Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/65909
commercial post house Charlex in New York City, where he was able to devel- op his Flame skills while backing up projects for the studio. The internship also allowed him to earn credits toward his degree, as well as learn different tasks that form the foundation of a compositor's skill set. "I would work the after- noon to night shift," Budion Absolute provided visual effects and compositing for this CTIA spot, Your Mind is a WIreless Place. comes to achieving photorealism these days. Absolute won't let anything out the door unless it looks "absolutely fantastic," he says. And those high expectations are also the things that impress him when looking at outsid- ers' work, be it a feature film or a CG project. "I'm always impressed with what I am not aware of," he notes. "The 100 percent CG work is what blows me away. I look at blockbuster films. They are impressive but time consuming. A lot of our work is to look as realistic as possible. The trick is to make it look seamless. I'm always blown away by the flawlessness." HUMBLE New York-based director/Flame artist John J. Budion got his start in the industry at the age of 17. He was introduced to post tools such as Quantel's Henry and Autodesk's Flame by an uncle who was working at a studio in Atlanta. While a student at NYU, he got an internship at recalls. Eager to expand his skill set, he ventured beyond archiving, learning how to cut mattes, as well as perform roto, keying and tracking. His big break came about six months into his internship, when an Alan Iverson/Reebok project came into the studio needing a quick turnaround for airing during the NBA Finals. He stepped up and volun- teered to lend his skills in order to make the overnight deadline. Budion has since gone on to work as a Flame artist, VFX supervisor and director, and currently works at Manhattan's Humble (www.humble.tv) where he's contributed to commercials for E-Trade, Lenovo, Greenpeace, Motorola and the Android-based Samsung Galaxy Tab. While he's had access to different post tools, he's incredibly loyal to Flame, which still serves as his go-to system. "I was born and raised on an Autodesk Flame system and I am very hesitant to go away from it, because it is such an all-inclusive software," he explains. Budion references the three-spot Greenpeace project he recently worked on, which required work on 45 shots in a deadline of around 10 days. Scott Metzger worked with the collective COPA, creating effects for the Nicki Minaj/David Guetta music video, Turn Me On. By Marc Loftus www.postmagazine.com Post • May 2012 25