Nominees for the 2010 Gemini Awards were announced this week, and a number of VFS grads made the cut! The Geminis are Canada’s top TV awards, and this year’s nominations include alumni of Film Production, Acting for Film & Television, and 3D Animation & Visual Effects.

The list includes Film Production grad John Lenic, as one of the producers of Best Dramatic Series nominee Stargate Universe, and Acting grad Benjamin Arthur for Best Individual Performance in a Comedy Program for the lead role in the series Less Than Kind.

Film grad Trevor Cameron is up for two awards – Best Direction in an Animated Program or Series and Best Writing in a Children’s or Youth Program or Series – for his work on Wapos Bay. Finally, 3D grad Clint Butler is a co-nominee for Best Direction in an Animated Program or Series, and a trio of grads are on the Gemini-nominated team for Best Visual Effects – once again, for Stargate Universe.

(Are you a VFS grad who’s up for a Gemini and don’t see your name in the list? Leave a comment! We’d love to hear from you.)

Congratulations to all! The awards will be handed out in November – we’ll be watching!

Best Dramatic Series
Stargate Universe - John Lenic (plus 3 others)

Best Individual Performance in a Comedy Program or Series
Benjamin Arthur – Less Than Kind

Best Direction in an Animated Program or Series
Trevor Cameron – Wapos Bay
Clint Butler (plus 1 other) -  Hot Wheels Battle Force 5

Best Visual Effects
Alec McClymont, Craig Vandenbiggelaar, Andrew Karr (plus 7 others) – Stargate Universe

Best Writing in a Children’s or Youth Program or Series
Trevor Cameron – Wapos Bay

The American hits theatres tomorrow, a rare Wednesday release ahead of a long weekened. The Anton Corbijn-directed thriller, which stars George Clooney as a semi-retired assassin, saw contributions by 3D Animation & Visual Effects alumni Armando Velazquez (Digital Compositor) and David Yabu (Animator). The two graduated just three classes apart in 2005.

Armando and David worked on the film out of Modus FX in Sainte-Thérèse Québec, a suburb of Montreal. In fact, if you happen to be able to read French, Le Journal de Montréal has a nice overview of the work Modus was responsible for, including the environmental touches needed to recreate parts of earthquake-damaged Castel del Monte in Abruzzo, Italy. Interesting stuff – and another early notch for three-year-old Modus!

Here’s the trailer for The American. Enjoy!

Game Design Expo, hosted annually by the one-year VFS Game Design program, is about learning. It’s about a community of professionals and emerging talent coming together to share ideas and kick off a conversation.

With that in mind, we’re happy to tell you that we’ve just launched over 30 new exclusive Game Design Expo videos – a treasure trove of interviews, presentations, and panel discussions from this year’s event. Hear and learn directly from the makers of games like Mass Effect 2, ModNation Racers, and the upcoming Dead Rising 2.

We’re also thrilled to announce the date for Game Design Expo 2011! Our fifth annual celebration of game design and development is set for January 22-23, 2011, right here in Vancouver.

Here’s a short overview of the 2010 event, introducing you to some of the sights and sounds from this memorable weekend:

And here’s just one of the interviews, with ModNation Racers Game Designer William Ho:

There’s lots more where that came from. You can see it all, and keep up with the latest announcements about Game Design Expo 2011 – more to come! – at gamedesignexpo.com.

Film Production grad Paul McNeill has been appointed as a producer at the National Film Board‘s Atlantic Centre in Halifax! There, he’ll be producing an incredible array of important work in the Maritimes.

If you’re not familiar with the NFB – Canada’s public film producer and distributor – you should be. For 70 years, the NFB has supported some of the most important talent in the country, and it’s a big part of the Canadian cultural landscape. Films produced with the NFB’s support have been nominated for dozens of Oscars, winning several, spanning documentary and dramatic features and shorts, and animated films.

Paul, who graduated from VFS in 2003, counts among his most recent successes Summerhood, directed by fellow VFS grad Jacob Medjuck. You can read more about it here.

From the NFB’s press release:

“As an independent filmmaker I’ve enjoyed a strong relationship with the NFB Atlantic Centre, and I look forward to building on this and to working with the area’s filmmakers and artists to produce vital, meaningful stories from the Maritimes,” said McNeill.

Avatar is back in theatres this week. After earning almost $3 billion worldwide the first time around, and landing in the homes of countless Blu-Ray owners looking for ways to show off their home theatres, the sci-fi epic returns to the big, big screen.

What that means for us, apart from a few extra minutes of material, is a chance to once again see a whole bunch of VFS grads’ work (and names) on the big screen. They include Classical Animation and Digital Character Animation graduate Michael Cozens, who served as Lead Animator on the film, as well as 10 3D Animation & Visual Effects alumni:

Arun Ram-Mohan, Additional Lighting
Alfredo Luzardo, Layout Technical Director
Aaron Gilman, Character Animator
Jami Gigot, Texture Artist
Patrick Kalyn, Animator
Tamir Diab, Technical Director
Ben Sanders, Animator
Ben Shupe, Virtual Production Artist
David Yabu, Animator
Chrystia Siolkowsky, Motion Editor

No less an achievement today than it was nine months ago! Congratulations to you all!

Digital Design Branding Instructor Maria Kennedy remembers first hiring Matthew Clark over a dozen years ago; he was fresh out of school, keen, and new to the design industry.

Clark has since risen to become a Partner at Subplot Design, an award-winning Vancouver-based studio that counts among its clients the Vancouver Aquarium, Okanagan Spring Brewery, Vancouver Police Department, and Caffè Artigiano.

Subplot’s Story

After sitting in and offering feedback on student branding project presentations, Clark spoke about Subplot as a kind of anti-agency agency — a four-person operation that primarily caters to more entrepreneurial clients, or those who haven’t been satisfied with the processes of larger companies.

He took students through the four basic phases Subplot typically goes through when working with a client. First, it’s all about discovery.

“At this point,” Clark explained, “we’re just gathering whatever’s out there, and trying to bring in as much information as possible.” That information, which can include a client’s previous design work, is then used to create a plan going forward — the second stage.

“We’ll usually warn clients that things will be very boring for a while”, Clark said. It takes Subplot about four months to do all the research and strategic planning before they get around to showing the client any visual work. This, he explained, is because a branding project is about more than just a logo; it involves everything from how the consumer perceives the brand to competitive opportunities not yet realized. Everything must be taken into account.

The fun begins in the third phase. Clark and his team hand-draw design concepts which they bring to pitch meetings. “You can’t trick them with computers… It’s about the idea.” Once the client signs off on the work, Subplot enters the final phase where they hand over all branding guides and designs to ensure the client can maintain the new look and approach on their own — essentially putting Subplot out of a job (as Clark jokes).

Case Study: Okanagan Spring

Clark finished off with an in-depth case study of Subplot’s complete redesign of Okanagan Spring beer. Taking nothing for granted, they did extensive market research to gauge consumers’ impressions of the previous brand.

“[Okanagan Spring's] mind was blown,” Clark said, referring to an exercise where they asked long-time Okanagan Spring beer drinkers to draw the company’s logo. No one came close — one of many signs that it was time to rethink the company’s brand. You can see the result of Subplot’s work in beer stores.

Many thanks to Matthew Clark for visiting Digital Design!

Piranha 3D hits theatres tomorrow, fulfilling the summer’s over-the-top-gore and cast-of-B-listers quota in a single 90-minute spectacle. The Alexandre Aja-helmed film slipped off the Comic Con schedule, reportedly because of how bloody the footage was. Well, that footage leaked, and it created a bit of a frenzy among aficionados of the genre. The Piranha franchise also has an unlikely legacy: it gave early-career breaks to Joe Dante, John Sayles, and James Cameron.

One of the visual effects companies behind Piranha 3D is Toronto-based Intelligent Creatures, co-founded in 2003 by 3D Animation & Visual Effects alum Lon Molnar. Molnar now serves as CEO and visual effects supervisor there, where he’s had a hand in a laundry list of big features, including Piranha 3D. You can check out his official bio here. And at least one other VFS grad – lighter/tracker Christopher Buzon, who graduated almost exactly 10 years after Molnar - also worked on Piranha out of, you guessed it, Intelligent Creatures!

As we mentioned recently, the VFS Impact Awards are coming up fast, with a can’t-miss 1950s-themed gala celebrating some of the most inspiring young talent around.

The nominees include everything from difference-making docs to gut-wrenching performances to the outlandish and otherworldly creations of animators, makeup artists, and beyond.

It’s all happening Monday, August 30 at the Red Room in Downtown Vancouver (398 Richards Street), and tickets are just 10 bucks a pop, a bargain for an evening that promises a live swing band, dancers, burlesque, singing, and swing lessons, as well as a spread of theme-appropriate food – swanky remixes of classic ’50s fare like sundaes and sirloin. You can buy your tickets from your hosts in Entertainment Business Management on the 3rd floor of the 198 West Hastings VFS campus.

We knew it was coming, but that doesn’t make it any easier! We’ve now bid a fond farewell to the last group of students taking part in our 2010 Summer Intensive Programs knowing it’ll be nearly a year before we get to do it all over again.

They came from all over Canada, the US, and Mexico… not to mention Australia, Austria, the Bahamas, Brazil, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Norway, Russia, Thailand, or the UK for good measure. It’s one of the best things about the programs – an international experience for attendees, faculty, and staff alike!

Here are just a few of the kind words passed along to us from students who took part in the nine one-week programs:

“It was a great experience and I hope to be joining the school soon.”

“Thanks for a really great Summer Intensive – definitely worth the trip!”

“This week was amazing. THANK YOU.”

We know we’ll be seeing a lot of these students again soon in our full-time programs, while others might even be back next summer. If you’re interested in the Summer Intensive Programs at VFS, or would just like to hear more about VFS, head on over to vfs.com/summerintensives and let us know!

Finally, to give you an even better idea of what they got up to at VFS, we’ll leave you with this slideshow of photos from throughout the summer. Enjoy!

2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity, thanks to a declaration by the UN. It’s an opportunity to reflect on the true value of life on earth… and it’s a call for action. It involves dozens of events and celebrations throughout the year, all with the aim to educate and inspire.

With that in mind, the Convention on Biological Diversity is turning to work created by students in the VFS Digital Design program for help. Biodiversity is a motion design project by Roberta Ramalho, Jesse Lang, Juan Carlos Arenas Madrid, and Amanda Healey. Without further ado:

(Music composed by Steve Witt.)

Now the video will also be seen in the International Year of Biodiversity website’s Resources section – including a downloadable version!

You can find out more about the International Year of Biodiversity – and how to get involved – on the official site, and get all the latest news on its Facebook page.