I had always enjoyed drawing while growing up. Inspired by a childhood of cartoons and video games it was somewhat natural to find myself wanting a career in the field of film and animation. In High School I took lots of art classes to strengthen my skills in various art forms. In Grade 9 or so I got into computers and at home we had an old Mac computer which I began making slide-show animations using a word processor program called Claris Works. By Grade 12, I was playing with a free 3D animation program called Blender which my Dad’s friend found for me on the internet. In my drafting class I was starting to figure out how to use 3D Studio Max.
At this point I was dreaming about using these 3D programs to make movies like Toy Story and do FX like they did for T-1000 in Terminator 2. In grade 12 a classmate and I competed in the Skills Canada competition and won 1st place in Computer Animation at the Fraser Valley Skills Competition. We then participated in the Computer (Character) Animation BC Skills Competition. Unfortunately we did not place, but I refused to be discouraged – I was still going to pursue an education in film and animation.
The Decision
I applied to three schools: Capilano College, Emily Carr and Kwantlen University College. Capilano was my first choice. I got accepted into two of the schools, but Capilano was not one of them. Upset at the time, I had to then choose from the other two, eventually deciding to give Emily Carr a chance. The price was right, the location seemed great and it was going to be easy enough to get to from White Rock, taking just one bus. I had checked out other schools such as VFS and the Art Institute (which was formerly known as CDIS), but that was going to be too costly for me and I did not want to do the whole student loan thing.
The Experience
My Emily Carr adventure started with Foundation Year (which is mandatory followed by three years of your chosen major, mine being Animation). I can sum up Foundation year as being not so great. During my second week my lung collapsed. Out of nowhere too, how about that. It wasn’t very fun to say the least, but the teachers were accommodating and nice about it. Even if you hadn’t had a collapsed lung, it was a tough year – it wasn’t uncommon to see students not return the next year or even drop out after the first semester. Looking back, there were many times where things seemed ridiculous and perhaps even useless, but I think the instructors were trying to make us think in different ways and in turn lead us to new and exciting personal discoveries… or maybe I am making stuff up… Overall, I think it helped prepare me for the next three years at Emily Carr.
The instructors were very encouraging and helped develop my skills through both small exercises and larger projects.
With Foundation year out of the way, it was time to get serious with the animation. The three year animation program can be summed up as being great. The instructors were very encouraging and helped develop my skills through both small exercises and larger projects. It is one thing to have technical skills, but it is extremely important to also possess creativity. I had pretty good technical skills, but I was not an expert on all the computer programs we were using. So, for some assignments I had to play around until I made it work, or as I like to put it, I had to play around until I made beautiful mistakes. If you have creativity, you can make anything work in some way or another. To have had the freedom to explore like that was a gift.
While having the ability to explore, the direction provided from the instructors was also helpful. I think that for some students who had less technical knowledge of computer programs, it was sometimes difficult to keep up during class instructions depending on what instructor you had. Some instructors got really excited about what they were teaching and forgot to slow down for those who were new to the technology. On the other end of the spectrum, there were some teachers who could have afforded to move a bit faster. Generally the pace was manageable for me and having three years to develop my skills as opposed to one year, had I gone to other schools for animation, was the right choice for me.
I really liked the fact that I was able to try out different courses such as Advanced Sound Studio, Script Writing and Moldmaking on top of the mandatory animation courses. What I didn’t like was the fact that I had to write essays when I was trying to work on my animation projects. With that said, I believe it is still important to have some academic knowledge on top of your creative and technical skills. Call me crazy, but I actually sort of miss writing essays…
A thing that helped me a lot with those essays was taking academic courses in the Summer. With one or two academic classes out of the way, that meant that I could focus on my animation and other creative projects instead of focusing on when the next essay was due. I was also working a full-time job during the Summer which allowed me to return to the following school year with money saved up for tuition and supplies.
The cost of each school year for me was approximately $4,000 (approx. $2,000 per semester), which would mean my total cost was approximately $16,000 + supplies and textbooks. This to me was a lot more reasonable than attending schools like the Art Institute or VFS. As I mentioned before, I did not want to have a student loan.
I would recommend it for the person who wants to be in animation, but doesn’t want to empty their pockets.
The Verdict
With animation being a highly competitive field with graduates being pumped out left right and center, the choice of school may be somewhat important. Of the companies that I’ve worked at most of the employees seem to have graduated from VFS, AI or Capilano College. It is sort of rare to see an Emily Carr animation graduate, but that doesn’t mean that you won’t. During my grad year, the animation program doubled in size – Emily Carr is definitely a reputable school for learning film and animation and I would recommend it for the person who wants to be in animation, but doesn’t want to empty their pockets.
One thing that I did not really realize until after graduating was that most jobs out there in the film and animation industry are contract jobs sometimes only lasting anywhere from one month to a year. If you are someone who likes to be in a position for longer periods of time (more of a permanent job), then this may not be the line of work for you. At first I was sort of discouraged by this, but if you really enjoy what you do, you can make it work – just be prepared for change every now and then. With that said, there are some studios that will re-hire you with back-to-back contracts, provided that you work hard and show your employer that you want to grow with the company.
Changes
When I was attending Emily Carr, to get accepted into your focus program, you had to put together a portfolio and bring it with you to interviews with the faculty of the chosen program(s). I signed up for both an Animation interview and a Communication Design interview. I actually wanted/thought I was going to get into the Communication Design program, but that didn’t work out and I am fine with that. Regardless, I have recently heard that the interviews no longer take place and it is purely based on your GPA from Foundation year.
Shortly after I had graduated, Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design had its status changed to University status and now is called Emily Carr University of Art + Design. They also added a 2 year Masters program.
Check out my website to see my art, animation and sound stuff: http://adam.t.bull.googlepages.com
(1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
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