Diploma of

Creative Arts (Animation)

You can earn this qualification in just 8 months of full-time study, which is two trimesters. This accelerated format is designed to equip you with a formal qualification and a strong foundational portfolio in under a year, giving you a significant head start on your career journey.

The Diploma is a concentrated, foundational course perfect for starting your journey, while the Bachelor's provides a deeper, more advanced education. The Diploma covers the essential skills and is equivalent to the first year of the Bachelor's degree. The degree program builds on this with more complex projects, advanced software techniques, and specialised skills for higher-level roles.

Yes, the Diploma is specifically designed as a direct pathway, covering the exact same content as the first two trimesters of the Bachelor's degree. This gives you complete flexibility. You can graduate after eight months with a valuable standalone qualification, or choose to continue seamlessly into the second year of the degree to master your craft.

This Diploma prepares you for a range of entry-level roles across the animation, games, and digital media industries. Graduates are equipped to work as a Junior 2D/3D Animator, Production Assistant, Junior Motion Graphics Artist, or a 3D Artist Intern. It provides the core skills and portfolio needed to secure your first position in a studio.

No, an ATAR is not a requirement, and you don't need a professional portfolio to apply for the Diploma. This course is designed to teach you from the ground up. Our entry process is based on a creative interview where we are looking for your passion, creativity, and commitment to learning the craft of animation.

Yes, the course is project-based, meaning you will be constantly creating and building a portfolio. You will design your own characters and worlds, storyboard your ideas, and bring them to life through short animated pieces. You will graduate with tangible proof of your skills to show to potential employers or to support your transition to the degree.

You will learn to use the industry-standard software that professional animation studios use every day. The curriculum will give you proficiency in key tools like Autodesk Maya for 3D animation, Adobe After Effects for motion graphics, and other essential software in the Adobe Creative Cloud, ensuring you have practical, relevant skills.

Yes, collaboration is a key part of the JMC experience and mirrors how the real industry works. As an animation student, you'll have opportunities to team up with students from Game Design to create art assets, or work with Audio Engineering students to add professional sound design to your animated projects, building both your skills and your network.

Yes, as an eligible Australian student, you can access the FEE-HELP government loan scheme to fund your tuition for the diploma. This allows you to start your creative studies without the stress of paying upfront fees, and you only begin to repay the loan once your income is above the government's minimum threshold.

At JMC, you’ll choose to specialise in either 2D or 3D animation (or even both). If you’re passionate about drawing, sketching, and visual storytelling, the 2D stream will let you bring characters and worlds to life through expressive movement and design, using industry software like Toon Boom Harmony and Adobe Animate.

If you’re more excited by building digital environments and thinking spatially, the 3D stream will immerse you in the full production pipeline, from modelling and texturing through to rigging, lighting, rendering, and animating, using tools such as Autodesk Maya, ZBrush, and Substance Painter. Both streams share the same core animation principles and industry mentoring, but your choice will shape whether you graduate with a folio focused on illustration-driven 2D storytelling or immersive 3D worlds.

We immerse you in the industry through mentorship from professional animators and a curriculum shaped by major studios. Learning from lecturers who are active in the industry provides invaluable insight, and our strong connections with studios like Flying Bark and Rising Sun Pictures ensure what you're learning is current and in-demand.

Yes. We offer multiple pathways into the course regardless of your current drawing abilities and art is one of these pathways. If you don’t feel all too comfortable drawing, we offer pathways in technical and conceptual skills.

Building your network with like-minded people and meeting people in the industry is really important. We encourage you to attend industry talks and events (many of which are held on campus) and introduce yourself to people. Amazing opportunities often arise through those connections so be open to new experiences. Create your own opportunities as well. If there’s nothing else happening, keep working. Work on your own projects and set yourself tasks to enhance and refine your skills so you not only have great content to add to your showreel, but when an opportunity does come up, you’re ready to seize it.

In the course of completing the Bachelor degree you will complete multiple key creative projects, both solo and in teams, as well as a host of smaller exercises. You will build your portfolio with polished work from your second trimester onwards and your last two trimesters will be devoted to a major project that will showcase your talent and abilities.

Yes. The JMC Academy is registered and regulated by the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) which is Australia’s independent national regulator of the higher education sector, both public and private.

JMC Academy is broadly recognised and accredited:

• Registered Higher Education Provider.
• Accredited by the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA)
• Registered on the Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students (CRICOS).
• Regulated by the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA).
• Member of the Independent Tertiary Education Council Australia (ITECA).
• Nationally recognised within the Australian Qualifications Framework.

Our strong industry links also ensure that JMC Academy qualifications are recognised within the creative industries. 

No, our courses are hands on and practical. Students are required to attend classes to receive ongoing mentorship, learn new skills and work with the equipment provided. We do encourage our students to use online study resources, however our courses would not be as immersive as they are without the practical component.