Animation & VFX

Classical Animation Grad’s Final Project Featured on Cartoon Brew

There’s something in the water over at Classical Animation, and the results are all over the internet. A few week’s ago Vimeo chose a grad’s final project as a Staff Highlight, and now animation site Cartoon Brew has posted the final project of alumnus Andres Tapeton.

As described on the site, Andres hopes to make it a series: “And well, luckily my life brought me to the point that I actually know how to do that now, hah. And that’s why this one is just a prologue of what hopefully will become a personal animated project.”

Well done, Andres!

Update: And now it’s on Applied Arts!

RenderCloud Arrives in Vancouver to Pump Up Production

District 9 put Vancouver on the visual effects map, drawing the entire industry’s attention to the many local companies responsible for delivering high-quality work to studios around the world.

Now many of those companies will have access to a local server farm that will help them to strengthen and quicken production on high-profile feature films in the future.

And that may mean more ways to see VFS alumni work as more studios — with bigger projects — flock to BC to take advantage of the deep talent pool of artists.

The Hollywood Reporter ran this story on Friday as the news broke.

“The opening of RenderCloud makes us competitive with such cities as London and New Zealand, and puts Vancouver into consideration for the next generation of Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings productions,” Catherine Winder, president and executive producer of Rainmaker Entertainment, said Friday.

Guest Post: Rhythm & Hues Visits VFS Animation & Visual Effects Students

Rhythm & Hues, the celebrated studio that recently opened an office in Vancouver, paid a visit to 3D Animation and Visual Effects students earlier this week, to review their work and discuss recruitment. Current student Hugo B. Gauvreau was a beneficiary of their visit, and provides this report.

Guest Post by Hugo B. Gauvreau

Students in the 3D Animation & Visual Effects program are familiar with the daily routine: get up, get dressed, go to school. But today The Studio had an unusual number of students wearing dress shirts and nice sweater vests. Truth is we had a perfectly good reason to dress up, and it was called Rhythm & Hues.

Joe Caggiano, Head of Recruiting, Anjelica Casillas, Digital Production Manager, and Recruiter Maggie Lee not only came down to give us a big presentation on the R&H pipeline and recruiting, but also came in for a tour of our facilities, stopping by The Studio to take a closer look at some of our work. I was lucky enough to be amongst those who got to show off their work. It was a slightly overwhelming experience having not only those industry professionals around me, but also about twenty students grouped around my two computer monitors. As they did for the other work they reviewed, they gave very constructive, straight forward criticism.

During their presentation in the Main Theatre a great deal of emphasis was placed on explaining how the studio is in constant contact with its client, and how the client’s critiques direct the work. R&H has a world-wide reputation as a major player in the industry of visual effects. They currently employ over 700 people in five different facilities: Los Angeles, Vancouver, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Kuala Lumpur.

Now, here is what we all had been waiting for: yes, they hire students straight out of school. Joe went on to tell us about their great in-house one month paid training program, which counts new grads in its ranks. Those “training camps” often happen in the early spring, and they post all the news related to it on their website. R&H uses its own proprietary software, and that month of training is mainly their way of getting people to be familiar with the pipeline before they move them into real-life production. It is important to note that the majority of people that R&H hires (students or not) are put directly into the real-life production pipeline.

Maybe I could sum it up like this: if you were not there, you truly missed something.

Thanks, Hugo!

VFS Instructor Marv Newland Honoured by Vancouver Film Critics

As we head into awards season, one VFS instructor has gotten a head start. This past Monday the Vancouver Film Critics Circle gathered to recognize the best in Canadian and International film, and Classical Animation instructor Marv Newland was honoured with the Achievement Award for Contribution to the BC Film and Television Industry. Both The Province and The Globe and Mail stories show Marv hasn’t lost his trademark sense of humour that made his Bambi vs. Godzilla short such a cult hit.

“Nobody uses film anymore,” he told the crowd during his acceptance speech. “You should change your name to the Vancouver Digital Motion Picture Critics Circle. I didn’t even know film critics saw my movies.”

We spoke with Marv in March about his career, and the satisfaction he gets out of teaching. “Vancouver Film School seems to attract students from all over the world. The interaction of these multilingual students with each other, with Vancouver, and in the making of their motion pictures vitalizes me — in positive ways and in confounding ways.”

Congratulations, Marv!

Check out Marv’s Bambi vs. Godzilla below.

2011 Retrospective: Looking Back on an Amazing Year

2011 has been a year of incredible accomplishments by VFS students and alumni.

For the first time, we saw a Writing for Film & Television student screenplay produced on a global stage with grad Seth Lochhead’s Hanna. A team of Entertainment Business Management students took their Compendium short down to Screamfest LA and beat out seasoned pros for the Best Short Film award. And Digital Character Animation grad Rafael Cardenas took home his first Ariel Award – Mexico’s answer to the Oscars.

As any regular reader of this blog knows, that’s just the tip of the iceberg for VFS alumni achievements this year. Students and grads from all programs raised the bar even higher for the next wave of artists to come out of VFS, and we’ve pulled all of their stories together at vfs.com/2011.

Browse through the milestones of 2011, month by month. You’ll see a special video feature, VFS Blog and In Focus magazine stories, YouTube highlights, and what the wider VFS community had to say about it all.

Congratulations to everyone on an amazing year – and thanks for letting us tell your inspiring stories!

Star Wars: The Old Republic Hits Stores Today!

After six years of hard work, Star Wars: The Old Republic has cunningly made it into stores and online markets just before Christmas.

A MMORPG steeped in Star Wars lore, it’s BioWare’s biggest release to date and naturally features the amazing talents of VFS alumni — including Game Design grad Tyler Hitchings (Associate Writer), and 3D Animation & Visual Effects grads Justin Walters (Environment Artist) and Jason Shum (Cinematic Animator).

If the game sounds familiar, it might be because we’ve mentioned it before: Game Design Expo 2012 speaker Emmanuel Lusinchi of BioWare Austin served as Associate Lead Designer and will be presenting a talk on Industry Speaker Day titled “It Seems Pretty Obvious When You Put It Like That – Lessons Learned While Designing a AAA MMO”.

We can’t wait to hear more about all the work that went into what could be the highest-budgeted game ever (over $150 million!).

Congratulations to Emmanuel and all the VFS grads who are celebrating today!

Holiday Movie Preview

‘Tis the season to go to the movies! Hollywood continues to churn out big releases this time of year to give us a couple of hours of escape from the Christmas craziness. Looking back on 2011, it’s not surprising to see VFS grads on these big December releases — continuing the trend of alumni-backed blockbusters (which include 9 of the 10 highest-grossing movies of 2011).

Things kick off today with the release of Alvin & The Chipmunks: Chip-Wrecked and the much-anticipated Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. In Chip-Wrecked, you’ll see the work of Digital Character Animation grad Adam Yaniv (Animation Supervisor) and 3D Animation & Visual Effects grad Derek Tannehill (Animation Supervisor), while Game of Shadows showcases the talents of 3D grads Andrew Juano (Roto/Prep), Paul Rodgers (Digital Matte Painter), Ryan Clarke (Senior Compositor), Steven Davies (Roto Prep Artist), Teh-wei Yeh (Lighting TD), and Rommel Shamoun (Compositor) — along with Foundation Visual Art & Design grad Bradey Strong (Shading & Lighting TD) and Film Production grad Stephanie Meyerink (VFX Coordinator).

Then next week, on December 21, we’ll see the debut of two big-budget films that will be sure to draw large crowds: Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and The Adventures of Tintin.

Ghost Protocol features the technical artistry of 3D grads SriKalyan Tallapragada (Technical Director), Geeta Basantani (Digital Compositor), and Santhoshi Bala (Compositor/Digital Artist) — and in Tintin you’ll see the handiwork of 3D grads Aaron Gilman (Senior Animator), Carolyn Wong (Creature Technical Director), Chrystia Siolkowsky (Motion Editor), Kristin Sedore (Lighting TD), Matt Weaver (Animator), Nick Craven (Animation Sequence Supervisor), Roland Vallet (Animator), and Tamir Diab (Lighting Technical Director). Digital Character Animation grad Chad Moffit also lent his talents here as a Previs Animator.

Congrats to all the alumni whose work will keep us entertained over the holidays!

Spike VGAs Crown the Best of 2011

This weekend’s 2011 Spike TV Video Game Awards offered a few surprises and confirmed some widely-shared suspicions about this year’s best games.

Game Design Expo 2012 presenters Bethesda Softworks won Studio of the Year (an honour previously held by BioWare).  Their big release, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, also won Game of the Year and Best RPG.

Congrats, Bethesda! We can’t wait to hear about all the work that went into making Skyrim at Game Design Expo. (Tickets are still available here.)

Of course, VFS grads also shared the limelight this weekend as a number of games featuring their talents took home high honours. Batman: Arkham City won Xbox 360 Game of the Year, Best Action Adventure Game, and Best Adapted Video Game — which should make 3D Animation & Visual Effects grad Jason Shum happy, as he served as an Animator.

Classical Animation grad Mike Yosh and 3D grad Jason Richmond can gloat a little after their work as Lead Gameplay Animator and Game Director, respectively, contributed to Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception winning Best PS3 Game of the Year and Best Graphics.

And finally, Fight Night Champion took home Best Individual Sports Game. So a round of high-fives go out to Classical Animation grads Bernie Wong (UI Engineer) and Brian Hayes (Lead Designer), 3D grads Brad Saunders (Technical Artist) and Michael Miller (Character Modeler), Digital Character Animation grad Damien Abdool (Character Modeler), and Film Production grad Inder Nirwan (Editor).

Guest Post: Imaginism Studios’ Bobby Chiu Visits VFS

VFS recently hosted Imaginism Studios‘ Bobby Chiu, who shared his experience, techniques, and inspiration with students from the Animation & Visual Effects programs after years working as an illustrator for film. Classical Animation grad – and now current Entertainment Business Management student – Sheryl Vedamani was there with pen in hand to catch some of the advice.

Guest Post by Sheryl Vedamani

Bobby Chiu, an illustrator, educator, and creator of Imaginism Studios and Schoolism, visited VFS to guide students and, in his words, “show you guys what I wish I could tell my old self.” Within three hours, he had covered lessons ranging from motivational tricks, his method of sketching, what makes art popular, how to achieve a strong online presence, and how to close a deal with a potential employer.

One of Bobby’s strongest suggestions was to “visualize yourself doing something before you do it” to create a habit of visualization. It’s one of the hardest things to learn but he said, “once it’s mastered, anything is possible”. He reinforces this by drawing in Photoshop while explaining that low contrast helps you see more. “Sketching is like taking notes for an essay”, by keeping things fuzzy and light, it allows the imagination take over and will train the mind to understand the steps needed to get from point A to point B.

When asked about how to get recognized in sea of artists, he explained that it isn’t enough to just create a blog and post your work; you need to be present in anything related to your medium. Do it all – books, conventions, release art often, forums, live broadcasts, etc. He stressed that ‘going viral’ is the new ‘great’ and to do that, you must have a strong online presence. It’s not enough just to post a work of art online but now it has to offer something more to the viewer. To create something different and special so that others who come across that piece will turn to their friend and share it.

In discussing how to become a successful artist, Bobby chuckled to himself and explained that there was no one way of doing it. Not every artist has the same story but all our role model artists have 2 things in common: they were motivated and they went out to get the knowledge they needed.

Thanks for the recap, Sheryl!

VFS Grad-Founded Blatant Studios and Dan Mangan Team Up

It’s been a steady rise to fame for Vancouver singer-songwriter Dan Mangan – punctuated by a number of spikes in popularity following the release of his newest album, Oh Fortune. Mangan’s notoriety has been aided, no doubt, by two stellar music videos from Blatant Studios.

Founded by Digital Character Animation and Classical Animation grads Jesse Davidge and Jon Busby, the Gastown studio is behind the Leo Award-winning video for Mangan’s “Road Regrets” and recently worked with him again for “Rows of Houses”.

Watch the video below or visit Blatant Studios’ website to see their impressive portfolio of work.