I love film, and I love technology. Happily, both featured quite heavily during my degree in Visual Effects from Brunel University London. I’ve got some amazing industry experience from my placement year at Automatik VFX, where I landed a couple of credits in feature films and TV shows. Now that I’ve graduated, I’m hoping to put these skills to use in an exciting role that is both creative and technical.
I’m Toby Sanderson, a student at Brunel University London, but not for much longer! I’m due to graduate in June and am currently looking for entry-level VFX jobs. So far on my degree course, I have had the opportunity to experiment with Compositing, 3D Modelling and Texturing, Programming in Python, Matchmoving, Motion Capture and lots more. Nuke, Maya 2017 with Arnold and Deadline are just some of the software packages that I am experienced in using.
For my third year, I undertook a year-long placement at Automatik VFX. With studios in Berlin and Hamburg alongside Kentish Town in London, it was a great opportunity to put some of my skills into practice, as well as assist the more senior artists on the films and television shows that are currently in production. I also had the chance to go on set and assist the VFX Supervisor, as they collect all the information required by the artists once post-production begins. Read more about my placement here >
As a VFX Intern, my role was to help out wherever I can, with tasks such as rotoscoping, data and render wrangling, setting up scenes with basic lighting, creating and maintaining pipeline tools and custom Python scripts, and also occasional runs into central London to collect and deliver drives. However the majority of my time has been spent assisting the 2D and 3D supervisors and learning new skills and techniques for use in Maya and Nuke – some of my work even made it to the big screen!
It’s been an amazing experience – I don’t think many students can say that they’ve had their name in the credits of a movie before they’ve graduated! As well as being a great insight into the day-to-day running of a VFX company, the placement enabled me to build up a big list of industry contacts, and put me in a great position for my Final Year Project back at university!
Click here to view my LinkedIn profile >
tobysanderson.co.uk 