[Top: Mr Vincent Ong, MD of IM Innovations (right) with Singapore Polytechnic’s Director for School of Digital Media and Infocomm Technology]

By Geraldine Haruka Ling

Singapore may soon have a hand in creating Hollywood blockbuster visual effects in the near future, thanks to Singapore Polytechnic's (SP) new tie up with a 3D software regional distributor.

Under this new collaboration, IM innovations will train a local pool of visual effects artists who want to work on regional or international blockbuster movies. The company distributes a programme, Cinema 4D, that is widely used by screen hits like Spiderman and Pirates of the Carribean.

To kick start the new partnership, IM will contribute 50 software upgrade licences worth $335,000.

Forty students from SP's School of Digital Media and Infocomm Technology (DMIT) will be the first group to benefit from this collaboration. Lessons will take place in a new visual effects lab to be set up on the school's campus.

In addition to internships, students can also look forward to attending talks and workshops related to visual effects and games development.

Said SP's Director for the School of DMIT, Mr Timothy Chan: "The collaboration is critical in developing the creativity of our digital media students.

"Now they have the chance to be trained in using one of the most advanced animation and visual effects software tools, without having to go overseas."

Mr Vincent Ong, Managing Director of IM Innovations, agreed: "We (IM) have the best tools which are easy to use, but we need to train talents to use the tools right here in Singapore.

"Otherwise, we will not have our own visual effects artists.

Neither can we attract world-class visual effects companies to do work here," he added.