According to the website of Vancouver's Mayor Gregor Robertson, a motion is being brought forward to support our local digital media sector.

Vancouver’s economy has been bolstered tremendously over the past three years by the creation of well over a thousand new high-skilled, high-paying jobs in digital media and visual effects. These sectors now employ a total of over 25,000 employees in 1300 companies, and Vancouver is now one of the world’s top three global clusters for digital media jobs.

This could spell only good news for graduates of VanArts, who continue to contribute to our local industries for animation, games, and visual effects, not to mention the new frontiers in digital photography and web development which make Vancouver the "new media center for Western Canada."

Click here to read the full motion, including links to recent press stories about our booming industry >>

(Photo courtesy Metro Vancouver)

Last week, from July 9 - 13, VanArts welcomed our annual guest speaker & founding advisory board member Bill Matthews, retired Manager of Artists' Development at Walt Disney Animation Studios.  We started the week with our traditional Q&A session with senior animation instructor Charles Phillips about his career at Disney, NASA and Sheridan College.  The rest of the week, Bill met with animation students one-on-one to offer career advice and feedback on their work.

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.

Thanks Bill for another enjoyable visit, and for your continued support of our staff & students over the years! 

(Photos by Reem Abdel-Jabbar)

Mark Pullyblank, one of our most successful animation graduates and member of our Advisory Board, is directing a new animated short film, and is pledging for support on Kickstarter to fund the project into reality.

(Much of the concept art for the film was done by Lih Liau, another VanArts graduate and one of Mark's classmates working in the animation industry.)

Check out this fantastic video highlighting Mark's career and the inspiration behind his new film, and to help fund his project, click here >>

Our students (and a few graduates) from our Character Animation program got a golden opportunity today to have a Q & A session over Skype with legendary animator James Baxter, from Vancouver to Los Angeles. 

The session was organized by our Senior Animation Instructor Mark Pudleiner, who is good friends with James having worked together at Disney and Dreamworks.  James Baxter started his animation career on Who Framed Roger Rabbit and moved on to work on The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Spirit, Shrek 2, and so many other films.

Our students got to ask him questions today about animation technique, how to stay inspired and what it's like to work in the animation industry.

Thanks James for your time and wisdom, and to Mark for hosting this great session!