ISLAMABAD: Unicorn Black hosted the launch event for the Peace Train Animation Training Programme at Marriott Hotel.

The production company that rose to fame with the award winning series, Burka Avenger, has partnered with Epic Games, Reality Forge and Muflehun, USA to provide this training to 100 students in two fields, with a diploma in 3D Animation and Storytelling and a certification in Unreal Engine and Storytelling.

Mohammad Atif Azeem and Naba Zaidi from Unicorn Black were the hosts at the event. Naba said, “Peace Train is a programme tailored to the needs of students who are interested in making it in the field of animation in a professional capacity.”

Adeel Abid from Unicorn Black, said, “This animation programme has been in the making for a long time. It was before Covid-19 that our partners at Muflehun reached out to us and proposed merging peace messaging with technical training.

“With our productions, we have always made sure that mixing entertainment with positive messaging is done so the idea instantly appealed to us. We started to design the programme but then Covid-19 hit and people became more attuned to online learning and we decided to redesign the training.

“For our first batch, we wanted students who were creative, interested in community service and had a knowledge of Maya, the software used for animations. We had 2,500 applicants and our first batch which had 22 students, half of them girls, was quite a success. They appeared for their diploma examination in animation and storytelling and they all passed with flying colours. Based on this, we had other partners come on board and we are expanding the training,” he added.

Haroon Rashid, music icon and CEO of Unicorn Black, said: “This is a very exciting day with the launch of the Peace Train Animation Training that we are doing. I got into animation because I wanted to tell stories that matter and animation is the best method for that. Animation is engaging, it is entertaining and you can go into a fantasy world and talk about serious subjects to change people’s hearts and minds. Apart from that animation is one of the biggest industries in the world. In 2021, it was a $372 billion industry so there is so much demand.”

He added, “As mentioned, 50 percent of the students in the first iteration were female. I was speaking to a famous animation director in Hollywood and she told me even in her own team of 60 character animators, only five were female and she was shocked that we were able to train that many girls in Pakistan.”

Humera Khan, president of Muflehun, spoke about the storytelling component of the programme, saying, “We are a US-based resource centre and the work we do in building resilience is at the intersection of how technology, society, security and peace come together. We are a very mission-driven organisation.”

She added, “The idea behind storytelling is that it is easy to just say something but how do you actually claim your voice. And for that you have to have the skills and you can learn those skills to become more effective. We also teach them how to critically analyse narratives. They also learn about creativity, teamwork and leadership. What we want is for the students to thrive in a professional setting.”

The event ended with a screening of two videos made by students from the first batch of the training and the award of certificates to those students.

Published in Dawn, October 14th, 2022