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STUDENT TO PRO he's pretty great. He's got all the traditional painting skills of the masters and he incorporates it with pop icons." DVI Group's Cameron Leger and the studio's work for the Federal Reserve. 26 CAMERON LEGER An internship helped Cameron Leger land his first full-time position. Leger, who is now a technical director and 3D expert at The DVI Group in Atlanta (www.thedvigroup.com), studied visual effects and motion graphics at The Art Institute of Atlanta, pursuing his interests in 3D. "I am a huge gamer," he notes. "I started out creating my own 3D models and that kind of stuff. I really like the idea of making things photorealistic, and the idea of integrating 3D into live action and having it seamlessly composited. That sold me on it." In addition to his formal schooling, Leger took online classes from places like fxphd.com and cmiVFX. "I was really thirsty for knowledge," he says. "I didn't get all of it from school." His senior project at The Art Institute gave him a chance to develop his reel. He had one quarter of the term dedicated to creating a 3D short. "It was based on art. I came up with the idea of digital painting," he recalls. "I really liked the old-school, 8-bit, pixelated type of graphics. I started with paint drops, and whenever they hit things, they are pixelated graphics. It was a fun video to make with 3D pixels and 2D pixels." He used the school's iMacs for that project, along with Autodesk Maya and Adobe After Effects. His curriculum also required him to have an internship, which he secured with The DVI Group in 2010, one year before he was to graduate. "One of your classes, [is] to have an internship," he explains. "So I got that in April 2010 and I was hired on when I graduated a year later. After we graduated, we had a portfolio show, where other companies could come around. I was approached by others, but I decided to stay with The DVI Group. We are a small group of creative Post • September 2013 individuals doing big things together.There's a and interface design. "It's not just a [head's up lot of opportunity for everybody to bring display], stuck on the screen. I think there's a forward all of their talent, as opposed to lot of really cool interface design that's similar working on one specific thing. I can do every- to motion design." thing I want to do." His three current favorites are Dead As an intern, Leger says he first started Space, the new Tom Clancy game The Diviout build assets for videos. This included cut- sion, and Crysis. "I think those three have ting out images in Photoshop. "I'd say I have really cool interactive HUDs that are intea lot more responsibility now, not being and grated well." intern. I'm handed much bigger chunks of things to do." ANDREW BURHOE The DVI Group is a boutique that scales Freelancer Andrew Burhoe has been in size based on the job. The studio has five working steadily in production and post full-time core artists and can have multiple since he graduated from the Ringling College jobs in-house at a given period. of Art and Design in Sarasota, FL, in June of Recently, the studio completed work on 2012. Surprisingly, Burhoe says he always had four :30 spots for Aaron's.They've also created an interest in radio, rather than film. longer pieces spanning several minutes in He was a big fan of Howard Stern, but length. The DVI Group has created a series of when it came time to study in the field, his explanation videos for the Federal Reserve high school was lacking a comprehensive covering topics such as Gross Domestic Prod- program. Instead, he got involved in editorial, uct, Inflation and the Federal Reserve Bank.The and later went to work for a documentary videos incorporate what Leger describes as a production company. A chance mention of friendly 2D-animation style, with smoothly- Ringling College piqued his interest, so he shaped characters and bright colors. The stu- decided to check it out. dio has already completed work on six videos "It was meant to be," says Burhoe, who for the client and has an order for four more, grew up in Massachusetts and later moved which will be completed next year. to Florida. "I was living about two hours away, Another video project for Audio-Techni- and then moved to Sarasota." ca went viral, helping the manufacturer He enrolled in a four-year program, one show off new headphones — which offer that allowed him to explore different areas "solid bass" ‚— to a massive audience. "We of production and post. "I thought they came up with the concept and brought in would start you off with editing," he recalls, Internet sensation Marquis Scott, the danc- "but they had a new way of looking at it, er in the video," Leger explains. "Within a where you get a little bit of everything, but few month we had a billion views, so I think we delivered on that." The internship at The DVI Group, was "one of the best ways to get a foot in the door," says Leger. "There are lots of issues in our industry with people going unpaid for work. I think if you are careful, it's great. It's a foot in the door. A lot of it leads to being hired. I would definitely suggest an internship." Leger also emphasizes the demo reel. "We get a lot of applications where people just don't have the Freelancer Andrew Burhoe with filmmaker Werner Herzog. demo reel," he notes. "It really shows if you can work with these people." you'll go in your strongest direction each He recommends hosting a demo on a site year. That was fun." and providing a link, rather than a DVD. The His sophomore year allowed him to furartist has the ability to make updates as they ther delve into directing, shooting and edithappen and keep it current. "I would stay ing, and in his junior year, he created his own away from DVDs," he adds. short film. "From there, I realized directing Leger's interest in videogames influenced and editing together is a very unique relahis career choice, and today, he's still an tionship," he notes. active gamer. "They're getting cool right now His project, An Ever Present Silence, focused because it's a lot easier to make them higher on the death of his father, but in a broad sense, quality," he says, pointing to motion graphics leaving the audience to draw their own conclu- www.postmagazine.com