Press Release: Vancouver Animation School is proud to announce its sponsorship of two “Birds of a Feather” sessions at the premier worldwide computer animation conference coming to the JW Marriot at LA Live in Los Angeles on August 7.

“We are excited to bring these two heavy hitters in the computer animation industry to attendees at Siggraph 2012,” said Mario Pochat, animator and founder of the Vancouver Animation School. “This definitely will be two of the most influential sessions at this very important conference.”

The first session, entitled “Animation: from Visual Development to Art Direction,” features two-time Emmy winning art director Christophe Vacher. Vacher has worked for Walt Disney Pictures, Dreamworks, Universal Studios, Focus Features and Hasbro, among others.

His credits as a background painter and concept artist include “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”, “Runaway Brain”, “Hercules”, “Tarzan”, “Fantasia 2000”, “Dinosaur”, “Treasure Planet”, and “Sharktale”. He was animation Art director on the movies “Enchanted” and “9”, for which he was nominated for the Annie Awards in 2010. He recently won 2 Daytime Emmy Awards (2011 and 2012) for his work on the TV series “Transformers Prime”.

Meanwhile, the second session features well known lecturer Christos Obretenov and Brad Falk from LollipopShaders.com. They will discuss high dynamic range imaging (HDRI) during their presentation entitled “Physically Plausible Shading in Renderman.”

Obretenov designed and developed shading software for Walt Disney's “The Wild” feature film, followed by shading and lighting for “Superman Returns”, “Spider-Man 3”, “Beowulf”, “Christmas Carol”, and “Mars Needs Moms” feature films. Falk has served as a Senior Technical Director on feature films and has experience on high end feature films at Disney Animation Studios, Industrial Light & Magic, and Sony Pictures Imageworks.

“We hope these two presentations will help inspire people to reach for a new career in the computer animation industry,” Pochat said. “There are always plenty of job opportunities for skilled computer animation designers.”

Vancouver Animation School is sponsoring the two “Birds of a Feather” sessions to increase awareness of the rapidly growing school that is strictly focused on educating the next generation of professional computer animators. This is the second time the institute of higher education has sponsored an event featuring highly regarded professional talent.

About Vancouver Animation School

Vancouver Animation School is a leading educational Canadian institution offering entry and advanced programs for the Animation, Film and Game Industries.

We are successful and accomplished artists, we have found that a lot of the talent of aspiring artists is spoiled by poor school education. So we've developed a fantastic school with strong educational programs that welcome you, work for you and care for you.

We provide our students with a powerful artistic environment combined with technological extensions to improve their education, simplify their development process and provide a robust learning environment.

Vancouver Animation School is registered by the Private Career Training Institutions Agency (PCTIA) of British Columbia.

For more information about Vancouver Animation School, or to get details about enrolling in our Concept Art and 3D Computer Character Animation online programs, please call 1-888-677-8827 or visit our website at www.vanas.ca.