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Animation program unique in province

After-school computer animation clubs - extracurricular groups founded by an industrious student or an interested teacher - have sprung up at high schools across Canada, providing participants a few hours a week in which to learn the techniques of on


After-school computer animation clubs - extracurricular groups founded by an industrious student or an interested teacher - have sprung up at high schools across Canada, providing participants a few hours a week in which to learn the techniques of one of the hottest modern creative fields.

But Sacred Heart High School in Yorkton is still the only secondary school in Saskatchewan to offer an official class on the subject. For the last nine years, teacher Mike Oleskiw has taught Sacred Heart students 3D modeling, animation, and video editing methods in software such as NewTek LightWave and Adobe Premiere Pro.

Three levels of the animation course - Animation 10, 20, and 30 - are offered, each one involving an hour of instruction each day for a full semester.

3D animation appeals to an uncommon few students with both an artistic and a technical streak. With about 15 to 20 students taking the course at the Grade 10 level and perhaps half that number in Grades 11 and 12, it's not the school's most popular elective - but those who stick with it are passionate about the subject.

"A lot of these kids will come in on their own free time or work at home," says Oleskiw.

The teacher tries to expose his students to as many facets of the 3D animation experience as possible, including collaboration with other creative people. For the Animation 30 final project, students must develop a video based on a script provided by their peers in the advanced English class.


Learning to work within the confines of others' ideas is an important skill for any content creator to learn, notes the teacher.

"We want to do that because it doesn't matter what industry you go into, somebody's going to have an idea and they're going to say, 'This is what I want. This is how it needs to be.'"

Sacred Heart's virtual monopoly on 3D animation instruction in the province has naturally given it an edge in the annual Skills Canada 3D Computer Animation competition. Students in the local program have advanced to the national Skills competition in each of the last seven years, bringing home a few medals and several more top-five finishes.

That's not the only tangible benefit. The number of career paths that arise from a background in 3D animation may be surprising.

"Everyone thinks animation, they think, you know, Pixar and movies and games. But really it's everywhere now," says Oleskiw. "Police use 3D images for scene recreation. Engineering uses a lot of 3D stuff now. Geosciences use a lot of 3D stuff. You talk about what's going on with the potash mine - well, all of the surveying is done in 3D now. So they have to have those skills of working in a 3D environment."

Graduates from Sacred Heart's animation program have gone on to work in half a dozen or more related fields. One former student models historical war machines for television documentaries. Another assembles 3D medical images for doctors at a hospital. One designs and fabricates crowns for a local dentist. Others are starting careers in the video games industry.


Students graduate from the Sacred Heart program with only a beginner's knowledge of 3D modeling and animation, but they leave with a foundation to build on.

"We're really fortunate that these kids get experiences that most people have to pay 30 or 40 thousand dollars to even get introduced to," says Oleskiw.

Other Saskatchewan schools attempting to establish 3D animation programs have so far been unsuccessful at convincing their boards that the investment is worthwhile. But the board and director of Christ the Teacher Catholic Schools have been supportive of the Sacred Heart program from the beginning, says Oleskiw.

"We've been very lucky for that. They understand what we're trying to do."

The program has been rewarding for the teacher, as well.

"You don't often get to see kids do a job that uses their math skills or something like that," he says. "But when you see them go on and use this stuff and see that you've made a difference, it's cool."