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Andrew Zeller

COMPOSITING INSTRUCTOR | VANCOUVER

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"The best part of my job is witnessing students develop their skills to a level that allows them to reach their career goals."

Movies were a large of part of my childhood. I fell in love with filmmaking and visual effects after watching behind the scenes documentaries for the original Star Wars trilogy, The Lord of the Rings, and the Matrix films. During my high school and university years, I wrote, directed, and edited 10 short films and 3 feature films. I also created 17 commercials for a design studio. Worrying about my job prospects for working on films, my parents and friends encouraged me to become a teacher after graduating from university. While I enjoyed teaching, I couldn’t abandon my dream of working in the film industry and kept searching for opportunities.

After several years of working as an English Teacher in Seoul and Vancouver, I joined the Advanced Visual Effects Compositing program as a student at Lost Boys in 2015. It was a fantastic experience, where I made many lifelong friends, learned so much, and grew tremendously as an artist. After a practicum at Hydraulx VFX, I was one of the first artists hired by Vitality Visual Effects. In addition to paint, roto, and compositing work on 11 Hollywood film and television projects, I wrote instructions for the studio’s staff handbook, explaining how to use the software provided in-house.

In 2017, I made the decision to return to Lost Boys and my love of teaching. I work with the other Lead Compositing Instructors at Lost Boys to develop curriculum, mentor students, and ensure the compositing and roto paint skills of our graduates meet industry standards. The VFX software that I have experience teaching includes Nuke, Mocha, SilhouetteFX, and Neat Video. I like to make my lessons practical, personalized to each class, and fun (improv comedy gets mixed into my lessons). The best part of my job is witnessing students develop their skills to a level that allows them to reach their career goals.

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Selected Feature Film Credits

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Student Testimonials

Andrew is a very talented instructor and artist. He always trying to create a good environment for the students by being kind and generous, besides having a lot of patience to not only teach but to take the time to be able to repeat all the times what was not understood and help you solve problems in different ways, which is admirable.
Rodrigo Sapag Novoa
Prep Artist | Rodeo VFX
With his previous experiences at Vitality, his excellent compositing and digital makeup skills help us excel in those areas as students. He never shies away from sharing his tricks for compositing and element integration. At the same time, he believes in errors and trials; instead of giving us the answer right away, he always gives us room to explore and experiment.
kate
Kate Lin
Compositor | Pixomondo
His extreme dedication and resourcefulness made him a really good teacher. One of the things I would like to stand out is that he was very approachable in his way of teaching and he never hesitated every time we needed answers for both technical or artistic questions. He truly enjoys doing his lessons and I am glad to had the chance to be one of his students.
Basilisa Canovas
Digital Artist | Industrial Light & Magic
Andrew was my teacher at Lost Boys Studios. His kindness and patience have no equal. Teaching can be frustrating, difficult at times, exhausting, especially for students like me, but he has never shown any signs of fatigue or disinterest. On the contrary: he always put in the extra effort to make each lecture incredibly enjoyable! He helped and encouraged me in each of my projects and made sure I understood everything I needed to know. We had much more than a teacher with Andrew, and it's a gift I feel honored to have had. If today I love visual effects so much, it's largely because of him, and it reassures me to think that he will continue to teach and share his knowledge, because we can't wish for a better teacher. Of course I would highly recommend Andrew as an instructor. His solicitude and sympathy are as important for his students as his extensive knowledge in compositing.
Erwan Muro2020 Graduate
His way of teaching makes even complex aspects of studies fun, understandable and engaging. The effort he put into his lectures is absolutely amazing and he spends some extra time to ensure he gives the best to each his students. Andrew has a habit to come up with the most handy tips and tricks to help you solve any kind of problem in Nuke, Mocha or Silhouette. He also provides some of the most relevant and valuable insights to make sure his students are well up-to-date with the current happenings in the visual effects industry. I would highly recommend Andrew as an instructor to anyone who's looking forward to learn about Compositing/BG Prep. Besides being an Awesome Instructor, Andrew is humorous, friendly, and super approachable. He is an inspiring and a very caring person to meet in general. Oh! and not to forget, he has a phenomenal sense of humor! Though I am nowhere near as good as Andrew is when it comes to writing, but if I were to ever write a article on "Individuals You Should Meet Before You Die!", Andrew would be the first person I would talk about. Thank you for everything Andrew. I feel very lucky to be taught by such an amazing instructor like you!
Abhinav Pareek2020 Graduate
Andrew is easily one of the most caring and inspiring people I ever had the pleasure of knowing, and I was lucky enough to have him as a mentor. He is the one person I remember leaving any interaction with a smile no matter how it started, that’s just the type of person he is. Seeing him push above and beyond every expectation you might have for a mentor inspires me every day to be better and push just as hard. His curious energy is simply infectious. He listens to every word you have to say, and actively incorporates your interests and struggles into his daily effort of helping you excel in what you care about. His wit and adaptability inevitably carries conversations towards making the most out of your experience. I can’t count the number of times his words motivated me to be better as both an artist and a person. As an entertainer at heart, he never fails to bring life and fun into his lectures and events, even when he’s the only one embodying a character with a full costume on Halloween. I’ll never forget you, “Edward.” He actively reaches out to supervisors and seniors to give us the most relevant and current information possible, and cements that knowledge through weekly prize competitions and movie nights. Again, every interaction comes with a guaranteed smile. I have no hesitation in highly recommending Andrew as an instructor, because the positive impact he directly had over the lives of his students is undeniable.
Elmoatasem Ragab2020 Graduate
I will always remember how Andrew helped us a lot and would sit next to who needed help until the person understood. He was also kind enough to help me with my English when I was writing emails and cover letters while applying for jobs. His way of teaching is fun and light, so I can easily remember some of his paint lessons in the Theater. I’ll never forget the screening on Fridays when it felt that he had enhanced vision and saw tiny mistakes. He helped make long days easier participating in our Charades, making jokes, and having VFX quizzes. Andrew also keeps in contact with students after graduation and continues sharing his knowledge articles with the articles he writes. He always shares how to be a better artist, to remember to live life to the fullest.
Ana-Luiza Rodrigues2020 Graduate
Andrew is a great teacher, and I consider myself lucky to have had him as an instructor during my study at Lost Boys. He was always able to answer my many technical questions, and give helpful feedback on all of my shots. Visual effects is a challenging subject to learn, and it really helps to have somebody as patient and knowledgeable as Andrew around to guide you through it. During his lectures he could always improvise solutions to problems and turn them into learning opportunities for us. I could tell that he put a great deal of thought and care into designing his lectures to address specific problems our class was having at the time. Along with his technical skills, he is also a very personable guy; super friendly, approachable, and a great communicator. I was always comfortable going to him with a question or asking for his advice when it came to my career, and I was always glad that I did. He is also one of the most thoughtful people I know. He really does listen to what you say, and his actions prove it. I remember many occasions he would share a tool or gizmo he found with me because he knew it might help me, or just because he knew I would be interested in it. Oh, and I can't forget about his sense of humor. If Andrew did not dedicate so much of his time to educating his students, he would probably have his own improv show by now! I would highly recommend Andrew as a teacher to anybody seeking to learn visual effects compositing.
David Koss2020 Graduate
Andrew is a wonderful, humorous, and friendly mentor that you can rarely have. He has the best qualification to be a mentor in this global VFX industry. He has multiple English teaching backgrounds in Asia. He knows how to drive communication with ease in a multi-cultural environment, sometimes inserting entertaining jokes. (For your information the fact that he even does stand-up comedy already speaks a lot!) He has great eyes with promising studio experience too. Especially, his 2D compositing and BG prep skill are astounding. He points out no matter how small mistakes instantly with a gentle manner. I recommend you Andrew as a great man who enlightens the community and problem-solver. You definitely wish him always around.
Kosuke Iwasaki2019 Graduate
I had Andrew as my TA / BG Prep Instructor during my time at Lost Boys. My experiences with Andrew as a teacher were overwhelmingly positive; he was consistently available for help at school and was even courteous enough to respond to the odd question outside of school hours. On the rare occasion Andrew didn't have an immediate answer to a question or problem, he wouldn't hesitate to spend time at my desk with me in order to figure out a solution. As a result, Andrew's dedication as an educator is apparent. His knowledge of programs like Nuke, Mocha, and Silhouette is impressive; when teaching, Andrew is engaging, articulate, and thorough. He has a fantastic sense of humor and a very pleasant manner when interacting with students. He gives extremely valuable feedback on shots and has many useful insights on working in VFX. Andrew was also kind enough to offer head shots (at no expense) to every student in my class for their LinkedIn profile. Overall, I would highly recommend Andrew as an educator, as a compositor, and generally as a upstanding human being.
Lauren Marton2019 Graduate
As a student at Lost Boys School of Visual Effects, I highly recommend Andrew as an BG Prep/Compositing instructor. Even with his packed schedule and endless tasks as an instructor, he still always spares his time for his students. He is extremely detail oriented, and cares greatly about us. Andrew often times volunteers his own time assisting us even when it’s outside of his job description. It’s rare to find an instructor like this and I genuinely feel honored to be one of his students. In addition, with his previous experiences at Vitality, his excellent compositing and digital makeup skills help us excel in those areas as students. He never shies away from sharing his tricks for compositing and element integration. At the same time, he believes in errors and trials; instead of giving us the answer right away, he always gives us room to explore and experiment. I am honored to be one of Andrew’s students. And needless to say, I highly recommend him as a BG Prep/Compositor instructor!
Kate Lin2019 Graduate
I have known Andrew for a year and it’s been a pleasure to be one of his students at Lost Boys school of VFX. He is the perfect instructor for a Compositing/BG Prep career: he has experience in the field and he is very good in sharing his knowledge with you. In the past year Andrew was a guide who helped me when I needed assistance with technical and artistic issues. I believe that great artists don’t necessarily make great teachers, but I definitely think that Andrew manages to achieve both; He enjoys doing lessons and always comes up with creative ideas to pass his knowledge onto students. He is the type of teacher who doesn’t tell you the solution to a problem but helps you to discover it for yourself. I would highly recommend Andrew to anyone who is looking for a well-rounded, experienced artist and teacher
Mara Angioletti2017 Graduate
I highly recommend Andrew Zeller for his tremendous teaching ability. As a student of Lost Boys | School of Visual Effects, I have had the pleasure of being taught not only industry relevant practices, but also countless intricacies within the scope of Compositing that only come from Andrew’s industry experience. He is a driven, organized teacher who develops inspiring relationships and excels at fostering growth and understanding with his students. Andrew is passionate about what he teaches and it comes out in his lessons and lectures. This passion and drive greatly improves the experience of learning while you are grasping the complex concepts of the Visual Effects Industry. He has an innate ability to bring positivity and engagement all the while developing his students’ abilities as Compositors. Andrew embraces any opportunity for teaching and professional development, which makes him an ideal leader and instructor. Andrew also has a wonderful rapport and a breadth of knowledge in navigating the political waters of the Visual Effects Industry which has proven to be an incredible asset for someone who is inexperienced. His ability to connect with his students and his talent at teaching concepts, simple, as well as advanced, are both truly superior. Andrew cares about the individual growth of each one of his students, taking the time to ensure that they grasp and truly understand the purpose of each step and why it matters. Andrew also has an excellent written and verbal communication skill-set which is an asset for those who are coming from abroad to study at Lost Boys. He accomplishes all this with great initiative and with a positive attitude. I recommend Andrew without reservation.
Cordell Briggs2018 Graduate
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