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Innovators, Events, Honors
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 76 JULY 31, 2019
GNOMON: BETH ROONEY/COURTESY OF GNOMON.GAME: COURTESY OF RINGLING COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN.KINKY:COURTESY OF FILMAKADEMIE BADEN-WÜRTTEMBERG GMBH.PURL: COURTESY OF PIXAR. LESTER: DEBORAH COLEMAN/PIXAR.The Top 10 Visual Effects Schools
Grads from the leading institutions are
landing work, connecting with the pros
and collecting Oscar gold By Carolyn Giardina
H
ollywood may be the center of the film business, but when the
time came to canvass the industry for THR’s annual roster of
the best visual effects schools, six international selections made
the cut, reflecting the increasingly global nature of the VFX business.
With Canada leading the way, foreign schools are producing such talent
as How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World helmer Dean DeBlois, a
graduate of Ontario’s Sheridan College. France’s ArtFX won this year’s
Visual Effects Society Award for a student work, and a VRproject from
Germany’s Filmakademie was honored at Siggraph Asia. When it comes
to making movie magic, the master illusionists hail from across the
globe — with many coming from one of these 10 premier programs.ACADEMY OF ART UNIVERSITY
SAN FRANCISCO
The School of Animation &
Visual Effects at Academy of Art
University offers BFA, MFA andM.A. programs in animation and
visual effects on site and online. It
also developed “StudioX,” a series
of advanced classes that emulate
a production environment withfaculty mentorship. In these
classes, the students work on
real shows with real deadlines.
A recent project that came out
of StudioX is Wishing Box, an
animated short directed by alum
Lizzie Zhang, which qualified for
2019 Oscar consideration.ARTFX
MONTPELLIER, FRANCE
ArtFX students who want to
focus on VFX can earn a master’s
in CGI & Visual Effects (a five-
year program) or a professional
certification in programming for
video games and VFX (a two-yearprogram), with classes offered
in English and French. Students
have gone on to work at VFX stu-
dios including DNEG, Framestore
and Industrial Light & Magic.
This year, animated short Te r ra
Nova — a graduation project from
Thomas Battistetti, Mélanie Geley,
Mickael Le Mezo and Guillaume
Hoarau — won the Visual Effects
Society Award for outstanding
VFX in a student project.FILMAKADEMIE
BADEN-WÜRTTEMBERG
LUDWIGSBURG, GERMANY
The publicly funded film school
and its Animationsinstitut
encourage its students to take
on their own projects, and there
are several recent examples
that earned industry recogni-
tion. Kinky Kitchen, a student
animated short from director
Bea Hoeller, was selected for the
upcoming Siggraph Electronic
Theatre, and 2018 student VR
project Rapture of the Deep was
recognized as “best virtual and
augmented reality content” at
last fall’s Siggraph Asia. The
Filmakademie also organizes
the annual FMX Conference in
Stuttgart on animation, effects,
games and immersive media,
which gives students the oppor-
tunity to meet and connect
with professionals.GNOMON SCHOOL OF VFX,
ANIMATION & GAMES
LOS ANGELES
Gnomon taps working profession-
als as instructors and maintains
classrooms in a production studio
environment. This past year, it
introduced foundation in art and
design preparatory courses and
a game art concentration for its
bachelor of fine arts in digital
production degree. Gnomon regu-
larly takes advantage of its locale
by hosting a steady stream of
events to expose students to the
professional community, which
this year included programs on
Avengers: Endgame, Spider-Man:
Into the Spider-Verse and Fortnite.LOST BOYS SCHOOL OF
VISUAL EFFECTS
VAN CO UVER AND MONTREAL
With its roots as a VFX bou-
tique, Lost Boys offers hands-on
one-year certificate and diplomaVFX 1
Schools