Last month, Vancouver Film School offered aspiring animators in Mexico the opportunity to experience VFS for themselves, through an Animation Intensive at Tecnolόgico de Monterrey . This five-day workshop, led by our own faculty of industry professionals, offered a taste of VFS’s Classical Animation and Digital Character Animation programs.
The students were exposed to animation fundamentals and shown ways to apply them in traditional and digital environments while learning some incredible new tools and exercises that will help them grow their skills and expertise. We were thrilled to be able to bring this particular opportunity to Mexico for the first time and the students seemed pretty happy to have us as well – the program sold out! We also received some very positive feedback about the event from some of the students who attended.
“It was a great experience,” said Guillermo Campos, who told us that he learned a lot and was shown aspects of animation that he had never taken into account before. “This will now make it easier for me to improve my animation skills,” he said.
Joel Hernández told us that the experience was really useful – not only the technical side but the artistic aspect as well. “The professors were really prepared and have the experience necessary to provide us with helpful feedback,” he shared.
Check out the photos below to see the students in action!
Learn more about our 2012 Summer Intensives beginning in July.
On Saturday, May 12, VFS Digital Design will host IxDA Vancouver’s Interaction12 Redux, a half-day mini-conference with speakers and discussions about interaction design, industry trends, inspiration, and ideas. As Presenting Partner for the event, VFS welcomes local designers to the VFS Main Theatre for a lineup that includes Scott Nazarian (Frog Design), Mike Kruzeniski (Microsoft), and Ryan Betts (Adobe). The event follows the full Interaction12 conference in Dublin, so if you missed it in February, IxDA’s got your back! We’re working with IxDA as part of our ongoing commitment to support the design community in Vancouver and beyond. For a small group of outstanding Digital Design students, it also means the chance to attend Interaction12 Redux. We’ll have a report from one of them next week, so stay tuned. Want to know more about Interaction12 Redux? Get all the details right here. If you’ve already got tickets, we’ll see you at VFS on Saturday! Via oomph, the VFS Digital Design community
Is it possible to have a life-changing experience in just five days? If you were to ask past participants in Summer Intensives at Vancouver Film School, the answer would be a resounding yes! Nine programs. Five days each. A firsthand look inside our acclaimed programs. That’s what it’s all about. In one week with us this summer, you’ll: Best of all, the cost of your Summer Intensive is applied against your tuition if you choose to enroll in a full-time VFS program. If you’re seriously considering an education at VFS, you can’t lose. Visit the Summer Intensives website for all the details and to register right now.
For anyone who missed out this time, participants spent two consecutive weekends (Friday evening through Sunday) at VFS, getting a taste of what you will learn inside the full one-year program. After the first weekend, everyone was assigned to write their own short script to be workshopped on the second weekend. We’re lucky to have a recent participant, also a copywriter by day, give us her thoughts on the entire experience. Guest Post by Jessica Mori For 4 years now, I have paid my rent disguising myself as a “real writer” in the dark abyss known as advertising. It’s a job that demands creativity and ultimately prepares you for life as a screenwriter – high stress, tight deadlines, and constant rejection. To my relief, our guest speaker, Jim Jennewein (Richie Rich, The Flintstones) explained how he too worked as a copywriter before entering the golden gates of Hollywood, and how it served him well throughout his career. Rodger Cove, our instructor on Character, also spoke of his experience in advertising. It was clear: I was destined to be a screenwriter. Not. My first draft [of a short script] was the product of 4 days and 3 nights of procrastination. Despite all the lectures and the voices in my head saying “Just get it on the page”, I was too fraught with self-doubt to just let go and accept that your first time sucks. Come Saturday morning, I had in my hands a first draft that was pretty well awful. But, with the help of my surprisingly non-judgmental classmates and our script surgeon, instructor Kat Montagu, I was able to pinpoint the problems, reconstruct, and bring my story back to life. Second, third, and fourth drafts later, I had a script that I didn’t immediately feel the need to shred. What the Two-Weekend Intensive did for me was give me a safe place to fail. From the first day at VFS, I could feel that the instructors were there because they have a passion for what they do, and they haven’t been soured by the industry or their years of experience. They really want you to succeed and will give you the best tools and information in order to do that. Most importantly, they inspire you. Then it’s up to you to take that inspiration and do something with it – like write a crappy first draft. Because without that – without the blood, sweat, and violent cursing that goes along with putting real words onto a page, there’s no reward. And there’s definitely no screenplay. Even Ernest Hemingway said, “The first draft of anything is shit”. So there – what more inspiration do you need? If you have even the slightest interest in becoming a screenwriter, take this program. If nothing else, you’ll leave inspired. Thanks, Jessica! Check out a Flickr slideshow of photos from the Spring 2012 Two-Weekend Intensive.
Founded in 1987, VFS has become the destination for amazing artists from all over the country – and around the world. The 2012 Cross-Canada Roadshow is your chance to discover if VFS is right for you, and how you can get started on a rewarding path in the entertainment industry. Sign up to attend one of these free info sessions, where you will: - Hear about an exclusive scholarship opportunity for attendees April 11: Fredericton Click here to find out all the details and register now. We hope to see you this spring in a city near you!
This spring, you’ll have a chance to meet a diverse group of writers and take on a barrage of screenwriting tools, techniques, and exercises that closely represent what students learn in the one-year Writing for Film & Television program. The first weekend (March 23-25) focuses on the elements of great storytelling and the business of screenwriting, and the second weekend (March 30-April 1) is all about workshopping and discovering how the words on the page affect the production process. Here’s what participants said after finishing the Writing for Film & Television Two-Weekend Intensive last fall: “It was exactly what I wanted, and exceeded every possible expectation.” “The instructors were knowledgeable, personable and it was a great learning environment, impressive amount of feedback and insight.” “I learned a lot in making interesting dialogue, about pitching as well as about the film business from the instructors.” Find out more and register here. Don’t miss this opportunity to get a taste of the program that helped launch the careers of screenwriters like Terri Tachell (District 9) and Seth Lochhead (Hanna).
Saturday’s sold-out Industry Speaker Day featured some of the biggest names in gaming. Bruce Nesmith of Bethesda, the Director of Design on the runaway choice for 2011′s Game of the Year, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, delivered the keynote presentation. To date Skyrim has sold 10 million copies, an amazing feat for a game released in November, and part of its success is the Radiant Story system Bruce and his team used to create dynamic quests. But, Bruce warned, “Radiant Story is a tool. You can use a tool poorly. It will not make content. Storytelling is a uniquely human endeavour; people make good stories.” Associate Lead Designer Emmanuel Lusinchi, who helped start BioWare’s Austin studio to create the most-anticipated MMO in years, Star Wars: The Old Republic, walked the captivated audience through the lessons his team had learned, lessons that he admitted were freely given by the developers of another, high-profile MMO. “They told us we could know their secrets, because no one ever followed them.” He said that a lot of what they learned about player interaction came from their own experiences, such as in high school where you learn that talking to strangers can lead to ridicule. “But,” he added, “maybe you had a different childhood.” Other presentations featured Dan Taylor exploring the fallacies behind entrenched views on level design, VFS grad Bruce Kelly‘s journey from family games to the gritty near-future of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and Mark Acero of Radical Entertainment on how you can create more organic, fluid combat systems. The day’s talks ended with a fairly raucous panel discussion with local indie developers, moderated by Victor Lucas of Electric Playground, which discussed whether multi-millionaire developers could still be considered “indie”, why some of the most innovative game design is coming out of Scandinavia, and how to stay true to your ideas while still paying the mortgage. On Sunday, people came out in the hundreds to Vancouver Film School for a free Game Design Open House, the first in the new Game Design campus, for a day of learning, meeting the people who make the acclaimed program tick, and giveaways, games, and standing-room-only sample classes. The Open House also marked the official launch of the 2012 Women in Games Scholarship, a wonderful opportunity for an aspiring female game designer to receive a full scholarship to the program. In addition, there are scholarships from G4TechTV, Radical Entertainment, Slant Six Games, Annex Pro, and Microsoft/BigPark totaling $15,000. You can read more about them – and apply – right here. Thank you to all our speakers, sponsors, exhibitors, volunteers, and everyone who came out to share this weekend with us. We’ll have more highlights coming soon from Game Design Expo 2012, including videos of all the presentations. For now, check out photos from both days below, and keep in touch through Twitter: @gamedesignexpo and @vfs.
Local coverage of video games is ramping up, now that Game Design Expo and the Game Design Open House are just around the corner. The Georgia Straight’s Blaine Kyllo spoke to keynote speaker Bruce Nesmith, Director of Design on The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, about the game’s dynamic world system, Radiant Story: Radiant Story’s more extraordinary feature is it allows characters in the world to react dynamically to what players do. “In a big, open-world game like this, to have the world react at this level is pretty new and fresh,” Nesmith said. If a player drops a sword on the ground, for example, a computer-controlled character might approach them with the blade, saying “Hey, you dropped this.” You can read the rest of this story on the Georgia Straight blog. Bruce will deliver the keynote presentation at the sixth annual Game Design Expo, this Saturday, January 21. If you didn’t manage to get a ticket, follow VFS on Twitter for live updates from the event.
As this year’s speakers prepare their presentations on everything from “Dynamically Created Content in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim” to “Creating Cohesive Combat Systems” to “Competitive Multiplayer Design for iOS”, we’re getting excited for a weekend of game design fun and insight. After three years of offering talented women a great opportunity to bring their game design skills to the next level, the full-tuition Women in Games scholarship to the Game Design program at VFS is back. Application details will be announced at the Sunday, January 22 Open House inside VFS’s new Game Design campus. PLUS: There will also be a host of industry-sponsored scholarships (for women and men) from G4TechTV, Radical Entertainment, Slant Six Games, Annex Pro, and BigPark. Register to attend, if you haven’t already! There will be more Game Design Expo news as we get closer to the sixth annual event. To stay in the loop, follow @GameDesignExpo on Twitter and “like” the Facebook page!
Industry Speaker Day – Saturday, January 21 Tickets for Industry Speaker Day go on sale today at 11:00am! See the full lineup, watch interviews and presentations from previous years, and get your tickets at gamedesignexpo.com. VFS Game Design Open House – January 22 On Sunday, January 22, VFS will throw open the doors to the acclaimed one-year Game Design program for a free, day-long Open House. This will be the first time aspiring designers and the public will be able to see inside Game Design’s new 88 East Pender Street campus. Get a hands-on look at the program, test-drive student- and alumni-created games, take sample classes, and be the first to get all the details on the 2012 Women in Games Scholarship! Open House registration is open now!
IxDA Vancouver: Interaction12 Redux at VFS
Announcing the 2012 Summer Intensives
VFS Summer Intensives 2012
Guest Post: Inside the Writing for Film & Television Two-Weekend Intensive
We recently held the spring installment of the Writing for Film & Television Two-Weekend Intensive, placing aspiring screenwriters inside the VFS Writing program for a chance to learn from our amazing faculty and hear from Advisory Board Member Jim Jennewein and TV writer Jennica Harper.VFS is Hitting the Road From April 11 to May 5, 2012!
We’re celebrating Vancouver Film School’s 25th anniversary by visiting 13 cities across Canada from April 11 to May 5, 2012 – and we’re bringing an exclusive scholarship opportunity with us!
- Get an inside look at student life at VFS
- Discover how VFS prepares you for your career in film, TV, games, and design
- Meet a VFS Admissions representative for application and portfolio tips
April 12: Ottawa
April 14: Toronto
April 17: Winnipeg
April 18: Saskatoon
April 19: Edmonton
April 21: Calgary
April 25: Victoria
April 26: Vancouver
May 1: Penticton
May 2: Kelowna
May 3: Kamloops
May 5: Prince GeorgeDiscover Screenwriting at VFS Over Two Weekends!
VFS first offered the Writing for Film & Television Two-Weekend Intensive last fall, offering aspiring writers with busy weekday schedules an opportunity to experience the VFS approach to screenwriting. We’re happy to announce it’s coming back!Game Design Expo 2012 Hits the High Score
All good things must come to an end, and so it is that Game Design Expo 2012, our sixth annual celebration of games and the people who make them, has come to a close. What an amazing weekend!Bruce Nesmith of Bethesda Discusses Skyrim, Radiant Story
The Full-Tuition Women in Games Scholarship is Back!
Game Design Expo 2012 is rapidly approaching — January 21-22 is just a month away!Bethesda, BioWare, and Eidos Headline Game Design Expo 2012!
The designers and developers behind some of the year’s biggest games and the changing landscape of both social and independent gaming – our sixth annual Game Design Expo and Open House, coming January 21-22, 2011, promise to be the best yet!
This year, seven presenters from Canada and the U.S. will take the podium, including keynote speaker Bruce Nesmith, Director of Design at Bethesda Softworks and one of the minds behind multi-award-winning Fallout 3 and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and Emmanuel Lusinchi, Associate Lead Designer at BioWare Austin, who will discuss BioWare’s hotly-anticipated MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic. The day of presentations will be followed by a special panel focused on the local indie game scene.