One of the many benefits of Vancouver Film School’s Digital Design program is the opportunity to work with real-world clients as part of the curriculum. Students work with an industry client in creating, pitching, and delivering materials for a particular project. This term, our students have had the unique opportunity to work with our partner schools in Latin America – Universidad de La Sabana and Universidad Anáhuac México – on a special Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) client project. This collaboration with VFS students and students from Latin America makes this project a unique learning experience because the students had to communicate and coordinate with each other solely online (time zone differences and all) as opposed to being in the classroom. Each team had to manage their own schedules to ensure they met project deadlines.
The client for this term, Mundo Imayina, is a non-profit organization that created a fantasy land (akin to Disney World) in Mexico to give children with chronic, advanced, or terminal illnesses a place to immerse themselves for a magical weekend. Mundo Imayina designed this kingdom to be an expenses-free inclusive experience for children and their families and to strengthen the familial bond.
VFS Digital Design students collaborated on a project for the non-profit organization Mundo Imayina.For the project, students were tasked with developing a fun and imaginative way to integrate pre-existing fantasy characters into the theme park. They were split into 5 teams and each team created digital and interactive experiences to bring these characters to life. Some of the designs included 3D character animation, camera filters, and QR codes revealing parts of a story. Each team presented their concept to the client, collaborating with the client to ensure their projects met the goal of the theme park. This was an incredible chance for students to gain practical experience pitching and developing their work to meet the needs of a client in their industry.
VFS Digital Design students developed an interactive way to bring fantasy characters to life in the theme park.Beyond the developing phase, students were able to test their projects as well. High school students from Collingwood School visited VFS at the beginning of February to test prototypes for our Digital Design student projects in person. This allowed the teams to see how their designs worked and adjust where needed to improve user experience.
The students had an opportunity to test their prototypes before presenting to the client.VFS's Senior Instructor of Digital Design Nour Al-Amoudi has been leading the students through this project and ensures they track their work through weekly blog submissions and proper documentation via an online channel. This process ensures students know how to set themselves up for success and they can use these organizational tools for future jobs.
While we can't give away too many specific details, all our Digital Design teams were successful in developing and pitching their projects for Mundo Imayina and you just might be able to see their ideas magically implemented into the theme park in the future.