VanArts Animation graduate Javier Badillo is a Venezuelan/Canadian award-winning film and animation producer, director and entertainment business entrepreneur.

With credits in over 80 features, shorts, music videos, commercials and corporate videos, and having started companies in the animation, film and music industries in Malaysia, China and Canada, Javier brings a rich variety of entertainment business and craft experience to his current ventures: False Creek Films, an innovative stereoscopic 3D film company, and Spit Shine Flicks, an independent film production house. Javier holds diplomas in Film Production and Direction, Computer Science, Visual Effects, 2D/3D Animation and Fine Arts, and speaks 7 languages, including Mandarin.

Javier shares with us his journey through VanArts and his evolving career:

"In 2003, I graduated from the 2D Character Animation program at VanArts, a time I remember as being very difficult but incredibly rewarding. It matched the time when I migrated to Canada from Venezuela, and was adjusting to being in a new country. Fortunately, VanArts was small enough that the teachers and students bonded in a supportive community of artists, which in turn fostered creativity, courage and team spirit. Many of my classmates from VanArts are still good friends today.

During my time at VanArts, I signed up for every extra-curricular activity and part-time evening class I could afford, in order to better my skills as an artist (since I was coming from a punk rock music background) and soak in the world-class animation culture VanArts offered. I even took time to create a 2003 yearbook for all of the students there. While there I also made a Flash-animated short film called 'The Catch' which went on to get a nomination for Best Comedic Short at the World's Smallest Film Festival (WSFF) for mobile devices.

After VanArts I went on to study animation and fine arts for 3 more years, and worked at AKA and Atomic Cartoons doing storyboard revisions, Flash animation and asset building on award-winning shows like Ed, Edd, n' Eddy and Atomic Betty, before moving on to live-action filmmaking, which I still do today. I had the opportunity to work on TV series and Hollywood features like Twilight, Supernatural and Smallville, and I now dedicate my time to making my own films through my own company. I also organize the Vancouver forum of the Institute for International Film Financing (IIFF) with close colleagues every month, staying active in the local independent film community and attending film festival markets as a producer and director. Sometimes, when I find the time, I still play in punk rock bands."

You can follow Javier's career progress through his website (javierbadillo.com), IMDB profile, and  Facebook, Twitter, Vimeo, Blogger and LinkedIn.

Enjoy Episode 5 of our "Inside VanArts" video series, where we highlight our most recent graduates from the full-time Acting program at the William Davis Centre for Actors' Study at VanArts. Their graduation ceremony was held in our theater on Friday, November 26th. 

Be sure to check out our previous episode where these actors worked together with our photography students to create their professional head shots. 

In Episode 6 of "Inside VanArts", our Digital Photography students shoot dancers from Harbour Dance Centre in our studio as part of Action Week with instructor Ian Hylands (www.ianhylands.com)

Check out our other blog post highlighting the rest of Action Week, which also included shooting gymnasts and skaters on location.

In Episode 7 of "Inside VanArts" we take a peek into our 2D and 3D Character Animation labs, where students in Term 2 work through their assignments-in-progress.