Classical Animation Training and Harmony Pave the Way to Success for VFS Graduates

Founded in 1987, Vancouver Film School (VFS) is Canada’s premier post-secondary entertainment arts institution and one of the most distinguished in the world. With 13 production-oriented programs and a world-leading one-year education model, VFS prepares students to join the creative economy. The Animation & Visual Effects department at VFS includes three distinct programs: 3D Animation & Visual Effects (one year), Classical Animation (one year), and Digital Character Animation (six months). Graduates of the Animation & Visual Effects programs have a profound effect on the entertainment industry and have played key roles behind the scenes on productions such as Avatar, The Princess and the Frog, and Rango. Vancouver Film School

has a proven track record of success, with alumni honours from Oscars to Golden Globes. In July 2011, VFS was named School of the Year for the second year in a row in cgCoach’s Computer Graphics Student Awards (CGSA).

As part of their Animation & Visual Effects programs, Classical Animation students begin their year-long journey at VFS with an intensive first 3 terms that focuses heavily on the basics of animation, l i fe drawing, character design, perspective, composition, and layout. From there, they delve deeper into storyboarding, effects animation, colour theory, Photoshop, digital ink and paint, and a host of courses designed to broaden their skill sets.

Just as in a studio, students learn to transform ideas into stories. In addition to studying the cornerstones of animation, they work with technologies like Toon Boom Harmony to cover character design, animation and digital techniques. By the end of the year these technical and creative skil ls are applied to their’ original short films, during which instructors serve as mentors and producers on these projects.

With the resurgence of quality 2D animation, the future of classical animation is bright. “The ability to draw, to bring life to a character with your bare hands, is once again at the top of the list of skills studios are looking for today. While the traditions of classical animation are alive and well, the world has changed and that means animators today require the right training if they’re going to keep up with the industry,” states Dieter Mueller, Senior Instructor at VFS.

This statement is truly exemplified in Grahaeme Cowie, who graduated from VFS in 2009. Grahaeme praises the quality of the training he received at VFS, not only the world-class level of the teaching staff but also the sense of community that made the school feel like home.

“We start with the basics and move towards more complex techniques to build up our understanding of the animation principles. This thorough approach is excellent to learn movement, spacing, poses, lines of action and silhouettes, which is a must, no matter what type of animation you end up doing after you graduate. The classical training has proven to be essential even to create cut-out animation!” states Grahaeme Cowie.

As part of the program, Grahaeme Cowie had to complete two animation projects; one of them titled The Wayward Hat required the use of Toon Boom Harmony. At three-minutes long, this project was limited to 20 scenes and had to be completed in 5 months. The whole film was classically animated on paper, then scanned in, vectorized, painted and composited completely with Harmony. “This project gave me the opportunity to complete a project from beginning to end, just like a mini-production of my own. The teaching staff acts as a production team, just like in the real world. We need to present our

project at four different milestones in front of the teaching staff, the head of the department and the class to get feedback. Everybody has a voice!” explains Grahaeme.

For his second project, Grahaeme had to use Flash. He could immediately feel the difference between the two technologies: “Harmony is a great tool to use, being designed specifically for animators, whereas Flash was software adapted from other purposes to make animation. Harmony’s work flow was much closer to classical animation and that made the transition into cut-out a lot easier,” shares Grahaeme.

Upon his graduation, Grahaeme did not waste any time putting his Harmony training to work, anxious to give his traditional skills the chance to contribute to great animation projects. He quickly found a first contract at International Rocketship, followed by another contract at Bardel where he worked on Neighbours from Hell. This project enabled him to meet and work with some highly-respected creative individuals from Dreamworks and Bento Box. After moving to Montreal, Grahaeme was contracted by Mercury Filmworks as a Character Animator on their high-calibre projects. For this contract, he used a stand-alone version of Harmony which was perfect to work remotely with the studio. He now works at Oasis Animation as Lead Animator, on the Lucky Fred television series.

Grahaeme is a very smart and wise artist who knows the importance of working hard, cont inuously developing his skills and being connected. “Each work exper ience is an opportunity to gain a reputation, brand yourself and be visible. In addition, digital networking has become a must activity. I check a lot of online portfolios to see who is out there, I hope people check me out also!” concludes Grahaeme.

As a side project, Grahaeme illustrated two sections of a book on Peter Pan titled The Many Faces of Peter Pan, which will be released in Vancouver in November 2011. His talent combined with his top-of-the line animation training and proficiency with Harmony make him a very safe bet for any studio producing quality animation. Check him out!

grahaeme.blogspot.com

©Adam Rogers

toonboom.com Images courtesy of Vancouver Film School 2011 Toon Boom Animation Inc. All rights reserved. +1 (514) 278-8666 • info@toonboom.com • Printed in Canada.

“Harmony is a great tool to use, being designed specifically for animators, whereas Flash was software adapted from other purposes to make animation. Harmony’s work flow was much closer to classical animation and that made the transition into cut-out a lot easier.”

- Grahaeme Cowie