Everything I draw ends up wearing a bow-tie

Anonymous asked: Hi modmad! If it wouldn't be too much to ask; I realized that you have studied animation at VFS and wondered if you could tell me a little about your own experience there. I am thinking of going into animation myself and was quite interested in their approach with a one-year intensive education. Did you like it and how do you think it worked out? And also how was your everyday life studying there? Hope I wouldn't disturb you too much

Alrighty-roo so I get asked this sort of thing a fair bit, which is super okay because boy howdy I loved my time at VFS but I get asked a lot so I’m going to make this my staple refer-to answer for all those askers to come; aka this is gonna be long folks, hit J to skip if you want to ignore it!

Personally I found that the year I spent at VFS was one of the best of my life. I had wonderful, friendly, wildly inventive classmates, the teachers were professional, personal and approachable, and every day I felt like I was this shrivelled up sponge being soaked in warm tasty information soup, and would have to stagger back home with my head swollen with the day’s absorption of data swilling around my brain. It was marvellous. I miss it constantly.

HOWEVER; it is very worth noting that before I went to VFS I had not only taken a foundation art year and studied art at A-level, but had also dabbled in animation at home, had done some work experience at a stop-motion animation company, and I had already taken a three year animation course! So… why did I go on to VFS at all? Well, the three year course I took was, to put in politely, not a good one. In fact I was clinically depressed by the third year and thought I could not draw for metaphorical toffee, it was only by the strong will and good sense of my parents that I even dared to try again, and I am so glad I did. The upshot of that course, however, was that I had the benefit of three years worth of time to practice, and the reading list that the place-I-had-studied-in-which-I-won’t-be-naming supplied (which I did, in fact, hunt down all the books from, read every single one and did many of the exercises that they suggested).

Here I must emphasise that VFS does a one year course of classical animation, and let me tell you that is absurdly short. If you aren’t used to drawing a lot (and I mean a lot) every day, or have absolutely no reading or practice with animation, it could very well be overwhelming. It might not be! You might go there and think it’s a walk in the park, I don’t know! But I could not in good conscience just wave the VFS flag and say THIS IS THE BEST COURSE GO DO THIS COURSE IT WILL BE AWESOME without due warning, because I learned everything I had learned in three years within the first two months at VFS. 

Yeah. Wow.

I also had the extreme good luck to have, as stated before, a wonderful class. Now, generally I think the people who work hard enough to get onto any animation course have to be dedicated and bonkers people, but it is still possible to have classmates that don’t ‘click’ with you or each other, and I have seen art classes that have an atmosphere I really would not want to be in. That is something nobody can predict or guarantee and any course will have this hazard. I, on the other hand, loved all my classmates and I cannot wait for a reunion because I miss the heckity darn out of all of them.

Another thing to note (and this applies to any art course out there), is that the course at VFS is very much a you-get-out-what-you-put-in situation. It is intense, yes, the teachers have worked in professional circumstances and are great people to learn from, yes, the assignments they give you are tried and tested means to bring out the best in your abilities, yes, but when it comes down to it the person who has to work, who has to learn, is you. If long hours and constant, challenging assignments sounds like no fun at all, then perhaps this isn’t for you. I literally went into school every day of the week! Including Sundays! They lock the school on the few holidays there are so that students can’t get in to keep working because they know they need to take a week off! No! I’m not joking. Eventually I had to give myself Sunday mornings off because golly it’s important to rest, and I learned to not stay in school working past 8pm for the same reason, and yet I did go in and I did work and I loved it. Nobody forced me to do this, but it was necessary, I felt, to complete the work I had, and to be able to without falling apart at the seams. I actually did contract tendonitis in the second term, which is notorious as the hardest term (and it’s way before you start your final film! yikes), but I recovered and I learned from it and I kept on rolling to the end. Some people did things differently- some preferred to stay late and keep weekends free, some did all nighters, but whatever your approach it is your responsibility. The teachers can give you advice on it, but when it boils down to it this course relies on you; your common sense, your dedication, and your love of the subject.

Finally, and this is the weak note; it has been several years since I attended VFS. While I knew their syllabus when I was there, and it was an effective and stimulating one, I do not know it now, and while I suspect it will be largely the same (when I was there I learned the basic core of it hadn’t changed for several decades because it worked damnit) I have no way of truly knowing that now. I also don’t know you! I don’t know what you want, what your past experiences are, or how well this course will suit you. I do know, however, that the staff are friendly and will call you back if you send them an email; they called me a few days after I sent an email describing my interest, and I live in the UK! Imagine my shock, this school I had heard of as somewhere so prestigious, calling unable-to-draw–diddly-squat me, from Canada! 

That was my first indication of what the thing that makes VFS so good; they care. They want to know you, they want to know your queries, and they want to know about your ambitions. Talk to them, and then think. Take your time in deciding. They start courses three times a year (or did when I was there), so there are always new opportunities to slot in, and there will be two other classes to talk to and make friends with at all times- if you somehow have bad luck and your classmates aren’t the coolest of cucumbers, the odds are very good that there will be people you can befriend in other classes. As for the teachers, I am in contact with many of them still (one got me my first job and went on to be my director!), and while I will always see them as my tutors I will always think of them as my friends, too.

So yeah, TL:DR = for me VFS was amazing and I would love to live it all over again, but every experience is tailored by context and just because it was perfect for me doesn’t mean it will be perfect for you!