Welcome to the December 19th edition of The Keith Report! From all of us at DAVE School, we want to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Below you will find information about our alumni’s successes, events happening on campus, student highlights, job postings, and more. If you have something you’d like to see featured in the newsletter send me an email at Michael@DaveSchool.com.
Alumni Happenings!
Check out all of these projects that our graduates have worked on!
The Netflix mega-hit series Wednesday began streaming on November 23rd and graduates Yael Majors (Assistant VFX Supervisor) and Timothy Fleur (Creature Artist) worked on the show!
Are you kidding me?! Marvel has created The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special which began streaming on November 25th on Disney+ and grads Toni Maria Chiarella, Kyle Merola, Vini Duarte, and Arthur Vail all worked on it as compositors!
It only took 34 years but Willow was released in theaters on November 30th and graduate Andrew Rhinehart worked on the film as a VFX Artist!
There is a lot of Oscar buzz swirling around The Whale which opens in theaters on December 9th and Evander Major worked on it as VFX Artist!
Ok… not gonna lie… this movie was awesome! Violent Night opened in theaters on December 2nd and graduates Mariel Folmer, Roland Porth, and Greta Thompson worked on it as compositors!
The long-awaited and much anticipated Avatar The Way of Water releases only in theaters on December 16th and grads Dean Lewandowski, Aine Graham, David Rohloff, Cody Hernandez, Motoki Nishii, Dustin Hayes, Justin Stockton, and Daniel Burrows all worked on it!
The FX Series Kindred began streaming on December 13th and graduate Blanka Madacsi worked on it as a compositor!
The third and final season of His Dark Materials came out on HBO Max on December 5th and grads Blake Dewoody and Devin Zoltowski have worked on the series for Framestore! Blake as an environment Artist and Devin as a compositor!
The Whitney Houston biopic I Wanna Dance With Somebody releases only in theaters on December 21st and graduates Zach Hamelton and Timothy LaFleur worked on it! Zach as a VFX Producer and Timothy as a LiDAR Technician!
DreamWorks’ latest sequel Puss In Boots: The Last Wish released only in theaters on September 23rd and graduates Peyton Glover and Wes Chilton both worked on the movie!
The biopic George and Tammy came out on Showtime on December 4th and grad Gerardo Garcia worked on it as a compositor!
The Season 4 premiere of Doom Patrol began streaming on HBO Max on December 8th and grads Greg Breitzman, Patrick Horne, Mariel Folmer, and Yael Majors all worked on the show!
Bungie has just released Season of the Seraph for Destiny 2 and graduate Ben Platnick worked on it as an FX Artist!
The 2nd season of Abbott Elementary returns on January 4th and graduate Ariel Fore worked on the show as a compositor!
Grads with New Jobs
Congratulations to Joshua DelValle who just got hired by Steamroller as a Technical Artist! This is Josh’s first industry job!
Congratulations to Jordan Hensiek who just got hired by Harvin AR as a Technical Artist! This is Jordan’s first industry job!
Congratulations to graduate Kambria Farmer who was recently promoted to General Manager of Photography for Tastic Photo!
Congratulations to graduate Tanner Dunworth who was just hired by Unity as a Senior Technical Artist!
Congratulations to graduate Chaney Noble who was just hired as a 3D Generalist by Invisible Ghost Studios!
Congratulations to graduate Richard Aponte who was just hired by The Mill as a Senior Nuke Visual Effects Compositor!
Congratulations to Josh Hart who was just hired by Apex Media as the Digital Marketing Manager!
Congratulations to graduate Marcos de Barros for starting a new position as a CG Generalist at Framestore!
Congratulations to JoAnna Johnson who was just hired by Spin VFX as a Compositor!
Congratulations to Aine Graham who was just promoted to Animation Supervisor at Steamroller Studios!!
Congratulations to James Austin who just landed his first industry job at Zero VFX as a Junior Compositor!
Are you working on a cool project? Have you been recently promoted? Did you land a new job? Send me an email telling me all about it and I’ll feature it here!
School Happenings
The DAVE School is excited to welcome Rodrigo Eustachio to our team! Rodrigo is our new Content and Brand manager! Welcome aboard!
The DAVE School is excited to welcome Michael Maldonado to our admissions team! Welcome aboard!
The DAVE School just graduated our newest batch of VFX, Gaming, and Bachelor students and you can watch the ceremony here!
Every year NUC University, Florida Technical College, and The DAVE School recognize our top performers in an awards ceremony and this year TWO of the awards were given to DAVE School employees! Our Director of Admission Nick Talotta won the coveted “Director of the Year” award and I was awarded the “Career Services Employee of the Year” award! Woot! Woot!
The DAVE School is now on ArtStation and we would love to have all of our grads and students list themselves as either alumni or students! Click here to request for your ArtStation account to be listed in our profile! 
Would you like to be a guest speaker at DAVE School? Do you have at least 5 years of industry experience? Then let me know by sending me an email!
Mark Your Calendar! We are pleased to announce our program start dates for 2023! We are offering online AND residential options for GAME, VFX, and VIRTUAL PRODUCTION! if you are interested in returning for a BACHELOR’S DEGREE that program is online only. If you’re interested in speaking with one of our admissions reps to learn more send me an email and I’ll be happy to connect you!
Certified Fresher
A “Fresher” is an artist who is fresh to the industry and a Certified Fresher is a recent DAVE School graduate that we are promoting as someone who has the right work ethic, attitude, and skill level to start working immediately!
Dara Anya graduated from our VFX Production program and he is looking for a job as an FX Artist, and he is ready to relocate and work today! Check out his portfolio here! –> https://vimeo.com/781365809
Visual Effects Diploma Program
Visual Effects (VFX) is the essence of a movie or TV show once the filming is complete, the explosions, the falling helicopters, or the transformation from 21st century New York into 1920’s New York. Scenes that are too hard or dangerous to film, such as smoke, water, and oceans, or worlds and environments come to life through Visual Effects.
The DAVE School Visual Effects Diploma program spans 12 months and offers scheduled starts each Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. Its uniquely flexible, hybrid format combines nine months of live, online classes with three months of in-person learning here at our Orlando, Florida campus. Students get to refine their skills in an immersive combination of project-based workflows and applied studio skills, preparing them for their advancement into the Visual Effects workplace.
Game Production Diploma Program
Game production is predominantly about imagining and building entire worlds and their inhabitants from scratch and devising immersive experiences that can run and adapt to the demands of user play in real-time. Our GAME PRODUCTION students share much of the initial introduction to their craft with our VFX crew, as the fundamental skills required in 3D modeling, lighting, texturing, and composition have a lot of overlap.
The DAVE School Game Production Diploma (GPD) teaches specifically for success in this thriving industry. Like its sister VFX Diploma, the GPD Program spans 12 months and offers scheduled starts each Winter, Spring, Summer, or Fall. Its uniquely flexible, hybrid format combines nine months of live, online classes with three months of on-campus lessons in Orlando, Florida. During this three-month studio residency, students work together under the direct guidance of their instructors on pre-production techniques of a real game of their making.
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) are 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).