While VFS is a place focused on helping students spend most of their waking hours on amazing projects, staff and faculty also find unique ways to work together creatively.
Dionne Gordon and Jennifer Siddle, the Program Managers for Writing for Film & Television and Entertainment Business Management, respectively, are amongst the many Mad Men fans who can’t wait for season five to finally arrive. They decided to take the critically-acclaimed series into their own… hands.
With the help of many VFSers, they launched Plaid Men this past weekend – a web series that puts hand puppets inside the feisty Manhattan ad agency and picks up where season four left off. You can catch a new episode every Sunday night at PlaidMenWebSeries.com. In March there will be two episodes per week on Sundays and Thursdays in the lead up to Mad Men‘s season premiere on the 25th.
Plaid Men features the talents of Writing grads Bob Woolsey, Derek Thompson, Steve Toms, and Wade Fennig; Film Production grad Ryan Jackson; Writing/Film instructor Rudy Thauberger; Acting for Film & Television grads Naomi Dayneswood, Shannon Lang, Lauren Martin, and Aaron McCallum; and Head of Acting Bill Marchant.
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!
‘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!
Humaira Thalayan, a graduate of both Foundation Visual Art & Design and 3D Animation & Visual Effects, put her skills to the test when she came out of VFS and hit the job market. As she explains, her new job came at the perfect time and has given her an opportunity to help make a difference.
And it all started with a student reel about seahorses. (Check out A Friend Like Me, featured below.)
First off, could you talk a bit about what you currently do in the industry?
Humaira: I currently work as an animator for Wrinkled Pants. It’s a software company that creates iPad apps for kids with learning disabilities, and my job is to design all the visuals and try to make them appealing for children about 8 to 12 years old.
The app we are working on right now is called “Are Squirrels Smart, or What?”, which is the third installment of the “Smart, or What?” series. The previous two were “Are Whales Smart, or What?” and “Are Bees Smart, or What?” which are already available at the app store. The app basically consists of a story with images and 5 to 6 learning activities.
It is a lot of fun getting into the mindset of a child and creating animations and art that would keep them interested and playing the games.
How did you land this job after graduation?
Humaira: It was pure luck I must say. After graduation I put up my reel on many video hosting sites and one of them was YouAnimator.com. Eight months of a tiring job search and I had almost given up. I was thinking I’d have to end up going back home to Sri Lanka, when I got an email from Selma Wassermann, CEO of Wrinkled Pants. She said that she loved my reel and wanted to interview me for a position at the company. She sent me tasks to create a rascally squirrel for their upcoming app. I had a week to work on it, and then I went to the interview extremely nervous. But Selma Wassermann and John Horodyski (Director of Marketing and Business Development) were absolutely wonderful and immediately put me at ease. The interview went great, and 24 hours later I was an animator at Wrinkled Pants.
How would you say the Foundation and 3D programs prepared you for what you do now?
Humaira: The Foundation program was wonderful. I was really uncertain about what I wanted to do in the arts field. I had just finished my degree in Business Computing but I always wanted to work in the arts industry, creating drawings and animation that could reach out and help people. Foundation really helped explore my options, just because it exposes us to a variety of subjects, from acting to game design, to 2D and 3D animation, and film. It also helped me to meet people with similar interests and make connections. After Foundation I was clear that I wanted to do 3D animation.
So I went into the 3D program. It was very different from Foundation. It was a year of intense learning, and hard work. I learned a LOT about the various aspects of creating an animated film. We had to create our own story and concept and bring it to life by modeling, rigging, texturing, and animating. We also learned a bunch about post-production techniques. I think this was a brilliant idea, because in the industry even though you are usually assigned just one position, it helps with communication with your co-workers because you know how the pipeline works. The 3D program helped me create a fun reel, which in turn landed me a job.
At Wrinkled Pants we combine 2D and 3D techniques, creating a 2D look with 3D software.
What were the main challenges you faced while creating your student reel, A Friend Like Me?
Humaira: Wow, thinking back I’m not too sure how I got through that year, haha. Working on A Friend Like Me was a lot of fun for me, but the main challenge was that I decided not to use human characters. It was a big risk, in terms of animating as well as getting a job in the industry.
I decided on using a seahorse as my main character just because I wanted to try out something different. I mean you see humans every day, but how often do you see a seahorse playing with a ball or rescuing a friend? Trying to make my seahorse character relatable and make his emotions believable was difficult. His underwater movement was a challenge all by itself. But I had the best mentors: Casey Kwan, Craig Roberts, and Magic Eslami. They really helped me out every step of the way, and in the end everything worked out well.
Lastly, and most importantly, where and when can we see what you’re working on now?
Humaira: If all goes well you should be able to see the new “Are Squirrels Smart, or What?” in the iTunes store by January 2012, and I really hope you have as much fun with it as I did making it.
Thanks, Humaira! We’re looking forward to seeing more of your work!
A press release for the film hints at the horror to come: “What started out as a celebration quickly descends into a bloody nightmare. Friendships are ripped apart and accusations fly in this blood-filled psychological horror with a whodunit twist.”
Principal photography begins this month. We’ll bring you more details as they become available. Until then, visit DeathDoUsPart.com for more info!
News of her win was announced over the weekend on Teletoon at Night, and Sheryl was kind enough to carve out time in the chaos to answer a few questions.
First of all, congratulations! Tell us how this came about.
Sheryl: Thank you! I sent my short film in on a whim thinking there was no way of winning and that it would just be another place my film was on the internet. I actually forgot all about it until I received an email telling me I was one of the five finalists in the competition. I finally convinced myself that even if I didn’t win, I’d rather lose knowing I had tried my best than if I lost and always wondered what would have happened if I HAD tried.
I then started to inform my friends and family of the competition and proceeded to post the link to the five finalist videos in all the sites I was a regular at. It was great because it got more people involved in picking out their favourites and also gave a chance for people who were curious about the process of classical animation to ask questions. Then one day I turned on my computer and opened my email account to find a message titled “Teletoon at Night Pilot Project: Congratulations!”. I didn’t end up opening the email for a few minutes because I just sat there, staring wide-eyed at my computer screen.
Where did you get the idea for the short? How did you go about developing the story?
Sheryl: I’m a pretty nerdy person. I tend to spend a lot of my free time on the internet, playing games and watching sci-fi films (when I’m not watching animated movies frame by frame). We had about a week left to finish off our first storyboards and leica reels for the class pitch day, but I hadn’t come up with anything good. I had thrown a few story ideas around about animals and children and monsters and so on but nothing had really stuck. I was starting to get nervous. Then at two in the morning, three days before the pitch, I woke up with an idea — or rather, a punchline. I stumbled out of my bedroom to my desk to find a pen. I scribbled down the words “zombies, sister mom douchebag, epic lolz, axe, bat?, weapons?” on the corner of an old assignment sheet and went back to bed.
I had 3 days to do the boards, make a recording of myself doing the dialogue on my cellphone and throw it all into a leica reel in time for the presentation. Luckily I made it. It was rough around the edges — a mess of doodles, a horrible audio recording — but the audience laughed at all the right spots and applauded at the end, so I guess that meant it was good. Worried by the warnings our teachers gave us about how everyone started off loving their film and ended up hating it by the time they get to the clean-up stage of animation, I decided to make it interesting for myself by making the zombies in my film my classmates and one of my teachers (Senior Instructor Dieter Mueller).
It worked. I loved working on my film. I even got all my friends in my film to voice all the zombies. Well, all except Dieter. I had my friend Rob do an impression of him. I sort of hoped he wouldn’t find out that I turned him into a zombie until the actual showing of my film at graduation.
Can you tell us about your decision to take Entertainment Business Management after finishing Classical Animation?
Sheryl: Well I did the Foundation Visual Art & Design program and discovered how I really loved the creative and planning portions of making both animation and live action films. As the time to choose our preferred streams grew closer, I had a meeting with Ted Jones, the Head of the Foundation department, to help me figure out what I would be best suited for. I decided I was more interested in animation so I took the Classical Animation program.
During the program, however, I became more confused. The creative part of me was definitely being fulfilled and I felt I was really learning a lot, but I still wanted to handle the planning, business, and marketing side of things. I talked to a few people about my future in the industry and how I might have a better chance of starting my own animation company in the future, be a production manager in a studio, or be a successful artist if I knew how the business side of everything worked. I then decided that going into Entertainment Business Management after Classical Animation would probably be worth the time and money for me.
Any insight you can give us on the show as it develops? What’s going to happen to these two characters?
Sheryl: They’re best friends and roommates who love games, sci-fi, and the internet, so there will be a ton of references for the nerd/gaming community. This show idea is sort of based on just their friendship (or bromanship) and how approaching life in a way that would normally work in a game or on the internet can, in fact, only end badly if attempted in real life.
How about some advice for aspiring animators?
Sheryl: Remember, you’re not Frank or Ollie yet. There’s still room to improve so be sure to ask for help. Whether you think you need it or not, get some feedback and advice. Sometimes you get so close to your work that you don’t see it from the audience’s perspective anymore and you either overlook something or spend too much time on details that aren’t very important.
Thanks, Sheryl!
You can find Sheryl right now at the Ottawa Animation Festival, on from September 21 to 25. And if you’re there, visit VFS at “Table C”.
If you’ve been wondering what it takes to start a career in film, television, video games, animation, or design, you can find out on October 13 when VFS opens its doors for a public information session.
This special evening features the Heads of Department from all 13 of VFS’s acclaimed programs, representing a huge body of industry credits and high-profile awards in one room, from Tropic Thunder and Changeling to the Academy Award-winning Unforgiven, television series like Three’s Company, Smallville, and The X-Files, the NHL videogame franchise, plus experience working with clients like Nike and Microsoft.
Register now for a night of:
- Advice from industry pros
- Stellar student work
- Live, hands-on demonstrations
- Alumni success stories
- Info on how to apply to VFS
An Evening with VFS
Thursday, October 13th
6pm SHARP
420 Homer Street
Vancouver, BC, Canada
Register online at vfs.com/evening or call 604.631.3095. See you there!
After 5 years of uploading innovative, inspiring, and award-winning student films and reels, Vancouver Film School has reached the 1000-video milestone on our YouTube channel! In that time we have hit over 51,000 subscribers and almost 33 million total views.
As the most-watched student portfolio channel in the world, we recognize the impact of distributing student work on a global scale, helping alumni spread the word about their talents. It’s an extra boost for the students and grads behind some of the most amazing projects created here at VFS.
It’s only fitting that the 999th and 1000th posts are from a project that involves people from so many parts of VFS. In these final videos from Compendium III you’ll learn about the joys and dangers of choreographing fights with real weapons, and see Peter struggle with the choice that will define him.
Brad Keys (r) and Matthew Miner at a Vancouver game jam.
Typically Game Designgrads are at VFS for one reason and one reason only – to make great games. And that’s exactly what they do, at companies like Radical, BioWare, Ubisoft, and Relic. Occasionally, though, they want to stretch their ideas and abilities to other aspects of gaming. Enter Game Design grad Brad Keys and Foundation grad Matthew Miner with their Unity analytics service, Lumos, released through their company, Rebel Hippo.
Lumos, currently a free service, allows Unity game developers to easily monitor their games and player base. It was awarded $25,000 from the University of Waterloo’s VeloCity Venture Fund. We caught up with Brad to find out how he came to be on this side of the games industry.
How did you decide on an analytics service over making a game?
I find that when I’m developing a game there are a lot of moments where I say, “Man, I can’t believe there’s not an easy way to do this”. And game analytics was one of those moments. My friend Matthew Miner and I saw that there weren’t many analytics solutions specifically geared towards games. So we went for it. Our goal now is to make great tools so we can make better games.
What are the challenges with making something like this, when there aren’t a lot of comparable products?
The biggest challenge was trying to architect a way that would ensure that we could offer the service at a price that compares to other analytics solutions out there. But like you say, since there aren’t many comparisons available, it’s tough for us to say how many features we need to offer before it’s worth people paying that money. Right now we’re actually offering it for free and getting as much feedback from developers as possible, so we can get it to a point where developers are happy enough to really want to pay for our service.
Unity has made it possible for developers to produce fairly high-end, graphically-sophisticated games delivered through web browsers. Do you think the industry is headed away from platforms towards web-based services?
I think 3D on the web is certainly picking up fast. The Unity web player install base has grown exponentially over the past couple of years. I don’t think that the industry is headed away from platforms, though. I just think it’s expanding to reach an even wider audience.
Can you give us a quick breakdown of what Lumos offers?
Lumos offers developers real-time analytics. It’s a service that can track various bits of information about a game’s player base. This includes hardware, software, player decisions and accomplishments, and how regularly they play. It can also provide developers with information about errors that occur while people play their games. And we have a feedback system that allows players to communicate directly with developers, to submit bug reports or just give general feedback about the game. The best part about the service, in my opinion, is that it requires no coding to use. You can simply drag and drop it into your game.
Thanks, Brad!
Matthew, the other half of Rebel Hippo, is looking to move onto Lumos full-time come September, while keeping an active hand in filmmaking, game development, and software design. Look out for great things from these two!
VFS is a place focused on helping students spend most of their waking hours on amazing projects, staff and faculty also find unique ways to work together creatively.
‘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).
Humaira Thalayan, a graduate of both 
On-the-rise design superstar Antonio Alarcon Roman continues to garner attention for his impressive skills. A grad of 
As director of The Little Mermaid – 
A small idea can sometimes go a long way. When 
Sheryl: I’m a pretty nerdy person. I tend to spend a lot of my free time on the internet, playing games and watching sci-fi films (when I’m not watching animated movies frame by frame). We had about a week left to finish off our first storyboards and leica reels for the class pitch day, but I hadn’t come up with anything good. I had thrown a few story ideas around about animals and children and monsters and so on but nothing had really stuck. I was starting to get nervous. Then at two in the morning, three days before the pitch, I woke up with an idea — or rather, a punchline. I stumbled out of my bedroom to my desk to find a pen. I scribbled down the words “zombies, sister mom douchebag, epic lolz, axe, bat?, weapons?” on the corner of an old assignment sheet and went back to bed. 
What are the challenges with making something like this, when there aren’t a lot of comparable products?
Can you give us a quick breakdown of what Lumos offers?