Filmmaker U recently spoke with Visual Effects Artist Debra Khoo-Jeffrey. In this chat we spoke with Debra about immigrating to New York from Malaysia, working remotely and her various projects she at HBO.Debra Khoo is a visual effects artist at HBO Hudson Yards, NY with nearly 20 years of experience in motion graphics, animation, compositing and rotoscoping. She works mainly in After Effects, Cinema 4D, and Boris FX Mocha Pro. Her credits include "From The Earth to the Moon" (Limited Series), "Game of Thrones: The Last Watch," "First Cow" (movie), and handling many promos for HBO, HBO Latino, and HBO Sports.
Gordon Burkell (GB) - Welcome to Filmmaker U! At filmmakerU.com we bring the top people in the film industry to discuss their craft and how they approach working in the industry. This week, we have Debra Khoo-Jeffrey. Thanks for coming to the show!
Debra Khoo - Jeffrey (DKJ) - Thanks for having me. Nice to meet you.
GB - It's great to meet you. You're currently living in the U.S, but where did you get your start in the industry?
DKJ - After graduating from RMIT in Melbourne, in 2000, I took up computer arts. At that time Pixar was just starting with Luxo Jr, that was that little creature who kept hopping on Pixar. So instead of hand drawn traditional art where you use markers and paper, I used the computer. So that's what I chose to study.
GB - Where did you come from originally?
DKJ - I came from Malaysia. Currency wise, it's not as strong as most countries. So getting Adobe software and Flame Autodesk, it was quite an expensive field to take on. My first job was at one of the top five post-production boutiques facilities called the HQ Pose. They specialize in TV commercials, and at that time, Dunhill cigarette ads were big. Motion graphic designers did not really exist and it was at its birthing stage. From then on, I learned mounting storyboards, Photoshop, printing it out, and then started to do style frames. Then began to do text graphics elements for online compositors which at that time it was Henry. So that was fun! I got exposed to Flame and I was like, "Why is everyone calling smoke flame? Then after 13 years, I think in 2014 I migrated to the states.
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