Vancouver Film School

#1

I here its pritty good.
But besides the $ expence I would like to hear all the bad things about it, little things, big things, personal experiance or not.

#2

All I’s know is that the work coming out of there is damn impressive. Like someone on one of their student’s post said “They must have some kinda talent pill they hand out.”

#3

I Agree, VFS demo reels are pretty kick ass, but don’t go there without exploring your options… I am a Digital Animation Master student at CDIS (Burnanby) and i tellz yah, i see some amazing shit coming out of there too.

As for the cost, be prepared to spend ~$25,000 to $30,000 at either school… That’s the cost of suscess baby!

Be ready for a beat down of your spirits tho, the industry is getting VERY VERY hard to get in to… every class that grads just gives you (or anyone) that much more competition (not to mention Mainframe layoffs, they have expirence BOOO)

-Nix

#4

Yes, more and more studios are looking to hire people with a few year’s experience at least, but many studios are willing to give new graduates a shot if their reel is good enough and if the project is early enough in development to give suitable ramp-up time to the new hire.

J

#5

I was a vfs student.
yeah vfs is cool…fee is tooooo much.
but its 90% of the students efforts that makes a good reel.
Teachers play a small part in teaching them the software.
but the majority of the stuff is learned thru friends,whihc ofcourse we meet at vfs during classes, labs .

:slight_smile:

#6

so no one has anything bad to say at all?:surprised

#7

I used to go there as well. There were good and bad things when I was there, but from what I understand, most of thats been cleaned up. Its getting REALLY expensive there now. Im still chopping away at my student loans.

But you wanted to hear bad things? The sound guy is god aweful. Im not joking when I say this: He’s some old hair-metal has-bin. If you meet him he WILL show you his music video from the early 80’s. As a person hes a nice enough guy. I dont want to insult the man personally, but his work is horrific. Be prepared to do you’re own sound or start asking for artist’s rights to use thier work.

One more thing you should note: At VFS, you’re demo reel is still the property of Vancouver Film School when you’re done. (Which means they can use your video in whatever they want without your consent or knowledge) It not a big deal, but you should just know that. I think CDIS gives all rights to the student. Call and find out for sure. If you have any specific questions, you can email current students right through the website.

Best ot luck, and I hope this helps.

Mike R

#8

What about VanArts then? Their fulltime, 12-month classical animation course is $14 K, the CG animation 18 K. A friend who went there said VFS was more crowded with an unreasonably higher fee. He also said Vanarts was great and he got himself a good job on graduating.

So… that inspired me to taking the classical animation course even though I plan to do more CG animation in the future. I figure my understanding and proficiency in animation will improve more when I don’t have to “waste” time learning software that will eventually become obsolete and replaced anyway.

So… me taking a classical animation course to improve my CG dito, does it sound crazy - or am I best off taking the CG animation course? Does anyone have any VanArts experience?

#9

VanArts and BCIT are good, so is Cap College. I’ve seen/worked with people from all 3.

#10

vfs there 3d animation program runs 10 months @ 24k (cad) dont quote me on that , but thats less than a year, i think people with a university degree or some deep art background can benefit most from vfs, if your just begining and want to have a bit more time to thoroughly learn all the concepts check out CDIS they go for about 11k a year for there 2 year program so about same price as vfs but 2 years total , i think this is the way to go if you do not have some serious art experience already
-good luck

#11

I attended VFS for an 8 month stint learning maya, I’ve heard the full time (XSI) instruction is fairly good but the maya instructors were lacking in any kind of techincal expertise with the software. I don’t know how many times our class was interupted when the instructors got to a point and couldn’t figure out how to get maya to do this or that. Most of what I learned about maya was either through web sites, or other classmates. As far as I know only 3 or 4 students from my class of 30 got hired. This was around two and a half years ago however and I’ve heard things have improved somewhat.
but be warned, VFS is a private institution with no real acountability to any regulatory body, ie: they’ll let anyone in regardless of portfolio if you’ve got the cash, this means lots of trust fund babies with no real drive (free computers for rendering)
and once your in and they’ve got your money you may get the distinct feeling that they’re done with you.

anyway, there’s my rant, I managed to find work after graduating so I must have gotten something out of it, and I’m sure other people have had different experiences.
hope this helps…

#12

CDIS Lets you OWN your demo, yes, but they get rights to use it in any way, THEY WILL ASK YOU tho, VFS will not :slight_smile:

Let me just say that the stuff i’m learning at CDIS is heavy Tech (maya, xsi) and i have learned how to use both these programs in ways i only deamed of in highschool!

I have no expirence related to VFS cause i’m not a student there, but like i said before, some DAMN pretty stuff coming out of there :slight_smile:

SHOP AROUND bro!

#13

a last bump, for the people that missed it.

#14

I have a question regarding the remark about Vancouver Film School’s lack of requirement of a portfolio.
According to this , it states that for the 3D animation you need to submit a portfolio of previous work. Do you? Or can you just hand them $24k (in US or Canadian $$?) and get in?

Just wondering, thanks…

#15

well, they say you need a portfolio, and I supplied one, but judging from some of my classmates, lets just say that a few of them didn’t know how to draw, animate, or use a computer… you figure it out. these people also tended to be the ones that figured out the online chat and then proceded to sit and spend they’re 24k talking to friends all day, go figure.

#16

No offense semuta but I’ve seen people who can’t draw or have much artistic 2d talent period but still come out with killer demo reels that gets them jobs.

Who cares if they can’t use the computer at first. Not everyone spends their time using a computer and who knows, maybe they are just going through a career change.

Don’t be so quick to judge people dude.

#17

furio, dude, I agree, actually my portfolio was all 3d work, I kind of suck at drawing. but what I was saying wasn’t a quick judgement, maybe a bit of a generalization, but all I meant was there are a lot of people who get into that school with not much in the way of a portfolio, I’m sure some of them blossom and become dope artists, I’ve seen it, but I also watched a good 1/3 to almost 1/2 of my class spend they’re days surfing the web and leaving at 3 every day, several people didn’t even finish they’re demo reels (some didn’t really even start them). I’m not trying to be a prick here. I personally think it sucks that they’ll let people in with the cash and not much in the way of a portfolio, Art schools have these requirements for a reason, it’s not meant to be elitist, its just that a person is in for a serious up hill battle if they know nothing about computers, and haven’t gotten their shit together for what would be considered by most schools a decent portfolio. You don’t know how frustrating it is to watch people surf away cpu cycles when you want to be rendering. anyway, I meant no offense

peace
Semuta

#18

One of my friends is planning to go to VFS. So I’m reading this to try to see what sort of environment VFS is.

After reading good and bad stuffs about it, I can only say it all depends on the individual. Schools aren’t the ‘one ticket’ solution to every student’s objective. I’ve studied in another school in Canada which is as famous as vfs, to me, not all their students are good, but the instruction is atrocious. To students who know what to do, it’s ok, for those who are still struggling with tech stuffs it’s a big no no. I’ve even witnessed influential students getting instructors to do practically entire projects for them - and being proud about them. These sights are major eyesores…

This just goes to show nonsense do exist - no matter how good or famous a school is. One of my seniors said after he graduated, “Schools are a playground for powermongers and idiots”. Important thing is to do necessary preparation before going. And when you get in, just do your thing, learn whatever you can and get out.

Peace to all.

#19

Originally posted by rayfusion
vfs there 3d animation program runs 10 months @ 24k (cad) dont quote me on that , but thats less than a year - good luck

12 months at 24k canadian. It used to be 10 months, in recent years they expanded it to 12.

-Kol.

I wrote a big post about VFS recently in another thread, try searching for info about the program around the General Discussions forum.

I think this best describes VFS: you get out of it, what you put into it. Work you ass off, forget your life for a year, and you’ll come out with a killer reel. Slack off and you might as well throw 24 grand in the garbage.

I’m happy with VFS so far.

#20

hi…it’s my first time to post in this site.

i’m one who prepare to study 3D in Canada and VFS is one of my school lists. but now i’m thinking of Sheridan college (because many are told it was good in animation).

i want to focused on Visual effect and Compositing and i worked as motion graphic animator for a few years (yeah…Maya is the majors softwared i used).

Can anyone help me to figures out which one is better in Visual effect and Compositing (VFS and Sheridan College)? :rolleyes: