News
Animation Student Vlogs about VanArts
May 16th, 2012Do you want to know what it's like to come to Vancouver and study at VanArts?
David Carnegie, from Saskatchewan, is studying in our full-time 3D Character Animation program, and throughout his year with us, he has been posting a series of Vlogs about his experiences.
In this sample video, David muses about the differences between living in British Columbia vs. Saskatchewan.
In the rest of his Vlogs from the year, David takes you into the classroom, shows us his animation assignments, and shares more of his views on the whole experience.
Click here to go directly to the entire Vlog playlist >>
Woodbury University Named in Top 20 Animation Programs in West US Region
April 27th, 2012Woodbury University in Burbank, CA has been named one of the Best Animation Programs in the Western US by Animation Career Review (the same website which named VanArts #1 in Western Canada and #11 Worldwide)
VanArts has an articulation with the School of Media, Culture & Design at Woodbury University which allows our animation graduates to apply for continuing education towards their BFA in Animation. In the video below, Animation Chair Dori Littell-Herrick explains more about the benefits of their program for entering the animation industry.
You can also read Dori's interview with Animation Career Review here >>
VanArts wishes to extend congratulations to the animation staff at Woodbury and looks forward to seeing our graduates continue into their program.
VanArts Grads Hit the Floor at Fan Expo Vancouver
April 23rd, 2012This weekend was Vancouver's very first Fan Expo convention, which attracted over 15,000 guests into a sold-out attraction at Vancouver Convention Centre. Fan Expo, based out of Toronto, is Canada's largest fan convention for comics, movies, TV and games, and VanArts was excited to be on the floor as an exhibitor to share information about our programs.
Even more exciting was seeing the variety of successful graduates from our full-time programs who were there to greet fans and show their work.
Aaron Douglas, known to many as Chief Galen Tyrol on Battlestar Galactica and Frank Leo on The Bridge, is a graduate of our Acting for Film & TV program at the William Davis Centre for Actors' Study at VanArts. Aaron is among the cast of the upcoming thriller Death Do Us Part, which was being promoted at the Expo.
Georgie Daburas, another graduate of our Acting Department, is currently receiving accolades for his lead role on Hitman 101, a locally-produced web series.
Danielle Anathema, a graduate of our Digital Photography program, has launched her own business for her horror-themed photography, and had her own booth at Fan Expo to showcase her art.
Dan Schoening and Nina Matsumoto are graduates of our 2D Character Animation program, who have both made a big name for themselves in the comics industry. Dan has produced art for a number of clients and created a series of Ghostbusters comics, and Nina has won an Eisner award for her work on The Simpsons comics.
It's great to see the Force is with our star grads who are pursuing their dreams and getting to meet their fans. Be sure to look for us at the Calgary Comic Expo this weekend and Toronto's Fan Expo in August!
Read more about our grads in these previous blog stories:
Aaron Douglas
Georgie Daburas
Dan Schoening
Nina Matsumoto
VanArts Ranked #1 in Western Canada & #11 Worldwide - Survey
April 19th, 2012
Vancouver Institute of Media Arts (VanArts) is #1 in Western Canada and #11 in the world for animation training, according to a new survey by Animation Career Review for the "Top 100 Schools for Animation, Gaming and Design." The strength of VanArts' one-year diploma programs was highly regarded alongside prestigious universities and 4-year degree programs.
The list by Animation Career Review was compiled through a mixture of school reviews, industry-reviewed lists like the Princeton Review, and survey of animation industry professionals from companies such as Pixar and Dreamworks.
Click here to view the entire list of schools >>
Media Contact: Ken Priebe
604.682.2787 x108 ken@vanarts.com
New Student Showcases
April 11th, 2012Enjoy our new updated showcases for several of our full-time diploma programs, including featured selections from our most recent batch of graduates! More updates to our video showcases are coming soon, so keep watch for more great student work.
Seats are filling up fast for our September 2012 and March 2013 start dates, so contact us today!
Digital Photography
Visual Effects for Film & Television
Character Animation
Game Art & Design
Animation Graduate Directing in Mexico City
March 28th, 2012
VanArts is pleased to share a career update from one of our animation graduates, Samuel Rico, who has established himself as an Animation Director at Imagination Films in Mexico City.
Sam started his art career studying and working in graphic/web design and 3D animation for commercials and a television pilot at various studios in Mexico City and Guadalajara. After taking some time off and attending our Character Animation Summer Intensive course, he discovered that animating characters was his new goal and passion. In his own words, Sam says, "I had never been to a place where so many people were crazy about animation just like me, so I was hooked and I left wanting more." Upon his return to Mexico he found little satisfaction in the jobs that were available, so he decided to come back to VanArts and enroll in our full-time 1-year 2D Animation program.
Upon graduation, Sam found work locally at Mercury Filmworks animating on shows Ruby Gloom, Grossology and Gerald McBoing Boing, and continued his studies with AnimationMentor. He then returned to Mexico City to work for Imagination Films, becoming the Animation Director for their 3D animation/motion capture feature films ZBaw and the upcoming Alley of Dreams.
Sam shares with us, "The year I spent at VanArts was a dream come true, lots of work but totally worth it. Everything I learned helped me take my skills to the next level and get a job in one of the most important places for animation: Vancouver! It has been a real adventure to apply all I learned there towards helping to start the industry here in Mexico."
Graduation Spring 2012
March 26th, 2012Congratulations to our Spring 2012 class of graduates from our full-time programs in Visual Effects, Game Art & Design, Digital Photography and Character Animation! Their official ceremony was held at Simon Fraser University's Goldcorps Centre for the Arts on Thursday, March 15th.
We wish our grads all the best and look forward to seeing their names in lights!
Photos by Jen Piper
1920's Harold Lloyd Film Poster found in Vancouver
March 6th, 2012During a recent building demolition at Granville and Robson Street in downtown Vancouver, a fascinating piece of film history saw the light of day for the first time in 90 years. A "ghost sign" (common term for a sign that represents a dead business) pointing to the now-gone Capitol Theatre, where the silent comedy Grandma's Boy starring screen legend Harold Llloyd was scheduled to begin playing on October 2, 1922. This sign was covered up shortly afterwards by another building, hidden from sight until just a few days ago.
Our animation history instructor at VanArts, Charles Phillips (pictured above with two of his students), has a great passion and extensive knowledge of silent film comedians, particularly his hero Harold Lloyd. He has often shown the film Grandma's Boy to our animation students in his history course, and spoken about the influence of the silent film era on the early days of animation.
We went with Charles down to the site of the ghost sign downtown to record him talking about this amazing piece of our city's history, and just one day after we shot this video, the sign was demolished.
Click on the link at the end of this video to continue into a more extensive history lesson by Charles about the history of Harold Lloyd's film Grandma's Boy in context with the silent film era and other artists like Charlie Chaplin.
Shown here is also a movie review and advertisement from the Vancouver Sun from the original run of Grandma's Boy.
For more information on the uncovering of this sign, read this article from the Vancouver Sun >>
Read another article on the final demolition of the sign here >>
Click here for more Vancouver Sun newspaper ads for the film from 1922 >>
Thanks Charles for sharing your vast knowledge with us about this historic find!
UPDATE: Charles was invited to introduce a screening of the film Grandma's Boy at the VanCity Theatre on Wed March 14th
Linked articles © Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
Animation/VFX Graduate enjoys Career at Electronic Arts
February 27th, 2012
Josh Awesome is one of our celebrated graduates with a long history of attending VanArts and working his way through to a successful industry career. When he was still in high school, Josh took our part-time courses in 2D Animation & Basic Drawing, and was also accepted into our Media Arts Boot Camp program for high school students. These courses inspired him to apply to VanArts upon graduation, and he thereby entered our full-time (Classical) 2D Animation Program in September 2004. Josh continued into a second year in our Visual Effects Program, and finally graduated with a 2-year diploma from VanArts in 2006.
Since then, Josh has worked locally at Electronic Arts Canada, where he is currently a senior motion designer leading a team of animators. He has also freelanced for such clients as the Vancouver Canucks, Whistler, and Canadian Pacific Rail, and recently opened up his own company, eyeslice Studios.
In his own words, Josh shares with us, "VanArts provided me with an amazing atmosphere to develop the skills I needed to really succeed in the industry. The instructors were constantly engaged with the students, working one-on-one with us and providing intense but supportive education. There were amazing talks given by leading industry professionals, and this pushed me to do better than my best and prepped me for the real working world. I owe a lot of what I've learned and where I am today to my schooling at VanArts."
VanArts Representing at Fan Expo Vancouver
February 27th, 2012
VanArts is looking forward to Canada's largest Comic Convention FAN EXPO (based from Toronto) coming for the first time to Vancouver on April 21-22, where we will be on the floor as exhibitors, at BOOTH #426!
Even more exciting is watching the guest list grow and witness the various connections the event has to VanArts.
Most recently added is Aaron Douglas, a graduate of the William Davis Centre for Actors' Study at VanArts. He is best known for his starring roles in Battlestar Galactica and The Bridge, and most recently the upcoming film Death Do Us Part. Aaron is one of our celebrated graduates who has often come back to offer his guidance and advice to our current acting students.
Another very recent addition is our Acting graduate Georgie Daburas, who is currently the lead actor in the local web series Hitman 101.
Click here for the full story on Hitman 101 >>
Also among the various exhibitors and guests our own Steve Rolston, who teaches our part-time course in Comic Book Production, and two of our animation graduates who have made it big in the comics industry: Nina Matsumoto (VanArts Grad 2003) and Dan Schoening (VanArts Grad 2000).
Another interesting distant connection to VanArts at Fan Expo Vancouver is the guest appearance of Troy Nixey, who took our part-time course for Intro to Stop-Motion Animation with Ken Priebe back in 2001. At that time, Troy was an up-and-coming comic artist, and more recently was hired by Guillermo del Toro to direct the feature film Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, based on the strength of his short film Latchkey's Lament.
It's always neat to see where our various VanArts students land!
On top of all of these VanArts stars being present at Fan Expo is the full guest list of celebrities, which includes none other than the original 1960s Batman & Robin, Adam West and Burt Ward. (The distant connection here is that the animated titles to the Batman series were created by our founding program director for the VanArts animation program, the late Lee Mishkin.)
Hope to see you at Fan Expo Vancouver! Tickets are now available at www.fanexpovancouver.com so be sure to drop by our booth and talk to us. You never know who you will run into!
