Game artist, 3D animator, Lead 3D, rigging artist…new names for jobs related to the world of animation, video games or even New Cinema Technologies.
Let’s meet Gilbert Kiner, President and co-founder of ArtFX, with whom we will discover this dynamic and reactive structure to the world of tomorrow.
Artfx was founded in 2004 in Montpelier. How did the idea to create this school come about?
I noticed that most of the schools were turned towards animation cinema and not towards visual effects. After talking to several studio executives, it was obvious to me that there was a need to develop training around the specific needs of visual effects. I also felt that the method of making special effects was going to evolve rapidly in the years to come, so it was necessary to set up a pedagogy that would allow future talents to be well prepared for these new working methods. This is why I created ARTFX in 2004.
Artfx has been developed in three cities; Montpellier, Paris and Lille, why did you choose these cities?
Montpellier is our home base because this is where we were working, in the professional industry, when we first identified the need for training technical artists in a more holistic fashion.
The city of Enghien-les-Bains was designated a UNESCO City of Digital Arts in 2013. Digital arts have been the subject of a concerted strategy in the field of education there. That’s why when ARTFX was looking to open a campus in the Paris region, this territory matched the DNA of our school.
Lille is at the crossroads of several paths, the proximity of Belgium, England, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Germany corresponds to our desire for an international school, and it is also a territory that is reinventing itself around the digital industry by hosting an ecosystem of creative industries. A school like ARTFX perfectly completes the need for manpower and provides the talent necessary for the proper development of this industry.
You have been recognised internationally (VES Awards, The Rookies). Can you tell us more about this?
We are a school training student to enter international careers, so it is strategically important for us to have our students’ work recognized by global communities. This also creates visibility for the school through our global rankings.
In September 2021, you will open a master’s degree in the film (movie) sector. Which student profile do you particularly target?
This course will have specializations in staging and script writing, DOP assistant, or Set design assistant and 50% of the teaching time will include Visual Effects (Compositing, CG Environments, and Virtual Production). We will be looking for candidates that are very similar to the « classical » ARTFX profiles. Applicants should be able to demonstrate their drawing, sculpting, photography, and/or other artistic skills. They should also show their ability/experience of making short films through personal or school projects.
You are gradually developing, and you are involving teenagers in the framework of summerstages for example. Do you have other projects?
Yes, we visit local high schools to help them discover the professions of our industry. We have also built relationships with academic partners and propose exploratory workshops for local students around the composition of the image as well as the creation and the mechanics of video games.
You are a new member of the Federation for Education in Europe. Do you have collaborative projects?
ARTFX is committed to being an active member within the European community. We regularly participate in festivals like FMX and Annecy as a way to interact with audiences beyond our immediate sphere. We currently have an ongoing partnership with U-Tad University in Madrid, Spain. Thanks to our agreement with this university, students from both schools are able to participate in semesters abroad, joint masterclasses and conferences. One of the reasons we wanted to join FEDE is to find additional schools interested in establishing similar partnerships.
