Layer x Shanghai Vancouver Film School: Bringing innovative gen-AI to students

One of the key aspects of building industry-changing tools is the importance of supporting the next generation of artists and creators. These students will soon be bringing their dreams to life, and willing (and eager) to use the best tools they can get their hands on. To this end, we’re excited to be partnering with The Shanghai Vancouver Film School (SHVFS) to bring the power of gen-AI to their curriculums.

This partnership marks a transformative moment in how creative and technical disciplines are taught, blending advanced artificial intelligence with game production, film, animation, and beyond.

Empowering the next generation of gamedevs

Arming students with the tools they need to succeed in the modern job market is always a challenge - especially in the art & technology space. With the AI industry evolving on almost a weekly basis, it’s key for students to get access to these tools and stay up to date with the latest models and methodologies.

Layer and SHVFS are now working together to provide students with the following:

• Layer Pro Accounts that let students and faculty at SHVFS create with a wide range of styles, models, and generation types. With Layer Pro students can ideate with the Realtime Canvas, generate 2D and 3D assets, and manage/collaborate on assets inside a professional library. This also includes the ability to create custom styles based on previous artwork, which gives students the ability to leverage their own art style within the bounds of generative-AI models.
• Custom AI Coursework designed to help students create professional game assets. Perfect for beginners, this course from Layer teaches students the basics of gen-AI tools and how to ethically use them. Course content includes the ability to generate and iterate on key game assets, train custom AI models, and export assets into game engines.

We’re already seeing amazing results out of the classroom, with students being able to quickly create game-oriented artwork that was previously much more difficult to conceptualize and build. 

Bringing student projects to life

We’re thrilled to see SHVFS students diving into the world of gen-AI and emerging the next wave of technologies for game development. By integrating Layer into their workflows, students have been able to achieve results that would otherwise take significant time and resources, while still maintaining creative control over their projects.

Students working on character models, concept art, and game assets quickly discovered how Layer could supercharge creative processes. They used features like the Character Poser to experiment with dynamic character poses, generating variations for different in-game player concepts. This allowed them to focus more on refining ideas and less on repetitive tasks that usually slow down early production.

For early pre-production and ideation, students created stunning concept art, character sheets, and environments that would usually require weeks of hand-drawn iterations. With Layer’s ability to generate and refine assets on demand, students could explore more ideas - while keeping everything in their own art style.

This extended to the production process as well. By leveraging built-in asset management tools, teams of students could collaborate on shared projects, iterating on generated assets and exporting them into game engines in one workflow.

All of these tasks worked to mirror real-world practices, equipping students with skills that are directly transferable to the games industry market.

Building the future with Layer

The impact of this collaboration extends far beyond the classroom walls. By equipping SHVFS students (future gamedevs, artists, producers, and designers) with cutting-edge tools like Layer, we’re empowering them to step confidently into an increasingly competitive industry. Early access to professional-grade AI tools not only sharpens their technical skills but also prepares them for the huge industry changes with AI happening across film, animation, and game design.

This partnership is just the beginning. SHVFS plans to showcase student projects powered by Layer at international film festivals and exhibitions, solidifying the school’s reputation as a hub for AI-driven creativity. With plans to expand Layer’s use into other disciplines and explore joint research initiatives, we’re excited to see how this next generation of creators will redefine what’s possible in game production and digital storytelling.

If you are considering adding AI into your curriculum, we’d be more than happy to assist - just drop us a line.