Abstract The content of this paper demonstrates how film, screen and 3D animation educators can derive great benefit from incorporating 3D pre-visualisation (previs) content in their program structure. Educators have an obligation to provide students with high-quality, industry-current skills and knowledge. To do this, they must regularly assess the effectiveness of their teaching methods, course content and teaching resources and respond by revising these areas as necessary. It is this obligation to identify ways of improving course content that motivated the topic of this paper. The evidence presented in this paper is gathered from the author's teaching, research and production experiences in 3D animation and pre-viz. For example, events in the classroom revealed that 3D animation students who used previs to block out the animation of their short animated film projects could utilise the previs at various other points along the production pipeline. As a consequence, it was seen that students completing live-action film and television projects could make use of previs in a similar fashion. In fact it quickly became apparent that previs could contribute to nearly every single area of students' animation and live-action film production processes. It also became conceivable that mutually-beneficial collaborations between film and animation students - especially those concentrating on directorial roles - could be forged, where animation students could create 3D previs for film student projects and then benefit from exposure to the live action film directing process. The conclusions to be drawn from these findings are that by taking advantage of the central role that previs plays in film and 3D animation production, educators can provide students with a highly sought-after skill, enable mutually-beneficial collaborations between student filmmakers and maximise productivity in students' creative output.