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88 The Pond Road
Toronto, Ontario
Canada

 The Visual Effects for Film and Television Program is designed to introduce students to the tools and techniques used to create visual effects for film and video.  The program is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

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Program Overview

This page contains a description of the Visual Effects for Television and Film program at Seneca College, located on the Campus of York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.   

Program Overview

The Visual Effects for Film and Television program is designed to teach students to become professional visual effects artists.  This intensive eight month course will give students the knowledge to create a professional demo reel designed to show off their skills and get employed at visual effects studios around the world.

Industry standard software such as Maya, Nuke and Houdini are the core tools that students will become proficient in. Students will be introduced to fundamental and advanced techniques of compositing, 3D content creation and integration with live action footage.

Each class will consist of hands-on demonstrations, case studies, exercises and projects, taught by industry professionals.  Classes are taught in a computer lab environment with 24-hour security card access.  Currently the program has two intakes a year, one in January and one in September.  Some classes may be held on evenings and Saturdays.  

You will learn how to:

  • Plan out your visual effects shot
  • Shoot your footage
  • 3D Track your footage
  • Create CG models
  • Compositing techniques

Please watch the video below for more details about what you will learn in Seneca's Visual Effects program.

 

The VFT program has a long history of producing production ready graduates.  The program has been around for over 15 years, and it’s grads have worked on a long list of Hollywood blockbusters.  Some of the films that our grads have worked on include:

Hugo, Real Steel, Priest, Alice in Wonderland, 2012, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, Speed Racer, The Adventures of Tintin, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, X-Men: First Class, Thor, Sucker Punch, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, TRON: Legacy, Battleship, Game of Thrones, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, The Shape of Water, Wonder Woman, Power Rangers, Fast and the Furious 8

The Liberal Party of Canada recognized our program for our excellence here

Seneca's Culture of Success

Our grads are working in every Visual Effects studio in Toronto, including shops like Mr.X Inc, SPIN, Soho VFX, Rocket Science VFX, Pixomondo, Guru Studio, and many others.

In the summer of 2016 the Seneca College Visual Effects program was made a certified Houdini School (the first year SideFX created the certified process).  Judges from Double Negative, Pixar and Disney reviewed our curriculum and student work in order to award this certification.  This has been reviewed and renewed for 2018-2019.

In the summer of 2016 the Seneca College Visual Effects program was made a certified Houdini School (the first year SideFX created the certified process).  Judges from Double Negative, Pixar and Disney reviewed our curriculum and student work in order to award this certification.  This has been reviewed and renewed for 2018-2019.

Our instructors all currently work in the field that they teach in (that’s why some classes have to be at night or on weekends, they’re working at studios during the day).  It’s very important to us that our instructors stay current and that they are in touch with a fast moving industry.

The VFT program is always looking for trends in visual effects, and is constantly updating it's curriculum to stay relevant.  Seneca was the first Visual Effects program on the East Coast to switch over to Nuke as it’s main compositing software back in early 2009.  It was also the first local college to incorporate Houdini back into it’s core curriculum.

Instagram Feed:

We'd like to congratulate all our graduates (highlighted in green) at Spin VFX who worked on Season 3 of Stranger Things!
Nothing makes us happier than to spread the word of our student's and faculty's accomplishments. The Emmy nominations were announced and in the category of Outstanding Special Visual Effects, our long time professor Mahmoud Rahnama was nominated for his work on the series "Star Trek: Discovery" for the episode "Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2". Last year Mahmoud was nominated for a a Visual Effects Society award as well. Mahmoud wanted to make sure we drew attention to the fact that the Toronto branch of Pixomondo (the studio where the majority of VFX work for the show is done) is packed with Seneca grads. He estimates 60-80 Seneca grads work there. Congratulations to everyone who worked so hard on the show. World class work!
The amazing class of 2018/2019. Sad to see you go but super excited to see what you all go on to do in the industry.
Congratulations to everyone (especially all our grads, highlighted in red)at Soho VFX who worked on the visual effects on John Wick 3!
We are so proud of all of our alumni at Soho VFX who worked on the new season of Game of Thrones! This work is world class level visual effects, congratulations on working on such a prestigious project.
We have eight new grad profiles up on our site (link in bio). You can read their thoughts about the program, see their reels and what advice they'd give potential applicants.
Congratulations to all the Seneca grads (and current Surfacing teacher Khaled Pamir) who worked on the latest Goosebumps film that opened yesterday. We are all so proud of your amazing work!
Wrapping up the semester is always bittersweet. We're really going to miss the January 2018 class but we can't wait to see what they do out in the industry!