Fantastic Visions
We are living in a new era of entertainment, where our visual expectations are set by movies like Transformers, Spiderman and the Lord of the Rings. On television, we watch amazing dramas like Heroes and documentaries like Walking with Dinosaurs. When playing games, we experience cool cut-scenes in games like Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy. Visual effects have made the imaginary worlds and fantastic visions of storytellers like George Lucas and Steven Spielberg a reality.

About 20 out of the top 25 highest grossing movies of all time are visual effects films, and visual effects typically take 25%-50% of an entire film’s multi-million dollar budget.

In the past 5 years, Singapore has attracted top entertainment companies like Lucasfilm, Koei, Ubisoft to set up production studios here. According to official figures released by EDB and MDA, the digital media industry in Singapore is poised to grow by 10,000 new jobs from 2005 to 2015, contributing S$10 billion to the country’s GDP.

With this increasing demand for more spectacular visual effects from the audience, the digital media industry needs a new breed of talents that have a balance of artistic sense with technical capabilities and strong problem-solving skills. There is no better place to obtain such training than at NYP School of Interactive & Digital Media.


School Project - CG Character Animation

Designed for the Creative Techie
The Diploma in Digital Visual Effects aims to train its students from ground up in both the artistic and technical skills needed for the next generation of visual effects specialists. The students will learn art fundamentals from basic visual design to computer-generated effects animation. At the same time, they will also be taught valuable programming and scripting techniques that go into the creation of digital effects for Hollywood movies and next-gen video games.

Graduates will be able to apply their skills in the digital entertainment industry such as animation, film, commercials and games. They will be able to take up positions with the following job titles:

School Project - CG Character Animation

Three years to visual effects
In the first year, the students will focus on building a strong foundation in visual art, film and technical skills, including photography, cinematography, programming and mathematics. In the second year, they will focus on learning video synthesis skills, learning software tools to generate digital visual effects and compositing those effects with live action digital film footage. In the third year, they will be taught Advanced Topics related to digital visual effects, while building up their Portfolio and gaining work experience at Industrial Attachment with local or overseas studios

Student Final Year Project - CG Worm Animation, CG Sparrow Animation

Digital media since 1996
Historically, Nanyang Polytechnic has been a pioneer in the area of Digital Media polytechnic education in Singapore since 1996. Both the two programs offered in 1996 and 2005, namely the Diploma in Digital Media Design and the Diploma in Digital Entertainment Technology respectively, are very well received by the industry and by students. Through the past 12 years, the school has formed and developed a competent team of experienced staff and built up an excellent track record in producing industry-standard games, animation and visual effects content. In addition, it is complemented with a strong pool of part-time staff comprising practicing professionals in the local Digital Entertainment industry.

Year 1 : Foundation (Logic and Aesthetics)

Design Fundamentals
Visual Art Techniques
Mathematics 1
Color Theory
Digital Photography Fundamentals

Communication Skills 1
Image Synthesis Project
Storyboarding
Cinematography for Visual Effects

Film-making & Production
Digital Film Editing
C++ Programming
Mathematics 2
Digital Film Project
.....................................................................................

Year 2: Techniques (Digital Effects Production)

Compositing & Post-Production 1
Computer Graphics
3D Modeling & Animation
Texturing, Lighting & Rendering
Technical Direction Techniques

Video Synthesis Project 1
Compositing & Post-Production 2
Dynamics & Particle Effects
Advanced Lighting & Photorealistic Rendering
Programming Models & Shaders

Procedural Effects
or Advanced C++ Programming
or Data Structures & Algorithms

Video Synthesis Project 2

.....................................................................................

Year 3: Projects (Job Specialization)

Digital Entertainment & Society
Portfolio Project

Effects for Games
Programming Hardware Shaders
Production Pipeline Scripting
Character Rigging
or Motion Capture
or Audio Creation
or Drawing 1

Industrial Attachment
Final Year Project

Last updated on 10 Sep 2008 by Coen Chua