrance exams
The steps described above are obviously the basis of your training at Atelier de Sèvres. However, during the Animation Foundation, you will also be required to take mock exams (oral and written) in exam conditions.
This intensive preparation will allow you to better grasp what is at stake and the reality of the competitive exams for the major animation schools. At Atelier de Sèvres, you also learn to present your portfolio in a constructed way, with the appropriate vocabulary.
"In the second half of the year, there are a lot of mock exams and training for the oral exams. It is quite challenging but, as a result, we are in a much stronger position to take the exams. We are very well prepared and we succeed in many of the difficult competitive exams." —Christine, Atelier de Sèvres alumnus
If you would like to learn more about the Animation Foundation at Atelier de Sèvres and be accepted at the most important Animation schools, you can contact the school's teaching staff.
