08/10/2025
Flashback: The root cause of the misunderstanding that led to Institut Desgraff’s closure is:
🔍 What Actually Happened
* During an academic cycle, Desgraff implemented a major software update, shifting to new tools and platforms for teaching digital arts and game development. Furthermore, the courses are centralized, and teachers continuously update them every workday over the past 12 years.
Numerous Desgraff graduates found work in studios, independently verifying that the TV show was erroneous about the school quality. This is strong evidence of the quality of the training, as industry studios had hired many of the students for years.
* The main reason for this misconception is that Substance Painter became the industry standard after more than half of the class's training program was completed, which started in September 2015. The software's founder confirmed that it became an industry standard in mid-2016. The starting point for this rumor was a comment made by an employee from a major AAA game studio in Quebec City, stating that the course was outdated because the software was missing from the program. However, this update was implemented mid-training, aligning with industry standards. Despite this, a group of students who had heard the rumor from the AAA studio employee complained that they had not received training on Substance Painter, which was not part of the original program.
* Because the deployment in schools was managed through a centralized version control system—including planning for student contracts, teachers' training, and testing to make sure the courses aren't blocked by a version bug—some instructors and students may not have fully understood the scope or timing of the changes in a school system. They thought, "Why don't they just install it and use it like I do it at home?
🧠 Misinterpretation
* Starting point: A student perceived a delay due to a false accusation from a AAA studio employee about Substance Painter on June 2th 2016, who mistook the situation as evidence of outdated or inadequate training. They then seized any story they could to spin it negatively against the school to build a class action law suit and damage the school reputation.
* A former teacher, possibly lacking access to deployment details or misunderstanding them, or intentionally fabricating false allegations to rally students against the school and prompt a class action lawsuit, echoed these concerns to students and, more widely, on TV. By making a false claim that the school had not updated any courses for three years, the teacher amplified the perception of mismanagement. However, evidence on desgraff.com recordings and course server logs reveals that the school had, in fact, been continuously updating courses on a daily basis for 12 years.
* These concerns were then featured in a TV report, which presented the situation as a systemic issue much bigger than reality, in order to win a case, rather than a one-off misunderstanding that could have been easily resolved through communication. Notably, the student who called the TV show had previously congratulated the quality of the training at Desgraff on two separate occasions, as documented in other news articles and corroborated by court documents, which validates Desgraff's claims that the TV show was erroneous and misleading.
📉 Consequences
The TV report caused several consequences:
The class action lawsuit and a future sensational TV show caused placement partners to withdraw, fearing legal or reputational risk.
Then the class action lawsuit supporters used that the studios backed out to further damage Desgraff's reputation, and to recruit more angry students based on half-truths or lies like saying that recruting partners was all false after they scared them away! (So they can reach 10 to 70 very negative testimonials for court) by: Making claims about Desgraff's hiring partner's being false, which was featured on the TV show! Using the TV show to spread misinformation and amplify their claims.
Despite Desgraff's history of successful graduates and industry ties, the school ultimately closed due to one main reason: A sharp decline in enrollment because of a sensational and erroneous TV show, which led to economic pressure that started with a simple missunderstanding. Evidence of the school's partnerships, communications, and claims is available on desgraff.com.
Desgraff later clarified that these issues were isolated and technical in nature, not indicative of the school's overall quality. This incident highlights a classic case of how a small, misunderstood operational hiccup can quickly escalate into a full-blown crisis! What's particularly sad is that the reputations and training of a large number of people were unfairly impacted and devalued as a result of misinformation.
