Faculty Profile: Abe Abdala
NewSchool of Architecture and Design faculty members are known for being professionals who bring their real-world experience into the classroom. Professor Abraham Abadala, who began teaching digital media arts courses in summer 2011, also brings a “wow” factor.
That’s because Abdala also works full-time at Legend3D, a digital media technology company that employs proprietary image-processing technology and artistry to convert media produced in 2D into 3D.
“At Legend3D, we are at the final stage of the production pipeline for a feature film, aka, post-production stage,” Abdala explains. “We convert the film from a flat 2D into a stereoscopic 3D. When you go to the theater and watch a movie with the 3D glasses, you’re probably watching some of the work that we do at Legend3D.”
And his role in the high-tech creative process? “I work as a stereo compositor, creating several different assets to create the illusion of depth and doing the last composition before the movie is sent to the theater.” Just a few of the films he’s worked on include The Smurfs, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, and Priest. Not a shabby resume.
As for upcoming projects, Abadala says, “I am working with the development team at Legend3D, creating the tools to help improve the pipeline for the artists for the projects we are working on, which I would love to share—but I can’t.”
What he can share, however, are his experience and knowledge with his students at NSAD. “As a DMA instructor, I mainly teach the areas of 3D Modeling, Lighting & Rendering, and Animation,” he says. “In the fall 2011 quarter, I’m teaching Character Development, where the students get to design and model their own game characters.” It sounds like a class that even non-majors would stand in line to take.
Currently, he is also co-teaching Immersive Design with Professor Eve Edelstein, and in the winter quarter, he will teach the Interior Visualization course, where students learn photorealistic techniques to texture and light and to render their 3D scenes in 3dsMax.
“I want to share with NSAD students the latest techniques and tools to develop and create stunning visual imagery, not just the ‘how’ but also the ‘where’ and ‘when’ to use them,” Abdala notes. “Now, it doesn’t matter how good you are, if you’re not a team player it will be very difficult to succeed in this field, a field where the final product is the effort of many good and talented people. I also like to emphasize the time and resources you spend in a project; in the end, time is money. Last but not least is to show you how to create a great portfolio, tell you what exactly employers are looking for.”
Not many industry professionals use their spare time to teach, but like many other faculty members at NewSchool, Abdala does it because he enjoys it. “This is the reason why I got a master’s degree in visual effects and animation—to teach.”
As a teacher, much less a professional who loves what he does, Abdala has advice for those who are trying to decide which direction their career path should take based on his own educational journey. As a college student, he was initially an electrical engineering major, but with only a year before graduation to go, he says, he decided to follow his passion: digital media arts.
“It was a tough decision,” Abdala says, “but the only thing I regret is not having started earlier my art career. Always follow your passion. If your passion is digital media arts, we at NSAD can help you learn the necessary skills to become a successful artist.”
