The DAVE School has made changes to their program structure and studio residency program in order to better fit our students. Previously, classes operated in 5-term 10 week residential classes on campus. The new program structure now offers 4-term 12-week long classes with the first three terms fully online and the 4th class is an in-person studio residency at The DAVE School.
Gina Rhodes, Executive Director at The DAVE School has been instrumental in these changes. She states, “When I came to the DAVE School in January of 2019, my first priority was restoring the reputation for excellence that had long been associated with the school. So began the process of determining the right program updates that would quickly affect the most impactful updates. It is with great excitement that I have been able to oversee these changes and I know that the impact will benefit students tenfold.”
“We’re very excited to be launching the new program structure, as it’s been something we’ve been working on for over two years. In early 2019 (before the pandemic) we made a bold move towards the immersive, remote & virtual production technologies. At the time many people didn’t understand the technologies we were helping to pioneer. Eight months later, the pandemic hit and suddenly the whole world was in a race to try to figure out what we’d already been teaching for a year. During this difficult time, people binged-watched through huge amounts of content. While many businesses suffered, companies like Netflix had their best year ever but is in great need of artists who understand these new technologies and pipelines that we teach. This new program structure will help maximize our students' training and skill in these new highly in-demand fields*,” states Dean of Academic Affairs Jon Gress.
DAVE Students will learn the foundational and program specialty skills online and will put their skills into practice during their Studio Residency by creating short films for their reels. Students will continue to have access to the dedicated staff at career services to help achieve their career goals. Career Services provides demo reel critiques and feedback, mock interviews with graduating students, as well as invites Industry Leaders for demo reel critiques and guest speaker events.
About The DAVE School
The DAVE School was founded on June 8, 2000 by two Industry executives looking to create #CareerReady artists with a practical animation school. Today, The DAVE School offers specialized training in Visual Effects and Game Production with extensive practice under industry level supervision.
Located on the backlot of Universal Studios Florida®, The DAVE School has an 18,000 square foot facility that includes learning and interactive labs, a dedicated Virtual and Real-Time production stage, a Vicon motion capture system, 3D printing and VR/AR labs and secure student access 7 days a week.
NUC University (NUC) is an accredited institution and a member of the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE) www.msche.org. NUC’s NUC University – IBC Technical Division (NUC-IBC), NUC University – Florida Technical College (NUC-FTC), and The Digital Animation & Visual Effects School (The DAVE School) is included in this accreditation. NUC’s accreditation status is Accreditation Reaffirmed. The Commission’s most recent action on the institution’s accreditation status on 2019 was to reaffirm accreditation. MSCHE is an institutional accrediting agency recognized by the U.S. Secretary of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA)