Monthly Archives: November 2007

Join the Freaks & Geeks

Freaks and GeeksIt’s VFS Sketch Comedy time again! The three-times-yearly event features sketches written by current Writing students, performed by pros (some of whom are Acting alumni) in our very own VFS Café.

These shows will be the debut performances of the newly cast VFS Sketch Company. In order to make the Sketch shows as high-quality as possible — and for the Sketch Comedy class in the Writing program to fully mimic a SNL type production — the school has cast a Company of actors in that will perform the student shows throughout the next year.

The themes for next week’s Sketch nights are “Freaks and Geeks”. Both events will take place at the VFS Café, 390 W. Hastings Street. Doors 7:30pm, Curtain 8:00pm. Cover is $5 at the door. This is a licensed venue – 2 pieces of ID required.

The Freaks Show – Monday, December 3rd

Featuring the talents of:
Naomi Dayneswood, Grace Kim, Rachel Meek, Patti Kim, Blair Hayashi, Jamie Slade, Marcel Perro, and Stephen LeBail.

From the minds of:
Marc Bloom, Alyssa Ciccarelli, Rye Cross, Paul Ellington, Yang Hu, J.T. Howard, Miguel Lopez, Sarah Lougheed, Keith Opatovsky, Nathania Schmaling, Phil Schroeder, and Terrill Smith.

The Geeks Show – Thursday, December 6th

Featuring the talents of:
Amy Couldwell, Lauren Martin, Erin Rideout, Lorraine Colond, Sean Green, Darren Schilling, U-E Sampang, and Darren Borrowman.

From the minds of:
Maya Boskovic, Trystan Carter, Rosely Cortes, Mike Fay, Marc Fredette, Natasha Harychan, Kurt Hoffman, Brandon Klaus, Mary-Ellen Maynard, Alejandra Jimenez, Brent Povey, and Heath Wickert.

Both shows are directed by instructor Morgan Brayton (30 Helens, The Crawford Twins) and produced by Writing grad Robert Woolsey. For more information on these shows, email Robert at rwoolsey@vfs.com.

VFS Sketch Company


VFS Sketch Company (full cast): Darren Borrowman, Trystan Carter, Lorraine Colond, Amy Couldwell, Naomi Dayneswood, Wade Fennig, Sean Gilchrist, Sean Green, Blair Hayashi, Grace Kim, Patti Kim (no relation…), Matthew Kowalchuk, Stephen Lebail, Lauren Martin, Rachel Meek, Marcel Perro, Megan Phillips, Tijana Popovic, Erin Rideout, U-E Sampang, Darren Schilling, Jamie Slade, and Ryan Tapping. Photo by Michele Thompson-Brayton.

Auditions for the VFS Sketch Company are held once a year. If you are an actor wishing to get involved with the VFS Sketch Company, please email VFS Writing Department Production Coordinator Wade Fennig (wfennig@vfs.com).

Friends, Romans, Animators…

Still from “The Shelter” by Classical Animation grad Nicole WangOur very own Head of Animation Larry Bafia is jetting off to Rome this week for the I Castelli Animati International Animated Film Festival. The fest runs from November 28th to December 2nd at Cinecittà Studios. In addition to talking about our programs, Larry will be introducing two films by Classical Animation alumni – Nicole Wang‘s creepy The Shelter and Esteban Azuela‘s life-affirming Swing (how’s that for a double feature?) as part of the Featured Animation Showcase. Buon divertimento!

VFS Artwork Competition

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We want your art!

VFS is looking for high-quality, high-res renderings of student work, to be used in upcoming advertising campaigns and posters. We know that you, and the work you do while you’re here, is the best way to show people what can be accomplished in a year at VFS.

The contest is now closed. Thanks to all who entered!

Recently, we’ve been featuring student work in ads and posters (students are credited, of course!). For examples of the kind of pieces we might use your work in, click on the images below.


The Prize

A complete set of Total Textures CDs, produced by 3D Total. The set is valued at $1000. These discs will give CG artists and animators a huge leg up, giving you hundreds of textures ready to use instantly. Have fun with texture families like “Architectural Showroom”, “Alien Organic”, and “Toon Textures”.

How It’ll Work

Submit your artwork – as many pieces as you like – following the specifications below. When the contest closes, we will randomly draw a winner from all qualified entrants.

In particular, we are looking for high-res eye-catching shots from animation films and reels. We will also happily accept high-res stills from live action films and art created by digital designers and game designers.

Whether you’re a current student or a recent grad, we’re looking for artwork created as part of your year at VFS.

Submission to the contest implicitly states that you give VFS permission to use your work in advertisements, posters, and other printed promotional material. Your name will be credited anywhere your art is used.

Deadline: December 21, 2007
Winner will be announced: January 4, 2008

The Specifications

The requirements for submissions are as follows:

•Width: 4800 pixels
•Height: 7200 pixels
•72 dpi
•TARGA, with background alpha channel

To Submit

Upload your work at http://blog.vfs.com/upload/.

Get your art in by December 21st for your chance to win this amazing set!

Thankful and Giving

Donation at Class Rep DinnerFive times a year, the VFS Student Services department hosts a dinner in the VFS Cafe for Class Reps from every program. This past Monday – perfect timing, considering it’s Thanksgiving week for our American students – the dinner included a little something extra.

Liz McDonald, head of Student Services, and Charles Porlier, Head of the Makeup program, presented a donation to Julia Neville, a representative of the Oppenheimer Park Christmas Fund. The Fund allows various members of the film industry in Vancouver to give something back to the people of the city who are struggling: every year, the fund finances an enormous Christmas dinner for hundreds of men, women, and children in need.

How much did VFS donate? A whopping $ 9,711.06. Julia was overwhelmed by the gift, and noted that this amount is the Fund’s largest single donation – enough to cover the cost of the entire Christmas dinner.

And the best part is, everyone at VFS contributed to the donation. The cash raised came from VFS recycled cans and bottles (thanks to Oakland Vending), the VFS Garage Sale, and the recent Makeup Swap Meet.

The Oppenheimer Park Christmas Dinner always needs volunteers. If you’re interested in giving some of your time, please contact Liz at lmcdonald@vfs.com for more information.

From Animation to Zune

Zune “Float” by VitaminSomething to hold all your Mpfree MP3s. Take a look at this 60-second spot for the Zune MP3 player – the animation and rigging is 3D grad Ryan McDougal‘s handiwork. The Zune gig came by way of Ryan’s role as Senior VFX Artist with Chicago-based studio Vitamin, and was created as part of Microsoft’s Zune Arts campaign. This ad, “Float”, was also featured in a recent issue of the ultra-cool DVD-based Stash Magazine.

After you check out the ad, make sure you catch Ryan’s first bit of YouTube fame – his quietly gorgeous student film Sonata.

Grads Win Stop Motion Prize

trick17_pirateship.jpgA group of Classical Animation grads (and one instructor) have won Best Picture in the Trick 17 Stop Motion Contest!

The challenge, as described by the contest organizers: 30 teams compete over 3 days to write, shoot and edit a 1 to 3-minute Stop Motion Film. But wait, there’s a catch; teams will be provided with a sealed Top Secret style category, theme and Inspiration Package. With categories such as Stikfas, Claymation or Paper and themes such as Music Video, Movie Trailer and Commercial, animators will be challenged to work with familiar and unfamiliar mediums.

The VFS Classical Animation team included graduates Michelle Clement, Tzanko Tchangov, Tammy Dubinsky, Ian Milne, Choom Lam and their former Digital Ink & Paint instructor Jim Inkster (who must have the most appropriate name for an instructor ever).trick17_winners.jpg

On her blog, Michelle notes that the team was given the category of Stikfas, the medium of music video, as well as the music – a rap song.

Congrats to all the team members! You can check out the winning vid here.

And we understand congratulations are also in order for Michelle and Tzanko, who recently — and very spontaneously — tied the knot! Ahh, another great VFS result…

Life’s Good When…

Just a quick note to say that current Foundation Visual Art & Design student Ryan Pennell had his video named a finalist in LG’s Life’s Good When… YouTube contest. That means he’s in the top 20 of 900-plus submissions! The contest asked people to complete the thought “life’s good when…” and Ryan chose to take… well, the direct route. You can see his video (and vote!) here.

The Cinematics of Mass Effect

Screenshot from BioWare’s Mass EffectBioWare‘s much-anticipated action-roleplaying game Mass Effect drops today, and one of those celebrating is Game Design grad Armando Troisi. As Cinematic Designer, Armando was part of the team that delivered one of the most ambitious video game narratives to date.

For a taste of Armando’s handiwork on Mass Effect (and the decision-making involved in the player’s dialogue) watch the last video on this post by BioWare Cinematic Design Group Coordinator and Game Design Expo 2008 speaker Ken Thain.

We caught up with Armando to talk about his contribution to the game, the hurdles the cinematics team faced, and what it’s like to be part of one of the year’s video game juggernauts. Read on:

What did your role as Cinematic Designer on Mass Effect involve?

Armando: Cinematic design is a unique position not only in BioWare, but the industry as a whole. We are responsible for supporting the narrative by delivering the emotional content. We generate cutscenes, conversations, level events, and ambient behaviours to tell the story the writers have laid out. It’s kind of like directing a film, except it’s interactive.

When I first joined the team, I was responsible for designing aspects of the toolset and procedural systems that would support the monumental effort digital acting would demand. Concurrently, I worked out the visual design of conversations, figuring out the aesthetic of the visuals and how that would tie into an emotional experience for the player.

Continue reading →

3D Grad Makes Magic

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Lon Molnar graduated from our Animation department’s third class, way back in ’97, and he’s racked up quite a resumé in the ten years since then. His latest project is the Dustin Hoffman comedy, Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, out in time for American Thanksgiving. It’s the story of a magical toy shop in central Manhattan, and a lot of seamless visual effects were needed to make the place come alive. Lon’s definitely the right guy for the job. Along with his partners Raymond Gieringer, Michael Hatton, and Wendy Lanning, Lon helped start up one of Toronto’s most sought-after post-production companies, Intelligent Creatures. Before he took on Magorium, Lon worked on over thirty films, including Hairspray, Babel, The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl 3-D, and Panic Room. Mr. Magorium is out in theatres now. Watch the YouTube clip below to see what the critics have to say.

Sound Grad on Peking Express

Arturo on the set of Peking Express

No one ever said Sound Design was a regular desk job. After he graduated from the Sound Design program here, Arturo Manrique moved back to his home of Leon, Mexico and quickly hustled up work doing television commercials. Eventually this led to a call from a production company looking for someone with experience in sound, on cameras, who could speak English, and loves to rough it. Arturo got the gig.

Peking Express is the Belgian/Dutch version of the Amazing Race reality TV franchise. Contestants travel through the forests, deserts, mountains, and urban jungles of Central America, competing for first place.

“It’s an interesting show,” Arturo tells us, “like a road trip from Mexico City to Cancún. Eight couples hitchhike for many kilometers with just one Euro each day to eat, move from city to city, and sleep, racing with the other contestants and completing tasks. We went to very impressive places and met amazing people. It was a blast. I got to use some really cool equipment and learn other ways of working in a very fast pace. So I am very happy.”

Check out the great set of Flickr pictures Arturo posted of his time working on the upcoming season of Peking Express.