Kendra Wong
The Peak (Simon Fraser University)

BURNABY, B.C. (CUP) — Students in Vancouver will have the opportunity to learn from animation’s best this fall, as Pixar is set to host a weekend seminar in the city.

The class, titled Masterclass in Animation and Story Development, is a two-day, eight-hour seminar presented by the Vancouver Institute of Media Arts on Sept. 24 and 25. It has been running for the past four years in Toronto.

“[We want to give participants] insight into high-level professional education about what goes into making Pixar-level stuff,” said Andrew Gordon, course instructor and Pixar animator.

“We want to show them techniques that we use and day-to-day work methods.”

Taking place at Simon Fraser University’s downtown Vancouver campus, the curriculum for the first day of animation includes information about staging and prose design, locomotion, acting for animation, facial animation, as well as gestures, planning and blocking for animation. While the second day about story development features classes regarding storyboarding, sequence boards and character development and storyboarding from a script, among other things.

The class, also taught by Pixar story artist Matthew Luhn, is perfect for students who have graduated, as a refresher class, or to improve existing techniques.

According to Wayne Gilbert, head of the animation department at the Vancouver Institute of Media Arts, the idea originated approximately four years ago when Gordon, an alumnus, approached the school’s owner to discuss the benefits of putting together a curriculum for an animation class.

“Matt [Luhn] and I had been teaching for about a year; it started out as an animation class,” explained Gordon. “It is cool to talk about stuff that we love to do.”

Though the class has been strictly about animation in the past, Gordon stated how the change in curriculum this year complements each other.

“Ultimately, when you’re an animator, you want to create your own stories, but people don’t understand how to get started, and learning that story is the perfect complement.”

The seminar corresponds with the opening of the new 7,000-square-foot Pixar studio in Vancouver, which will focus more on the creation of short animation films.

“Vancouver is a good city for TV and gaming. Now that we have Pixar moving to the city, we have some high profile studios exposing what it means to . . . take our craft to the feature film level,” explained Gilbert.

Gordon also expressed hopes of continuing the class well into the future, expanding the curriculum, traveling to more cities and the possibility of adding a third instructor.

“We have no real plans [for the future]. We don’t have any venues set up for next year . . . we come up [with venues] as we think about them,” said Gordon. They’ve also taken the class to London, U.K. and China.

“I enjoy giving back to the animation community. It keeps you sharp and on your toes.”

Gordon has worked with Pixar for over 13 years and has worked on such popular films as A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and Ratatouille, while Luhn has worked on Toy Story 2 and 3, Cars and Up over the past 18 years.