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! 

siggraph.org

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. 

siggraph.ca

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.  

VanArts graduate credits crawled upon movie screens over the holiday weekend in the top 2 grossing films, including Visual Effects grad Shannon Caldwell on Eclipse and 3D Animation grad Reika Nishio on both Eclipse and The Last Airbender! 

  Reika Nishio says of her experience: "VanArts taught me not only software and techniques, but also how to be an independent artist as well as a team member.  It was the school's studio-like atmosphere where I learned how to receive critiques and address them.  Soon after I graduated from VanArts, I landed a job at CIS Vancouver and that experience led me to work on various feature films.  After that I have worked at Image Engine, Prime Focus, and Anthem FX on numerous other projects for films and TV series, such as The Last Airbender, The Losers, Invictus, Angels & Demons, the Twilight series, and TRON: Legacy."

Reika is also currently working on the upcoming release of TRON: Legacy along with our Visual Effects grads Lionel Heath, Milan Schere and Entertainment Art sculpture instructor Gideon Hay.

VanArts students have the exciting opportunity to attend a RenderMan Workshop; they will see how Pixar combines creativity with technology to make feature films during a special presentation of shading and lighting for Pixar's Up, with a focus on Pixar's RenderMan.

THE RENDERMAN WORKSHOP:

Shading and Lighting for Pixar's Up (Part 1)

Dylan Sisson will show how Pixar approached the shading and lighting for "Up," one of Pixar's most visually sophisticated and vibrant works to date. Dylan will explore some of the artistic and technical strategies use to create Up's unique artistic style. With several case studies from "Up," you'll get an overview into how Pixar develops shaders, from initial photo reference and concept art, to the final lit shot. Many strategies will be explored, including Pixar's innovative point based color bleeding methods used so successfully on this film.

Introducing Pixar's RenderMan (Part 2)

In the second half, Dylan will focus on the technology used to render the imagery for Up, Pixar's RenderMan. For over twenty years Pixar has relied on RenderMan as a key ingredient for shading, lighting, and rendering animated features. You'll learn about some of the qualities and features which make RenderMan an exceptional tool for rendering animation and visual effects, throughout the visual effects industry. During a demonstration of RenderMan Studio, Dylan will show how RenderMan can be incorporated into your Maya workflow in a straight forward manner. Many of the same strategies Pixar used to create shading and lighting for Up, explored in "Part 1" of this talk, are available using RenderMan Studio. From feature-length films to small independent animation, you'll see how your own projects can benefit from using Pixar's RenderMan.

Who: Dylan Sisson (RenderMan Technical Artist)

Bio- A passionate interest in art and technology at an early age led Dylan Sisson to join the RenderMan Group at Pixar Animation Studios. Since his arrival at the studio in 1999, Dylan has been engaged in the development of Pixar's RenderMan Products which are used to render high-quality CGI for feature film and animation. Currently Dylan is working with the next generation of RenderMan rendering technologies. Prior to Pixar, Dylan began work in 2D animation before moving into all aspects 3D production for commercials, game cinematics, and independent projects. An active artist, Dylan's digital artwork has been shown at industry events such as SIGGRAPH, and he has also created several award-winning independent animated shorts. Additionally, he is the creator of RenderMan¹s infamous walking teapot. Dylan currently resides in San Francisco.