People, Pixels and Production

Every month the NAD Center interviews on their blog one of their former students to get some insights of their careers and views about the digital effects and games industry. They have been kind enough to have me as their profile of the month. I hope some of my advice can be good for the students; you can never have enough pointers on VFX careering.
You can have a peek at my short interview here.

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A few weeks ago I had the honor of being the first guest speaker at the new location of the NAD Center, one of Montreal’s original schools of digital arts and visual effects… for over 15 years! I still remember when I was myself a student at the NAD, in a tiny portion of the 2nd floor of the Softimage building on St-Laurent Street. Today just the administration offices use more space…

The NAD Center now offers a University program, and has considerably grown its training services and research in 3D animation, visual effects and digital arts. High-tech classes and labs stand alongside training studios and traditional art classes.

I was invited to give a speech on the industry, careering and my own experiences in the world of digital effects. The place looks empty, because the kids were busy learning!

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A big component of our company philosophy at Modus is to take an active part in the growth of the digital effects community in Montreal. A way to do this is to invite valued colleagues from around the world to share knowledge and ideas. Our first go at this was a VFX Supervision Workshop held on Monday, February 18.

The event was presented by the Quebec Film and Television Council in collaboration with the NAD Center. Modus FX and Mokko Studio were involved as consultants to help setting up the presentation.

We invited François Lambert, sequence supervisor at ILM, to talk about his work and give insights on how one operates in a large scale VFX production. François knows the region very well, having worked at Hybride and Big Bang before heading to California in 2003. His many film credits include Star Wars episode III, Harry Potter IV and Pirates of the Caribbean II & III.

The gathering was a great success; over 80 people signed up for the event. François gave an excellent presentation and the response from the crowd was very positive.

You can be sure this is the first of many; stay tuned for more events…

Yanick Wilisky, Modus - François Lambert, Industrial Light & Magic

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Last Friday Modus was graciously invited to give a speech to the soon-to-be graduating students at the NAD Center, a Montreal CG / VFX school for film and gaming. It is where I got my own professional diploma a long time ago. I’ve also been a CG instructor for a few years at NAD, so it was with great pleasure that I got back in front of a class to spend 90 minutes talking about our new company and answering numerous questions about CG careering.

The main goal of our visit was to meet the students before the start of their corporate internship program. Being a start-up company, we are very eager to start working with experienced professionals but young graduates are also excellent candidates to help us start building part of our team. I truly hope we can find many artists and technicians that share our long-term vision. Of course we’re setting ourselves as we go, but we sure know where we are heading. With the constant feedback we keep getting, finding adequate and motivated staff is looking good.

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So siggraph 2007 is around the corner, and I’ll be there for the 10th time. This will be my first attendance as a company owner, so you’re thinking luxury hotels and expensive dining right?

 Actually, it will be more like my very first siggraph in 1996, when you could get in for less than 50 bucks for the whole week. I was a student at the NAD Center. My class rented a bus and we drove to New Orleans for 28 hours straight. Yup, I slept on a crowded bus floor to get to my first siggy. And we stayed by groups of four in tacky rooms of a cheap motel about 25 miles from the convention center.

 Don’t worry, I’ll be getting there by plane this time and staying at a nice hotel. However, I have to say bye-bye to a full conference pass since I’ll have to spend a lot of time at the exhibition. I can’t miss the opportunity to meet in person about 95% of our future vendors. I also do not want to put my corporate conscience to the test and choose between talking to a reseller about new graphic card specs (zzzz…) and attending “Transformers”: Giant Frickin’ Robots”. Better be safe than sorry.

 The good thing is that the show floor is getting more entertaining every year with great demos and presentations. ILM for example had a wonderful booth setup last year with even an appearance by John Knoll. I’ll miss the papers, sketches and panels, but there’s still a bunch of stuff to see on the floor.

 See you in San Diego in a couple of weeks…

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So tonight like every year I was attending the awards ceremony from the NAD Center in Montreal. Grants sponsored by VFX and games companies are handed out to graduates during the night. You know what happens every year? Someone getting a prize from Electronic Arts is already hired by Ubisoft or vice-versa.

It’s always amusing to have a kid fresh out of school thanking EA with the big Ubisoft logo on the screen behind.

A bit of a “priceless” moment.

Congratulations to all the graduates, as usual you are a fine bunch.

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