Staying Versatile and Optimizing Opportunities for Development | Seneca College VFX & MARZ | Hou...
0Staying open to opportunities, wanting to learn beyond their expertise and being able to problem solve are key practices for recent grads wanting to join the industry. Hear from industry reps at MARZ VFX and a VFX professor at Seneca College about how to better position yourself for joining the industry.
Joe Raasch is an instructor and the coordinator of the Visual Effects for Television and Film program at Seneca College in Toronto. He is responsible for the creation and oversight of the curriculum (which has included Houdini since 2009). When he's not teaching he works as part of the in-house VFX department at Take 5 Productions where he has worked on such series as Vikings (History Channel), Locke & Key (Netflix) and Into the Badlands (AMC). Joe started working as a VFX artist in 2001 and has been teaching since 2002.
Gus Sanchez-Perez is an industry veteran with over 20 years of experience and has worn many hats, from animator in tv series, modeler and tools programmer in videogames, vfx artist in films, and even software product manager. Originally from Spain, started his career as a generalist in the UK back in the early 2000s working for companies like Dneg, MPC, Cinesite during the Harry Potter days. Moved to Toronto back in 2016 and work for MRX on multiple shows(Shape of Water, Hellboy, Resident Evil, The Strain...), his latest role there being fx Lead on the upcoming Netflix show Vikings:Valhalla. In August 2021 he joined MARZ (Monsters Aliens Robots Zombies) as FX Supervisor.
Praptasha apparated in the VFX world 2 years ago and refuses to leave. Her previous tenures include the real estate and energy sector in various capacities of the HR function. She is currently heading HR for Monsters Aliens Robots Zombies Inc. as the Director, HR. Her interactions with the industry range between meeting interns looking at exposure in VFX to Heads of departments in studios that are looking for a change in scene.
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DAE-Research and its Ecosystem | Howest DAE | Houdini Education/Studio HIVE
Within our research group we are constantly exploring new technologies and ways of collaboration, with students and with companies. This resulted in the creation of our ecosystem. During this presentation we will show how we work together with different stakeholders and what role Houdini plays in our curriculum as well as the impact it has on our research projects.
Merel Steeland & Steven Engels both work at DAE-Research, the research cell connected to the award-winning bachelor's degree Digital Arts & Entertainment (DAE), part of the university college Howest in Kortrijk, Belgium. Throughout its 3-year curriculum, DAE aims to shape absolute beginners into entry-level technical artists. The focus of DAE-Research is on innovation through game technology, for both the entertainment and non-entertainment sector, in demand-driven and their own applied research projects.