How the right school helped this compositor land his latest credit on ‘Invasion’ season 3.
With a BFA and a genuine passion for films, Hod noticed that VFX was a key element in filmmaking magic.
Name: Hod Winter
Education: Campus VFX graduate July 2016 – 12 Month Compositing Program
Location: Vancouver, Canada
Credits: Invasion, Sinners, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Blue Beetle
Work: Currently working at ILM, Vancouver, Canada
Background
Before beginning a career in visual effects, Hod created two short films during university and worked as a news video editor while earning a BFA in 2011 in Israel.
During university, he enjoyed watching breakdowns for two of his favourite films at the time, Zodiac and Black Swan. Those breakdowns made him realize that VFX is used for much more than creating sci-fi creatures or explosions. The art of storytelling and the manipulation of images don’t always end in the editing room or DI, as he’d been taught. That’s when this artist had his ah-ha moment; “… I want to do this.”
Discovery of Campus VFX
Coming from a film background, Hod always felt drawn to compositing – it relates directly to the shot as a whole. Compositors have a lot of impact on how the final image will look and the idea that you can take images from different sources and blend them seamlessly together was a draw.
He did some research for a school that specialized in compositing and found Campus VFX which, at the time, was the only school offering compositing-focussed programs with a two-month practicum in a studio.
Hod found the first half of the 12-month program challenging – with minimal VFX in his background; everything seemed hard. But with, as Hod puts it, amazing teachers and classmates, he was able to lean on them with endless questions and guidance.
“The thing about VFX is that it’s a craft, and like every craft, it takes practice and mentorship to become good at it,” he says. “Campus VFX was just the beginning of my journey, but the experience I gained there shaped me into the artist I am today, not just in terms of skills, but also in how I fit into the global VFX studio culture.”
Transition to industry
As part of Hod’s practicum, his first studio experience was at Vitality VFX, which specialized in de-aging and beauty work. The studio extended his contract. His first year was a challenging one and at one point doubted himself but had faith in his skills, schooling and passion for the craft.
A year later, with constant work and help from coworkers, he not only learned but thrived. The work at Vitality – mostly roto, paint, de-aging and keying – were fundamental skills he honed and with foundations he still uses today.
Ten years later, through COVID and industry wide changes, Hod is working at ILM and having a blast, but wants his team at Vitality to know that his start in VFX career has a special place in his heart.
Contribution to Invasion season 3 at ILM
One of Hod’s recent projects was season 3 of the Apple TV series Invasion, where ILM had to integrate the semi-transparent Apex creature into a wide variety of environments. Each sequence required a unique approach, since the plate lighting interacted with the creature’s refractive and reflective alien body in complex ways.
In one scene, the Apex grabs the character, Mitsuki. It demanded complex integration between the CG creature, the live-action performance, and the plate ground interaction. “The ILM lighting team provided excellent renders, and with a combination of proprietary tools and robust procedural setups in Nuke, we were able to achieve some truly epic results,” says Winter.
Advice and lessons learned
“Everything you do, do it with love,” Winter advises. “There will come a time when tasks may seem mundane, especially when you learn more. However, by keeping the love in your art, it will show in every pixel and shot.”
Campus VFX is not just a school with a 20-year and award-winning reputation, it’s also known for its trailblazing studio setting-style learning environment; one of the first schools in Vancouver, Canada to specialize exclusively in visual effects training and mimicking a professional studio setting and pipeline for focused instruction.
Campus VFX (formerly Lost Boys Studios) started as an award-winning VFX studio in the 1990s and transitioned into a boutique VFX school in 2006. It became known for its highly focused, hands-on programs in compositing, FX, and lighting, long before these specializations were common in VFX education.
Aligning careers with precision and purpose – Campus VFX knows every student by name and has built a reputation on jump-starting careers for VFX artists.
The next intake is March 2026 and enrolment is now open. Find out more at campusvfx.com.
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