How could you not be excited about Pixar’s WALL-E? If you’re anything like us, you’ve watched and re-watched every teaser, trailer, and clip.

To mark the WALL-E release this week, and as a way to congratulate 3D Animation & Visual Effects grad and Pixar Layout Artist Mark Shirra and his colleagues, we’ll be giving away WALL-E packages to 5 lucky blog readers! Each package includes a 2 tickets to a Wednesday, June 25th screening in Vancouver, a t-shirt, and a poster.

The first 5 current VFS students to email Student Services Manager Liz McDonald will get one of the prize packages - so what are you still reading this for? Go, go!

The giveaway has ended! Enjoy WALL-E, everyone!

The new Narnia movie, Prince Caspian, is coming out next week, and to celebrate VFS grads’ involvement in the making of the film, Disney has provided us with some advance screening tickets and swag to give away!

The first 5 VFS students to email Student Services Manager Liz McDonald at lmcdonald@vfs.com will win a Narnia t-shirt, a movie poster, and 2 tickets to the advance screening of Prince Caspian Monday night, May 12th, at 7pm. (How fast can you type?!)

A number of graduates worked on The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, including Andreas Hikel (Previsualization Artist), Christoph Schinko (Character Animator), and Jami Gigot (Senior Layout Artist/Crowd). Makeup Advisory Board Member Howard Berger was the Creature Supervisor, and his company KNB Effects worked on many Special Effects for the film.

We’re coming up on the deadline for our BC High School Scholarship competition! The deadline is Wednesday, April 30th… don’t miss your chance to win one of the three available scholarships (Full, $10, 000, or $5, 000) to the VFS program of your choice. All the details on your future creative path are right here.

We’re thrilled to announce the winner of the first VFS Artwork Competition: recent 3D Animation & Visual Effects graduate Zheng Tang.

We received many fabulous submissions, and we randomly drew Zheng’s name to take home the complete set of Total Textures CDs, produced by 3D Total, and valued at $1,000.

The contest might be over, but we’re always looking for great, high-resolution VFS student work. See the original competition post for information on how to upload your work and be seen.

Here’s a small selection of work that was submitted to the contest, including Zheng’s entry:

Just a reminder, this is last call for submissions to the graphics contest - the deadline is tomorrow, Friday, December 21st! Send us your artwork, and you’ll be entered in a drawing to win a complete set of Total Textures CDs, valued at $1000.

We want your art!

VFS is looking for high-quality, high-res renderings of student work, to be used in upcoming advertising campaigns and posters. We know that you, and the work you do while you’re here, is the best way to show people what can be accomplished in a year at VFS.

The contest is now closed. Thanks to all who entered!

Recently, we’ve been featuring student work in ads and posters (students are credited, of course!). For examples of the kind of pieces we might use your work in, click on the images below.

The Prize

A complete set of Total Textures CDs, produced by 3D Total. The set is valued at $1000. These discs will give CG artists and animators a huge leg up, giving you hundreds of textures ready to use instantly. Have fun with texture families like “Architectural Showroom”, “Alien Organic”, and “Toon Textures”.

How It’ll Work

Submit your artwork – as many pieces as you like – following the specifications below. When the contest closes, we will randomly draw a winner from all qualified entrants.

In particular, we are looking for high-res eye-catching shots from animation films and reels. We will also happily accept high-res stills from live action films and art created by digital designers and game designers.

Whether you’re a current student or a recent grad, we’re looking for artwork created as part of your year at VFS.

Submission to the contest implicitly states that you give VFS permission to use your work in advertisements, posters, and other printed promotional material. Your name will be credited anywhere your art is used.

Deadline: December 21, 2007
Winner will be announced: January 4, 2008

The Specifications

The requirements for submissions are as follows:

•Width: 4800 pixels
•Height: 7200 pixels
•72 dpi
•TARGA, with background alpha channel

To Submit

Upload your work at http://www.vfs.com/blog/upload/.

Get your art in by December 21st for your chance to win this amazing set!

Announcing the winner for our Game Design Swag Contest! Charmie Kim, a current Game Design student, walks away with t-shirts from student games Fallen and Willis & Wedginald, as well as some sweet Moira stickers and posters!

The runaway winner of our “most anticipated game” poll was Assassin’s Creed - and in a month that includes the release of titles like Mass Effect and Super Mario Galaxy, that’s really saying something.

Incidentally, VFS 3D grad Wilson Mui worked on Assassin’s Creed, in his role as 3D animator at Ubisoft Montreal…

…who just happened to be on campus last week. Ben Mattes, Producer for Prince of Persia 3, and Genevieve Laurendeau, Talent Network Specialist, spent a couple of hours with a rapt audience in the Main Theatre. Ben discussed the legitimizing of games in the mainstream marketplace (”Now you can play videogames and have sex”) and walked through the Ubisoft pipeline, giving students insight into the company’s design process — including the initial mandate sentence for Assassin’s Creed.

Ben and Genevieve then talked candidly with their audience of game designers and animators about the 150 positions Ubisoft is looking to fill in the next calendar year.

To celebrate last week’s Game Design graduating class, we’re holding a contest!

We told you about industry presentation night, where students showed off their completed games to an assembly of industry pros. A lot of those teams made really cool swag to include with their games, and we have some we want to give away.

All you have to do is answer one simple question in the comments: As of right now, what upcoming video game are you anticipating most?

The prize package includes t-shirts for Fallen and Willis & Wedginald, and really cool old-school stickers and posters for Moira. The deadline is November 1, 2007, and the winner will be chosen randomly. Get involved and have your say!

Update: Voting is now closed!

Brian Vidovic was tapped by his classmates to deliver a speech at grad. A highlight: “Attaining a job is only step one/Now let’s go out and make something fun.” (Yes, it all rhymed.) Oh, and by the way, the ceremony was Thursday and Brian started at Radical as a mission designer on Monday.

Recent 3D Animation & Visual Effects graduate Thomas Chau created CGVancouver.com as a resource and community for artists in the booming local scene. The site’s still in its infancy, but it’s already hosting a contest - a call for 3D models or drawings under the theme Pumpkin Madness. The top prize is the book Maya Visual Effects: The Innovator’s Guide, and the deadline is midnight October 31. Go to it!

There are already an awful lot of great VFS films on YouTube… but now you can see your film on YouTube and have a chance at $5,000 and the opportunity to network with execs from Fox Searchlight! Check out YouTube’s Project: Direct - a film challenge that could launch your career.

All you have to do is make a great film using three specific elements. And submit by November 9th.

Check out the video introduction by director Jason Reitman for more. And good luck!