Karthik Adepu
Karthik ADEPU- 2015/2016
What education did you have before you took the Visual Effects for Film and Television course?
I did a 3 year Bachelor's of Arts (Honours) in Digital Media from Image College of Arts, Animation and Technology Bangalore, India. I did my majors in 3D Character Animation which I was really passionate about. Later I had worked for 3 years as an Animator for a movie called Kochadaiyaan at Media One Global Entertainments Ltd, Chennai, India and as a Quality Analyst for several films and television series at Deluxe Digital Studios, Bangalore, India. After watching so many movies at Deluxe my interest in Visual Magic got even stronger and directed me towards VFT, the best Visual Effects course in Toronto, Canada.
Tell us a bit about your experience at the college.
Several other courses all around the world were on my radar and but I chose Canada for its culture and lifestyle. Canada has so many colleges which offer Visual Effects courses but choosing one from others took me about 2 months to make a decision which one to go to. I remember the people that I had contacted on LinkedIn and Facebook who were studying Visual Effects at Seneca and other colleges and got so much information to see what every college has to offer me. For me, making a big shift from animation to compositing was a huge deal and I did not want to make a wrong move. I chose Seneca for its short eight-month course which was in my budget. I really couldn't believe what people can learn in eight months of time. I really wanted to be in the kind of environment where I can learn things really fast and to try putting my creative thoughts into the tools to get the most out of it.
Instructors are the best part of this course and each of them is in a well known and very respected position in the industry. I have never seen any faculty putting so much effort into the students and be part of their success. Students at VFT get real-time updates on the industry from the teachers since they are in high positions in Toronto studios. The lab is fully equipped with latest workstations that can handle anything you could possibly throw at them and are accessible 24/7. Since I got into the most competitive course that I have known, I had to put my life on hold for eight months and be at the lab all the time to learn all the tools that VFT had to offer. I really miss the lab and the faculties today. It was one of the beautiful phases of life with fun and so many memories.
How do you use the education you got at Seneca in your job today?
I was offered a position at Pixomondo as a Compositor one month before finishing the course. I was excited to work on their huge projects and jumped right into the industry. I have been learning so much, about how Nuke works and what are the qualities that a compositor should possess in order to create visual magic.
This is Karthik's demo reel when he graduated the program in 2016.
What advice would you give potential students who are thinking of taking the course?
I have already been getting so many messages on Social media and emails asking about the VFT course. I have nothing but positive things to say about it. VFT is one of the most intense (Intensity 1) courses, honestly, it feels like a 3-year course was compressed into 8 months. I had friends in my class who did not know much about VFX before getting into the program and they said the first month was rough. It's when you start to hate yourself for getting into the program, which is very usual because of the assignments and its deadline.
You'll be learning so many different things in the first four months and will be having several sleepless nights in order to catch up with the speed of teaching and the kind of information that is being given to you every single day. All you have to do it ask questions. It is very normal to get intimidated by the program but trust me, VFT is one of the best decisions that I made in my entire life.
The second semester is all about demo reels and the cool stuff - learning about the tools and the subjects. By then you would have a clear idea about what path are you going to choose and where you will be concentrating to get your demo reel done in time. Above everything, the instructors are everything at VFT. My advice is to use them up to the fullest. They have a lot of knowledge to give you, you just have to absorb their knowledge, my friend. To wrap up, I am very proud to say that I am a happy graduate of Seneca VFT.
(Written in 2016)