Karthic Ramesh

VFT Program 2011

What education did you have before you took the Visual Effects for Film and Television course?
    I did my bachelors in Fashion Designing.  I also did a short term course in graphic design where I learned Adobe Photoshop, Corel Draw and Flash. Looking at my interests, a friend of mine told me about visual effects studies.  This was a surprise to me because I never knew that we had visual effects courses in India.  I found Image College of Arts, Animation and Technology, Chennai, India to pursue my post graduate diploma in Visual Effects.

Tell us a bit about your experience at the college.
     My experience at Seneca was amazing.  I felt the one year was too short because there are a lot of things to learn in a short time and it kept me busy the whole year with  assignments and projects. It was fun, I really enjoyed it. The instructors were really good, they helped us  to complete our projects on time and advised us with valuable tips to come up with good shots for our demo reel.
      
    I worked as a Combustion (another visual effects software package) artist for more than three years before I went to Seneca.  I had a bit of experience in Nuke too, but I always had problems with the 3D tools  like projections.  My brain always worked in 2D, since I didn't have 3D experience.  I also had numerous questions about compositing. Seneca solved all my doubts and confusion. It helped me to think of all the possible ways to finish a shot fast with high quality.  The instructors were so talented, they cleared any kind of issues the students had. They are working professionals who update themselves with latest techniques which is required to the industry.

How do you use the education you got at Seneca in your job today?
    Currently I'm working as a digital compositor at Soho VFX. Seneca taught me almost everything which is required for the industry i.e., 2D/3D tracking, compositing, modelling, lighting, dynamics and so on. Since I was a compositor, I concentrated more on compositing classes and now I have knowledge of all the departments which helps me to understand where possible problems come from.

What advice would you give potential students who are thinking of taking the course?
    Since it’s a quick program with lots to learn, students should have some knowledge about the industry.  They should decide in which department they want to pursue, only then they can concentrate on one subject and work efficiently on it. They need to put their effort to finish the course with an excellent demo reel. They should be able to spend lot of hours to work at college as well as in the work place in future. If you have previous VFX studies and/or work experience it is much better, you can understand the classes much easier.
    I highly recommend them to utilize the Seneca lab, camera and studio. The lab is very useful for students since its open 24hrs a week. For rendering, they can split the renders and use all the computers to finish it fast. 
    Good Luck to all the future students.

Karthic's profile on IMDB
(Written in 2012)​

Below is Karthic's demo reel when he graduated the program in 2011