The Golden Compass, likely the most anticipated movie of the season, hits theatres tonight, and we’re proud to say that no fewer than 13 VFS graduates had a hand in the epic adventure. The VFSers who worked on the film are graduates of four different VFS programs – 3D Animation & Visual Effects, Digital Character Animation, Classical Animation, and Film – and include Tamir Diab, Tony Etienne, Justin Hammond, Pearl Hsu, Aruna Inversin, Hyunchul Jung, Andrew Lawson, Matthias Lowry, Chad Moffitt, Fion Mok, Thom Roberts, Ben Sanders, and Adam Yaniv.

Ben says he and his fellow Rhythm & Hues artists worked on “all the animals except the polar bears, our main characters being Pan and the Golden Monkey.” As far as learning experiences on this film go, Ben noted: “Working on the film gave me new insights on how a live action film is made. I love watching and studying how the raw cut looks before we get it. It can be quite funny sometimes to see the footage before computers are involved.”

On his blog, Adam noted two shots he worked on are in the Extended Preview Trailer below — 00:21, the close-up of Pan as a cat saying “That’s odd, she acted as though she’d never seen a person’s daemon before…” and 02:07, the shot of Pan as a ferret peeking from underneath the table.