Visual effects experts increasingly in demand – Training studios opening in Serbia

The export of the IT sector amounted to EUR 900 million last year, 70% of which is comprised of computer programming. One of the fields increasingly present in foreign markets is VFX – the creation of special visual effects for the film industry and advertisements. There are very few experts in this field and specialized training studios are now opening in order to address the problem.

Crater Studio has been creating VFX in Serbia for 11 years now, with more than 200 successfully completed project, mostly for the film industry. Domestic animation artists have worked for both Hollywood and Bollywood, but also for locally produced movies.

Production Manager Cassandra Bakic notes that they work in line with very clearly defined requests.

– We get creative input from supervisors and directors. Of course, there are always small deviations and some clients have allowed us to express ourselves creatively – Bakic adds.

There's enough work, they say, but not enough professional animators, which is why they founded their own training center five years ago. A total of 90% of their employees have gone through it. Nikola has completed the modeling course, but has chosen to work on the final stage of assembling different components of the animation, the so-called compositing.

– Practical learning takes about a year, as it's not only a matter of learning how to work in the program, but how to solve certain problems, from color correction to green screen – says dramatist Nikola Jelacic.

They offer 17 courses (three for teenagers) in animation and special effects, which take a month to three and a half months. The basic ones require a knowledge of English and working on a computer, while some more advanced courses require familiarity with 3D Maya, photography or image processing software.

Iva Miokovic, Education Manager, says that training for various positions is available.

– The positions are – modeler, animator and all others required in the VFX industry, which is very young and characterized by a lack of professional artists – she says.

There is no public information about the revenues from special film effects in Serbia, but is known that up to half the budget of some of the latest films featuring animation, worth tens of millions of euros, is spent on special effects.

Crater Studio doo Beograd

VFX

visual effects

creating visual effects

visual effects training

visual effects studios

VFX training

VFX in film industry

VFX in advertising industry

Cassandra Bakic

animation

Nikola Jelacic

Iva Miokovic

modeler

animator

special film effects

special film effects revenues

export of IT sector

computer programming