Monthly Archives: January 2006

Writing Grad Turns Film Critic

He’s ruggedly handsome, mysterious, and charms all the ladies with his dashing British accent. No, he’s not the newest James Bond – he’s Daniel Champion – movie guru, storyteller, and web writer.

In 2003, Daniel enrolled in the Writing Program for an intensive period of restructuring his imagination. Always an avid lover of movies, it made sense to him that engaging deeply with film would spark his creativity.

“I was completely self-taught before the minds at VFS got hold of me,” laughs Daniel. “As far as the influence of movies on my life, well, they were my life. I was spoon-fed a diet of the adventures of Luke Skywalker, Marty McFly, and Indiana Jones. I come from a generation nurtured on a classic sense of adventure far removed from today’s contemporary quirks and I hope my writing shows this.”

A Million Places Out There

After graduation, Daniel quickly figured out that he could create a profession for himself as a movie reviewer by capitalizing on his newfound knowledge of story structure. Observing the deluge of internet film sites – all needing quality writers to fill their pages – he wagered that if he combined his love of film and music he might be able to claim a niche as a reviewer.

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Grad of 1989 Makes Feature Debut

Scott Weber started as an actor. After many years toiling away on set, Scott discovered that he wasn’t satisfied being in front of the camera. 17 years later, Scott’s finally getting the chance to yell “action.”

Through a little research and some positive word of mouth, Scott became interested in a little film program on the west coast. “I was attracted to the intense nature of the program. I could learn in [the original VFS 6 month Film Production program] what would take me three years to learn anywhere else,” Scott says of his decision to join the young Vancouver Film School in 1988.

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Foundation Grad Transforms into Filmmaker

Narrowly avoiding a life filled with textbooks, lab geeks, and scientific calculators, Alexis Adams left University and enrolled in the Foundation program to learn filmmaking.

“I have always loved watching films and when I came across the VFS website I had a ‘light-bulb’ moment.” At the time, Alexis was attending University in Calgary, “I realized the only reason I was taking math and science courses was because I excelled at them in secondary school, but I didn’t really enjoy them, which was why I was only barely passing in university.”

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VFS Allies with Supinfocom for Exchange Program

When they enrolled in the VFS 3D Animation & Visual Effects program, Brandon and Samuel didn’t expect to get a second year of training at one of the world’s most famous European animation schools.

In early 2005, Vancouver Film School met with the directors of Supinfocom, a famous animation school based in Valenciennes, France. Their intention was to create a link between the two schools, who already share similar renown in the industry. What resulted was the VFS/Supinfocom Exchange Program.

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Arun Ram-Mohan Partly Responsible for Second Ice Age

Arun has a degree in physics and attended Berkeley for his PhD. Even so, something was missing from his life. In the middle of that PhD, Arun had an epiphany that competes with the best of Newton’s musings: he wanted to be a 3D animator.

He dropped everything, enrolled in the 3D Animation program, and hasn’t looked back since.

Working on such titles as Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire, Robots, and Ice Age 2, Arun is quickly making a name for himself in the upper echelons of the animation industry. VFS met and talked with Arun at his favourite haunt, the Metropolitan Art Museum.

VFS: Sounds like you’ve been busy. What keeps you going?
ARM: I get to make stuff look awesome and potentially millions of people will see it. If anyone thinks that isn’t worth putting in endless hours of work for, then the computer animation industry is not for them.
VFS: You’ve worked on some pretty high profile projects. Can you tell us about them?
ARM: On Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire I was an environment artist, so I modeled, lit, texture mapped, and added effects and animations to the levels that the characters walk around and fight in. Because level art focuses so heavily on things like the use of color and composition, it led naturally to my lighting job at Blue Sky. After getting my foot in the door as a Technical Assistant on Robots, I became a full member of the lighting team on Ice Age 2. We’ve just finished lighting that movie this week, and I think it’s fair to say it looks pretty sweet. I’m proud to have worked on it.
VFS: What’s the difference between working on games and working on film?
ARM: I don’t think people properly appreciate this, but game work is actually a lot harder. You have hardware and software limitations that really restrict what you can do, so you have to really use some ingenuity to get things to look as good as they can. Also, you have to make those things look good from every possible point of view, because, unless your game takes place in tight corridors all the time, you don’t know what path the player will take. It’s a real challenge. I would say that movie TD work is by far easier.
VFS: So where next?
ARM: I’m not sure what’s next. When I first set foot in VFS I expected that, when I graduated, I’d probably be doing things like web design work or maybe some simple interactive CD-ROMs. That kind of stuff. Not that that’s bad, but who knew that I’d get to work on Xbox games and do lighting for feature films! So what can I do to top this? Give me a few more years and we’ll see…

Jon Izen Loves Sushi So Much…

Most people are familiar with a variety of sushi types. There’s nigiri, norimaki, and, yes, even yam rolls. But we guarantee you’ve never seen a yam roll like Yam Roll.

The Very Good Adventures of Yam Roll in Happy Kingdom, a cartoon premiering on CBC this February, was spawned by the undercooked minds of Classical Animation grad Jon Izen and his creative partner Jono Howard. It tells the tale of Yam Roll and his… well… very good adventures in happy kingdom. For a preview of this new show, check out CBC Maple Shorts, where Yam Roll recently won the Best Short Animation award.

VFS caught up with Jon Izen and ordered up a few sweet morsels – special today, no charge for you.
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Reagan Forsythe Turns Bloody Gig into Makeup Career

Reagan Forsythe had never seriously considered a career in makeup, but a little motherly encouragement and a robust training at VFS’s Makeup Design for Film & Television program helped Reagan to land the job of her dreams – as a makeup artist in the film and television world.

“My first-ever job was as an actor in a haunted house but, by the time I had finished eight years there, I was Head of Makeup. My mother said that I should do makeup for a living. I had never thought of being a professional makeup artist until that moment.”

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From Ant Farm to Ant Bully

When Ernesto Bottger started at VFS, he didn’t know how to operate any 3D software. Now, a mere two years after graduating, Bottger is a mainstay at DNA Productions where he is hard at work on the Warner Bros. computer animated film The Ant Bully.

Originally from Lima, Peru, Bottger decided Vancouver was the right place to begin formally studying a discipline that had always been a passion he pursued instinctively. It seems he picked a very good place to start.

“In school, you live and breathe a production environment,” says Bottger. “Now that I’m working at DNA, I can see how every step I followed in the production of my student reel was very similar to the process of making a feature film in a studio.”

The Ant Bully

For almost twenty years, Dallas-based DNA Productions has been creating innovative 2D and 3D animated entertainment like the Oscar nominated feature, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius. DNA pursued Bottger after viewing his reel posted on the internet. The opportunity has given him experience on projects of fantastic scope and scale.

Co-produced by Tom Hanks’ Playtone Productions, The Ant Bully is an animated feature about a boy who finds himself reduced to the size of an ant after squirting an ant colony with his water gun. The film is directed by Neutron screenwriter, John A. Davis, and features the celebrity voices of Alan Cumming, Paul Giamatti, and Julia Roberts.

The Life of a Character Animator

As a Character Animator, Bottger’s job consists of bringing to life every character or object that exists within a scene. Animators at DNA are assigned specific scenes out of the hundreds of scenes that comprise the film. This requires Bottger to pay close attention to consistency of story and character arcs to ensure his scenes flow seamlessly into the next.

“It’s all about team work,” says Bottger. “There are no solos in this kind of job. We are constantly getting feedback from our Director, the Director of Animation, and the Supervisors and there are always deadlines to meet. What else can I say? It is awesome!”

The Fundamentals of Movement

Although technology plays a key role in Bottger’s creative process, to his own surprise he is finding that even more important than software is his ability to observe and understand motion and timing. When initially researching animation schools, Bottger placed a lot of emphasis of what computer programs the schools were teaching. But now he is finding that technology is only the means to an end.

“One of my instructors at VFS used to say ‘computers are very big and expensive pencils,’” says Bottger. “Jumping from one kind of software to another isn’t the big deal; it is the fundamentals of 3D animation that I learned while in school that made the difference. It’s true that good software will help you to do good animation, but it won’t do it by itself – you need to be a good animator.”

Digital Design Grad Lands Rockin’ Job at MuchMusic

It causes the blood to race, induces a euphoric response, and comes from Colombia. That’s right – we’re talking about Ivan Mosquera’s day job: writing, directing, and editing at CityTV’s MuchMusic office in Bogota.

Ivan once stood amongst a crowd of faceless humans all rushing to nameless classes across the well-maintained lawns of a cookie-cutter University. But Ivan wasn’t like the rest – and he knew it. He loved computers and engineering, but suspected that a University degree wasn’t for him. Like many famous artists before him, Ivan left the comfort of traditional University and sought refuge in a world unknown, yet still familiar.

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Grads Win Rhythm & Hues Scholarship

Rhythm & Hues , the Los Angeles-based special effects company responsible for the jaw-dropping visuals in such films as The Chronicles of Riddick and The Ring , has recognized four VFS students for the quality of work shown in their portfolios.

The Computer Graphics Scholarship was created by Rhythm & Hues to encourage and reward excellence among emerging 3D artists. The company offers scholarships for 3D modeling, digital animation, and digital cinematography, as well as honourable mention for runners-up.

This year, VFS grads took home four of the eight honours awarded in the contest. Continue reading →