Mario AbiRached
Mario AbiRached
VFT Program-2020/2021
What education did you have before you took the Visual Effects for Film and Television course?
Mario AbiRached
FX Artist
Before Seneca, I completed my BA in Architecture at USEK university in Lebanon. I knew I liked the 3D side of it more than anything else and wanted to pursue a more exciting career that focuses on the expanding virtual world while being applied to the real world, so I chose to give Visual Effects a try.
Tell us a bit about your experience at the college.
My time in Seneca could be described in a few words, it was amazing. A lot of classes and courses touch base on every VFX department, you learn everything along the production pipeline, from tracking all the way to compositing.
With that said, you can then focus on whatever department you’re more interested in. In my case, I liked FX the most but of course, learning the whole pipeline helped me so much to achieve projects that I’m proud to show off today.
Teachers were very helpful and made me feel more comfortable with the complicated programs used, although I haven’t had any experience in Houdini, Nuke… beforehand, they made it feel easy and effortless.
In less than a year I was able to graduate with a demo reel that opened me up to a lot of potential career paths in the Visual Effects industry.
How do you use the education you got at Seneca in your job today?
I got hired at MARZ (Monsters Aliens Robots Zombies), a studio based in Toronto, as an FX Artist. I’ve been using all my knowledge gained from Seneca’s program in my daily workload, especially the most important skill of all, problem-solving. Seneca’s program taught me how to develop very efficient workflows and to handle harder, real-world shots that a year ago I thought were too complex to even imagine achieving.
Mario’s Demo Reel when he graduated in 2021
What advice would you give potential students who are thinking of taking the course?
My advice would be to enjoy the program, it has a lot of benefits not only for the department you’re aiming for but a whole general and modern education of VFX.
Don’t be afraid of taking that leap even if your previous education isn’t directly related. You’ll learn a lot and come out very confident of your gained skills.
(Written in 2022)