Canada is really no different than anywhere else.  As a new animator entering the industry it will all come down to your demo reel.  Above all else, continue animating and improving your reel.  School can help make you a well rounded artist and it will expose you to a great many things (and help you make connections), but without a great reel it won't matter.

Have an idea of your career goals -- more than simply "I want to be animator".  Do you want to work in feature, TV or games?  Do you want to create you own IP or are you happy working on someone else's project. Customize your reel accordingly.

One other thing to work on is networking. Get yourself out there. Meet people in the industry, in the education system and other people like yourself.  A strong network will help you find new opportunities and get through difficult times.

Hey,
what about VanArts ? (I'm currently enrolled into the 2D Character Animation course, 2month left, and I had some experience with maya..so..same principles just different tools).
You'll be focusing ONLY on character animation!


Alle

Hahaha

Wait, I thought you want to be an animator? Modelling is different from Animation. I'm not from Canada and am not familiar with the place, sorry, but you can try Animschool -they have an online course for modelling.

You can't go wrong with learning Maya. It is taking a lot of flack these days for subpar updates, but it is still a very popular package in production studios.  For games, 3ds max is a fairly common application. Focusing on modelling, it may be beneficial to have a secondary application such as ZBrush in your arsenal.

ajfrank wrote:

Vancouver is a pretty cool city and has some good schools PLUS it has lots of studios as well. If u want to JUST do animation, make sure u pick a school that strictly mostly concentrates on teaching animation. I mean, learning all the other stuff is cool too if you want to learn them, helps knowing extra stuff at times, but if you're trying to become just an animator, people graduating from these schools that focuses more so on animation (like most these online animation schools), compared to schools teaching the full pipeline, might beat u to the punch

But if u wanna do modeling like u mentioned, then you're on the wrong website! But yeah like Chrisz said, maya is more popular when it comes to films. Max is used mostly in games, some studios uses maya for games too. I'm no modeler but I found XSI to be a VERY model friendly software when I used it. Not sure how many studios uses it but its pretty easy to learn. Even gives u an option to use either max or maya controls, but xsi natural controls/hotkeys is worth knowing if you have the time considering some of its benefits in workflow. And yeah zbrush to is almost a must know too for modeler especially if you're going to be a character modeler

Quebec is dominated by XSI, and at least Nerd Corps in Vancouver has an XSI pipeline.

Im in Canada. Went to a school around Sheridan for game development. Durham College. From what I understand is that sheridan is actually only good for 2d animation, not so much 3d. And even then, its gone downhill since some of the teachers have left. The problem with sheridan is that its a 4 year degree. Degree. That means all teachers that teach there have to have their masters. next to NO industry people have their masters in animation. It just doesn't happen. So the teachers are going to be a bunch of people who havent actually worked in the industry, or at least at a very good studio.

Durham does have a great 3d animation program. It doesnt focus JUST on animation. It does rigging and modelling and texturing and all that stuff too. Compositing and what not. Since I took the game development program (3 years), it focused more on the game side of things. enviro art. In the last year I got to focus on animation more, but ya. So, afterwards, I did get a job as a 3d generalist, and now I am working and taking iAnimate in the evenings. Honestly, iAnimate is where its at. I have learned SOOOO much in such a short amount of time. My animations have gotten 10 times better. I would recommend it without a doubt, and it will probably end up being cheaper than going to an actual school since you have to pay for tuition, and accomidations and all that stuff.

That being said, Ive heard think tank is amazing, but its more for modelling / texturing? Dunno how much truth is in that. I havent really looked into it.

I've been working in Toronto in the animation industry for about 3-4 years, currently I work as a 2D effects animator and compositor in T.O. I graduated from Max the Mutt, finishing the 2D, and 3D program.
If you're interested in 3D animation, Vancouver has the most work. Vancouver, Toronto/Hamilton, Montreal, Halifax and Ottawa - have about 95% of the Canadian animation work, as a whole.
Overall, I've seen that it takes about 2 years of experience before anyone will take you seriously. So an internship will certainly help you out quite a bit.

The only think you need to find work, is a solid portfolio / demo reel. Where you get your education isn't really important.
The best thing to do is interview some schools, and see that they teach you what you want to know, and that their teachers have actually worked in the industry.

Modeling is a very specific area, so you might try e-mailing some 3D studios in your area and asking what they look for in a modeler, or find a forum that is about modeling where you might get some more specific advice- or maybe even a mentor.

An important thing for anyone interested in animation to know is that you cannot expect a 9-5 job that you retain for long periods of time. Most jobs are temporary, and often the hours are sporadic, or lengthy.
This means you really need a "I will take any job that pays fairly and isn't completely offensive to my nature regardless of how much I like it" attitude.
The more narrow your field, the less picky you can be about which contracts you choose- until you've accumulated enough experience and contacts that you have more options.
Maybe  you want to work on character modeling for movies, but you should expect several years of modeling boring junk for commercials, or - if you're lucky - all the stuff the experienced animators don't feel like doing on some preschool tv show.
Ideally, you want several areas of employability. The more you can do, the more jobs are available - and it opens the possibility that when your contract ends, there is something else in the studio they can give you to do.
If Bob is a modeler, and Sam is a modeler who can texture / light / animate / washes windows - they will always hire the 2nd guy.