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.
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 Managementon 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 Programsknowing 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!
Appetizers! Food, drink, and delicious bites of design. Now, doesn’t that sounds like a good reason to ditch the office for a couple of hours? Especially if it means first dibs on some of the hottest young designers in the city.
Back in April, many of Vancouver’s top design creatives and recruiters gathered at VFS for the Digital Design program’s first “Appetizers” graduate showcase. These three-minute, rapid-fire presentations generated a talent feeding frenzy during the mingler that followed.
We recently got in touch with a handful of the graduates to look back at the results of this one-of-a-kind industry night.
Christopher Harrell
Since graduating, Christopher Harrell has worked on freelance projects up and down the West Coast, including California, Washington, and here in Vancouver. Christopher used his three-minute Appetizer presentation to screen his SXSW-nominated title sequence Ladybird. “The Appetizers night was instrumental in exposing me to industry people and giving me the confidence to pursue contracts,” he says. “Working contracts with various companies the past few months has really shown me how much the VFS experience has prepared me for the industry.”
Shawn Hight’s presentation of his branding project Switch practically triggered a bidding war, with attendees lining up to meet him. When asked to provide advice to the next class of graduates, he puts it simply: “Find a job for the right reasons. Choose the people you work with rather than them choosing you.” Shawn’s choice? A contract with Fjord Interactive/Cossette, then a full-time motion design position with Giant Ant Media.
Simon Vieira also has advice for future graduates: “Take full advantage of all the exposure VFS creates with our industry.” He’s speaking from experience. After presenting his project Diligo at the April Appetizers, Simon faced the difficult task of deciding between two tempting job offers, one from Blitzoo Games, Inc. and another from a much larger firm. Ultimately, he joined Blitzoo as a graphic/interface designer, looking for the energy and unique creative opportunities you can find on a smaller team.
Presentation matters, and that’s what makes Appetizers different. Attendees praised the back-to-back short presentation format, an approach that gave insight into each designer’s work without being weighed down with process. The short length also allowed students to get the better of their nerves and really perfect their pitches.
One of the standout presentations – a fictional youth-oriented sub-brand of TED called TEDcue – sparkled both as a project and as an introduction to its designer, Joshua Michie. Jon Maltby was the one who brought Joshua onto the team at Blast Radius after seeing his presentation. “Joshua’s impressive output of quality motion work during his studies at VFS stood out for us,” says Maltby, who has since moved on to the role of Creative Director at Lululemon. “His presentation of the work in his portfolio really sold us not only on his technical and artistic skills, but on his thinking and process as well, which we very much value.” (Check out a PDF of Joshua’s TEDcue brand case study right here.)
The inaugural Appetizers event was a success for students and industry attendees alike. With results like these, we’d be crazy not to offer seconds. The next Appetizers event is set for the end of August, with an even bigger audience and more career-launching moments. Stay tuned!
The awards celebrate the best, the most fascinating, and the most original talent coming out of VFS. (And that’s really saying something.) An eclectic list of nominees will be up for awards in a huge variety of categories.
The evening at Vancouver’s Red Room, hosted bystudents in VFS’s Entertainment Business Management program, promises music, dance, food, and a big spotlight on some incredibly deserving creative talent. Trust us, EBM students know how to throw a party.
Summer 2010 VFS Impact Awards
“A Night at the Copacabana”
Monday, August 30, 2010, 7pm
The Red Room 398 Richards Street
Vancouver, BC
Tickets are very limited! You can get yours for just $10. Find out how at vfsimpactawards.com.
And here’s what you missed last time. Don’t let it happen again!
After such an amazing day of fun in the sun last summer, VFS Student Services invited all current students to spend BC Day at Second Beach in Stanley Park. Check out some of the photos from this year’s picnic, including tug-of-wars and water fights!
The VFS campuses are buzzing these days with visitors from all over the world, taking part in our week-long Summer Intensive Programs. We’ll show some highlights when they wrap up, but for now, here’s a great day-by-day look at the Animation & Visual Effects Summer Intensive experience from Jonny, a student who travelled all the way from the UK to attend! Check them out for his impressions of Vancouver and VFS!
Registration for the remaining Summer Intensives is closed, but if you’re interested in attending one in the future, you can head on over to vfs.com/summerintensives to sign up for the mailing list.
Animation & Visual Effects students recently packed VFS’s Main Theatre during a special visit from Dylan Sisson, Technical Artist for Pixar RenderMan.
Dylan went into great detail to show the lighting and shading techniques the Pixar team has utilized in the production of feature films like Up.
Drawing heavily on the 2D landscape work by long-time Disney artist Mary Blair, the Up team created a word that best summed up their approach to the film’s look: “Simplexity”. As you can imagine, it refers to the creation of seemingly complex visuals with simple imagery. A sort of “greater than the sum of its parts” idea.
Dylan broke down many examples of the team’s lighting and shading work, emphasizing their use of 2D imagery to first lay the foundation for the look of each shot. Working this way saved the production a lot of money and also made it easier to solve problems, rather than working solely in 3D.
The three-hour talk wrapped up with a lengthy Q&A session that touched on everything from demo reels to very specific features of RenderMan. Before he left though, Dylan proudly gave away a number of “Walking Teapots” — a toy based on his design.
The two-day game industry extravaganza garnered a ton of media attention, and we kept an eye on all of it.
As expected, Industry Speaker Day was a smash success. Some attendees used Twitter to let everyone know what was happening moment-to-moment. We saved all the Game Design Expo 2010-related tweets — you can read them here.
We’ve also compiled the following media articles that preceded and followed this year’s event. Browse through and see how the media and game industry responded to Game Design Expo 2010.
If you’ve ever wondered what it was like inside a full-time VFS program, we’ve got just the thing for you.
The 2010 Summer Intensive Programs, beginning in July, give you the chance to spend 5 days with us, learning from our top instructors, in one of 9 intense and fun programs. Each Summer Intensive’s curriculum is carefully designed to give you a valuable educational experience, and Summer Intensive fees can be applied toward your VFS tuition if you choose to pursue a full-time program.
Week-long programs include Acting, Animation & Visual Effects, Digital Design, Film Production, Foundation Visual Art & Design, Game Design, Makeup Design, Sound Design, and Writing.
Last year’s Summer Intensives were a huge hit, attracting students from 18 countries around the world. It was a great time, and participants forged lasting connections while getting an exclusive sneak peek at what VFS is all about.
Seats are very limited! (Our Film Production Intensive has already sold out, but if you’re hoping to join us for that program, we highly recommend signing up to the waiting list – more on that soon.) Find out more about the 2010 VFS Summer Intensives and register now at vfs.com/summer2010.
Extra! We’re giving one Twitter user a chance to join us for our Digital Design Intensive for free! To find out more about our Tweet for a Seat competition, visit vfs.com/tweet!
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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.
As we 
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 
Appetizers! Food, drink, and delicious bites of design. Now, doesn’t that sounds like a good reason to ditch the office for a couple of hours? Especially if it means first dibs on some of the hottest young designers in the city.
It’s almost time for the 
