Write a popular song, score a film or documentary, create the music and sound effects for a video game. With the music/sound design needs of Vancouver’s busy film, animation and video games industries, graduates of the Electronic Music program will have the skills and knowledge necessary to produce their own electronic music and run an independent business doing so.

Synthesizers, samplers and computer-based recording make it easy for anyone to create professional electronic music on their home computer. For individuals interested in electronic music creation and composition in the digital age, and marketing that music to industry, the Electronic Music program at The Art Institute, Vancouver is the perfect educational vehicle.

Topics include musical structure and notation, ear training, rhythmic, melodic and harmonic structure and notation, tonality and scales, and cadences. Song writing, arrangement, and production will be covered using industry standard samplers, sequencers, synthesizers and hard disk recorders. Courses cover audio theory, psychoacoustic principles, and musical structure.

Students train in digital and analogue recording studios using linear and non-linear recording technologies. Curriculum includes topics such as professional session engineering, microphone techniques, outboard equipment, MIDI, signal flow, critical listening, and audio/acoustic principles. Instruction includes linear and non-linear digital audio theory, surround sound, system integration and synchronization (e.g., analogue, digital, video, machine control, automation), and advanced recording techniques. Practice and integration are emphasized along with technical skills, production and project management, and problem-solving and troubleshooting skills.

The Art Institute of Vancouver offers a certificate of achievement upon successful completion of the Independent Recording Arts Design program. This program lasts one academic year (four quarters) and contains 60 quarter-credits. Each course within the program is worth three quarter-credits and the program consists of approximately 20 courses. The object of this program is to provide students with basic skills for working independently in the recording arts industry. Students learn skills in recording engineering, digital music technology, and audio editing. In addition, students are given practical business skills and knowledge in order to work as a freelance recording arts specialist.

Protools Level 1 will give participants the theoretical knowledge and practical skills to manipulate audio in a computer based workstation running Protools LE software. Participants will learn the fundamental concepts important in digital audio such as sample rate and bit depth. Audio theory will be covered to assist in understanding the issues encountered when mixing and mastering. Participants will take a multi-track music mix through the stages of development including editing, processing, mixing and software mastering.

Course Competencies

Participants that complete this course will be able to:

· Describe the characteristics of the sound wave.
· Explain how an analogue signal is converted into digital.
· Understand digital audio terminology of word length and sample rates.
· Identify different time based effects processors and their parameters.
· Use Protools to edit a multi-track recording to prepare for mixing.
· Manipulate processors to control dynamic and harmonic content.
· Demonstrate the ability to set-up a mix session in Protools.
· Use the plug-in processors and effects in Protools.
· Use both on- and off-line automation in Protools to mix a multi-track recording.
· Employ signal flow options such as busses and auxes to route signal through Protools.
· Understand the process of software mastering.

Graduates of interactive graphic design programs are trained to design and produce art for a variety of interactive media, including web design, computer aided training programs, and presentations using state of the art software. Students often go on to obtain their associate’s or bachelor’s’ degrees in graphic design.

Please contact school for more information.

In the Game Art&Design program, curriculum exposes students to more effective leadership techniques and deepens their understanding of the complexities of working within a group environment (e.g. project collaborations between animators, game artists, visual effects students). Courses like Preproduction Team, Preproduction for Games, Production Team, and Post Production all challenge students learn to become more effective team members.

Writing and communication skills are also developed through courses such as Professional Writing, Documentation for Design, Creative Writing&Research, Interactive Story Telling I, and Interactive Story Telling II.

Academic Directors, faculty and members of industry have direct input into student outcomes and specialization through the mid-program portfolio reviews. These reviews are part of the curricula and offer knowledge by which students may further strengthen their portfolios.

Web design and interactive media is an exciting new field of integrated electronic communications that is becoming an essential part of the business, education, and entertainment industries. The advent of multimedia has established a regeneration of energy in business. This has led to the creation of employment opportunities that require an individual who can combine sound, graphic arts, text, and video or film to improve the dissemination of information.

Program outcomes are focused on creativity, design strategy and technology solutions across media platforms. Program competencies are those related to interface design, interactivity, visual design, database design, dynamic content design, technology, and information design.

Web design and interactive media is used to create everything from DVD menus to Web site navigation and touch screen. In the Web Design&Interactive Media&Foundation for Design program, you'll learn the basic skills needed to create friendly, usable interactions via the Web, CD-ROMS, DVDs, and kiosks. Graduates are prepared to seek entry-level employment such as interactive designer, animator, special effects artist, and computer artist.

The Digital Film & Video Program is an intensive hands-on program of study that prepares self-starting, motivated students for entry-level positions in the digital film and television industry. Emerging grads are equipped with the skills and knowledge to seek positions with production houses, production companies, television stations, documentary ventures, and corporate and commercial video production companies. Throughout the program, students will be encouraged, through an ever-expanding curriculum that reflects the changing needs of industry, to write, shoot, and edit their own projects in a safe, creative, and productive environment. Students will learn to confidently navigate the evolving digital landscape with guidance from an experienced, qualified team of industry professionals, while learning the strategies necessary to survive in one of the most competitive industries in the world.

This program helps to create game programmers. Game Programmers must not only have the artistic talent and abilities, but more importantly be well-versed in the technical aspects of the game, thus capable of comprehending the intent of the artistic creator and the technical needs and challenges in achieving the intended results of the game designers. With that unique understanding, the Game Programmer can customize the programming tools in a computer software application to best meet the needs of an individual game.

An intensely hands-on program that combines an introduction to animation skills with technical programming skills, the Visual&Game Programming program focuses on student ability to create and modify programs/scripts for game levels. Students will be introduced to the principles of programming, which enables them to enter into the world of shading development, graphic dynamics, and pipeline streamlining. They will learn programming tools such as Perl, C++, C-shell, Mel scripting, MaxScript, DirectX&OpenGL. Students in this program will become very familiar with different operating systems while focusing on Unix type platforms.

In the Animation Art&Design program, students develop their skills through a sound progression of animation training. Animation courses use traditional, computer-generated and vector based tools and techniques to provide a well rounded and thorough education, beginning with the foundational skills and building toward their modern applications.

By gaining a solid understanding of the art of animation across several mediums students have access to a wider range of employment opportunities within this specialized field. Interdisciplinary collaboration is encouraged in Team production classes, where students work together to produce a short film, video game content or VFX project. The addition of a Mentor Studio in the 7th quarter of the program exposes student to direct feedback from industry experienced instructors. Students gain valuable production experience where they are required to learn and apply the professional skills that employers demand.

The 3D Modeling for Animation & Games diploma program at the Art Institute of Vancouver is dedicated to providing graduates with the relevant skills necessary to enter into and maintain a career in the computer generated animation industry. This goal is achieved by building a foundation of traditional artistic skill, and then providing students with hands on training in its modern application.

Each term of the program is comprised of tightly integrated, cohesive courses in which students accomplish specific, industry driven competencies and outcomes. Each course builds on the lessons of the ones before it and each term is a prerequisite for the following. The 3D Modeling for Animation & Games diploma program is about learning the fundamental artistic skill necessary to enter into and maintain a career in the computer generated animation industry, and developing the technical aptitude necessary to demonstrate and present it effectively.

The Professional Recording Arts (LIPA) program is a fully articulated block transfer program. Students aspiring to a higher level of academic work and/or are clear about their desire to transfer to LIPA may apply for the articulated program near the beginning of their studies at the Burnaby location of The Art Institute Vancouver. The program includes all course work in the Professional Recording Arts diploma program with additional academic and project requirements and higher expectations regarding academic achievement. Extra courses include Media Studies and Technology, and Directed Studies. The program requires the completion of a variety of written papers through Directed Studies courses. In addition students are required to complete a major collaborative project.

Entrance Requirements

Students must apply for the Professional Recording Arts (LIPA) program in their fourth quarter of the regular Professional Recording Arts Program. Acceptance is based on grades to date, and academic aptitude. Accepted students move into the Professional Recording Arts (LIPA) program in their fifth quarter of Professional Recording Arts.

The VFX diploma program at the Art Institute of Vancouver is dedicated to providing graduates with the relevant skills necessary to enter into and maintain a career in the post-production industry for film and television as VFX artists and technicians. This goal is achieved by building a foundation of traditional artistic skill, a solid knowledge base in film and VFX theory, and by then providing students with hands on training in various modern applications and tools.

Each term of the program is comprised of tightly integrated, cohesive courses in which students accomplish specific, industry driven competencies and outcomes. Each course builds on the lessons of the ones before it and each term is a prerequisite for the following. The VFX diploma program focuses on learning the fundamental artistic skills necessary to enter into and maintain a career in the animation industry, and developing the technical aptitude necessary to demonstrate and present it effectively. The curriculum is structured to facilitate exceptional portfolio outcomes culminating in the development of a professional "demo reel" and other marketing pieces. As technology and software are constantly evolving, students are trained to be diagnostic in their study, to problem solve and above all, develop work ethic and standards in accordance with their professional practice. Finally, students learn how to communicate ideas effectively, as well as how to work in a collaborative environment through a variety of team based projects.

Eager to gain more knowledge about a particular aspect of your profession or hobby? Our Centre for Professional Development (CPD) certificate courses and programs are varied and highly targeted toward unique topics within the culinary, design, media and Web fields. (Please note that these programs are not structured to result in an occupational outcome, and students enrolled in any of these programs do not have access to The Art Institute of Vancouver Career Services.)