Every year College for Arts and Technology’s Graduating Animation Students travel from Kelowna to Vancouver to tour Animation Studios.  This annual trip is a fundamental part of building and maintaining industry relationships to help CAT student’s transition into the workforce.

Sean Ridgway, College for Arts and Technology Animation Department Head in Kelowna describes the importance of these trips, “Visiting the studios in Vancouver presents an opportunity for studios to echo the tools and methods we train our students in throughout their program at the College for Arts & Technology. It is inspiring and insightful for students to understand how a studio functions, how to navigate a large city like Vancouver and what it takes to succeed in the industry from the firsthand experience of those working there and the recruiters hiring. For our animation program, it helps us maintain those vital industry relations and cement CAT animations reputation amongst the leaders in education.  Vancouver itself is screaming for talent and all studios said there is no better time than now for new grads to be seeking opportunities in the field of 2D and 3D animation.”

For the 10th annual CAT Vancouver Studio Crawl, graduating Animation students from Kelowna visited Nerdcorps Entertainment, Bardel Entertainment, Atomic Cartoons, Electronic Arts and Sony Imageworks.

In addition to touring students through studios, Animation Department Head Sean Ridgway and Lead Animation Instructor, Roland Baron, visited Digital Domain and Double Negative to meet with their teams and get informed about the latest exciting developments and VFX recruitment efforts underway at those studios.

Here is what students had to say about the June 2015 trip:

“Inspirational, Enriching and Informative; these are just a few of the many words I would use to describe the Vancouver Trip. Experiencing the many studios and their cultures was extremely motivating. It allowed me to see myself in this profession and solidified why I was here (at CAT) studying VFX/Animation. Talking to the artists opened my mind to the many aspects of this industry and helped me think of ways to push my work past average and in to excellence.” 

-Caitlin Stasuk, AGFVE student

“I was super happy with the studio tours! Even with the skills we learn in the classroom, it’s just as important to see the studio environments for yourself! Not to mention some time to socialize with your peers.”

-Ammie-Lieu Dang, AGFVE student

“Going on the Vancouver trip really opened my eyes and made me more excited and ready to enter this industry.”

-Kizzie Boyd, AGFVE student