qantm college..? is that a good choise?

Forum
Industry and Education

i want to study animation in Melbourne, so i searched on colleges and i found QANTM. i decided to study the 'major in animation' course but as i saw it's a 2 years course :/ (why that short?) i would be grateful if you gave me some advices about Qantm college and the animation courses. i know personal work is what matters but qantm's courses fees are way too much and i want to know if they worth it.. :) if you can suggest other colleges, that works too. :) thanks angelos!

Submitted by Emma Hughes (not verified) on Fri, 04/05/12 - 1:05 PMPermalink

Hi Angelos,
Great to hear that you are interested in studying at Qantm College Melbourne!
Though Bachelor programs are typically 3 years in duration, the degree courses on offer at Qantm College are fast tracked, 2 year programs to allow students to graduate and enter into the industry sooner. Further to this, the value that you will find at Qantm College is essentially, but not limited to, the hands on training you will receive by industry professionals.
Have you had a chance to visit the campus as yet? The Melbourne campus is having an open day on the 19th of May from 11am-3pm. This would be a great opportunity for you to have all of your questions answered and really find out if Qantm is the place for you.
If you have any further questions please don’t hesitate to contact me directly via email: e.hughes@sae.edu or phone: 07 3850 2002
Good Luck!
Emma

National Marketing Coordinator
Qantm College Australia

Submitted by Adam Parker on Wed, 16/05/12 - 8:46 PMPermalink

Hello Angelos,

And hello Anonymous ;)

I'm the Campus Academic Coordinator of the Qantm Degree Programs in Melbourne.

At Qantm, we value professional education that's also academically rigorous. We teach because we want to give back to the professional communities that gave us the careers in Creative Media that we love.

My current full-time staff members, all of whom are both academics AND industry experienced, are:

  • Jody Kruger - Game Environments, 3D Modeling - Formerly at Krome (Star Wars: Force Unleashed, Hellboy PSP, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen) etc.; Bachelor of Arts (Industrial Design) Uni Canberra, AIE and RMIT diplomas in Games and Fine Arts.
  • Jason James - Game & Film 2D/3D Animation - Formerly at Ubisoft Montreal (Rainbow 6: Vegas, Farcry 2, EA Sports Rugby 2006 etc.); Classical Animation Diploma, Sheridan College (where Pixar hires from).
  • Dr Ian Dixon - Screenwriting, Academic Practice - Directed Blue Heelers, Neighbours and his own works Wee Jimmy and the feature film Crushed etc.; PhD, Melbourne.
  • Simon Finn - Drawing, 3D Modeling - Formerly at Luminova (visualisation work), multiple exhibitions and awards for drawing etc.; completing Master of Fine Art at Melbourne.
  • Phil Wilkinson - Game & Film 3D Animation - Previous Academic Coordinator of Qantm Melbourne, considerable technical consultancy into the local 3D animation industry etc.; Bachelor of Creative Industries (Hons.) (Comm Design), QUT.
  • Mike Blackney - Game Programming - Formerly at Transmission Games (Ashes Cricket 09, Jane's Advanced Strike Fighter) etc.; Bachelor of Multimedia (Games and Interactivity)and Bachelor of Science (Computer Science and Software Engineering), Swinburne.

Sorry I can't give more comprehensive CVs for them, it's already TL;DR... :)

You will note elsewhere on Tsumea that I am currently recruiting another game designer to complement this team. We also have ongoing game design sessional staff members, who have worked or who currently work at Firemint, Current Circus and NanaOn-Sha.

We have recent graduates working at Voxel Agents, TrickStar, Current Circus, Firemint, Ignition Studios and other places around town.

Readers should feel free to contact me through the normal channels at http://melbourne.qantm.com/en-gb/home/ should you have any further academic questions, or through Tsumea directly.

Alternately, you could come to one of our regular Open Days, where I would be very happy to introduce you to my team and demonstrate our very excellent and industry-informed student outcomes. As Emma noted, the next one is this Saturday (19th May).

Cheers,
Adam Parker

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 17/05/12 - 11:20 AMPermalink

Transparency is a very good thing and seeing that list actually restores a bit of my faith in the overall quality of studying at QANTM. It's just a shame that the Sydney branch tarnishes any attempt at a serious discussion of the college as a legitimate source of education. I now know of at least one game-dev company that actively filters candidates from QANTM based on some examples of their more recent graduates...

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 17/05/12 - 1:57 PMPermalink

It's pretty unfair to judge one graduate based on others, either positively or negatively.
Would it make me want to work there?
I was once asked my religion at an interview and immediately phoned the recruiter who had referred me to say no thanks, even if they offered it.

Submitted by Dr. Jens Schroeder (not verified) on Thu, 17/05/12 - 4:57 PMPermalink

Hi anonymous,

This is Jens, I’m Adam’s counterpart in Sydney. I’m sorry to hear that your perception of QANTM’s work in Sydney is rather, well, poor.

I believe that, analogous to Melbourne, our staff profile reflects the combination of academic rigor and industry skills the Institute prides itself in.

So without further ado, here’s an overview of current full-time staff members:

- Alex Hoetzer: received his Honours from UNSW, worked in the film and VFX industry for 12 years, including such companies as Island Films and Fuel
- James Betar: has a Masters in Design Science from the University of Sydney and was included on the Dean’s List of Academic Excellence; before he came to QANTM he worked for Team Bondi
- Alan Murray: holds a Masters degree in physics and had worked in a professional capacity for more than 20 years, including visualisation and medical imaging. Currently doing his PhD on game based learning, gave a talk at the ASC Conference earlier this year
- Reza Sarkamari: holds two Masters (one in Information Technology, the other one in Multimedia Design), he taught on a post-graduate level at the University of Sydney and is a Certified Adobe Expert for Photoshop, Premiere and Encore
- Duan Sebastian: Bachelor in Computer Science, Masters in Interactive Multimedia, also teaches at UTS and works as the director of Web Design Cafe, member of the Golden Key Society (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Key_International_Honour_Society)
- Andrew Bittman: Bachelor of Computer Science from UTS, currently working on his Masters, actively involved in IGDA Sydney, worked as a project manager in IT for four years

My qualifications, admittedly, are more of an academic nature. I wrote a Masters thesis about the history of games in former East Germany, to then pursue a PhD about the social history of mass media and gaming in Australia and Germany and how it relates to the countries’ histories. Both theses are available as books. My PhD was supported by two scholarships from the German Academic Exchange Service. I also worked for an indie developer in Berlin and am still actively involved in the local development scene.

Similar to Melbourne, we also have several sessional staff members who, in addition to their postgraduate qualifications, either run their own business and serve clients like Samsung or work for companies like Nickelodeon or Disney.

On top of that we do invite high-calibre guest speakers on a regular basis. We had Tim Willits from ID come in to show us exclusive footage of Rage, Martin Slater gave feedback on students’ projects, Jeff Brand talked about the future of serious games, Terry Flew about the overhaul of the classification system, next Tuesday Paul from Bubblegum Interactive is holding a workshop to prepare the students for the pitches they have to do in the first week of the new trimester etc.

May I also point out that the feedback from local developers whenever we send interns their way was very positive. Students had the privilege to work with companies like Epiphany Games, Nnooo, Dinoroar, Bubblegum Interactive and Rotor. In addition, we were able to send students to the Department of Education, the resulting feedback was overwhelmingly positive. We even had a programming intern at Sabre Astronautics, a company founded by genuine NASA guys. Our intern worked alongside students from some of the country’s best universities and was able to hold his own.

We have recent graduates working at Nnooo, Animal Logic, Epiphany Games or Explore Engage. Another graduate made it to the last round of interviews with Halfbrick when they started their new studio in Sydney but decided to pull out and pursue his own business.

Just like Adam, I can be contacted through the normal channels at http://sydney.qantm.com/en-gb/home/ should you have any further academic questions.

In addition, we also have an Open Day coming up this weekend. Feel free to approach me or anyone from my team if you have any further questions.

Hope that helped to alleviate some concerns.

Cheers,
Dr. Jens Schroeder

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 18/05/12 - 9:26 PMPermalink

Woah, what happened to Marty (removed)'s comment, I thought it was quite relevant an answer to the original question..,

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 19/05/12 - 9:21 PMPermalink

haha, lol, that's cool, was just wondering as I quite value this site for insight and was quite surprised by the deletion of a comment which I personally didn't think was that bad :D

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 22/05/12 - 8:23 PMPermalink

I think it's all a bit sad really. It's been this long and he still clearly needs to get help.

Nice link to that concept art site though. Not an artist so wasn't aware it existed.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 09/06/12 - 3:00 PMPermalink

There's so much talented teachers now at the Sydney Campus! I wish I had this when I attending Qantm at the time... Any current Qantm graduates check out Explore Engage, their an awesome team to work for! I'm now happily at Gameloft here in Asia :)

- Andrew

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 12/06/12 - 10:37 PMPermalink

here's a quick little exercise for anyone thinking of taking programming at QANTM, Sydney... ask the programming teacher about his gaming industry experience... like, has he work in the industry, which companies? also I can't help but notice that it is very difficult to find any references for game projects under his name, released or otherwise... not trying to flame or anything, just an interesting observation...

Submitted by Kyneton on Fri, 05/06/15 - 7:52 PMPermalink

Place in sydney is ok. Teachers are OK. Student are not so ok.. I myself have been attacked by a number of malicious students and a group think has begun against me and a colleague despite myself helping a number of people in previous trimesters. Youth there cannot mind their own business and I'm constantly harassed by two students verbally whom I fear i may have to slap with a PVO. I especially fear the way people are beginning to treat me in my classes.

Forum
Industry and Education

i want to study animation in Melbourne, so i searched on colleges and i found QANTM. i decided to study the 'major in animation' course but as i saw it's a 2 years course :/ (why that short?) i would be grateful if you gave me some advices about Qantm college and the animation courses. i know personal work is what matters but qantm's courses fees are way too much and i want to know if they worth it.. :) if you can suggest other colleges, that works too. :) thanks angelos!

Submitted by Emma Hughes (not verified) on Fri, 04/05/12 - 1:05 PMPermalink

Hi Angelos,
Great to hear that you are interested in studying at Qantm College Melbourne!
Though Bachelor programs are typically 3 years in duration, the degree courses on offer at Qantm College are fast tracked, 2 year programs to allow students to graduate and enter into the industry sooner. Further to this, the value that you will find at Qantm College is essentially, but not limited to, the hands on training you will receive by industry professionals.
Have you had a chance to visit the campus as yet? The Melbourne campus is having an open day on the 19th of May from 11am-3pm. This would be a great opportunity for you to have all of your questions answered and really find out if Qantm is the place for you.
If you have any further questions please don’t hesitate to contact me directly via email: e.hughes@sae.edu or phone: 07 3850 2002
Good Luck!
Emma

National Marketing Coordinator
Qantm College Australia

Submitted by Adam Parker on Wed, 16/05/12 - 8:46 PMPermalink

Hello Angelos,

And hello Anonymous ;)

I'm the Campus Academic Coordinator of the Qantm Degree Programs in Melbourne.

At Qantm, we value professional education that's also academically rigorous. We teach because we want to give back to the professional communities that gave us the careers in Creative Media that we love.

My current full-time staff members, all of whom are both academics AND industry experienced, are:

  • Jody Kruger - Game Environments, 3D Modeling - Formerly at Krome (Star Wars: Force Unleashed, Hellboy PSP, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen) etc.; Bachelor of Arts (Industrial Design) Uni Canberra, AIE and RMIT diplomas in Games and Fine Arts.
  • Jason James - Game & Film 2D/3D Animation - Formerly at Ubisoft Montreal (Rainbow 6: Vegas, Farcry 2, EA Sports Rugby 2006 etc.); Classical Animation Diploma, Sheridan College (where Pixar hires from).
  • Dr Ian Dixon - Screenwriting, Academic Practice - Directed Blue Heelers, Neighbours and his own works Wee Jimmy and the feature film Crushed etc.; PhD, Melbourne.
  • Simon Finn - Drawing, 3D Modeling - Formerly at Luminova (visualisation work), multiple exhibitions and awards for drawing etc.; completing Master of Fine Art at Melbourne.
  • Phil Wilkinson - Game & Film 3D Animation - Previous Academic Coordinator of Qantm Melbourne, considerable technical consultancy into the local 3D animation industry etc.; Bachelor of Creative Industries (Hons.) (Comm Design), QUT.
  • Mike Blackney - Game Programming - Formerly at Transmission Games (Ashes Cricket 09, Jane's Advanced Strike Fighter) etc.; Bachelor of Multimedia (Games and Interactivity)and Bachelor of Science (Computer Science and Software Engineering), Swinburne.

Sorry I can't give more comprehensive CVs for them, it's already TL;DR... :)

You will note elsewhere on Tsumea that I am currently recruiting another game designer to complement this team. We also have ongoing game design sessional staff members, who have worked or who currently work at Firemint, Current Circus and NanaOn-Sha.

We have recent graduates working at Voxel Agents, TrickStar, Current Circus, Firemint, Ignition Studios and other places around town.

Readers should feel free to contact me through the normal channels at http://melbourne.qantm.com/en-gb/home/ should you have any further academic questions, or through Tsumea directly.

Alternately, you could come to one of our regular Open Days, where I would be very happy to introduce you to my team and demonstrate our very excellent and industry-informed student outcomes. As Emma noted, the next one is this Saturday (19th May).

Cheers,
Adam Parker

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 17/05/12 - 11:20 AMPermalink

Transparency is a very good thing and seeing that list actually restores a bit of my faith in the overall quality of studying at QANTM. It's just a shame that the Sydney branch tarnishes any attempt at a serious discussion of the college as a legitimate source of education. I now know of at least one game-dev company that actively filters candidates from QANTM based on some examples of their more recent graduates...

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 17/05/12 - 1:57 PMPermalink

It's pretty unfair to judge one graduate based on others, either positively or negatively.
Would it make me want to work there?
I was once asked my religion at an interview and immediately phoned the recruiter who had referred me to say no thanks, even if they offered it.

Submitted by Dr. Jens Schroeder (not verified) on Thu, 17/05/12 - 4:57 PMPermalink

Hi anonymous,

This is Jens, I’m Adam’s counterpart in Sydney. I’m sorry to hear that your perception of QANTM’s work in Sydney is rather, well, poor.

I believe that, analogous to Melbourne, our staff profile reflects the combination of academic rigor and industry skills the Institute prides itself in.

So without further ado, here’s an overview of current full-time staff members:

- Alex Hoetzer: received his Honours from UNSW, worked in the film and VFX industry for 12 years, including such companies as Island Films and Fuel
- James Betar: has a Masters in Design Science from the University of Sydney and was included on the Dean’s List of Academic Excellence; before he came to QANTM he worked for Team Bondi
- Alan Murray: holds a Masters degree in physics and had worked in a professional capacity for more than 20 years, including visualisation and medical imaging. Currently doing his PhD on game based learning, gave a talk at the ASC Conference earlier this year
- Reza Sarkamari: holds two Masters (one in Information Technology, the other one in Multimedia Design), he taught on a post-graduate level at the University of Sydney and is a Certified Adobe Expert for Photoshop, Premiere and Encore
- Duan Sebastian: Bachelor in Computer Science, Masters in Interactive Multimedia, also teaches at UTS and works as the director of Web Design Cafe, member of the Golden Key Society (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Key_International_Honour_Society)
- Andrew Bittman: Bachelor of Computer Science from UTS, currently working on his Masters, actively involved in IGDA Sydney, worked as a project manager in IT for four years

My qualifications, admittedly, are more of an academic nature. I wrote a Masters thesis about the history of games in former East Germany, to then pursue a PhD about the social history of mass media and gaming in Australia and Germany and how it relates to the countries’ histories. Both theses are available as books. My PhD was supported by two scholarships from the German Academic Exchange Service. I also worked for an indie developer in Berlin and am still actively involved in the local development scene.

Similar to Melbourne, we also have several sessional staff members who, in addition to their postgraduate qualifications, either run their own business and serve clients like Samsung or work for companies like Nickelodeon or Disney.

On top of that we do invite high-calibre guest speakers on a regular basis. We had Tim Willits from ID come in to show us exclusive footage of Rage, Martin Slater gave feedback on students’ projects, Jeff Brand talked about the future of serious games, Terry Flew about the overhaul of the classification system, next Tuesday Paul from Bubblegum Interactive is holding a workshop to prepare the students for the pitches they have to do in the first week of the new trimester etc.

May I also point out that the feedback from local developers whenever we send interns their way was very positive. Students had the privilege to work with companies like Epiphany Games, Nnooo, Dinoroar, Bubblegum Interactive and Rotor. In addition, we were able to send students to the Department of Education, the resulting feedback was overwhelmingly positive. We even had a programming intern at Sabre Astronautics, a company founded by genuine NASA guys. Our intern worked alongside students from some of the country’s best universities and was able to hold his own.

We have recent graduates working at Nnooo, Animal Logic, Epiphany Games or Explore Engage. Another graduate made it to the last round of interviews with Halfbrick when they started their new studio in Sydney but decided to pull out and pursue his own business.

Just like Adam, I can be contacted through the normal channels at http://sydney.qantm.com/en-gb/home/ should you have any further academic questions.

In addition, we also have an Open Day coming up this weekend. Feel free to approach me or anyone from my team if you have any further questions.

Hope that helped to alleviate some concerns.

Cheers,
Dr. Jens Schroeder

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 18/05/12 - 9:26 PMPermalink

Woah, what happened to Marty (removed)'s comment, I thought it was quite relevant an answer to the original question..,

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 19/05/12 - 9:21 PMPermalink

haha, lol, that's cool, was just wondering as I quite value this site for insight and was quite surprised by the deletion of a comment which I personally didn't think was that bad :D

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 22/05/12 - 8:23 PMPermalink

I think it's all a bit sad really. It's been this long and he still clearly needs to get help.

Nice link to that concept art site though. Not an artist so wasn't aware it existed.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 09/06/12 - 3:00 PMPermalink

There's so much talented teachers now at the Sydney Campus! I wish I had this when I attending Qantm at the time... Any current Qantm graduates check out Explore Engage, their an awesome team to work for! I'm now happily at Gameloft here in Asia :)

- Andrew

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 12/06/12 - 10:37 PMPermalink

here's a quick little exercise for anyone thinking of taking programming at QANTM, Sydney... ask the programming teacher about his gaming industry experience... like, has he work in the industry, which companies? also I can't help but notice that it is very difficult to find any references for game projects under his name, released or otherwise... not trying to flame or anything, just an interesting observation...

Submitted by Kyneton on Fri, 05/06/15 - 7:52 PMPermalink

Place in sydney is ok. Teachers are OK. Student are not so ok.. I myself have been attacked by a number of malicious students and a group think has begun against me and a colleague despite myself helping a number of people in previous trimesters. Youth there cannot mind their own business and I'm constantly harassed by two students verbally whom I fear i may have to slap with a PVO. I especially fear the way people are beginning to treat me in my classes.