Official Store

A Chance to Give Back
Wednesday September 29th 2004, 12:13 pm

Twenty years ago, John Munro was awarded a scholarship in college. Now the CEO of Chromacolour, a leading manufacturer of animation supplies, he remembered how much it meant to him to be acknowledged for hard work and talent. Wanting to continue this custom, Chromacolour and the Classical Animation department named José Luis Osorio winner of the first annual Because We Care scholarship .

“We were looking at ways we could contribute back to the animation community,” says Mr Munro “and we wanted to have an immediate impact on people who need help the most. Students were the perfect candidates because they are just starting their careers in the animation sector.”

To set the scholarship in motion, Munro, who has a long-standing relationship with VFS, contacted Classical Animation Program Manager, Anne Denman Wilde. Given hectic student work schedules, Munro wanted to make sure the scholarship program would not be so restrictive as to deter student involvement. After determining that judging would be based on student portfolios, Munro awarded a prize worth seven hundred and fifty dollars in Chromacolour supplies.

Read the rest of this story »

Posted in: Animation & VFX
Bookmark

 

Something for Nothing
Saturday September 18th 2004, 1:41 pm

Chris Abbas has been a student in the Foundation program since September 2003 - and has Nothing to show for it. Nothing, Chris’s artistic look into imaginative thought and frustration, recently won the HUB digital video contest. HUB is a Canadian magazine devoted to home and personal electronics.

Nothing is a personal look into the mind, set to music composed entirely by Chris himself. Chris explains how he arrived at the idea for his short film. “I wanted to explore the feeling you get when you sit there and try to think about nothing. I made this movie because nothing to one person is always something to someone else.”

Read the rest of this story »

Bookmark

 

LucasArts, Nokia, Bioware Join Advisory Board
Thursday September 16th 2004, 12:46 pm

The proven education at VFS is built on a premise that the skills students learn here must prepare them for a lifetime of personal and professional opportunity. Our mission is to ensure that students come here and, in one year, learn the skills they need to move directly into their respective industries.

As part of this mandate, we are serious about involving prominent industry professionals in the development of our programs. These Advisory Boards serve as lifelines to the industry, providing students with direct connections to the professional world.

Our two newest programs, Digital Design and Game Design, recently finalized their advisory boards comprised of leading designers and thinkers.

“We wanted to put together advisory boards with representatives from each of the specific job titles we are preparing students for,” says Stephen Webster, who heads both departments. “For Digital Design this meant having people who specialize in motion graphics, user experience, and interface development and design. For Game Design we wanted people who are producers, level designers, and quality assurance analysts. We’re very happy with the groups we have assembled for both programs.”

The current advisory board members come from many of the world’s top companies, including Digital Kitchen, Blast Radius, and Electronic Arts for Digital Design, and Bioware, LucasArts, Ubisoft, and Nokia for Game Design. Both boards also include independent thinkers and scholars from their respective fields, notably Hillman Curtis for Digital Design, who is widely considered as the top intellectual in the field and whose books on web design have swiftly become required reading for digital artists.

Bookmark

 

The Short Film is Alive & Well
Wednesday September 01st 2004, 10:42 am

To an outsider, the culture of festivals and awards in the movie business is a little perplexing. These occasions for tongue wagging, hand shaking, and picture taking recall Woody Allen’s bitter criticism of Hollywood, “Awards, all they do is give out awards here. Greatest fascist dictator: Adolph Hitler!”Indeed, as Allen likes to point out, the triumphs of some of the greatest filmmakers, including Fellini, were never acknowledged by the awards community. The same has long been true in literary communities. Books that are shunned by mainstream critics become instant classics after their authors’ lie six feet under, when a sudden inexplicable urge emerges to devour their prose or poetry.

“I can’t wait for the day when we start talking with students about what they’re going to do for their next film. That’s when you start seeing the filmmaker quality.”

But for aspiring filmmakers, the festival circuit means a lot more than just the opportunity to win awards. This is an electronic world, yet intimate gatherings remain the defining communal experience for artists. In these settings people share their work, innovative techniques are showcased, ideas are exchanged, projects hatched.

“Festivals have a great cross-section of people attending from throughout industry,” says Larry Bafia, 3D Department Head. Companies like Pixar and Dreamworks , and European television producers attend the festivals. “I was just at Annecy [ France ] and there were people from Rio, England, Taiwan , Moscow , just there to share and show work - it was truly an international event.”

Read the rest of this story »

Posted in: Animation & VFX
Bookmark

 


Please report errors and omissions to the Webmaster