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//--> Wednesday<font ="dingbat"> ? </font>May 4<font ="dingbat"> ? </font>2005</div>
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<div ="storyline">Happy days are here for animators</div>
<div ="storysub">With companies fighting for talent, students have their pick of careers and workplaces</div>
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<tr><td colspan="2"><font ="storybyline">Marke Andrews</font></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><font ="storypub">Vancouver Sun</font></td></tr>
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<div ="storydate"><br>Wednesday, May 04, 2005</div><br>
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<p>These are good times to be a animation student in Vancouver. Just
ask Mei Yu. The 19-year-old Burnaby animator had her choice of job
offers when she graduated from Capilano College's commercial animation
program this spring. On Monday, just nine days after the college's grad
show, Yu started working at Vancouver's Studio B.</p><p>Animators not
only have their choice of studios to work for, they have their choice
of careers. The video game industry is just as hungry as animation
studios for young talent. Last weekend, Burnaby-based Electronic Arts
Canada (EA), which has hired 600 video game artists and programmers in
the past year, held an awards ceremony for the 25 finalists in the
company's Great Canadian Art Competition, offering jobs to all 25.</p><p>Schools
with animation programs -- Capilano College, Vancouver Film School, The
Art Institute of Vancouver, Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design --
regularly entertain recruiters from Canadian and American studios and
games companies. In the past year, Vancouver Film School was visited by
Rob Colman, animation director for California-based Industrial Light
and Magic (best known for its work on the Star Wars movies), as well as
representatives from Animal Logic, which has studios in Australia and
California, Digital Domain of Australia, California-based Rhythm &
Hues and Skywalker Sound, Toronto's DKP, Montreal's Ubisoft, Edmonton's
BioWare and B.C.-based companies Electronic Arts Canada, Lions Gate
Films, Mainframe Entertainment, Bardel Entertainment, Relic
Entertainment and Radical Entertainment.</p><p>"It goes on all the time
here," says Sheffa Siegel, VFS marketing director. "We work very hard
to make sure we have a good pipeline established between our programs
and the industry studios."</p><p>Companies looking for new talent are
taking steps to streamline the process. Vancouver's Studio B recently
hired a human resources person specifically to work on the company's
recruiting strategy.</p><p>"Talent is so important," says Blair Peters,
co-founder with Chris Bartleman of Studio B. "We went to [Toronto's]
Sheridan College recruiting, Capilano College, Vancouver Film School,
and to a recruiting night at The Roundhouse. Kelowna has a film school,
and we had them through here.</p><p>"Recruiting is big business now,
because we're competing with EA and Disney moving here. Digital
animation is very similar to the game industry. It's the same talent
pool.</p><p>"Everybody's got to pitch their studio in a unique way."</p><p>Rhythm
& Hues, a California company that makes features and commercials,
recently hired VSC graduate Adam Yaniv, who is currently working on the
feature The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, and has also hired
lighting specialists from the school.</p><p>"We're seeing good reels
for animation coming out of Vancouver Film School," says Anjelica
Casillas, manager of digital production for Rhythm & Hues.</p><p>Nancy
Gray-Starkebaum, senior manager of recruitment for EA, says the company
makes regular recruitment trips across the country, visiting the Lower
Mainland schools several times a year.</p>
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<div ="storycredit" align="center">? The Vancouver Sun 2005</div>
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