Kyoto Institute of Design, Comic Illustration Course
- Developing practical skills needed today
- Kyoto Institute of Design, Japan
At Kyoto Institute of Design, we offer the Comic Illustration Course to students who aim to develop their drawing skills and apply them in the creative industry. Our curriculum is focused on practicality and application of the skills, because it is our aspiration to produce talents who can ‘build’ the next 5 to 10 years, rather than act upon 5-to-10-year predictions. This is the reason we have offered a Live2D class since the 2015 academic year.
We have a program called the Freelance System, in which skilled students provide creative services to businesses under faculty supervision. The majority of the current projects are for illustration and animation, but we intend to start accepting Live2D projects. Through these projects, our students get to deeply experience real-world projects and develop skills needed today.
The students enrolled in the Comic Illustration Course aim to start their careers in various areas of the industry, such as gaming, graphic designs, manga, and animation. The two-year curriculum has a strong focus on 2D for the aim of strengthening students’ fundamental skills and building an industry-wide recognition for producing talented 2D artists. We find Live2D to be a perfect fit in the curriculum, as it stimulates a broad spectrum of capabilities, such as directing and storytelling, instead of solely focusing on drawing. In fact, some students bloom with Live2D.
Integration of FaceRig and motion capture might open up new opportunities for Live2D, which may well already be under development. What we hope for Live2D is to become an ageless standard in this industry, rather than a cutting-edge technology.
