Monthly Archives: August 2006

One Man Army Plots World Domination

Animation companies worldwide are fighting for your attention – on your TV, your game console, even your mobile phone. And Dallas Bolton’s One Man Army is caught in the fray.

“I just want to bring the crazy ideas I have in my head to life!” Dallas Bolton says of his reasons for joining the war, “Animation is one of the most creative ways to express yourself fully and to the point.”

After years of hard labor in the grocery and seafood industry, Dallas looked to animation as his way out. He volunteered his services in 1998 and was immediately sent to animation boot camp: “VFS was a lot of fun! My class was one of the rowdy classes – a lot of strong personalities that usually worked well together but annoyed a lot of the people outside our group.” Dallas says.Dallas’ talent with the pencil soon became known amongst his teachers, “I was lucky enough to have Mike Grimshaw as one of my teachers. He helped me get a small gig at A.K.A Cartoon.”

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A Great Big Robot Screens at Siggraph

ACM Siggraph, the world’s preeminent authority on computer-generated imagery, has honoured Mark Shirra, a recent VFS graduate, by selecting his student film to screen at the Siggraph|2006 Computer Animation Festival.

Mark’s film A Great Big Robot From Outer Space Ate My Homework is typical amongst VFS 3D Animation & Visual Effects student films in that it was created in one year, yet is atypical in that it shows superior storytelling intuition, imaginative humour, and extreme technical skill – exactly the combination that Siggraph applauds. Out of the seven hundred and twenty six submissions to the festival, Robot was one of the 97 chosen to screen.

“Word is out that the Siggraph|2006 Computer Animation Festival is one of the premier venues for showcasing artistic talent in the film world,” says Terrence Masson, the Siggraph|2006 Computer Animation Festival Chair. ”In fact, we witnessed a remarkable 25% increase in submissions from 2005 to 2006, and with that increase the competition amongst films is fierce. The bar of excellence has risen even higher and this year’s crop of accepted pieces is diverse, thought-provoking, and technically superb.”

The acceptance comes hot on the heels of Mark’s recent hiring at Pixar. Stay tuned to VFS.com for an upcoming story on all of Mark Shirra’s post-graduation adventures.