Kevin Sears, 2003 North Garland High School graduate, recently had the honor of being part of a team that was nominated for a visual effects award at the 90th Academy Awards. The team had worked on visual effects for Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2.
A 2007 graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design, Sears worked as the CG supervisor on the film as part of Method Studios.
Sears said in the early 2000s at NGHS, Mrs. Kirkpatrick’s Architectural Graphics had two computers with Autodesk Viz software and a large plotter to print.
“I buried myself in these resources and in my senior year won the first place in the Technology Students Association State competition for a 3D walkthrough of a home I designed,” Sears said. “That solidified my goals and passion to 3D art and cinema. Later I discovered many people become involved in digital art through architectural software programs as they commonly pushed the realism with raytracing optimizations.”
He later attended a Dallas showcase for a software called 3DS Max. While there, he asked the group next to him which college he should attend and they all said “SCAD.”
“This was a defining moment because the Savannah College of Art and Design has a bachelor’s of Fine Arts in Visual Effects,” Sears said.
Sears visited and loved the campus and was grateful that his parents were kind enough to provide support for out of state education.
“It’s possible to self-teach but it’s impossible to recreate the collaboration and motivating friction that comes from putting eager young artists in the same room focused on making the best product,” he said.
After college, Sears moved to Los Angeles for an internship at Digital Domain (Titanic, 5th Element, Curious Case of Benjamin Button). He was in a department focused on shading and lighting to recreate materials and conditions of the photography on set. After several Transformers films, he grew as an environment lead for Tron: Legacy.
Sears started to work at Method Studios in 2011 and began contributing to the feature film portfolio, which has now completed several Marvel Studio films.
“Most recently our team spent 16 months on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. As a computer graphics supervisor, I was responsible for designing workflows and managing the artists’ schedules to achieve a wide variety of work,” Sears said. “Method Studios delivered full digital environments, hero characters like Rocket and Baby Groot and giant spaceships!”
He was proud when he heard about the Academy Award nomination.
“I was incredibly humbled by the opportunity to be a part of the highly anticipated sequel and then overjoyed that it was a part of the top 5 VFX nominees,” Sears said. “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is the seventh time I have worked on an Oscar-nominated VFX film.”
SCAD mission: The Savannah College of Art and Design exists to prepare talented students for professional careers, emphasizing learning through individual attention in a positively oriented university environment.