THE Force is here in Singapore, and it wants budding digital artists to be trained to wield digital paint brushes like Jedi knights and their light sabres.

Experienced artists from Lucasfilm, one of the world's top animation companies, will mentor the 150 local artists it hopes to talent-spot.

Following the 24-week stint, they may get the chance to work on big-budget animation productions.

Under its Jedi Masters Programme, Lucasfilm Animation Singapore (LAS), the Star Wars creator's local branch, will fly in dozens of veteran artists as mentors.

Averaging 10 years of industry experience each, the mentors, who will come from the Lucasfilm group of companies in the United States, have worked on blockbuster productions such as Star Wars, Harry Potter and the Transformers.

LAS managing director Christian Kubsch said: 'We have learnt that the fastest way to grow (talent) is to have a lot of very senior mentors around who, on a daily basis, can share what they know, how to do things and develop an eye for them.'

LAS has taken over an entire floor of The Signature building at the Changi Business Park, where its offices now are, for the programme.

The trainees, who will be paid 'a lot better than in an industrial attachment', will learn to work in specialised fields within animation such as lighting, special effects and compositing.

More than half their time will be spent in a real production environment, with the majority slated for permanent jobs should they reach expected standards.

As for prospective candidates, the studio will check out not only the alumni of digital media schools, but also those who may have spent years honing their artistic skills on their home computers but have never received a paper qualification.

The key deciding factor will be the applicant's animation and art portfolio.

'It is about being talented, being able to show what you have done. If someone has just one piece of animation done in the past year, but with enthusiasm, passion and potential in it, that may well be good enough,' said Mr Kubsch said.

Dr Lim Yong Tsui, vice-president of the Singapore chapter of computer graphics society ACM Siggraph, said: 'Such programmes will benefit the local talent pool greatly as students will be able to gain expertise beyond what the schools teach and take on real life projects with established animators.

'If these trainees spread out into the market, it will mean more trained specialists for the animation industry.'

The digital media industry now faces a shortage of skilled animators. Registration for the first batch of the LAS programme is open from now until Dec 15. The first class will start in early February.

Passion counts

'It is about being talented, being able to show what you have done. If someone has just one piece of animation done in the past year, but with enthusiasm, passion and potential in it, that may well be good enough.'

MR CHRISTIAN KUBSCH, on the sort of digital artists his company will be looking to mentor

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