Video Interviews with Animation Grads @ Spark Festival
VanArts caught up with several of our past graduates at the Spark Animation Festival in Vancouver, September 8-12, 2010. Here is what they had to say about the animation program and their professional careers.
Character Animation Showcase
Bill Matthews - Manager of Artist Development, Ret'd, Walt Disney Studios
Bill Matthews has been a guest instructor and visiting industry professional at VanArts since 1996.
Wayne Gilbert - Head of Animation
Wayne’s career spans more than three decades, has two Clio awards, and has worked on productions ranging from Care Bears to Star Wars. He is a graduate of Sheridan College, and has worked there as an instructor and coordinator of their Classical Animation Program.
His professional career has taken him to the top studios including Walt Disney Canada, Industrial Light & Magic and Electronic Arts. Wayne is also a published author, his book Simplified Drawing for Planning Animation is a required text at many animation schools. He regularly writes articles for the industry, and has written a novel and screenplay.
Intro to 2D Animation
Within this course, you can see your drawings come to life as you learn the fundamentals of classical 2D animation. The principles taught in this course are the foundation for all other mediums of animation. Exercises include the bouncing ball, overlapping action, character design & animation of jumps, walks, performance & storyboarding. For the final assignment, students use these principles to animate their own designed character.
An excellent beginner's course!
Instructor Bio:
This course is taught by local animator & concept artist Stephen Pearce, who has has worked 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. Check out the links below for slideshow samples of Stephen's work. If you want to learn how to draw & animate like this, he can show you how!
Supplies needed: Pencils (HB - 2B, and blue or red Col-Erase), ruler, eraser, sketchbook, binder for handouts & assignments, USB stick for storing files.
Prerequisites: none
Duration: 12 weeks (12 classes)
Schedule: Saturday mornings, 9:30am - 12:30pm
Cost: $595
Rhythm & Hues presents to VanArts Students
January 30th, 2012On Wednesday, January 25th, VanArts was excited to welcome Recruiter Maggie Lee and Recruiting Supervisor Joe Caggiano from Rhythm & Hues Studios to give a presentation to our students & staff. The award-winning studio from Los Angeles has opened a branch in Vancouver and is busy gearing up for full production. Maggie and Joe showed us production reels from their feature films, talked about how to apply to their studio, and took many great questions from our students in Character Animation, Game Art & Design and Visual Effects.
A big thanks to Rhythm & Hues for taking the time to spend with us here at VanArts!
Inside VanArts: Animation Students
January 27th, 2012Check out our first episode of Inside VanArts for 2012, where our students in 2D/3D Character Animation work hard, have fun, hang out and tell us how they came to arrive to VanArts.
Want to jump on board? Limited seats going fast for March 2012 start date!
VanArts Graduate works at Walt Disney Animation Studios
January 16th, 2012
Disney's animated classic Beauty and the Beast is now back in theaters in 3D, and playing before it is a brand new short film, Tangled Ever After. VanArts is proud to say that our own animation graduate Rahul Dabholkar contributed to the new short as a Senior Character Animator at Walt Disney Animation Studios. He also contributed there to the recent Prep & Landing Christmas specials.
Rahul, originally from Mumbai India, graduated from our 3D Animation program in 1999 and has since enjoyed an illustrious career at studios such as Sony Imageworks, Industrial Light & Magic, Framestore and many others. His feature film credit list includes box office hits such as The Smurfs, Arthur Christmas, Green Lantern, Pirates of the Caribbean, Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.
In a recent CGCoach interview, Rahul shared how his career got started: "I started my career in 1996 when 2D animation was still in demand. Soon after I graduated from University completing a BFA in Graphic Design and Illustration I was hired by an animation company, trained on board, and promoted as a Lead Animator. When 3D computer animation began growing due to successful films like Jurassic Park and Bugs Life, I decided then that I wanted to work for these amazingly talented studios. The obvious choice was to take my 2-dimensional drawing knowledge and translate it to the 3-dimensional computer world. I chose VanArts, and got my first gig even before I graduated, which helped me boost my confidence."
(Images courtesy of Disney & Attreo Studio)
DHX Media Presents to Animation Students
January 10th, 2012VanArts was pleased to receive another visit today from Anne Denman, Director of Human Resources & Recruitment for DHX Media. Formerly known as Studio B Productions, the DHX studio in Vancouver is one of the top animation studios in town, where several of our past graduates have been lucky to find employment. Anne spoke to our students today and answered questions about how to network and apply for jobs in the industry.
Thanks Anne for taking the time to spend with our animation students!
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Part-Time Courses 2012
January 3rd, 2012If your New Year's Resolution for 2012 is to learn some new skills or explore the arts, VanArts presents its annual part-time courses throughout the year which typically meet once a week in evenings or weekends.
For a list of courses, click on any of the following links by category:
Click on any course to learn dates, times and costs. We hope to welcome you into our part-time courses in 2012!
Questions? Contact us at 604-682-2787 x104
