Vancouver Institute of Media Arts (VanArts) - Vancouver, British Columbia

SAM

I studied in the 2D Character Animation program at VanArts, and I can confidently say that this school is incredible. Coming from overseas, I was looking for a place that would cut through the noise and get straight to the point—learning to animate. VanArts skips all the BS; there are no essays, no pointless exams—just relentless hours of animating, day and night, for 12 months straight. The focus is exactly where it should be: on honing your craft. The teachers here are like family. The environment is super welcoming, and everyone from the staff to the students made it feel like a second home. It was an honor to study under Mr. Wayne Gilbert and the rest of the faculty. They truly care about your progress and push you to be the best animator you can be. Going to VanArts and learning with all these people beside me was an experience of a lifetime, and now that I am a part of the VanArts family, I feel so honored. This place changed my life, and while I can’t speak for everyone, for me, it was an incredible place to learn. If you’re serious about animation and want to dive straight into the deep end, this is the school for you.

Class of fall September 2023
2D56!

Michelle N.

My best advice is if you stop by an information booth or speak to a recruiter, never give them your phone number. Nearly a year later and I'm still getting calls every month or so despite me telling them I'm not interested. Finally had to block the number. Very unprofessional.

Jay H.

Best Acting School Ever – A Life-Changing Experience!

I can confidently say this is the best acting school out there! I attended the one-year intensive, full-time class, and it completely transformed me as an actor and as a person. The program is incredibly well-rounded, with phenomenal instructors who are not only professional actors but still actively working in the industry, bringing real-world experience to every class. The diversity in instruction was incredible – from scene study classes with different instructors throughout the year to specialized film and TV classes.

We performed two full plays, including one in a professional theatre with three-night shows, which was an amazing experience. Plus, we shot two short films, giving us hands-on experience in front of the camera. The Shakespeare scene study with the amazing Scott Balis was particularly memorable, along with voice classes, movement classes, and even business classes that taught us how to navigate the industry.

By the end of this program, you know exactly what steps to take next – how to find an agent, get into the industry, and pursue your career with confidence. We also had auditions with guest instructors who offered invaluable feedback.

This school is so much more than just acting classes – it’s a life-changing experience that will stay with you forever. If you’re serious about acting, this is the place to be!

G

To start, any aspiring artist who is based outside of Canada who wants to attend, please save a little more and look for alternatives, there is no PGWP programs after grad. Your chances of joining the industry here are also higher if you attend school for more than 1 year. At some schools, even if you drop, you are given a computer and tablet too. Even now with their prices comparable to others, this school doesn’t even have a flex lab for grads since its moved from the previous location in Gastown, which was larger. VanArts has a high graduation rate because the majority of the students are internationals who pay a large sum of money for just a year intensive. If you leave before the second term, you’re refunded half and most of these students decide not to leave for good reason. Yes a lot of people graduate, but they don’t show animation job acceptance rates after, which is low because the quality of the animations aren’t up to par for studio work. Studios usually will hire seniors over us, or students who have a solid and confident understanding of animation principles and software (usually have experience) which is hard to achieve in a year intensive. Due to only a year, you wont retain much information either. They teach you basically surface level info you could get off of Youtube easily or some web digging. For some teachers, not all, bash other schools and theres a lot of favouritism. If a student seems good/ has experience they seem to dump more energy and time into their work when they help. Theres 1 teacher per class and 15-30 students. (Yes sickness spreads bad) They go from one to the other to review their work and for SOME reason they only have TAs for the easiest terms (1&2) and none for the hardest terms (3&4) so its usually always one teacher. [To add, why do we even have easily forgettable life drawing assignments in the last most important term it adds stress, and you need to finish/pass all in this class in order to graduate.] I’d patiently wait over an hour to get critiqued and boom its lunch, so id have to spend my time going to other teachers while in CLASS or during lunch/ after school for just basic help that I don’t feel like scrubbing on youtube for. Even a teacher shooed me away when I asked for help. Onto the actual studies, on paper the 4 terms seem like a piece of cake, but are so terribly and loosely put together and are constantly changing teachers, study topics, etc. (I hope they changed this, I feel so bad for everyone dealing with it.) It quickly became a nightmare after term 2. Extreme lack of communication between departments, finances even struggled to wire money from a persons bank account who was BORN in Canada. For cleanliness theres one cleaner per night, so they don't sweep the classes (only between terms so 3-4 months) this one scarred me, but urinals leaked green goo and the bathrooms smell heavily of urine. Need I say more? Oh yeah! The location is in a very sketchy area and theft often happens! (Even among students) I know a student who arrived early to get work done due constant computer crashes and went to get breakfast, some guy piggybacked on the elevator and robbed their personal items from the nearest unlocked class which was theirs. At the time, they only had 2 cameras. No compensation. Who in their right mind opens a college with 2 security cameras and no security next to the DTES? Its like they opened a year too soon, unfinished classes/ theatre (construction noises) and the like. Saving the best for last, the one that irks me the most is how teachers turned the juniors onto seniors. They referenced our work as bad examples and what not to do to when they were showing the new students. This was all while we were still attending. They did that for us but with ex grads. This in turn caused unnecessary tensions between everyone and schools should encourage juniors to mingle and ask questions because It literally gets them used to networking which is extremely important within any industry.

I could go on, but those reading and are interested, choose carefully.

Lapin O.

I enrolled in the Game Art and Design course in 2014. It was honestly one of the worst experiences I've ever had, and it still effects me to this day. I was told we were going to learn about character design, environments, 2d and 3d art. On entering the course, our teacher Ismeth informed us that we would never get hired as artists, so instead he was going to teach us about rigging and other things, because we would instead more likely get hired as generalists. This wasn't what I signed up or paid for. Not only that, he would only focus on a few people who already had an affinity to the programs and did not put much care into me or 80% of the class there to learn and experience. Not only him, but other teachers would also not be helpful, and even some just didn't show up for the class at all. We would just be left to fend for ourselves. I learned more from Youtube than I did from some of the classes/teachers. I will say that the 2d art teachers were incredible and really took the time to help us learn and better our craft. They were the saving grace of the program. Overall, it was a terrible experience, and if I had the confidence then that I had now, I would've asked for my money back. The way that I'm still paying it off to this day, and got almost nothing from the experience. 2 stars, because like I said, a couple of the teachers were really helpful, but overall this school felt like a scam that I'm still paying for to this day.

Yuka Y.

I am a student of web development & interactive design at VanArts.
There was a head teacher change from my class and there seems to be a big and good change in the program.
The teachers are very supportive. They are always flexible and willing to take the students' opinions and try to make the class suitable for our situation. The classes are always step by step and if there is a lot that we don't understand, they give us time to work on it. Taking advantage of the small class size, if you ask for feedback or follow-up after class, they will give me time to talk one-on-one.
All classes are project-based, giving me more hands-on skills.
The course content tries to help me study the rapidly changing front-end trends.
Since this is a one-year course, there are many hard parts of the course, but my teachers and classmates are always very supportive!

Prachi B.

I recently completed my Web development and Interactive design program from VanArts. It was an intense program. The professors are really supportive and give you ample of time answering your questions. Classes are small. You get lots of professional advice in your one to one sessions.Its a very hands on, project-based program were you get to learn from your professors who are experts in this industry.
I would totally recommend this program to anyone who want to pursue their career in Web development industry.

Pam M.

I am thrilled to share my heartfelt testimonial about the incredible experience I had in the video production class led by the Georgie Daburas. From the very first day, it was evident that this class would be a transformative journey, and under Georgie's guidance, it exceeded all expectations.Georgie's passion for video production is contagious. I am very happy about everything in this school and his classes. Thank you Georgie.