VFS Animation Concept Art alum Naomi Iwadare featured in ImagineFX Magazine

Big news for VFS Animation Concept Art alum Naomi Iwadare! After earning a Draft Selection badge at The Rookie Awards – a prestigious early-career honour for emerging creatives – Naomi’s project ‘The Nutcracker’ was featured this past January in ImagineFX, a widely circulated industry art magazine.

Created as Naomi’s final project at Vancouver Film School, ‘The Nutcracker’ presents a striking new interpretation of Tchaikovsky’s classic ballet. For concept artists at any stage of their careers, being featured in ImagineFX is a major milestone, one that reflects exceptional creativity, persistence, and craft.

Watch Naomi’s final project ‘The Nutcracker’ below:

 

ABOUT IMAGINEFX AND THE ROOKIES

ImagineFX is the world’s best-selling digital art magazine, catering to sci-fi, fantasy, and concept artists of all levels. It provides expert-led tutorials, artist interviews, and in-depth workshops covering character design, 3D modeling, and painting techniques. It is a premier resource for learning, inspiration, and showcasing, often featuring community art.

The Rookies is a premier online platform and community dedicated to empowering young artists, students, and hobbyists in creative industries like game design, animation, VFX, and immersive media. It provides tools for portfolio building, showcases, and hosts the annual Rookie Awards, connecting emerging talent with industry professionals.

ABOUT VFS’S AWARD-WINNING ANIMATION CONCEPT ART PROGRAM

VFS’s Animation Concept Art program is ranked #1 worldwide by Animation Career Review. Over 1 intensive year, students train hands-on in VFS’s state-of-the-art production centre, mastering a skill set in defining the look, mood, and style of characters, environments, and props for film, TV, games, and beyond.

Learning directly from veteran industry animators and mentors, students graduate with a powerful, multi-piece production portfolio, the signature piece being an original pitch package including key art, character designs, environment and prop designs, turnarounds, expressions sheets, general visual development, and pose sheets.

If you’re an aspiring concept artist looking to train for the industry in just 1 short year, book an appointment with a VFS Advisor to discuss start dates, tuition, scholarship opportunities, and more.

OUR INTERVIEW WITH VFS ANIMATION ALUM NAOMI IWADARE

Congratulations on your ImagineFX feature! What does this recognition mean to you at this stage of your career?

Thank you so much! This truly means a lot. Being recognized by The Rookies and featured in ImagineFX was something I genuinely didn’t expect. Seeing my little Nutcracker printed in a magazine felt surreal, and incredibly rewarding. At this stage of my career, that kind of validation was deeply reassuring. Like all artists, I struggle with self-doubt and overthinking, so having my work acknowledged in that way felt like a great sign to keep going.

Tell us about ‘The Nutcracker’. What sparked the original idea, and how did the project evolve?

A few months before entering my final term [at VFS], I decided I wanted my final project to be an homage to Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker. There’s something inexplicably mesmerizing and magical about ballet and theatre, and I knew I wanted to capture that atmosphere in my illustrations.

However I wanted to give it a different approach, something far from the Christmas classical view of the Nutcracker, and I’ve always loved dark fantasy. That became the core idea of the project: a soulslike-Nutcracker. Coming up with the subject was easy, but the process itself was another story. Every step required so many deliberate choices… sometimes felt too overwhelming.

What truly made everything come together wasn’t just me overthinking for days, but the constant feedback from my incredibly patient teachers and my classmates. We were a very close group, so we constantly exchanged ideas and supported each other’s projects. Some of the strongest concepts came from a Frankenstein of ideas. And so, little by little, everything started clicking until it became this final project.

Your work is truly mesmerizing – something out of a video game. Where do you draw inspiration as an artist?

Musicals, theatre and ballet are peak inspirations for me, of course I also watch many movies (not only animation but also live-action), play a lot of video games and read from all kinds of genres.

But to be honest, I think that one of the many joys of being part of this industry is how we can easily get inspired by almost anything. We find beauty in the most random places. Even a red lighting on a bar or a moss on a tree can be inspiring and make us stand in awe. That simple thing can inspire a whole project on its own.

How would you describe your student experience at VFS? In what ways did the Animation Concept Art program prepare you for the industry?

It took me some time to be able to study at VFS, but once I did, it was truly a game changer. Especially because it changed a little bit on how I originally perceived concept art, it was not only about making nice appealing images, but being able to conceptualize proper believable designs that help in production.

One lesson I didn’t expect (but deeply value) was learning how to properly ask for and receive feedback. It’s a skill that often goes unnoticed, and it is such a crucial thing for growth. I’m incredibly grateful to have taken that with me from VFS.

As a recent VFS graduate, what advice would you give to aspiring concept artists looking to break into the industry?

Being brutally honest, breaking into concept art is competitive, it requires a lot of persistence and to keep polishing your fundamentals over and over again.

My advice to anyone wanting to enter the industry would be to focus on building a strong portfolio that showcases not just final illustrations, but also explorations, design iterations and a full breakdown of the process behind your projects.

And always ask for feedback, that is the best way to grow and become better. You don’t have to follow every comment blindly, but staying open to critique, new ideas, and suggestions is crucial for moving forward.

What’s next for you? What goals are you most excited to pursue?

I want to keep learning and continue growing as an artist, even beyond VFS. I’m especially excited about collaborating on new projects with the incredible artists I’ve met here, and seeing what our combined artistic minds are capable of. More than anything, I hope to keep surprising myself, keep evolving, and see where this path leads next.

 

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