Finding VFX through a love of filmmaking – lots of creatives discover visual effects as they develop a passion for filmmaking.
Being part of the filmmaking process doesn’t always mean working behind the camera or writing scripts. Visual effects is both a highly creative skill and an essential part of the film pipeline.
Meet Katrin Frantz; a compositing artist who realized she could combine two passions into one career.
Name: Katrin Inga Frantz
Education: Campus VFX graduate 2018, Class 24– Compositing Program
Location: Vancouver, Canada
IMDB: Katrin’s list of work
Credits: Avatar: Fire and Ash, The Irishman, The Batman, Captain America: Brave New World, Peacemaker TV series
Currently working at: Wētā FX, Vancouver
Background
Katrin grew up in Reykjavik, Iceland and ever since she can remember she loved drawing, painting and anything else that involved artistic expression.
Her childhood memories are filled with ‘producing’ short videos with her friends. She’d film silly, sketch-comedy and satire commercials, which she would also edit together and colour grade. Katrin was a real, multi-faceted filmmaker back then! She always believed that she would be working in film and the arts.
As a young girl, Katrin consumed visually stunning films like, The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter where visual effects were an essential part of bringing the story to life.
Discovery of Campus VFX
One day Katrin met a 3D modeler working in games. She realized, there are jobs where she could combine her interest in both VFX and filmmaking.
At the time, she didn’t fully understand what “VFX” was or how it could offer career opportunities, but when researching ‘3D modeling’ she found a program in her hometown of Reykjavik and eventually attained a 2-year diploma. The school covered a variety of technical skills in addition to modeling like, animation, graphic design game development and digital compositing. Compositing very quickly tugged at her heartstrings like her early days of shooting short videos and putting her creative touch in every frame.
Transition to Industry
After graduating and before finding her groove at Wētā FX, Katrin worked at a few other studios in Vancouver including MPC where she was afforded lots of opportunities and learned that VFX studios can be extremely overwhelming when under delivery deadlines. She also joined Vitality VFX where she worked on the award-winning feature, The Irishman.
Later, at EYELINE (formerly Scanline), Katrin spent several years, not only as a compositor but also in pipeline development where her earlier training in Reykjavik was an added asset to her skillset.
Katrin moved back and forth from Wētā FX to ILM for a few projects, including some of her all-time favourites like Captain America: Brave New World and the Academy award-winning Avatar: Fire and Ash.
Advice and Lessons Learned
At Campus VFX, Katrin was able to focus solely on compositing with the school’s specialized program and extensive lab work, which supported her creation of a demo reel as part of her diploma requirements. She attributes the focussed curriculum and the guidance in producing a polished reel as a key lesson to starting her career.
“I remember one of my first job interviews. The supervisor looked at my resume as I didn’t have any professional VFX credits yet. He then watched my student reel and said, ‘Well, if you’re able to create this, I don’t see why you’d have any problem working for us.’ And just like that, I landed my first compositing job with that studio!” – Katrin F
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.
Interested in a career in visual effects?
Campus VFX offers our new, 6 month certificate programs as well as our foundational 12 month diploma programs, available for on-campus learning or through online and virtual options worldwide.
The next intake, for both 12 month and 6-month programs is SEPTEMBER 2026 and enrolment is now open. Find out more at campusvfx.com.
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