Sheridan College: The Harvard of Animation
A story of Sheridan Animation's colourful history and how it drew its path to success
“Sheridan is widely considered to be the gold standard of animation education,” says Sheridan dean of Animation, Arts and Design Ronni Rosenberg in the introduction of Sheridan Animation History.
A mosaic of influences determine the elongated success of an educational program. From prestigious faculty members, to innovative technological facilities, to top-notch graduate production, there is no single determinant for what makes a school’s program one of the best in the world.
It’s how this collection of assets works together. The cohesiveness of infrastructure that initializes prominence, and the symbiosis that exists between the program and its students is what determines it.
Sheridan Animation is one of those programs.
by Spencer Luyben
The Animation program at Sheridan began in 1968 when there was basically no animation industry in Canada, according to Stukator. Small animation studios across the United States were beginning to gain momentum in the television industry, but Canada was relatively an unknown territory in the field.
Thanks to the vision of George Martsegis the program achieved its first success. After being recruited from Hollywood to teach classical animation in 1967, Martsegis noticed the potential of the program’s success in a Canadian landscape that was bereft of animators. After the decision was made to create a full-blown program in Animation, and an injection of quality founding faculty members, the program really began to flourish.
Since then, Sheridan’s program has been a leader among Canadian post-secondary schools. Since 2003, it has been the first – and the only – Canadian school to offer a bachelor’s degree in animation, which has attracted the strongest students and faculty in the country, and always maintained cutting-edge technologies and practices.
The rest is history.
It consistently ranks among the top 10 animation schools in the world, according to animationcareerreview.com, and even landed the number one spot in 2012. In 2010, it was awarded a gold medal from the Association of Canadian Community Colleges (ACCC), and includes award-winning faculty and grads who have worked for Pixar, Disney and DreamWorks, among others.
“What distinguishes it is our history,” says Angela Stukator associate dean of Animation and Game Design.
The program’s history is important because it’s flawless. Each year it regularly introduces over 100 grads to the industry, most of whom are snapped up by major animation studios across the world.
“[Sheridan animation] is one of the world’s few education programs that practically guarantees high-paying and creative work,” says Clive Thompson, a journalist who focuses on the societal and culture impacts of digital technologies.
Paul Donovan, who co-founded Salter Street Films, which produced a mid-2000s science-fiction show called Lexx, also recognizes the quality of Sheridan grads and is aware of their burgeoning potential even before they graduate.
“If you’re capable of doing computer graphics for film and you are a graduate of Sheridan College, you will be offered a $50,000- to $75,000-a-year job before you graduate,” he says.
Before you graduate.
Last year, roughly 60 of the 135 fourth-year Animation students were offered jobs at Industry Day, a two-day event held just after the final week of school wherein hundreds of recruiters from studios across the world visit Sheridan in search for the next animation wunderkind.
During Industry Day, graduating Animation students showcase their work inside individual booths, complete with their final film project, artwork and a brief biography of the artist. Studio representatives from all over are given each student’s contact information and set up interviews according to the work they feel best suits their needs.
“They need people,” says Tony Tarantini, who co-ordinates Industry Day and has been an Animation faculty member of the program since 2000. “And it’s kind of a cyclical thing happening between people who graduate, go out and then come back and produce opportunities for current students.”
And it’s always been that way, but it started with non-Sheridan grads.
Cintiq tablet & Toon Boom software
“There has been this real synergy between Sheridan and the industry. Three people went out into the world and created Nelvana [in 1971], and they decided they would make animated television short films,” said Stukator. “And they just kept coming to Sheridan and hiring the graduates.”
Michael Hirsh, co-founder of Nelvana, describes Sheridan as the reason the studio exists and attributes its success to the work of Sheridan grads.
“Sheridan pumped out the students, and the students created the industry,” he says, and states, “Sheridan is the Harvard of animation schools.”
Nelvana produced exciting work in the animation field, including a TV special called A Cosmic Christmas, which caught the eye of none other than George Lucas himself. Lucas commissioned the studio to produce a 10-minute animated short, which resulted in the first animated version of Star Wars.
Yes, Star Wars.
Then, in 1997, Nelvana, in conjunction with the production company Cinar, helped create Teletoon, an internationally popular television network that is geared toward a youth audience. Three years later, Hirsh was at the head of the largest animation studio in Canada and sold it to Corus Entertainment for a whopping $540 million.
Talk about a wild success.
That same year, 2000, is when Sheridan’s ability to attract graduates to each other really paid off.
Frank Falcone, along with two other animation grads, launched a Toronto-based studio called Guru. It has since grown into a breeding ground for innovative animation and nearly 30 per cent of its 140 or so employees are Sheridan grads.
“We make a point of going and seeing graduating productions at Sheridan. The quality of graduates is consistently higher,” says Falcone, who is the president and creative director of the studio, which has enjoyed annual revenues of over $7 million, according to InvestinOntario.com.
Apart from support from alumni, animation grads have little to worry about if they complete their comprehensive 2,100-hour, four-year degree. An astounding “87 per cent of graduates eventually find work in the field,” according to Stukator.
Click on the right arrow quickly to see the magic of the Cintiq.
At its core, what truly separates the program from others is its emphasis on storytelling.
“We teach them the fundamentals of animation and we teach them how to be really good storytellers,” says Stukator. “Because they have the fundamentals of animation, they can go out and get a job, and because they have sound storytelling skills, they can rise above the pack and go on to positions that are higher up, like writing stories for feature films, directing, producing, [etc.].”
Recently, Sheridan alumni have proved that the program has come a long way since its inception in 1968. In this year/2015 alone, Dean DeBlois, Chris Williams and Graham Annable were nominated for Academy Awards for How to Train Your Dragon 2, Big Hero 6, and Boxtrolls, respectively. Not to mention the nominees for other, arguably less-notable awards and countless 2-D, 3-D and stop-motion animators whose films – varying in length – have played at numerous film and animation festivals across the globe.
“One of the big reasons for success [of the program] is the high standard we have for admissions. Students have certain skill levels before they even walk in the door, and that makes a huge difference,” said Mark Mayerson, who’s the coordinator of Sheridan’s Bachelor of Animation. “Essentially, if students don’t know how to draw before they apply to this program, they don’t get in.”
Each year, the program sifts through anywhere from 1,000 to 3,000 applicants, coming from Canada, the US, Japan, Brazil, Europe and many other places that promises a superior and diverse 150-student population.
Only time will tell whether or not the program will continue on its route of greatness, and the 2015 graduating class hopes to steer it to even greener pastures.
Stop-Motion Animation Studio at Trafalgar
