William (Bill) Dwelly’s film credits include multiple Oscar-winning Avatar (as Lead Technical Director) at WETA Digital; I Robot & King Kong (as Senior Animation Technical Director) and Oscar-winning animated short Ryan.
Bill has worked in the film and entertainment industry since the late 1980’s as a Theatrical Lighting Designer, a Cameraman, Pipeline Developer and CG Supervisor. In addition to his production experience, William was Head of the Maya program at Seneca College in Ontario and is the author of two books; Modeling in Maya and Character Rigging in Maya.
Click here to listen to Bill explain the VanArts Visual Effects program.
Bob holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Animation from the Emily Carr University of Art & Design, and a Diploma in Digital Animation. Since 1999, he has worked as a Cinematic Director, Lead Character Modeler, Technical Artist and Animator, and a Maya and Zbrush instructor for the Art Institute of Vancouver, British Columbia Institute of Technology, Emily Carr University of Art & Design, Radical Entertainment and Vancouver Institute of Media Arts.
Geoff is an environment artist at Propaganda Games (Disney Interactive). His focus is mainly on concept art and modeling. Geoff is a graduate of VanArts' Game Art and Design program. He also holds a Bachelor of Design specializing in illustration from the Ontario College of Art & Design, and was an award recipient for achievement in editorial illustration and academics. Prior to his involvement in entertainment design Geoff worked for seven years as a freelance designer in a variety of fields including clothing design, editorial illustration and vinyl toy design.
Stephen studied animation at Capilano College, and has worked as an animator and concept artist in several Vancouver studios, including AKA Cartoon, Bardel/Dreamworks, Mainframe, Digital Alchemy & Backbone Entertainment. His credits include Mtv's Cartoon Sushi, Stickin Around, Joseph-King of Dreams, ActionMan, Bomberman & Heavy Gear. Stephen is a gifted fine artist with vast experience in illustration, conceptual design, murals, window display installation and foam sculpture for many local businesses.
Chris is a Vancouver-based VFX artist in the commercial, film and television industry. Specializing in digital compositing, he has worked at some of the top studios around the world: Frantic Films, Rising Sun Pictures, Animal Logic, Rainmaker, Zoic, The Embassy and Technicolor. Chris has held various roles including Senior Compositor, Lead Compositor, 2D Supervisor and Visual Effects consultant. He has supervised complex projects of more than 200 shots and managed teams of up to 16 artists.
Throughout his career, Chris has developed his strengths in Discreet’s Flame, Digital Fusion and Shake. Since 2002 he has worked on Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, Ironman, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Frank Miller’s 300, Superman Returns, Night at the Museum, Blades of Glory and G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra.
Chris has also conducted lectures for SIGGRAPH and the Art Institute, been published by Digital Fusion on the topic of Digital Compositing, and published by SIGGRAPH on the film industry in Vancouver.
Chris Van Dyck on IMDB
Landon graduated from the Art Institute of Vancouver with a VFX Digital & Digital Animation Masters Diploma. He is also a certified Shake trainer from Apple Canada.
Since 2003 Landon has worked on numerous film and television projects as a compositor and visual effects artist. Since 2006 he has worked as a digital compositor with Technicolor on film projects including Watchmen, Passengers, Assembly, Postal, Daddy Day Camp, Little Man, Windchill, and many more.
Landon Bootsma on IMDB
Ray was awarded a Bachelor degree equivalency in Education, and holds a Certificate in Photography and Graphic Design. He has also successfully completed rigorous software certification programs in Alias, SoftImage and Houdini. Since 1995, Ray has accumulated diverse professional experience as a Manager of Training & Educational Services, Training Supervisor/Courseware Developer, Senior Visual Effects Instructor/Nuke and Houdini, Compositor/Nuke Support and Pipeline Development.
Ray is a highly motivated Instructor/Curriculum and Documentation Developer and a noted addition to the distinguished faculty at VanArts.
Advisory Council
Matt Welford, current Visual Effects Supervisor at MPC Vancouver, has been a friend of VanArts since his prior position as Head of the Compositing Department at WETA Digital in New Zealand. He started his career at Mill Film in the UK before moving to WETA to work on Peter Jackson's award-winning Lord of the Rings trilogy. Matt also created and supervised compositing and visual effects for films including King Kong, X-Men: The Last Stand, Prince Caspian, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and most recently, James Cameron's upcoming film Avatar. He has visited our school on several occasions to review student work and offer his professional feedback.
Matt Welford on IMDB.
News Story on Matt's most recent visit to VanArts
Neil Eskuri has been in the business of creating computer-generated imagery for feature films, television, and video games for over 27 years. Most recently as a Sr. Art Director for Electronic Arts in Vancouver, where he shipped 6 games including Need For Speed Carbon, Underground 2 and NBA LIVE. Prior to EA, Neil spent 10 years with Walt Disney Feature Animation as Visual Effects Supervisor, Digital Supervisor, Artistic Coordinator, and animator. The films he contributed to include Treasure Planet, Dinosaur, and Fantasia 2000. Neil has worked at several studios in the industry including Sony Pictures Imageworks, Rhythm & Hues, PDI, and Metrolight where he worked on the Academy Award winner for best visual effects on Total Recall.
Having experience with modeling, animation, lighting & compositing, EFX, shooting live action plates, and the 2D animation process, Neil possesses a broad range of knowledge for a variety of productions.
Mark Pullyblank is one of our most successful graduates and keeps in touch with us as a mentor and advisory board member. He has worked as an animator for Rainmaker Entertainment and Frantic Films in Vancouver and is now at WETA Digital in New Zealand, where he recently served as a technical director on James Cameron's Avatar. His other lead and supervisory animation credits include Garfield, Dr. Dolittle 3, Stargate:Atlantis, Elektra, Night at the Museum, Blades of Glory, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Watchmen and many other projects.