Hey, just thought I’d put in a quick word here. I don’t know much about the VFS program, but I am a recent graduate of the Dave School (graduated less than a year ago).
They no longer teach Lightwave and haven’t for some time now. The modelling class uses Modo, animation uses Maya, VFX uses a whole bunch including Maya, Nuke, Realflow, Mocha, etc. The last class uses whatever can get the job done best.
In terms of employment, the career councilor is very helpful and practical. You should do job searching on your own, but he got me my first job with almost no effort on my part, and he’s willing to help long after you leave the school. Everyone that I know of from my class is currently employed in the industry, some at larger studios, some just freelancing.
The whole curriculum is based around what to expect in the industry. The words “industry standard” are repeated by everyone like a mantra. All the instructors have real, big-name experience in their field, and I have found all of their advice and teachings to be accurate and essential to my success so far.
On the flip side, some things have been changing there that I’m not as excited about. They’ve been increasing the class sizes a lot recently (as in, the sizes have doubled) to the point that I heard they are splitting the first block (modelling) into two. It’s nice to see the school grow, but space has been a growing issue there for a little while now.
They also recently added a gaming program which I think has been driving the average age of the student body down. A couple of years ago, most students were adults making a career change, or recent college grads. Now there are more and more people coming straight out of high school, and they tend to be a bit immature sometimes. The biggest impact this seems to have on the school is the fact that they have had to impose more and more rules in order to keep some of the less responsible students in check, which is annoying to other students.
All in all, I’m very happy I went there. If nothing else, it only took a year to get a solid grasp of the whole vfx pipeline so I was able to make an informed choice on what specialization I would like to pursue (and my choice isn’t at all what I originally thought it would be!)
Please continue to do your own research, but I hope some of this will help give you a better idea of what to expect from this school at least.
Good luck, and best wishes!
