October 21st, 2021 
Jerry Beck 
Women in Animation is continuing to expand its ongoing WIA Scholarship Program with workshops, tutoring sessions, software packages and cash prizes for recipients of the 2022 cycle from industry partners Animation Focus, Animation Mentor, Autodesk, Foundry, LAIKA, Toon Boom and Wacom. Additionally, WIA’s Bay Area and Montreal Chapters are providing special scholarship prizes for students who have ties to their areas.
The Women in Animation (WIA) Scholarship Program is devoted to furthering the academic efforts of deserving animation students who demonstrate artistic talent, a passion for animation, a financial need, and a promising future in our industry. Applicants who are pursuing various aspects of animation production from schools all over the world who have identified themselves as women, transgender or non-binary are encouraged to apply.
Details for each of the scholarship packages being offered by these partners are outlined below (in alphabetical order):
Animation Focus provides online animation tutoring on a 1-to-1 basis with a professional feature film character animator – 1 hour per week for 4 weeks. Three WIA scholarship recipients will each receive a place in a 2022 Animation Focus class.
Animation Mentor will offer one WIA Animation Scholarship winner a six-week workshop (a $699-$899 value) and will allow that awardee the choice of several courses. With their choice of 10 different classes, which includes the following–Maya Workshop: Animation Basics, Cartoony Animation for 3D Animators, 2D Animation for beginners, 2D Animation: Walk Cycles & Character Movement, Pre-Visualization basics for animators, Storyboarding Fundamentals, Intermediate Storyboarding, Visual Development: Principles of Design, Game Animation Fundamentals, and Digital Painting–the student winner will have many options to best personalize this educational opportunity.
Autodesk is supporting this year’s recipients with licenses of their 3D modeling and animation software. Eight winners will have the choice between one-year subscriptions of Autodesk Maya or Autodesk 3ds Max.
Foundry will offer one WIA Animation winner, $2,000 in scholarship funds together with a permanent Production Collective license to its suite of products, including Nuke Studio, Katana, Mari and Modo. This licence will allow the winner access to Foundry’s industry-leading compositing, editorial, review, modeling, 3D painting, look development and lighting software.
LAIKA is joining the WIA Scholarship Program for the first time this year and they will be giving out two cash awards, up to $2,000 USD, to two deserving students who specialize in stop motion.
Toon Boom will provide both software and scholarship funds for the chosen winners of the WIA Scholarship Program, up to $2,000 USD. One-year bundled licenses of Storyboard Pro 20 and Harmony Premium 21 will be awarded to each finalist as well as funds to support their education.
Wacom is donating Cintiq Pro 16’s to ten WIA scholarship winners. Wacom understands the importance of having professional-level technology as it will set the talent apart for both freelancing work and their creative portfolios making them more hirable in the Animation industry.
The WIA Bay Area Chapter is offering a $1,500 USD scholarship to one scholarship recipient who is living and studying in the Bay Area. This opportunity is also open to students who are currently living in the Bay Area but are attending schools elsewhere remotely this year.
The WIA Montreal Chapter is working alongside Cinesite and ReelFX to offer a $1,000 CAD scholarship to one student who is currently studying in Montreal or living in Montreal but is taking online classes at schools in other countries.
“This is another exciting year for WIA to bring many new opportunities to the emerging talent!” said WIA’s Chair of Education, Hsiang Chin Moe. “As WIA is planning this year’s scholarship program, I am truly amazed by the amount of support we have received from these industry sponsors and because of their generosity, this year’s outreach is much wider with a focus for students who are specializing in technical art, stop motion and students who are currently studying/living in the Bay Area and Montreal. In addition to cash prizes and software packages, we expanded to provide one-on-one online tutoring and technology. On behalf of WIA, I am incredibly grateful for our industry partners who share the same passion as us to commit to furthering educational opportunities and resources to our students who are the future of our industry.”
“The local chapters of WIA felt the need to make a commitment to this year’s scholarship program as a way of supporting deserving students in their area. So many women and non-binary students feel as if they are not accomplished enough to apply and we want to shout out that this scholarship is about talent, passion and need so students should jump in and participate” added Gail Currey, WIA’s Chair of Chapters.
The deadline to submit applications for the WIA Animation Scholarship is December 1, 2021 at 11:59 PM PDT. Eligibility requirements, application and other details can be found on the WIA website here, along with a 20% discount opportunity on WIA Student Memberships.
Scholarship winners will be announced in February, 2022.
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