Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/786156
CAREERS www.postmagazine.com M y interest in design actually began while I was traveling the world, competing as a professional water skier. During any downtime that I had, I would draw — first as a hobby, but soon it became clear to me that it was something more. My drawings eventually escalated to my creating an international board short and swimwear brand for surfers when I was just 15 years old. The company became highly successful and thus motivated me to study art to a greater extent. Being involved with the surf com- munity at a young age exposed me to tattoo culture and illustrative style, which lead me to embark on my design studies in Florida at Ringling College of Art & Design. However, once there, I knew something was still missing and that I had yet to truly find my calling in this space. I wound up moving to Maryland soon after to study graphic design at MICA, but I knew deep down that the education I was receiving, although essential, was really not my sole pas- sion. My fervor instead lied with making and creating images, and studying the technicality behind the film and enter- tainment industries. To get myself on the perfect career track, I focused on studying online and scouted tutorials, consuming every bit of knowledge I could find from Cinema 4D forums and online training schools. I probably watched all of the videos on Digital Tutors, Greyscale Gorilla, VFXPHD, Vimeo, YouTube, Luxx and many other sites. This allowed me to grow a port- folio based on technicality, and actu- ally make illustrations and videos with high-level renderings. Once in the real world, my first pro- fessional — and most exciting — job I received was at Imaginary Forces (IF) in Los Angeles. Originally founded in 1996, the award-winning IF is considered to be one of the most successful creative agencies in the business, housing nu- merous renowned directors and artists. Working at IF gave me the ability to understand the proper ways of applying my 3D skills to design, as well as how the industry works in and of itself. I was able to fully grasp the correct ways to utilize my skills to develop boards, learn how these boards are presented to clients and the way in which the boards are made in production. Having the oppor- tunity to work in all facets of IF's projects enabled me to also pursue my own personal graphics business under my company RMA Design. After just eight months of working at IF, I took an amazing job at Prologue — a studio owned by Kyle Cooper, who was actually one of the initial founders of Imaginary Forces. While at Prologue, I had the pleasure of working for him directly on many beautiful films that will be released in 2017. It was here that I sharpened my technological skills, began building my custom PC at home and started diving into Octane Render — a fast, GPU-accelerated, unbiased, phys- ically correct renderer. Basically, this means that it renders with video cards at an extremely fast speed. Following my work at IF and Prologue, including several other jobs at studios throughout Los Angeles, I plan to go back home to Columbia where I grew up. It has now been five years of living in America, learning, working and growing, but I sincerely miss my family. I knew how important it was to come to the States to educate myself in this busi- ness, build my VFX portfolio so I can be successful and give back to my parents, who mean everything to me. I now feel 100 percent ready to embark on a new adventure by taking my personal studio back to Colombia and investing all of my savings into a massive GPU farm, a server with a highly secured connection, CPU power for Houdini simulations, and computing power, which will be the new era of RMA Design. My goal in life is to provide design work for major movie studios throughout the world and to work with clients while I focus on computer engineering, and very high-quality renders with a sharp design eye. Though I still plan to travel back and forth to LA (and New York), I am beyond excited for what the future has in store for me and I thank all who helped me get to where I am today. MAKING & CREATING IMAGES BY ALEJANDRO ROBLEDO MEJIA FOUNDER/VFX ARTIST/ ANIMATOR/DESIGNER RMA DESIGN LOS ANGELES/COLOMBIA RMADESIGN.TV MASTERING THE TECHNICALITY BEHIND THE FILM AND ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRIES