Making Magic

Photorealistic visual effects artist Trevor Cawood is constantly pushing the boundaries and trying new techniques to develop cutting edge graphics.

Just like a fingerprint, a demo reel is mark of individuality. The information contained with says more about you than you might think. It is a showcase of your talents and abilities, and is your calling card for industry.

Even before graduating in 1996 from The Art Institute of Vancouver’s Visual Effects program, Trevor Cawood started working on his demo reel. He knew a career in visual effects was his future and he wanted to make sure he got a head start on the competition. Cawood credits his demo reel as the major reason for landing his first job at Rainmaker Entertainment Group in Vancouver. “It was the only thing they knew about me,” he says. “Once they knew my qualifications and saw what I could do, the interview was just to see how I would interact with people.”

Time spent at Rainmaker, Western Canada’s leading post production and visual effects company, garnered him several nominations and awards, from a Leo Award for the television show, Smallville, an Emmy nomination for James Cameron television series, Dark Angel, as well as one for the ABC movie of the week 'Max Q' produced by Jerry Bruckheimer.

As a Technical Director, Trevor completed work on the Matrix: Reloaded, and Matrix: Revolutions. With an emphasis on CG lighting and surfacing, Cawood's role was to compose a variety of effects shots which take place inside the Matrix itself. That includes shot layout, rough modeling, camera set up, lighting/TD'ing, and rendering. Making things look just right and creating solutions through trial and error took as much as 90 hours a week to produce. “It’s really stressful, but it has huge rewards at the end when you see the finished product,” admits Cawood.

Cawood believes his education gave him a good foundation, and acted as a gateway to his career. “It is like climbing up a ladder. Education helps you up the first two rungs and the rest of it is up to you. There is a long way to go and a lot more learning to do before you reach the top.” Today, Cawood is co-owner of the Vancouver-based production company JTF and is a founding member of The Embassy VFX – whose client list includes names like Electronic Arts, CNN and Nike. In 2004 he directed his first film “The Dream,” – a short musical piece about a toy robot. The film’s look and feel is inspired by the architecture and aesthetics of the 1970s.

Almost 10 years after his graduation, Cawood’s career is on an upwards trajectory. In 2005 he was part of the team presented with the award for Outstanding Visual Effects In A Commercial at the 3rd Annual Visual Effects Awards. Their commercial for the Citreon – “Alive with Technology – dramatizes the transformation of the popular European compact car into a break-dancing robot.

Cawood advises visual artists-to-be to start working on their careers from the first day they set foot in school. “Start setting up as many contacts as you can with both students and people in the industry, especially those whose skills you respect. Learn from these people, I actually attribute about 80 percent of what I learned early-on to one or two specific artists” he says. “Get feedback while you are making your reel, don't wait until it's finished because then it's too late. Use this feedback to eliminate any weaknesses. Really focus on demonstrating your marketable skills that can be utilized in a production pipeline. You want your educational investment to pay off, and your reel is the only ticket to employment.”

Cawood also adds, “Knowing what position in the industry you want to fill, and tailoring your demo reel to fit that position are exactly what companies love to see. Plus, this knowledge will allow you focus quickly, and give you an edge over your competition."

To Bollywood and Beyond

Aakash Shivdasani thinks if you want to study visual effects, you should never let geography get in the way - not even a continent and an ocean should stop you. 

Satiating a market hungry for international cinema, the Indian film industry pumps out hundreds of movies a year and generates billions of dollars in revenue. For Aakash Shivdasani, a Visual Effects graduate of The Art Institute of Vancouver, the ever increasing use of visual effects in Bollywood movies and the rising popularity of animated features in India translates as a bright forecast for his blossoming career.

Before Shivdasani, who is a native of Calcutta, journeyed from India to Canada to study as an international student, he did his homework. “I’d spent close to six months doing intensive research into a school in the West that would fit my budget as well as offer a comprehensive syllabus in visual effects and animation. I’d narrowed my list down to a handful of places in the US and Canada and was fortunate to have someone eyeball the schools for me before I made my decision since my only point of reference was the world wide web.” The Art Institute had a detailed, professional looking website . . . and had courses that were relevant to what I was looking for.”

He wanted training that was no-nonsense and focused on the media post-production industry. Industry relevant courses, well-equipped labs, organized syllabi and instructors from industry all influenced his decision to enroll at The Art Institute of Vancouver. Despite his meticulous research, a few surprises still awaited Shivdasani on his first day of school.

“I came to Canada having no pre-conceived notions - just an optimistic attitude at having been able to get all the way there and to learn something that would set my career ball rolling. Coming from a country where education up to the high school level is about book-learning … it was refreshing to be doing something I knew I could use out in the real world. The hours were long from day-one but the time flew. The Art Institute knows how to keep you busy!”

Shivdasani used home-stay accommodation near the school during his first year as a student, and lived and breathed visual effects at the school’s Burnaby campus. Devotion to his lab hours and demo reel paid off. After graduation, he spent a year with EFX Prasad (http://www.efxmagic.com), a special effects and animation house with offices in Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kerala, Bhuvaneshwar and overseas offices in Singapore, UAE and the US.

Today, Shivdasani is employed as a modeler with Tata Exlsi (http://www.tataelxsi.com), one of India’s top producers of TV series, films, animation and games. The Tata team is a blend of traditional animators, CGI artists, sculptors, architects, photographers, painters, engineers, fine art graduates and others who are hand picked and groomed. Shivdasani works out of the company’s Mumbai (Bombay) office, which handles the company’s visual effects contracts. Shivdasani also takes on motion graphic work and frequently finds himself multitasking on a number of projects, although his forte is modeling and texturing environments.

“Everyone here is a jack of all trades. If a shot requires a lot of modeling and secondary particle effects, it will become my responsibility to handle both so I can take the load off the primary dynamics guy.”

With blockbuster Bollywood films like Kal Ho Na Ho, Hum Tum, Dhoom, AgniPankh, Veer-Zaara, Swades, and Netaji in its portfolio, Tata Elxsi is fostering a reputation as one of Indian’s preeminent studios. “Tata Elxsi is the only studio in India that regularly lands a handful of high end Hollywood work,” explains Shivdasani. The company is currently in production on three major Hollywood projects as well as four Indian films and animation projects for Japanese and UK clients. “The scene in India is still finding its feet and a lot of the visual effects we do for the local market is lower end stuff. That said, the commercials that are made here are on the ball and revolutionary in that they push the visual effects envelope. Every project successfully completed that raises the bar of visual effects in India is an achievement in itself.”

On a daily basis Shivdasani applies his working knowledge of Maya and Combustion - a skill he obtained at The Art Institute of Vancouver. Ample hands-on time and 24-hour access to the equipment after class hours let him experiment with the technology and push his evolving artistic boundaries. A positive classroom environment, where instructors attempt to recreate working conditions similar to those found in industry, was immeasurably valuable, he says.

“Here in India - especially in boarding schools like the one I attended - there is an authoritarian hierarchy that exists between teachers and their students,” explains Shivdasani. He appreciated the contrast at The Art Institute of Vancouver, where he got know his instructors and the perceived a camaraderie and sense of humor that made the learning more enjoyable. “It would blow my mind when instructors would walk us through reconstructing stuff they’d worked on blockbusters themselves - sometimes actually bringing in the same models used in the actual movie.”

Lasting relationships were also formed with classmates, and Shivdasani has applied team work skills to his current position. “I’ve been lucky to have worked at places where the team is close-knit and supportive. You learn from your peers, there are brainstorm sessions and talents are pooled to achieve the end result - a happy client.”

As an industry professional, Shivdasani advises students to specialize in one area that they feel is their “calling.” Excel at it, he says, but also make a conscious effort to have a working knowledge of other aspects of the industry, and of the pipeline process. “Everything - every department, every skill set - is a cog in a bigger wheel that spins to spit out the final product.”

Shivdasani is not short on ambition even at this early stage in his career. He plans to return to the West - to Vancouver in particular - and gain more experience so he can return to India and open his own studio. And while he hasn’t been nominated for any awards yet, Shivdasani says he is confident the foundations are being laid.

“Everyday is one step closer to that Oscar, isn’t it?”