Cambrian College's Animation Program

[Goalin]

Last year Cambrian College and Sheridan College created a partnership in regards to their animation department. Because Cambrian's animation program is so new, I'm having trouble finding a lot of information about it. Did anyone here attend the program last year? What did you think of the teachers / facility / classes? If anyone goes to Cambrian but isn't in the animation program, could you still comment on what your experience at the school was like?

Thanks!

[Jason Rainville]

Hi Goalin,

I did study at cambrian, but I graduated 2 years ago and I was also in a graphic design program. However I did get a feel for what they were introducing for the illustration/animation course;

In my first year or two the "art" side of the school was pretty bad; even though I was in GD there were of course the foundations courses and optional classes that we all got a taste of. There was NO figure drawing and the painting class I took was pretty bad (it was essentially a "do whatever the hell you want type of thing) after the painting teacher left a new one from Iran came along; he was friggen awesome. Constructive critique, always pushing for improvement etc. The fine arts girls got pretty pissed at him though for what they saw as favoritism to me and he left due tothe harassment. The only bright spot I could see in the foundations courses came from Tang's class (I don't know if he's still there or not) Pretty much each project was one item drawn 4 times, 4 different ways (or 4 objects dran different ways) pretty much all from reference or life. He was AWESOME at critique. It didn't matter if it was the best damn thing in the class by miles, he'd find something to improve.

This was at a time when the fine arts program was being phased out. My 3rd and final year however showed a lot of promise; James Munro came in from Sheridan and headed the drawing classes, and we FINALLY got a figure drawing class. He really knows his stuff and got really in depth with anatomy. We also had a digital illustration class in PS with tablets that was far above the clipart creating class the poor souls from the year previous had to go through. Sean Grant was teaching that class and he did a decent job of it (I'm pretty sure he's not an illustrator, could be wrong)

I haven't really kept in touch with the faculty or anything so I really can't say what the scene looks like now. What I can say is that if James is still heading the drawing stuff, you'll be in good hands.

Hope that helped a bit :)