Get to Know Our Visionary New Visual Effects Tutors

Originally from Tel Aviv, Tamar has a rich professional background as a freelance illustrator, animator, and a tutor in art and film schools. She’s worked for a huge variety of clients – including TV channels, web companies, post-production studios, magazines, book publishers, and fashion and toy designers. 

Tamar is Catalyst’s character design whizz. The most inspiring part of her role is “watching the students creating beautiful, unique and smart projects.”

Originally from Ukraine and Israel, Anton has worked as a freelancer for over 14 years, mainly as a Generalist motion artist. He’s worked on projects big and small, from music videos and feature films to VFX art and animation. 

“The best part of my role at Catalyst is seeing my students start with zero knowledge and learn how to make their imagination come to life,” says Anton. That said, he is always super excited about what his students can teach him!

Thiago, hailing from Brasilia, has worked with some of the biggest names in post-production, editing, VFX, animation, directing, scriptwriting and more. A number of his films have been selected by acclaimed film festivals.

What brought Thiago to Catalyst? “The people and the school’s philosophy,” he says. “I like the exciting approach, the passion and dedication, and how the art is appreciated. I also love the school’s commitment to its students and to training future artists, its wide view of the industry and independent projects, and its consideration of the students’ complete education – from creativity to the market.”

Paulina’s immersive and virtual works have been featured at international venues and multimedia festivals such as Atonal Berlin, Milan Design and Fashion Weeks, Macro (Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome), and festivals in the Netherlands, Chile and Russia. Her current practice at Imaginaria and Surogaat spans installation, performance, film direction and augmented and virtual reality.

“I love to be part of a growing environment that values ideas and has a precise vision,” Paulina says about her role at Catalyst. “I teach students how to investigate new creative tools and processes through coding practice and critical thinking. I have the challenge of guiding them through newborn technologies using a narrative lens.” 

Before joining Catalyst as a post-production tutor to our Film Production and Visual Effects first years, Ray, from Australia, taught at universities in Sydney, Hamburg and Berlin. He also works on video and music projects as a freelancer. Ray is currently directing and shooting a series of live electronic music performances for the female* / trans / non-binary collective, Éclat Crew Berlin. He is also constantly producing beats for his own electronic music project, Ori Moto.

“What I enjoy most about my role,” Ray tells us, “is the back-and-forth between myself and students about our ways of working, our ways of thinking about our work, and those really exciting moments when one of us helps another see or understand something we didn't before.”

Want a sneak peek into Visual Effects at Catalyst? Anton is leading a live-streamed demo on matte painting techniques on Thursday the 19th of November at 6pm.