InFocus Film School — Local services in Vancouver

I did the 3D animation & VFX program and had a phenomenal experience. The instructors are clearly not about it for a salary, they truly care about you and your success. To name name's the instructors I had at the time were Miguel Rodriguez Suarez, Arturo Baccio, Kiruthiga Mahalingam and Selman Kantarci. No matter who will be your instructors I am confident they will continue to hire and find kind and capable industry professionals.

If you truly give this program your all for the year they will help you get you to your entry level dream job. I thought many times that I could teach myself since you do most of the hard work and self teaching, but having a mentor to guide you really makes the difference and found myself learning something I would never have thought to google or made a connection from my modelling class to be useful in animation that I wouldn't have necessarily got on my own. They teach you from the ground up and once you know the basics they give pretty much strictly feedback on what it is to look for. The way they do feedback is exactly how it is done when you get your first job, and I felt I was well prepared when I got my first animation job. I look back and think about how a year ago I was working part time at the grocery store and now I am a junior animator from my 1 year at Infocus.

Give it your all, give that whole year, no distractions dedicated to the schooling as much as you can. Always want to keep learning and don't take the criticism to heart because they know what's expected to get a job and only want you to get better is my advice. I am very fortunate to have gone to...

Graduated 2024. 3D animation. It is a one year on-site course. The class setting is smaller than other schools, and each student have their own personal workstation for the entirety of the course. In a group of 12-13 students, with classes almost everyday of the week, every student got a hands-on approach. Navigating new software for the first time can be daunting, and this process was eased with the instructors always being by my side, always ready to answer any questions, or help with any task. The course itself composes various aspects, such as 3D modelling, Rigging, Lighting, Animation, but with the instructors there, especially Magic Eslami (Concept Design Instructor and Program Lead), I learned about Story boarding, drawing techniques, scriptwriting, coding (python), in-depth knowledge of Maya (3D software) and Unreal Engine (game engine). Why I am mentioning this one instructor in particular is because, when you will be at In Focus Film School, he will be your guide (and many times, savior) from the start till the end. Always helpful and always smiling, he really made my year at In Focus Film School easier and more engaging. He pushed me to explore more aspects of the 3D animation field that I never considered. With the Concept Design module, Magic taught me the importance of taking a step back, planning out your characters, and scenes, and using simple techniques, draw them out, before getting into anything else. And this is just one example of how much more I learned through...

I took the Compositing for Visual Effects program in 2017. The course ran for only 3 months, and I was surprised and impressed by how much material was fit into that time! As fast paced as it was, it was never too overwhelming and I quickly gained confidence in my ability to use the tools and techniques I was taught. The success of this course was due to the fantastic teachers/industry mentors brought in to share their specific areas of insight and walk the students through each lesson step by step. The relatively small class size was a big plus as well because we each got plenty of time to work through our problems with the teachers and with each other. I learned a lot from my classmates after we all became familiar with different compositing techniques and shared them with each other. Finally, I should mention the friendly, stress-free environment of the school itself. The school's staff are all very friendly and eager to help in whatever way they can. Students have 24/7 access to the school and its resources, which made it easy for me to work at my own pace. I could come in whenever I had free time to work on projects, even working late into the night. That was very helpful when coping with the stress of meeting that final deadline! It's a more personalized experience than bigger schools can offer, which is important for any kind of learning. I'm very happy with my time at InFocus! I would recommend this school to anyone who feels they would excel in this kind of...