A REVIEW OF THE Vancouver Film School (VFS) - 3D Animation & Visual Effects PROGRAM.
BY PAUL D WHO GRADUATED IN 2006.
Well, I had made the choice to attend both Foundation and 3D successively about a year and a half before I started. I knew that I probably could have jumped into 3D right off, but I just felt like I didn’t want to miss out on the freedom and experimentation that came with taking a Foundation course. Going into Foundation, I knew what I was there to do. It wasn’t about creating my masterpiece; it was about learning as much as possible about as many things as possible. This is what most people don’t get. The majority of my class were sort of pigeon-holed into what they wanted to do. That’s not to say that they wouldn’t try what each class had to offer, but you could definitely tell what people were putting the most effort into. The key to having a successful run through the Foundation course is to put your all into everything, no matter how much you hate it. Your future self will love you for it.
3D Animation & Visual Effects
The 3D Program was where I really got into my specialization. The things I had done in Foundation definitely set me ahead of pack. There was a little redundancy in the first few classes but it quickened up before I knew it and I was already working on my final project. Overall the 3D Program was great. I was still in some sense searching for what I wanted to do. Although I had narrowed down from Foundation and chosen 3D animation (VFX more specifically), there was still a wide scope of projects I could do.
I leaned toward making something that integrated some of the skills I had acquired in Foundation as well. A lot of my fellow classmates were very much into “making a reel with all the technical motions so I can get a job” thing, which I completely respect because a lot of them did get jobs soon after grad, but I was a little more into the artsy side of things and I attributed that to having just come out of a year of a general arts sort of course. It was a little difficult to switch gears into a very technically oriented and challenging field. That made the learning curve a bit steeper for me because instead of just learning the lessons about how to model this or light that, I was always trying to relate it to projects and pieces of art that I could create. I would often get bogged down in the ideas and forget that the rest of the class had already moved on to the next lesson.
The whole experience was a very personal one and everybody takes something different away from the course.
The Verdict
Of course, the biggest determining factor in people making a schooling choice would be the tuition. When I signed up, it was for both courses. At that time (middle of 2004), Foundation was $15,000 and 3D was $22,000. Today, at the beginning of 2009, Foundation runs $30,000 and 3D is $50,000 (U.S citizen tuition prices). So the prices have doubled in only 4 and a half years. If that’s not enough to deter people, I don’t know what is. Personally, I had no money to my name having just come out of high school. My parents never really had the capacity to put money away for my schooling. So I had to take on some fairly large student loans. This was also quite an easy process for me and my advisor at VFS supplied me with everything and took care of any questions I had.
At this point I would almost suggest just taking the 50k and living off of it for 3 years while doing tutorials everyday online.
I’m a fan of the school and what they teach but I just don’t know if I can justify the current prices of the programs. If you went through only the 3D program today, you’d be paying about what I did for both the Foundation and 3D program combined. At this point I would almost suggest just taking the 50k and living off of it for 3 years while doing tutorials everyday online. You’d probably be farther ahead by the end of it.
Since graduating I’ve been working freelance on Short films, Indie features, Music Videos, etc. I get the freedom I want to give my input creatively on set and in post-production and I make enough money from that to support myself which, as long as I get to do what I love, is enough for me.
If you have any questions about either program, I’d be more than happy to answer them at paul.desilva@gmail.com. You can also check out my demo reel at pauldesilvavfx.blogspot.com.
http://www.artschoolreviews.ca/reviews/vancouver-film-school/3d-animation-visual-effects/from-foundation-to-visual-effects
