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Disney opens ·up

ma
Stud io plan
could benefit
Cap students
DISNEY'S PANACHE has
lent a shine to Capilano
College's new commercial
animation program.
By /an Noble

News Reporter
The 22 students in the program, which was introduced this
year,
welcomed
Disney's
announcement that the international entertainment company famous for its animation in feaNEWS photo Mike Wakefield
tures such as The Lion King would be setting up a studio in COMMERCIAL ANIMATION student Gordon Heath uses leading
Vancouver in early 1996.
digital equipment in the painstaking process of creating cartoons.
Said Mike Luney, a Victoria
native who's lived cartoons since he was a kid:
Perro has spoken with other major animation players,
"Vancouver has a lot of studios to begin with, but having such as Warner Brothers and Fox, to let them know the
Disney is a dream come true."
fledgling program exists and what its goals are.
Those goals, be said, are to train commercial animators
Noting Disney's high profile and "amazing" quality; he
added that it's great to have Disney in "our back yard."
to work in areas such as television, feature films, comVanessa Wong, a rabid fan of The lion King, said the mercials, and computer animation.
Reaching that level takes hard work, said Perro.
Disney move gives her a chance to work for Disney, her
The painstaking animation process includes detailed
ultimate goal.
But Gord Heath isn't looking that far ahead, noting he study of how things move and are structured, he added.
still has I½ years to go in the animation program.
Nodding toward a frozen frame of a running gazelle on
Still, he recognizes that the more work available, "the the classroom's television screen, Perro said: "You can't
better it is for us."
animate a gazelle unless you know how a gazelle moves.
On Nov. 30, Walt Disney subsidiary Walt Disney If you don' t understand the live action, you '"'.on't be able
Animation Canada Inc. announced it would open a to animate it to make it believable."
Canadian studio with offices in Vancouver and Toronto,
One drawi ng is graphic design, 3,000 drawings are anicreating about 200 jobs.
mation, said Perro.
The Canadian studio will produce home videos in conHeath understands the demands of the job.
nection with Walt Disney Television Animation, which
Although he enjoyed cartoons as a child, he now looks
produced The Return of ]afar, a sequel to Aladdin and the at animation from a new perspective.
.
best-selling "direct-to-home" video of all time.
"It's still fun but you look at things in a different light,"
Disney is currently looking for studio space in he said. "Basically, what it comes down to is a lot of hard
Vancouver.
work."
According to Capilano College, animation has become
Wong reiterated much of what Heath said.
a growth industry in B.C., but is limited by a shortage of
When asked if animation is magical, she replied, "No,
it's a lot of hard work."
trained commercial animators.
For program coordinator Don Perro, Disney will likeAt Capilano, 80% of the commercial animation coursly become the largest studio in a string of about eight es focus on drawing, said Perro.
Lower Mainland studios that could hire his graduates.
Students are trained in all areas of commercial anima"Even though it now looks as good as it ever has in tion, then specialize in areas such as layout design, aniCanada, it's still an up-and-down industry," said Perro.
mation, character design, special effects animation, and
computer animation in their final semester.
But Disney is not the only fish in the animation sea.