From Aerospace to Spider-Man: How an Engineering Degree Paved the Way for a Career in the Arts (and a Sci-Tech Award!).
Visual effects may appear to be an artistic career path, but the film industry welcomes everyone from diverse backgrounds. This artist began their journey as a telecommunications engineer graduate before discovering the world of visual effects.
Edmond Boulet-Gilly has his master’s in performance software, media and scientific computing as well as a degree in Engineering. In 2018 he was hired by Thales Group (an aerospace company) to benchmark and evaluate database engines, determining the optimal backend architecture for their next satellite launch.
So, how did Edmond connect his career “dots” from scientific computing to become an Effects Technical Director?
Name: Edmond Boulet-Gilly
Education: Campus VFX graduate March 2021 – Effects Technical Director, Diploma
Location: Vancouver, Canada
Credits: KPop Demon Hunters, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Currently working at Sony Pictures Imageworks, Vancouver
Growing up in Paris, France, Edmond was drawn to storytelling and the arts as much as he was to science. While working at a computer graphics research institute and completing his master’s thesis, Edmond thrived on problem-solving and teamwork. After finishing his thesis, he was searching for work that aligned with his technical skills while also including Edmond’s artistic aspirations. He eventually discovered that VFX offered a balance of both.
Discovery of Campus VFX
Edmond moved to Vancouver and attended Campus VFX in the spring of 2020. To familiarize himself with tools he would be using, such as Houdini, Edmond completed a few online tutorials before starting school. The FX program covered everything in detail including pipeline workflows and creatively applying new skills into real-world VFX studio environments. Campus VFX focuses on essential skills within the 12-month term, allowing students to become specialists while exploring a wide variety of subjects.
Transition to Industry
It was the synergy of Edmond’s training, passions and experience that led to his contributions with the Sony Imageworks technical team, earning Academy recognition.
Edmond’s first role after graduating from Campus VFX in 2021 was with Sony Pictures Imageworks. He came in at the early stages of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. At that time, Sony faced a huge pipeline challenge, and opportunity in making this animated feature visually imaginative using a new line drawing system; ink lines.
With Edmond’s background in engineering and his aerospace experience, he was a perfect fit for the Sony tool dev team. He was given the responsibility for researching and developing all the tools related to SPI’s Ink Line Tools.
Some of those challenges revolved around scalability and time it took to deploy each shot. Other challenges involved creating tools never-before made, specifically for inking entire characters or environments. Working with Pav Grochola – effects supervisor at Sony Pictures Imageworks (SPI) and co-effects supervisor on the Oscar winning Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, the SPI team revisited technology first drafted in the first installment of the trilogy.
As part of a larger team, Edmond reworked both the back and front end of SPI’s tool called Superdraw, which is the main way to draw linework on a character’s face. It was made more user-friendly for artists with little to no Houdini experience and added a new way to interpolate an existing library of drawings for projecting prediction during shot work.
“The Spider-Verse franchise had a huge impact on the world of feature-length animated movies. Still, it was a surreal moment for me when the Academy recognized our work as being on the front end of leading the stylization process in cinema. At the core, studying and developing those artistic processes has been extremely rewarding for me not just in terms of recognition, but even more in terms of growth and expanding my horizon on what might be possible in storytelling.” – E. Boulet-Gilly
The second project revolved around creating a toolset called Kismet. This toolset generates curves in 3D space based on the asset, camera and performance. The team took inspiration from traditional hand-drawn animation workflows using a system that evaluates how much an asset rotates in screen space, uses multiple sets of curves, and fades on-and-off at different speeds as though being drawn and erased at different moments. The timing would depend on the motion of the character and to match the activity of each shot.
The team also developed tools allowing artists to draw directly in each shot. They could create bridges between Blender and Houdini freely, to project and attach those curves to a moving asset. Edmond and the team discovered that procedural approaches are not necessarily a replacement for hand-drawn work but often enhanced it and thus adding another layer of creative freedom to a technical task.
Advice and Lessons Learned
Campus VFX’s most important contribution, according to Edmond, was being in a proper and healthy environment where he continuously interacted and collaborated with teachers and students.
“I believe that to be efficient and creative while working independently, problem-solving must be your primary skill. This skill is better sharpened in an environment where you can discuss both technical and artistic challenges that arise and, in turn, learn from those scenarios. Once you join a VFX studio, problem-solving becomes second nature and part of your internal workflow.
Working at a professional studio you need to collaborate with many different artists from diverse backgrounds. Campus VFX provided an environment where sharing knowledge was encouraged and expressing our ideas in the best way possible and in turn, we all achieved greater results together.” – E. Boulet-Gilly
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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