From an action crime thriller to an epic animated adventure, two movies with a VFS connection are in theatres today.
The Fast and the Furious franchise continues with the release of Fast & Furious 6. The film finds the whole gang reunited and working to take down a major bad guy. Is there any other kind?
A whole lot of VFS grads from 3D Animation & Visual Effects, Classical Animation, and Foundation Visual Art & Design worked behind the scenes to create some of the incredible effects you see on screen, including:
Peter Rabel, Rigging TD
Stephanie Pocklington, Modelling TD & Texture Artist
Jani Viitanen, Technical Assistant
Teh-Wei Yeh, Lighting TD
Marco Tudini, Digital Compositor
Mei Chu, Senior Roto Artist/Compositor
Jessica Wan, Compositor
Kristin Pratt, Layout TD
Muhammad Marri, Texture Artist
Angie Sohn, Lighting TD
Khaled Zeidan, Compositor
Chun-Ping Chao, Digital Compositor
Jesus Yapor, Compositor
Monique Williams, Digital Matte Painter
Frank Akrong, Digital Compositor
Artem Palchevskiy, Compositor
Donald Altamirano, Matchmove Artist
Also in theatres today is Epic, an animated adventure that boasts the work of several 3D Animation grads, including Borae Cho (Pipeline TD) and Thom Roberts (Animator). The film, about a teenage girl trying to save the world, features the voices of Beyonce, Colin Farrell, and Christoph Waltz.
Congratulations to all involved!
When Star Trek Into Darkness hit wide release yesterday, it was a chance to dive back into J.J. Abrams’ reinvigorated world of tricorders and Vulcans. For all of us here at VFS, it’s also a chance to do what we love most – stick around through the credits and applaud the artists and technicians who helped to realize entire galaxies, saving us from two hours of papier-mâché boulders. Among them are VFS 3D Animation & Visual Effects alumni like Animator Stephen King, Compositors Denny Ertanto, Santhoshi Balasubramanian, and Moises Flores Cabrera, Modeler Ted Moowon Kim, and Digital Artist Srikalyan Tallapragada. Typical of our global age, they worked on the film as far afield as California and Singapore, at studios like ILM and Pixomondo. Can’t wait to see your handiwork, guys!
Jennifer Mackie, Raine Anderson, and Brad Pitre of Pixar Canada recently visited VFS to share their thoughts and experiences with our students from 3D Animation & Visual Effects, Classical Animation, and Digital Character Animation. Pixar Canada produces animated shorts and television specials featuring characters from Pixar’s prior films. Those who saw Finding Nemo 3D in theatres last Fall will remember Partysaurus Rex, the animated short featuring characters from Toy Story that ran before the film. That was produced at Pixar Canada, right here in Vancouver, BC. Pixar has the creative chops to make things great and they employ talented artists and animators to bring their stories and characters to life on-screen. From idea generation to completion, the team operates by the following adage – “It looks good but can we make it better?” Brad, Raine, and Jennifer were kind enough to provide some further insight on their success. Brad, a Modeler/Rigger previously with Digital Domain, suggested that keeping it simple is key. He also advised that you should always have your work reviewed and be open to constructive criticism. “You learn from failure. Success is great but you don’t learn from it,” said Raine, an Artist previously at Weta Digital. Jennifer, a Lead Layout Artist formerly at Axis Animation, maintained that story was paramount. “Everything leads back to the story – it’s the most important thing. The animation can be beautiful but if the story isn’t good then people aren’t interested.” Jennifer, Katie, Brad, and Raine pose for a quick photo. VFS Animation student Katie Williams was at the presentation and has some highlights to share. Guest Post by Katie Williams Listening to Pixar Canada team members Brad Pitre, Raine Anderson, and Jennifer Mackie was truly an excellent and inspirational experience. Not only were we able to learn about their specific positions at the studio and the hugely cooperative Pixar pipeline, but we were privileged to witness genuine humility. It is the latter detail that is perhaps the most impressive and encouraging. In so many ways, Pixar is the dream studio of any 3D artist. We look at the work that they do and hope that one day we can be a part of it. Meeting three individuals who live that reality and realizing they still feel the same was wonderful. Pixar, as all three mentioned and as we can easily observe, is about quality over quantity. In their talk, Brad, Raine, and Jennifer brought up the idea of plussing, making the most of their allotted time, perpetually iterating on assets, and progressing as a collective and holistic creative force as opposed to working in separate departments. It was this concept that was maybe the most valuable to acknowledge, at least for me, because it makes you realize how truly cooperative the industry is, and how interdependence and constancy are vital to success. Another invaluable practice they touched on was that of referencing in order to stylize reality, maintaining true cinematic language while bringing every part of a world to life, and taking the time to tell a story and to tell it well. It is that last point that proves the most inspirational and the most motivational. To know that the story is alive at every stage of their process, and to know that it can be, makes everything we are doing now as students so worthwhile and on course. A huge thank you to Brad, Raine, and Jennifer for taking the time to speak with our students and to Katie for sharing her thoughts about the presentation.
He’s back! Tony Stark aka Iron Man aka Robert Downey Jr. returns today for the third installment of the Iron Man franchise, aptly titled Iron Man 3. This time, Iron Man faces off against a terrorist named The Mandarin, played by Oscar-winning actor Ben Kingsley. Working behind the scenes were a number of VFS grads, from programs like 3D Animation & Visual Effects, Classical Animation, Digital Character Animation, Digital Design, and Foundation Visual Art & Design. Below are a few of our grads who lent their talents to the film. Great work, everyone!
We all know that person – everything they touch seems to turn to gold. They’re gifted, driven, positive, inquisitive. Yet, in reality, they’re just like the rest of us – at times insecure as they wend their way through an unknown future. Still, it’s a wonder how people like Sarah Jolley do what they do. Hailing from Cheshire, England, Sarah graduated from the Classical Animation program in 2011. Her final VFS project, Skip, featuring a Buster Keaton-esque hero and ’60s blacksploitation heroine tripping from film strip to film strip, continues to earn acclaim both online and on TV stations like Washington and Oregon PBS affiliate KCTS9. In person, she speaks at a lightning-fast clip about Grand National horse racing and the hyperbolic nature of animation. She eschews straight lines because, in her words, they “tend to lie”, and draws with the desperation of a distance runner – she simply cannot stop. When we ask her to list her current projects, she rattles off an animated feature, a book, an online comic book, an online chapter book, plus other mysterious “bits” – it’s a laundry list. She says “some of the best work I will ever do” was storyboarding after graduation at Vancouver’s Rainmaker. She later created D&D-influenced character designs for another client, and is now back in the Rainmaker fold. Which isn’t to say she doesn’t have the same moments of self-doubt as the rest of us – doubt eased by the help and support of a devoted online community on her blog, other blog, Tumblr, and comic series. “Tumblr is quite interactive,” she explains. “I was hemming and hawing and wondering, ‘Guys, should I maybe do this?’ If I hadn’t had the encouragement from my friends, I would never have started. And that’s where my audience has come from and it’s grown – I’ve been astonished at how much people like it, which is really touching.” “It took me the longest time to accept that doing this was something I loved and I could do it for a living,” she says. “And I’m very, very happy that I did because it’s exactly what I want to do for the rest of my life, you know? Find what you love and let it kill you.”
Here’s something surprising about the VFS Summer Intensives. Every year – every year – people come from all around the world for one (or more!) of the 5-day programs. This is what we mean. Behold: It’s kind of astonishing, when you think about it. We all know that VFS is something of a global village, but how exciting is it condense that experience into a single week? We’ve heard from past Summer Intensive students that they’ve made lasting friends and professional contacts in those five lightning-fast days. Now imagine that network extending around the globe. Live far away and thinking of making the trip? Based nearby but want to work alongside talented new friends during a week-long creative boot camp? Seats in our ten programs are limited and going fast, so register today!
Oblivion, the new sci-fi action adventure film starring Tom Cruise and Morgan Freeman, is in theatres today. Helping to paint the bleak portrait of the Earth you see on screen were three of our very own 3D Animation & Visual Effects grads. Congrats to Denny Ertanto (Compositor), Jamie Bowers (Texture Artist), and Nicholas Markel (Previsualization Supervisor) for their work on the film! Check out the trailer below:
Elysium, written and directed by Oscar nominee and VFS alum Neill Blomkamp, is set to hit theatres August 9. And today it finally got a trailer. A very, very good trailer. Behold: (Link for the embed-impaired.) Yeah. We’ll be in our bunk. Stay tuned – considering the many dozens of VFS alumni who helped make Elysium a reality, this won’t be the last you hear about it here!
Andrew Overtoom graduated with honors from the VFS Classical Animation class in 1997 (CA10), and he since has become one of our most successful graduates, working as a Writer, Animation Timer and/or Director for Nickelodeon, Fox TV and Disney on such animated shows as Angry Beavers, Dave the Barbarian, Family Guy, Phineas & Ferb, and SpongeBob SquarePants (including The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie). He has also been known to direct the odd music video (for his band Woodpecker), his own live action features (My Life With Morrissey) and recently had a go at developing a half-hour animated comedy for Showtime (All in the Bunker). He’s also an accomplished photographer, with a show opening this April (25th 2013) in Los Angeles. Whatever he does, he definitely does well, and definitely with humour. He is a very funny man! We recently sat down for an interview with him via Skype from his home in Los Angeles, and this is some of what he had to say about his time at VFS, his first forays into the animation industry, how he got the nickname “The Canadian”, how his VFS education still remains relevant to this day, and of course, what SpongeBob is really like. Hi Andrew, thanks for agreeing to talk with us. You went to VFS in 1996 from New Jersey to study in the Classical Animation program — how did VFS get on your radar back then? Andrew: I did research. I’m good at doing research. Actually, at first, I wanted to do stop motion. I saw Nick Park’s animation, and I thought, that’s what I want to do. I was working at the time as a piano tuner. I was quite good at it. I thought that was what I was going to do for my life; be a piano tuner. Then I saw Nick Park’s stuff, and I thought, no, that’s what I want to do. VFS seemed to have the best program, so I went to Vancouver. I went to Classical Animation because I figured that if I wanted to make stop motion films, then I needed to start with that. We had a great time working with the Rocketship people who were the instructors at the time and were amazing [ i.e., International Rocketship Limited — Andrew is referring to VFS Faculty Marv Newland, Moose Pagan, Michael Girard, and Mike Grimshaw. Oher instructors Andrew referred to during our talk were Andy Bartlett And Gerry Fournier —Ed.]. They were so patient with us. We spoke recently with Trent Noble, who is another graduate from your same class, and he made a funny remark about the old building the program was housed in back then. Andrew: I loved working in the old buildings VFS started out in. I worked with Trent there. When I first meant him, I thought he must be cool because he had the prettiest girlfriend. He brought her into the place in the second week, and I was like, I’ve got to get to know that guy. We worked together on my final project [No Parachute]. He liked to work in the middle of the night and I would work all day on it. It was a very long film at 4 minutes. And of course, this is back when there wasn’t any CGI. Trent told a funny story about going down to LA after graduating, barging into the big studios to get an interview and ending up walking dogs. What was it like when you first graduated? Andrew: Yeah, he was living on my couch when he did all that. I didn’t walk dogs, but just like him I did also walk into the studios with my reel in hand. It didn’t work out so well. I would walk in and say, “I want to make cartoons.” And they were like, “You get out of here and don’t come back until you know what you want to do!” But the options were too broad, and I didn’t really know. I didn’t really know where I fit in the industry. How did you end up as an Animation Timer on Nickelodeon’s Angry Beavers? Andrew: Well, I went in for an interview with this guy, Mike Gerard, a producer, who everybody is afraid of. He can scare the crap out of you. He is a man of few words. He just sort of stares through your head. He could kill you as much as look at you. He smokes cigars and dresses like a cowboy. And drives a big pickup truck. He’s awesome! Anyway, he saw my film [ No Parachute ] and thought I was from Canada, and because of that, thought that I’d be good at Timing. So he hired me as a Timer. I had no idea what that even meant. I went home and told Tricia [Andrew’s spouse], and she asked me what it meant, and I said, “I don’t know.” I thought it was an entry level position. And she said, “Oh well, you’ll probably move up in the company.” Then, the first day I go in there, people are asking me, “What are you going to be doing?” And I told them, “I’m a Timer,” and they were like, “Oh, wow, ….a Timer —Gee, I’d like to be able to do that some day.” So I tell Tricia, it looks like this position is actually pretty important, like, just below being a Director. And she asks me, “What do you actually do?” I said, “I don’t know.” And she was like, “What the hell?” Some of the other Timers weren’t too happy about my being there. They were all saying things like, “Oh, it’s the big Canadian — He thinks he’s so great.” And I would tell them, “I’m not Canadian, I’m from New Jersey.” And they’d be like, “Oh, the big Canadian from New Jersey!” So that became my nick name: The Canadian. They showed me to my cubicle and it had all this wood in it, all these 2x4s lying around. And they were like, oh yeah, I guess we have to move that stuff. They weren’t so happy to have me there. So I guess you learnt a bit on the job? Andrew: There were a couple of times when I thought I was going to be fired. I mean there were people there who really knew what they were doing. And for me, it was like learning a new language. It was super stressful. My face was all red all the time. It was horrible. But there was this woman, who was one of the freelance timers, and I studied her sheets, and copied them basically, as much as I could, and it finally started sinking in. Then, one day — I think I was going to get fired — and I handed in my sheets, and I heard the director go “Hallelujah! — Finally, you got it!” And I was, like, “Oh, thank god!” Well, obviously you took to it. Andrew: Yeah well, once I understood what it was, I was like, Oh, you write it down here, and then that is what the characters do — I get it.” But it took a while to make that connection.
Jeremy Ezekiel‘s trajectory from his year in 3D Animation & Visual Effects to professional compositor has already landed his work on the cover of the preeminent visual effects magazine Cinefex. The latest issue (#133, April 2013) features Jeremy’s compositing handiwork – alongside that of his fellow artists – in a shot of the two-headed Fallon from Jack the Giant Slayer. Now at Method Studios, Jeremy worked on Jack out of Digital Domain – his first gig and first released credit after graduating from VFS in 2011. Look for more of his work on the big screen later this year in White House Down and Ender’s Game. Check your finer newsstands for issue #133 of Cinefex or order it online here. In the meantime, Jeremy took a few moments out of his hectic work schedule to talk about his career – and the shot you see above. Jeremy: When I was at VFS, I used to work a lot on one-off projects on the side. I posted some of them on YouTube and Vimeo to get feedback from friends. Then, in Term 4 [of 6], I got invited to a party by a good friend and a recruiter from DD happened to be there. I jumped on the occasion to give her a link to my work. No later than two weeks after, I received a phone call from her telling me the Compositing Supervisor wanted to interview me for a Comp Intern Position. So I polished whatever reel I had at that point and was lucky enough to get a lot of support and advice from my main teacher, Brent Greening. When I got there, everything went very well. I was complimented for my good eye for detail but nothing more. And about a week later, I got a phone call telling me I was hired. I remember being in front of Marianne [O'Reilly] at that time, stressed out like never before, when I saw the number on my phone. Working at DD was a fantastic experience. It was pretty scary at first because I was thrown in the production world without any training. VFS prepared me well for the technical aspect of the work, but you can’t learn politics and studio dynamics at school. It was truly eye-opening, and I was lucky enough to be surrounded by immensely talented, and patient, coworkers. When did you first develop an interest in visual effects? Jeremy: I know it’s gonna sound very stereotypical, but I swear it’s true – I decided to do visual effects when I first saw the Matrix Trilogy. Since I was a kid, I always wanted to make movies, but when the trilogy from the Wachowski Brothers came out, I became completely fascinated by the world of special effects and visual effects. What I really want to do is to make images that can transport people and suspend their disbelief, images that will stay in their memory for a long time and hopefully inspire them. Were you working with any fellow VFS grads at Digital Domain? If so, what was that like? Jeremy: I did work with a good friend and classmate on Ender’s Game. We were lucky enough to be teamed up together – he was lighting shots that I was comping. It was very rewarding because we received many compliments from the director and the VFS supervisor. What’s it like to see your handiwork on the cover of Cinefex? How does it compare to seeing your work up on the big screen? Jeremy: The modelers, texture artists, layout artists, animators, and lighters played a huge part in doing this shot. I just took everybody’s work and added the finish touch. So I am very grateful to have worked for such an amazing team. When I first heard from my lead that my shot was going to be on the cover of Cinefex, I though he was joking. When I actually saw it on Cinefex.com, I couldn’t believe it. I was extremely happy that our movie was on the cover, and thrilled that I happened to be the one comping this specific shot. Of course, seeing your work on the big screen is quite a sight the first time, but having your shot printed on paper and sent around the world is something different, more tangible and real. What’s something cool about that shot that the untrained eye would probably miss? Jeremy: One thing I learned in this shot specifically is the importance of getting the eyes right. This is the facial feature the human brain will recognize first, and if it is successfully made, the viewers should connect directly with the character. All the emotions are driven by the eyes, so as a compositing artist, you must make sure the brightness, colour, contrast, and vibrance are perfectly balanced and as close as possible to real human eyes. Now that you’ve had a couple of years in the industry, what would you say is the single most important trait for a rookie visual effects artist? Jeremy: The eye for detail. Definitely. The more little details you add in your work, the more your supervisor will appreciate your work and give you more artistically challenging shots. Most of the compositors need to have supervisors and clients to tell them to add this and that, but the “rockstar” compositors are always a step ahead, adding details before they are asked to. And also, a good sense of politics will go a long way in developing good relationships with your coworkers. You come back to VFS from time to time to tutor students. Why do you do it? Jeremy: I enjoy teaching as much as I enjoy being taught. I learned so much from my leads and supervisor, and I just feel it’s natural to transfer my knowledge to others. I do it only for that reason. I teach them only very simple things and fundamental concepts of compositing. The real reward for me is when I see them start thinking about other applications and other ways of doing things and discovering all the different possibilities they could achieve with the tools they already have.
Star Trek Into Darkness
Pixar Canada Pays a Visit to VFS
Iron Man Returns, Again
Aaron Gilman, Animation Supervisor
Alex Berson, Senior Digital Paint Artist
Amir Ronen, Animator/Rigger
Andrew Park, Animator
Casey Rolseth, Visual Effects Artist
Cesar Rodriguez Bautista, Senior Paint Artist
Chrystia Siolkowsky, Rotoscope Artist
Clement Yip, Lead Animator
Daphne De Jesus, Compositor
Diego Piccinato, Lead Compositor
Joshua Herrig, Lighting Artist
Juani Guiraldes, Animator
Kieran Tether, Lighting Technical Director
Kiran Menon, Compositor/BG Prep Artist
Max Vogt, Character Modeler
Michael Miller, Modeler/Texture Artist
Moises Flores Cabrera, Stereoscopic Compositor
Nicholas Markel, Previsualization Supervisor
Paul Copeland, Visual Effects Artist
Tamir Diab, Lighting Technical Director
Tuba Yalcin – Effects Technical Director
Fun Fact: VFS grads also worked on the original Iron Man film as well as its sequel Iron Man 2.
Sarah Jolley on Animation, Inspiration, and Overcoming Doubt
She began her adult education studying Biology and Zoology, and took notes in class using viking runes. She explains, “In cases where the teacher was going particularly quickly I could just… They have entire words in symbols and more. You can just write them faster. Plus, they’re just really easy to draw. Although now I can’t read them anymore!”
How You Can Connect with the World at VFS Summer Intensives
VFS Grads Help Usher in the Summer Blockbuster Season with Oblivion
This Elysium Trailer Is Blowing Our Minds Right Now
Andrew Overtoom Looks Back On VFS, Angry Beavers And SpongeBob SquarePants
3D Grad’s Work Gets Cinefex Cover Treatment
You’re at Method Studios now, but let’s hear the story of your first job out of VFS. How did you land the gig at Digital Domain?