She joins an exclusive list of graduates who have demonstrated a huge commitment to learning their craft over an intense year of training at VFS. Armed with a prize package that contains products from MAC and Taut, a one-year subscription to Make-Up Artist Magazine, and a personal letter of reference from Head of Makeup Design Stan Edmonds, previous winners of the Makeup Achievement Award have gone on to find work in LA and their talents have also been recognized at international competitions such as IMATS.

“I was so happy to have earned the award!” says Carolyn. “Our class is full of amazing artists. I feel very honoured to have won. This has been a phenomenal year. I’ve never worked so hard at anything in my entire life, but I’ve never loved anything else this much either.”

“It was amazing to meet so many people who were passionate about the same things that I’m passionate about, and I loved spending so much time after school practicing with my classmates. I decided four years ago that I was going to do the Makeup Design program at VFS, and it was well worth the wait!”

Congratulations, Carolyn!

Check out her amazing portfolio, showcasing her work from a year of hands-on learning at VFS:

The video was edited by Film Production grad Paul St. Amand and shot by his brother, who lives in Behraam’s neighbourhood.

Of course, it helps if you understand Dutch. If you can, take a look at this segment about Angelo, who starts his year in 3D Animation & Visual Effects in October. They plan to follow up with him throughout his VFS experience and after he’s graduated!

You can already see, from the test shot below, that Angelo’s got potential to spare. (Check out his YouTube channel for more.) We can’t wait to see what he does with his VFS year!

Steve Darling interviews Head of VFS Digital Design Amber Bezahler

This morning, we had the pleasure of playing host to Global BC Morning News anchor Steve Darling and his crew, who gave viewers a series of inside looks at VFS throughout the broadcast.

If you tuned in, you saw a lot of quintessentially “VFS” moments – and some of the Department Heads, students, and alumni who make this school what it is. We had a great time! (And now we wouldn’t mind a nap – it was an early morning!)

Here are some photos from the day. We were also on hand to live-tweet from behind the scenes, meaning you can catch up right here.

Hello out there, we’re on the air…

You can’t take the hockey out of Canada, and you can’t take the VFS out of EA’s NHL games. Just about every new iteration of the long-running series has VFSers behind the scenes.

That includes NHL 11, which hits store shelves tomorrow with the force of a Matt Cooke blindside. Among the alumni that we know about, there’s 3D Animation & Visual Effects grad Jose A. Yapor, who worked on the check and collision animations, as well as Sound Design for Visual Media‘s Joshua Bandy, credited for Additional Speech Editing, too! Sharpen your skates!

Throughout the morning newscast, he’ll be bring you inside the VFS experience, meeting faculty, students, and alumni, and taking part in demos from a huge range of VFS programs, from Sound Design to Digital Character Animation, Acting to Makeup Design. It’s all to celebrate the back-to-school season – something, incidentally, we get to enjoy six times a year! Not only that, all morning we’ll also be tweeting from behind the scenes!

If you’re in BC, tune in to Global from 5:30am to 9:00am!

The list includes Film Production grad John Lenic, as one of the producers of Best Dramatic Series nominee Stargate Universe, and Acting grad Benjamin Arthur for Best Individual Performance in a Comedy Program for the lead role in the series Less Than Kind.

Film grad Trevor Cameron is up for two awards – Best Direction in an Animated Program or Series and Best Writing in a Children’s or Youth Program or Series – for his work on Wapos Bay. Finally, 3D grad Clint Butler is a co-nominee for Best Direction in an Animated Program or Series, and a trio of grads are on the Gemini-nominated team for Best Visual Effects – once again, for Stargate Universe.

(Are you a VFS grad who’s up for a Gemini and don’t see your name in the list? Leave a comment! We’d love to hear from you.)

Congratulations to all! The awards will be handed out in November – we’ll be watching!

Best Dramatic Series
Stargate Universe - John Lenic (plus 3 others)

Best Individual Performance in a Comedy Program or Series
Benjamin Arthur – Less Than Kind

Best Direction in an Animated Program or Series
Trevor Cameron – Wapos Bay
Clint Butler (plus 1 other) -  Hot Wheels Battle Force 5

Best Visual Effects
Alec McClymont, Craig Vandenbiggelaar, Andrew Karr (plus 7 others) – Stargate Universe

Best Writing in a Children’s or Youth Program or Series
Trevor Cameron – Wapos Bay

Armando and David worked on the film out of Modus FX in Sainte-Thérèse Québec, a suburb of Montreal. In fact, if you happen to be able to read French, Le Journal de Montréal has a nice overview of the work Modus was responsible for, including the environmental touches needed to recreate parts of earthquake-damaged Castel del Monte in Abruzzo, Italy. Interesting stuff – and another early notch for three-year-old Modus!

Here’s the trailer for The American. Enjoy!

VFS Digital Design

With only three minutes of stage time, each student took the podium and gave a concise rundown of their work, which ranged from interactive design in the cross-departmental “Project Space Squid” initiative to a community-minded social networking system, a biology-inspired motion graphics short, a darkly funny website that offers customizable wallpapers about cat overpopulation, and much more.

After the presentations wrapped, students got a chance to mingle with the industry guests and explain their work in more detail — the part of the Digital Design Appetizers night previous grads have looked back upon as a pivotal moment in their young careers.

“Students that are coming out of [Digital Design] are showing great work… and we’re always looking for people on the cutting edge,” said Marty Yaskowich, Managing Director, Digital at Tribal DDB Canada. “Some of the design that we saw tonight was for the iPad and new and emerging technologies, and that’s always a skill set that we’re looking for as we have to deliver that to our client base as well.”

“I was really blown away this time around,” said James Filbry, Art Director and Partner at Spring Advertising. “Everything has gone up quite a level, as far as the students and the work that they produced… The presentations are just getting better and better all the time.”

A host of alumni now working in the industry also came out to see the work currently being produced in the Digital Design program. It gave them a chance to meet the presenting students and industry guests, while also reflecting on their own time spent at VFS.

“[The Digital Design program] was a great experience,” said grad Rodrigo Gomez-Tagle, who is currently the Technical Experience Director at Blast Radius. “It was an intense, intense, intense experience. It really prepares you with not only the technical skills to achieve whatever they put in front of you, but they give you the foundation and all the processes behind what you need to create.”

Congrats to the newest graduates of Digital Design! Great presentations all around!

Check out some photos from the evening below, or on our Flickr page. 

Game Design Expo

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.