Interns at REEL FX

Credits Escape Studios with Advance in Career

About the Artist—Paul Daiko

Paul Daiko is an up-and-coming creative artist who is currently working as an intern at ReelFX in Dallas, Texas, an award winning creative studio that focuses on animation/character animation, visual effects and title/motion design for films, television, special attractions, video games and integrated media.

Paul’s Journey with Escape

In 2006, after graduating with a degree in computer animation from Teesside University in Middlesbrough, England, Paul decided to pursue a career in his respective field of study. Unfortunately, while he had a degree that provided a very broad base of skills, he did not have the specific expertise or training that the companies in Bristol and London needed. Discouraged by his difficulties in finding work, he made a complete career change only to find that he still was unable to find work.  Paul then decided to follow his dream to work in the world of animation.

At that time, he set his sights on a position as an editor. Despite some runner jobs at companies in Cardiff and personal editing projects restoring color to damaged super 8 films, career-wise, Paul was stuck.

Near the end of 2008, Paul had another runner job at an animation studio called Calon in Cardiff. The studio was working on stop-motion animation for two local television stations, S4C and Channel 5. Intrigued by the broadcast industry, Paul took advantage of his time at the stations to learn more from the stations’ sole compositor.

“The compositor advised me to practice as much as possible and to build a reel (portfolio) that I could use for prospective job opportunities,” said Paul. “Throughout 2009 I struggled, but I was given an opportunity to work with Reel FX in Dallas during the summer of 2010. It was at this point that Escape Studios came to my rescue.”

In the process for applying for a work Visa for the United States, Paul learned that he had to have been actively involved in some form of education in the last 12 months to qualify.

“After a mad Google search for a course to take in my area, I found Escape Studios, which was conducting an evening course in Nuke,” commented Paul. “Despite being beyond the official closing day of enrolment, Escape was more than accommodating and its coursework provided the flexibility that I needed to get ready for the next adventure in my life.”

Paul’s Next Adventure

While the course certainly satisfied the needs for his Visa, Paul credits the course for better preparing him for his internship.

He concluded, “The Escape course was the best learning experience of my life and gave me lots of confidence to start my internship at ReelFX. While the internship provides me the practical experience that I needed to further develop my reel, the Escape training has given me a focused skill that I will always be able to lean on to advance my career.”