Prof. Ramkrishna More College of Arts, Commerce and Science, Department of English: Report of “Business English through Animation” Course 2012-13

“Business English through Animation” Course conducted by Department of English of Prof. Ramkrishna More Arts, Commerce and Science College, Akurdi and Department of English, HongKong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, HongKong

Under the Aegis of

The Student’s Welfare Association of the University of Pune

Department of English of the college and Department of English, HongKong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, HongKong made collaboration in December, 2012. Under this collaboration Dr. Christina DeCoursey of Department of English, HongKong Polytechnic University conducted a course entitled “Business English through Animation” in the college. HongKong Polytechnic University is one of the leading universities of the world. This is indeed a moment of great pride for the University of Pune, Pune District Education Association and Prof. Ramkrishna More Arts, Commerce and Science College, Akurdi. The Student’s Welfare Association of the University of Pune provided the financial assistance for carrying out this innovative project.

The details of the course are given below:

Name of the Course: Business English through Animation

Course Designed by: Dr. Christina DeCoursey

Duration of the Course: 4 weeks

Beneficiaries: Students of the college and the students of the other colleges in the vicinity

Contents of the Course:

There were 8 subject knowledge areas required for doing animation: designing characters, building sets, script writing, sound, directing, recording, editing, and uploading. This course also included teaching students the basics of written and spoken business genres such as letter, memo, minutes, agenda and meetings. The students who completed the course uploaded a short animation of 2 minutes to Youtube. This URL can go onto their resumes, and become part of making them exceptional job applicants.

Need of the Course:

Animation software has become much more user-friendly over the past decade. Previously, everyone wanting to be an animator has to learn programming fundamentals like spatial indexing, meshes, 3D modeling, and rendering through patterns and polygons. This took years to learn. However, in this course the software “Muvizu” (2009), an animation programme developed by Digimania was used. Based on the Unreal Engine 3 from Unreal Technology, its visual quality is exceptional – it is currently used by platforms including PlayStation™ and Linux™. Muvizu has a sophisticated user interface that is also very intuitive to use. For example, its approach to character movement is practical for non-specialists because they function as directors rather than as technical animators. Its operational resemblance to Windows means most students already have a feel for the software. That is, characters, objects and scenes are edited using windows, toolbars, drop-down menus, and colour and texture palates. This definitely saves a lot of time in producing an animation.

At the same time, doing animation is detailed work, because the 8 subject knowledge areas must be coordinated in every moment of every scene, so it definitely did take time. Script writing took the most time, as the creator had to develop a concept and then put it into words. For the students, all of this happened in the framework of second language. It embodied in their software choices, so that also took more time. The students had 16 x 2 hour sessions, or 32 hours, in which they made about a 2 minute animation film. They found the amount of time sufficient, but still it was not very easy.

Chances of Employability of the Students who have opted for the Course:

Animation is now used for

§ business web pages

§ electronic business cards

§ short sequences on company websites

§ communications to maintain customer relations

§ product use tutorials

§ product demonstrations

§ large-scale walk-throughs

§ process and system

§ marketing and advertising

Many business, institutions, organizations and SMEs therefore need people to do this work. The students who have completed this course are going to get job opportunities in the fields mentioned above. The course was successfully conducted by Dr. Christina DeCoursey. Ms. Aruna Shinde assisted Dr. Christina in the implementation of the course. Dr. Shilpagauri Ganpule, Dr. Sangita Ghodake, Prof. Namrata Alhat, Prof. Rupal Waghmare and Prof. Ashutosh Thakare effectively organized the course under the able guidance of Principal Dr. Nitin Ghorpade.

Here are some of the animated videos that were made by students in this course.

Sr.No.

Name of the Student

YouTube link

Satish Thakar

http://youtu.be/M3S8bJiTNP4

Manisha Auti

http://youtu.be/dzgutse4qLc

Kiran Naik

http://youtu.be/BrzmwgRHqg4

Rupali Jadhav

http://youtu.be/VhxKuiGm2_E