The art of compositing – this artist sits at the heart of both live-action and animation.
Compositing blends visual elements into one cohesive scene, whether live-action or animation. This compositor is mastering both formats through one, specialized training diploma.
Vania’s specialized diploma allowed her to cross over into 3D animation at the same studio that creates blockbuster hits for both formats. This talented digital compositor is part of the Oscar-winning feature, KPop Demon Hunters, among others.
Name: Vania Ruano
Education: Campus VFX graduate, September 2013 – Compositing Program
Location: Vancouver, Canada
Credits: KPop Demon Hunters, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Thor: Love and Thunder, Ad Astra, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Currently working at Sony Pictures Imageworks, Vancouver
Background
As a child growing up in Mexico, Vania Ruano dreamed of working as an animator. She loved drawing and art in general. As she grew older, she became interested in special effects, makeup, and animatronics. However, her dream seemed distant, as society told her to study a more “practical” career choice so, she studied electronic engineering. It was not all doom and gloom; she loved playing with computers, and this interest crossed over into her love of robotics.
After graduating, she worked at a local TV network as an engineer for almost four years, but she was never fully satisfied with her work. As much as she enjoyed it, she still wanted to do something more creative. That was when Vania came across a breakdown video showing before-and-after VFX shots for TV shows like Ugly Betty and her favourite show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She began experimenting with After Effects by following tutorials and creating her own home video projects. This led her to take design classes in her spare time. Her need to feed her creativity inspired her to go back to school and study something entirely different.
Discovery of Campus VFX
Before researching VFX and schools, compositing was not on Vania’s radar, nor did she understand where it fit within the VFX pipeline. Campus VFX is one of the few schools that offers specialized learning with a strong focus on developing specific skills.
In the summer of 2013, Vania enrolled in the Compositing diploma program (Class 14) at the Vancouver campus.
Above: Vania’s Student Reel, 2014.
Transition to Industry
Vania has been at Sony Imageworks in Vancouver for almost five years. However, it took her some time to get there. After completing her practicum, she was offered the opportunity to join the MPC Academy, which was an amazing opportunity for a new graduate. She contributed to several MPC projects, gaining valuable studio experience. Vania eventually landed at Sony.
She contributed to A-list features including Ad Astra, Thor: Love and Thunder, and Spider-Man: Far from Home, to name a few. Over the past five years, Vania’s visual effects training took her beyond live action and into Imageworks’ incredible fully animated achievements such as Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and KPop Demon Hunters.
Vania loved the fact that, at Imageworks, she could work on animation and live action. Her first opportunity was on Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, which, to begin with, is not like any other animated film; it’s a technical achievement in its own right. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse required a lot more compositing than other animated projects. Each character and each world had its own set of rules to achieve the picture’s signature look; a hybrid 2D/3D ‘comic book’ style.
As a compositor, Vania was given some creative freedom with her shots. She first worked on Gwen’s world. The art direction was defined by heavily brushed, painted look. Sony Imageworks created amazing proprietary tools in which to achieve this look. As part of a team, she also worked on Miles’ world, which is more of a comic book style, as well as the spider-punk character with the artistic magazine-cutout style. Each had a different treatment created in Nuke.
“The creative distinctions between characters were endless and very creative.” – V. Ruano
Vania worked on the Vulture character, which had to look somewhat like a marker drawing with pencil lines. She had an incredible opportunity to work with the team developing the final look of the character. Part of the huge challenge was to learn new tools, but it was also exciting for artists like Vania to step outside of the photorealistic world of visual effects and use Nuke tools in a completely different way.
“Something as simple as using filtering tools to distort smooth digital lines to look as if they were made by a pencil on paper was really fun.” – V. Ruano
Vania’s favourite shots was one of the final scenes with the characters on the rooftop. Each one needed to have their own script and distinct treatment. Channel management in Nuke and maintaining an organized script was essential.
“After working on Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse I fell in love with working on animated features and I wanted to keep doing it. I was lucky to join the team of KPop Demon Hunters, which at the time none of us knew would become such a pop culture phenomenon. I enjoyed working on it so much! – V.Ruano
The look of KPop was not as technically challenging as Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. However, it was a compositing-heaving show. As in all animation projects, lighting and compositing are key players in the pipeline. The compositing team had to work closely with lighters to get that k-drama look.
Vania worked on the Jinu close-up shots in his final moments in the storyline. Creative challenges included getting the right colour balance and variation in contrast to the bright-red, fiery background while also maintaining Jinu’s skin to look somewhere in between demon and human.
Advice and Lessons Learned
“What I think set apart (Campus VFX) since the beginning, was the strong sense of community. Getting to know people from the very first classes to the newer alumni was always a pleasant experience. In every studio I’ve worked at I always meet someone from Lost Boys/Campus VFX and we are always willing to help each other.” – V. Ruano
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 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.
We now offer online certificates and diplomas worldwide, as well as physical instruction at our Vancouver, Canada location.
The next intake is SEPTEMBER 2026 and enrolment is now open. Find out more at campusvfx.com.
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