Ricardo Ferreira, Senior Compositor and Professor at Católica School of Arts
I'm a Compositor Supervisor/Senior Compositor and a Professor in cinematography since 2009. I made part of the team that won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects in 2015, Interstellar, and 2016 on Ex-Machina.
I've been working on both areas, film and commercial projects for companies such as Industrial Light Magic, Cinesite Prime Focus, MPC, DoubleNegative, and many others, big and small companies.
This has come after completing the two Compositing courses at Escape Studios in London. Before starting my VFX career, I finished an MA in Architecture and worked as a 3D Artist for Architectural Visualization.
This work required me the skills to look at things from both a technical and aesthetic viewpoint, which is the key to being successful in the Visual Effects industry.
As a Professor, I've been teaching at the Top 10 Universities around the world, but at the moment, I'm focusing on Hugo'sDesk and at Católica University School of Arts, where I've been teaching for the last seven years.
What do you like about your current role?
My role will depend on the position I'm working on. For example, if I'm a Compositor Supervisor, I will work directly and collaboratively with the project clients, manage and supervise the team of compositors, brief them, and provide constructive feedback. I will be able to develop production methodologies, creative approaches, and problem-solving skills. In addition, I am responsible for managing the current and future production workflows and pipelines.
If I'm a Senior Compositor, I will work closely with the Compositing Supervisor and Visual Effects Supervisor to refine the creative and technical approaches to composing the shots. For difficult shots, I'm responsible for doing all tasks of the compositing process, including 2D tracking, matte extraction, layering, and colour grading. Additionally, I have to ensure uniformity in all finished work by maintaining the overall look, colour balance, and quality of assigned shots and sequences. The ability to independently solve technical and aesthetic problems without requiring direction and to handle the most challenging tasks under intense time pressure, as well as to create generic looks other artists can apply and to collaborate with artists from different disciplines, is one of my strong suits.
Both positions need a strong sense of composition, colour, and design, a strong knowledge of Nuke, the famous software from Foundry, and excellent aesthetic skills in judging photorealism.
What are your favourite books?
I refer to the book “12 Rules for Life” by the author Jordan B. Peterson. I don't usually read this type of book, but this one is far from the banal, "self-help," or "life-coaching" ones.
Instead, it's the deep views of a profound thinker about life's most important questions. It makes us reflect on humility, about owning our mistakes and not blaming others all the time, that although things that happen to us are not our fault, it's 100% our responsibility to fix them.
He writes several basic rules, full of common sense, which seems to be not so usual nowadays, allowing a person to function efficiently in the world. We need to grow and adapt while not getting rid of traditions and traditional structures; they might be essential. Similarly, these are the guides by which I try to conduct myself professionally and personally.
Secondly, the book “I, Robot” by author Isaac Asimov. Since I've started working in more and more science fiction films, witnessing the fast advance of technology and its great power, this theme has become incredibly more appealing to me. This book discusses many general points regarding robots, artificial intelligence, and technology.
Asimov has that impeccable attention to detail down. The constant technological advances make us wonder whether the robots governing our world would or wouldn't be a good solution for our planet's eternally unstable economic system. Whether you are an artificial intelligence enthusiast or not, this book opens your mind to possible future ways of living on this earth.
Who do you most admire and why?
As a person, I most admire my grandfather, who came from a low-income family. His dream since kid was to be Prime Minister, and his immense passion was books. He started working in construction when he was young to help the family. As an adult with three kids, he continues working in construction during the day and at night studying to be a Civil Engineer.
He had to walk 4 hours daily from his house to school. He recognized that building strong personal and professional relationships are just as meaningful as being competent in your work, and he became excellent at both through consistent effort.
After completing his course, he graduated with honors and started working on high-scale projects considered National Monuments, such as Palácio da Brejoeira, and also worked for famous architects, such as Siza Vieira, among others. I see in my grandfather an example of a brave man who, even under low conditions, never gave up and is still a reference for the young generations.
As an academic, Steve Wright is the person, I admire most. His books are like bibles for Digital Compositing. When I started studying Compositing in 2007 at Escape Studios (London), didn’t exist information as we have nowadays, such as online courses or tutorials on YouTube about the technical side of Compositing, and the only book was from Steve.
He was a visionary and a pioneer; thanks to him, thousands of artists worldwide learned from him. I had the honor to talk with Steve and his lovely wife, Diane, and in one of our conversations, Steve invited me to work with him on a short film called Osiris, one of the shots was tremendous, with many problems going on, and one piece of advice that I got from him that I kept in memory and I share with my students is "divide and conquer, don't tackle the problem in one go, do it by parts, and you will see that it will be easier for you." Steve is the master of clarity and will continue to inspire artists worldwide.
As a businessman, Rui Nabeiro is one of my inspirations. He was born in a humble "but not poor" family, as he always highlights. He began working at 12 and took leadership in his small family business at 17 years old after his father passed away. He managed the company, Delta Cafés, to lead the coffee market in Portugal and is expanding strongly into international markets.
Entrepreneurship and a strong work ethic have always been present at the decisive moments of his life. He continues persuading innovation and sustainability and is faithful to his origins, traditions, and values. Nowadays, after all his success and accomplishments, he is still inspired by the vision of achieving not to accumulate but rather to share and that the secret of business always lies in its people. This social responsibility is part of Nabeiro's heart, throughout his company lives to the people, for the better of everyone, not just himself. I got inspired by this humble, hardworking, and values mindset, and as I see myself creating a path, I hope one day I can contribute and leave a career path and make a difference in people's lives.
What is the best advice you have ever received?
“Never stop learning!”
It's the advice my parents always shared with me and my sister when we were young. They always used to say that knowledge doesn't take space in our brain, and for that reason, we should give our best in any activity we are involved in, and till we die, we are always learning.
Stay focused on future goals. Some of us constantly listen but never go in-depth to understand what is needed to get there. Motivation in what we do or setting milestones to help archive it is necessary. Time management is also essential and the evaluation of our progress. This way, we can see if we are on the right path or need to make amends.
What motivates or inspires you?
I'm passionate about teaching, technology, and Pixels.
Teaching:
I believe that my professional career is an icebreaker when first meeting the students. They are true lovers of this industry, and just sharing stories as digital compositor artist make the students fascinated and excited to the point we create a great connection from the start. I’ll always try to make learning fun, stimulating, and engaging lessons which I think are the key to a student’s academic success. Even if I think in teaching, you have to admire the person trying to teach you something, I also think that attitude, energy, enthusiasm, and positivism are very important, sometimes a little bit more than technical skill. To have high levels of motivation and commitment in students, you need genuine warmth, empathy, and respect toward them. My goal is to spark my student's imagination, creativity, and curiosity so that they can find their own career path themselves. I don’t aim for them to be straight ‘’A’’ students; maybe their parents or society expect and want them to be. My aim is to ensure their professional and personal success and encourage them to fulfil their potential. These relationships stay for years. Even after they leave school and make a path on their own, I still stay connected to them, and it makes me proud of the people they become.
Technology:
I’ve always been a "tech enthusiast" for as long as I can remember. I was always curious about computers and electronics, how they work, and how they can do what they do. I remember every toy I received as a kid. I would open it because I was so excited to find out what was inside. Especially if it was something electronic and it stopped working, I would try and solve the problem myself. And this, I think, is my big connection with technology because, for me, the most attractive aspect of technology is problem-solving, which is a natural characteristic of mine. Nowadays, I enjoy learning the trends that technology is taking to work more efficiently and in more productive ways to reach goals and achieve progress and success. Fundamentally, technology makes tasks more manageable and solves many problems of mankind, improving the quality of life of the human experience. In my field of work, technology is essential we have new trends, such as virtual production or the introduction of AI, where many artists complain about their work being used without authorization. With tools like Unreal Engine, teams in media & entertainment create photorealistic virtual worlds and characters to be displayed on LED walls on set in real time. I think, in general, for societies to thrive and evolve, technological innovations have become necessary. The world is becoming increasingly dependent on such advancements, and our everyday dealings are becoming increasingly automated. Although it also has problems and mistakes, introducing new technology into our lives takes balance and a clear mind.
Pixels:
Since I was a child, I have had a great passion for movies, and my favourites were the James Bond movies with all the explosions and impressive cars that shoot bullets and fire. Time passed, and everything I did was related to art and image. When I finished my master's in Architecture, I decided to specialize in 3D for architecture, and again, I was working with pixels. Years passed, and I decided to study Compositing, where I worked pixels in depth. When I started working in the Visual Effects industry, my eyes got trained for photorealism and for all the details that are not correct, and that's why I love my work. You can add or remove everything you can imagine, and watching your name on the credits of the big screen around the world is motivational and satisfying because you know your hard work was recognized.
What would you like to highlight and share with our audience?
Prioritize your health and loved ones, for them, are the pillar of love and strength that help you achieve your goals.
Be prepared to fail and for what life has to teach by being open to the lessons in everything you do and experience. If you never fail, you never accomplish anything.
Be brave in taking chances and opportunities you think you deserve and be eager to grow.
Work hard and trust the process!