The Pixar Artists Masterclass is coming to Vancouver in September!
VanArts is proud to present a Masterclass in Animation & Story Development with instructors Story Artist Matthew Luhn and Animator Andrew Gordon, both from Pixar Animation Studios.
This exceptional 2-day event takes place on Sept. 24/25th, 2010 and offers participants a rare and exciting opportunity to learn from the industry's top talent. This class has toured the world, with this being one of only two North American stops in 2010.
SIGGRAPH 2010 is currently happening in Los Angeles this week, and VanArts is proud to be represented at their special Vancouver Booth, along with several other local schools, studios and organizations. We are looking forward to 2011, when the SIGGRAPH Conference will be held in Vancouver, the first time outside of the United States!
Also coming soon on the horizon in our city is Spark Animation 2010, the annual animation festival & conference hosted by the local Vancouver chapter for ACM SIGGRAPH. Passes are now available, and soon we shall find out more about which guest speakers & presenters will be in town September 8-12.
Bill Matthews Inaugurates New VanArts Campus from VanArts on Vimeo.
On Friday, July 16th, our annual guest Bill Matthews cut the ribbon to inaugurate our new campus, alongside VanArts President Alan Phillips. The same day, Bill also happened to be turning 79 years old, so our staff & students also wished him a Happy Birthday.
Bill Matthews is a founding member of our Advisory Board and served for many years as Manager of Artist Development for Walt Disney Feature Animation. He has been involved with VanArts since the very beginning of the school 15 years ago, acting as a mentor and guide to our animation students during his annual visit every summer.
Augusto Kapronczai graduated from the VanArts 2D Animation Program in 2001, and since then has had a successful career in the animation industry. He started working in Vancouver and re-located to Saskatoon in 2005, where he currently works as Senior Animator/Concept Designer at DIG Animation. Augusto has worked with studios such as Bardel, Studio B, Atomic Cartoons, Monkey Paw Media, & others, on shows such as Mucha Lucha, The Buzz on Maggie, Being Ian, Viva Pinata, Chaotic, Wow Wow Wubbzy, and the feature film Sinbad.
Check out Augusto's amazing artwork at his BLOG!
Animation Graduate Cody Schroder first came to VanArts as a pre-teenager with exceptional artistic talent in our summer intensive. As he grew up, he returned to take more courses and finally enrolled into our full-time diploma program, taking both years in 2D and 3D Animation, and graduating in 2005.
Cody started his post-graduate career at a Vancouver studio called Koolhaus Games, where he worked for over 2 years doing storyboarding, character design, concept art, and texturing. After his time there, he spent some time freelancing in comics until he landed his current position as Lead Character/Background Artist at another local studio, Kaboom Social Games.
Says Cody of his experience, "Had I never gone to VanArts, I would have been a lost cause. I'm the happiest I've been so far, as this is the closest I've come to doing what I love: 2D and 3D characters, environments, lots of painting in Adobe and even the odd bit of animation. My current job is great, the company is great and I couldn't ask for more."
VanArts is proud to welcome Mr. Bill Matthews again for his annual visit to provide inspiration, guidance, advice and wisdom to students in our full-time and summer intensive Character Animation programs.
Bill Matthews has been a guest instructor and visiting industry professional at VanArts since 1996. He is one of the founding instructors and directors of the Sheridan College Animation Program and is recently retired as Manager of Artist Development and ongoing consultant for Walt Disney Feature Animation. Bill worked on effects animation for Disney's Sleeping Beauty and for NASA, and has been writing traditional animation curricula for public schools and colleges for over thirty years.
This weekend, VanArts hosted a 2-day Masterclass in Toronto, Ontario with animator Andrew Gordon and story artist Matthew Luhn from Pixar Animation Studios. Over the same weekend, Pixar's new movie Toy Story 3 grossed $109 million at the box office!
The sold-out event in Toronto allowed for animation students, working professionals and enthusiasts to gain in-depth knowledge and inspiration, participate in interactive workshops, win special prizes, and network with each other.
Present to host the event were VanArts' President Alan Phillips and Head of Animation Wayne Gilbert, who is giving an Information Session in Toronto on June 22.
VanArts will be hosting another Masterclass with Pixar Artists in Vancouver on September 24th & 25th. Click here for registration information.
VanArts' stop-motion instructor Ken Priebe has written his second book, The ADVANCED Art of Stop-Motion Animation, published by Course Technology and due for worldwide release June 23, 2010!
This new book goes into more detail on the art & technology behind stop-motion animation, including amazing photos and interviews with some of the best and brightest in the field.
Available NOW at Amazon.com & Amazon.ca
VanArts has moved!!! Ahead of schedule, we are in our new space and preparing to ring in the Fall term with our new campus. VanArts has acquired over 22,000 square feet of the top three floors at 570 Dunsmuir Street. The building is conveniently located in the heart of Downtown Vancouver. Every program now benefits from new classrooms, labs and support facilities. Stay tuned as we will be blogging the updates on all renovations to our new space throughout the summer. Better yet, come join us for the Grand Opening in September!
View of the new Dunsmuir Campus (Photo by Jeff Bell)
View of the new Dunsmuir Campus lobby (Photo by Janine Armstrong)
Panoramic view from the new Dunsmuir Campus (Photo by Janine Armstrong)
We spotted a post on Cartoon Brew about one of our animation graduates Javier Badillo, who wrote and storyboarded the following animated sequence for a short film he produced. He assembled a team of animators directed by Atomic Betty director Jeff Agala to produce the sequence. Javier is originally from Venezuela, graduated from VanArts in 2003, and is now based here in Vancovuer as a director/producer.
Henchin' - Animated Opening Sequence from Javier Badillo on Vimeo.