Meet Our Tutors - Sabah Masood

Exterior shot by Sabah Masood

Sabah Masood is one of our newest tutors at Bucks, having just started teaching our students pre-production concept art and development. Sabah has a wealth of freelance experience designing, building and lighting 3D interiors and sets for clients such as Pinewood Studios. Her expertise helps to fill out some gaps in our existing curriculum, making sure that our students are fully prepared for a long and successful career in the digital arts. We asked her to talk about what she is teaching at Bucks, and how the experience has been so far.

Interior by Sabah Masood

Bucks: What are you Teaching at Bucks?

SM: At the moment I am teaching pre-production concept art which the the students will carry out for all their major projects at university. This will allow them to be more creative and imaginative when creating their final designs in 3d software. Having a pre-concept is vital in any production as this is the foundation to creating a finalized render.


Bucks: How has the experience been?

SM: I have always loved helping people so having this opportunity to teach an entire class (instead of just helping students individually) is on a whole new level. At first I was unsure of how the class might perceive my teaching skills, but my feedback has been positive and I am loving every moment. Teaching something you personally have a passion for makes the role more interesting and so the flow of words comes more naturally.

 

Gateway Building at Bucks

Bucks: How have you been able to bring your own experience as a freelancer to assist in the classroom?

SM: Most of my projects are all freelance as I feel this way I can express my work the best for I have no limits but more freedom to experiment.  By working on freelance projects I have been able to identify the difference between working on a personal projects where this usually no boundary of imagination and working on a client projects which requires more of a *realistic* approach. either way, my skills and passion have increased incredibly and now I feel more confident in expressing these views and forwarding these skills onto my students.

I learn new skills on each freelance project I work on so the *rights and wrongs*  must be taken into action in according to what the client is requiring. when teaching i will mention how freelance work must be carried out in the right way and how they should go abouts freelance in terms of finding, selling and idea and the actual post production process.

Centroid Academy by Sabah Masood

Bucks: What advice would  give our students who would like to forge a career in animation and VFX?

SM: The most important statement I wish to make is this: you must have the passion for what you do! If the passion and ambition is there, the work process will not come of a pain to you but you will enjoy it! My 3d work only used to be in the classroom but when I found what i do best, i started working on personal projects at home. this increased my passion and skills incredibly. Even my free time is creating arch viz renders instead of going out.

The more you practice and work on personal projects (other than university projects), the more your skills will improve as well as your ambition which will help you later on in finding a job int the animation industry. From my personal experience, the industry directors and producers are not looking for people with the highest degree result but for people who have the passion for what they do and their skills they personally have.

Secondly I recommend advertising your work. By advertising I mean creating a personal domain website which included your portfolio. Create a business card and maybe even an 15 flyer which you can hand out. Attend conventions in London such as Eurogamer or Bluegfx where you can create contacts and meet industry people.  The more contacts you have, the better!


To see more of Sabah's work, see this blog post. And to see more about the tutors at Bucks and what they do, follow this link.