Confetti graduates celebrate industry success

Confetti Institute of Creative Technologies, a part of Nottingham Trent University, provide vocational-based further and higher education courses, including BTEC level 3 (College) VFX and Animation, and BSc (Hons) Visual Effects Production Technology, supporting its students to gain hands-on, real world experience ready for when they graduate.

The training and experience gained at Confetti are a huge springboard for graduates going onto careers in music, gaming, esports, TV, film, live events, and countless others. It is not surprising then that many of its recent class of graduates have gone onto secure themselves positions at prominent visual effects companies worldwide:

Emre Papilla has landed a job as a production assistant for Scanline VFX. Scanline are a prolific visual effects studio with two Emmy Awards under its belt for its work on Game of Thrones, and an Academy Award nomination for 2015’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Scanline’s latest projects include “The Batman” starring Robert Pattison, set to open in UK theatres on 4 March. When asked about his experience at Scanline VFX and his transition from Confetti, Mansfield-based Emre said:

“I’m really loving my time at Scanline; I get to work on some really exciting projects… many of which are top secret! The job itself is very coordination based, with lots of scheduling and writing. The core skills I learned at Confetti like working to deadline, professional writing standards and learning new software and situations, are what helped me to feel confident enough to apply for and start this job.”

Max Brown has secured himself a “green job” working as a virtual production and 3D generalist at the environmentally friendly Dupe VFX. Dupe craft stunning visual effects for award winning films and hit TV shows, like Netflix own Stranger Things and Sex Education. They are also the world’s first visual effects company with B Corporation certification, a badge of honour for businesses working to reduce their carbon emissions. Dupe VFX have recently announced they are working on a new Tom Hardy Netflix crime drama, Havoc, expected to be released in 2022.

Another Confetti graduate, Joe Draghi, recently undertook a prestigious aid bursary at Aardman Animations, the four times Academy Award® winning animation studio, and creators of Wallace & Gromit. Aardman have made regular appearances at Confetti’s annual Industry Week, a time where big names are brought to Nottingham to inspire, teach and impress through a series of talks, workshops, demos and game jams. Asked for his thoughts on Confetti and the calibre of its graduates, Director and Animator for Aardman Animations, Will Becher, said:

“Industry Week gives students the chance to ask questions that don’t come up during teaching. I think it’s an amazing place to be inspired and work around creatives. Confetti students are really well engaged. I think it’s a great environment for people to just find their feet and find where they want to go.”

Two further Confetti VFX graduates, Ryan Hancock and Chloe Tanner, have been hired as 3D artists for the anime-inspired strategy game, ChainGuardians. ChainGuardians is a free-to-play role-playing game which allow players to earn income, turning their time and energy into tangible rewards. Nottingham-born, Chloe Tanner, said:

“I found that training in VFX at Confetti allowed me to easily transfer my skills over to a game environment. I find a lot of techniques taught in VFX can now be transferred over to video games considering games in general are getting closer to VFX quality, especially with the power behind Unreal Engine 5.

“Going to Confetti was one of the best choices I made in my life. The tutors always want you to achieve your best and the fact that it was one of my tutors that recommended me for this position just goes to show how much they care about each student they teach!”

The ChainGuardians team are currently working on developing a Metaverse and the game will soon be ready for esports team competitions where players can battle to earn. Confetti Institute of Creative Technologies is also looking to make waves in the world of esports with the announcement of its new £5million complex, called Confetti X. Scheduled to open in 2022, Confetti X will be a space for students to access the very best facilities and technology for esports production, and emerging VFX practices like Virtual Production. When asked about his students’ recent successes and the important role Confetti X will have to play in the future of Confetti’s courses, VFX Course Leader, Brian Hurst says:

“It’s fantastic to see that our VFX curriculum is preparing Confetti students for careers in the visual effects industry with such outstanding companies.

“At Confetti we have close links to the industry which enable us to adapt our curriculum to respond to future developments, particularly the increasing application of games-based technologies and the rise of Virtual Production.

“In pursuit of this our new Confetti X campus will add broad value to our full course curriculum, not just games and esports, but media too, with our students able to make use of game engine technology as a real-time 3D creation tool, and unique studio spaces for virtual sets. I want to congratulate these alumni on their new roles and wish them every success in the future”.