Five students who successfully completed the 13-week Animation Short Course under the Faculty of Arts and Design (FoAD) at the Durban University of Technology were recently awarded certificates in recognition of their hard work at the DUT’s City Campus.

Handing the certificates was Professor Runette Kruger, the FoAD Executive Dean who began by congratulating the students namely; Asiyah Ghumran, Anele Mordecai Cain, Maryam Kotze, Sibongakonke Nkonyeni and Waylin Ashby.

“We are very happy and proud to be handing the certificates of the graduated students of the Animation Short Course to them. We are grateful to the main driver behind this short course, Dr Dianna Moodley and the convenor of the studio, Clare Louis who made all this possible by passing her knowledge available to the students,” said Prof Kruger.

Dr Moodley, who initiated this project through the Short Course Unit (SCU) at DUT said this is a double win for everyone that has participated in this project as it is the first ever in Durban for a short course to be run in Animation. She expressed that they are very proud of the first cohort that has completed the course.

“I say double win because we have innovation and entrepreneurship at its best. They are on their way to opening up their own businesses and venturing into unlimited prospects,” she said.

She explained that the Short Course was initiated after her interaction with the Fine Arts and Graphic Design departments who were enquiring as to why DUT does not offer Animation at all. Dr Moodley said she realised that it was not such a huge task to at least introduce Animation to DUT. Going forward, she said they plan on developing it into a fuller programme. In the second semester, Dr Moodley said the course will be undertaken by a cohort of lecturers so that they could in turn teach students when the Animation course gets imbedded in the DUT programme formally.

The course facilitator is Claire Louis, owner of the Katanimate 3D Animation Studio based in Musgrave.

Speaking about her involvement with the course, Louis said: “After running an Animation workshop during DigiFest 2021, I enquired from Prof Kruger on initiating Animation in Durban because I was finding it difficult to find qualified animators, unlike in Johannesburg and Cape Town. Not long after that I got a phone call from Dr Moodley and things moved really quickly. We came up with the course, something that would work and we ended up with these five graduates who stuck through everything.”

She added that her main goal is to grow Animation in Durban and she believes that this course is an incredible first step as full Animation courses are extremely expensive. She feels they need to give everybody a chance because there is so much talent in Durban that just needs to be harnessed. Louis also spoke about affording one of the five students, Asiyah Ghumran, an opportunity to complete an 18 months internship with them after showing a great attitude for 3D and learned very quickly.

Ghumran completed her B Tech in Information and Communication Technology at DUT in 2021 and she found out about the course while she was doing her final year. She expressed her gratitude to Louis for selecting her to be the first student to complete her internship at Katanimate and is looking forward to acquiring more Animation skills.

DUT Short Course Unit Director, Professor Thakur said that he is elated to administer such a course through DUT. “Our ENVISON2030 espouses an engaged university, through innovative curricula and nurturing creativity. This Animation project is a nexus of an industry expert, an amenable Faculty and a champion. We hope that this course should inspire our colleagues at the University to leverage networks and industry to help us open doors or improve employability for our graduates.”

For more information on how to partner with DUT for short courses, please contact Ms Philiswa Dlamini on philiswad@dut.ac.za / Ms Selisha Ramduth on selishar@dut.ac.za.

For more details on the DUT Animation Short Course please see the video below:
DUT – Introduction To Animation Short Course 20…

Pictured: Animation Short Course facilitator Claire Louis and FoAD Executive Dean, Prof Runette Kruger, with the five Animation Short Course graduates.

Simangele Zuma