Bradford graduate celebrates part in Oscar award

A University of Bradford graduate is celebrating his part in winning an Oscar this morning after the box office smash Gravity won an Oscar for Best Visual Effects last night.

Paul Roberts went on to work for visual effects company Framestore, after graduating from the University’s MSc Advanced Computer Animation and Visual Effects course in 2011. He worked as a Render Wrangler for the film Gravity, which won a Bafta for Special Visual Effects and an Oscar for Best Visual Effects.

The film, directed by Alfonso Cuarón and starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, is around 80% computer generated, which required a huge contribution from Render Wranglers like Paul.

Speaking about working on the film, Paul said: “The film is set entirely in space and rendered in 3D so there were a lot of frames going through the render farm! Each frame was part of a long sequence, some of which were several minutes long and required vast amounts of processing power to complete, thus requiring a substantial farm. Being part of such a huge and complex project was a thrilling experience and seeing my name on the credits was a dream come true.

“University study can be a very challenging time but I would wholeheartedly encourage anyone to keep pursuing their goals. My time at Bradford certainly helped me reach mine and I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to study in a place where the level of education was so high. I met so many like-minded people, both students and staff, who have remained friends.”

Karl Abson, Lecturer in Creative Technology at the University said: “Paul has had a great start to his career since graduating. His contribution to Gravity is a great achievement. This is a testament to his hard work while with us on his course.

“Our courses are a great mix of industry and research informed teaching. This results in students with a mixture of both creative and problem solving ability of which Paul is a great example. Many of our graduates have gone on to be part of Oscar and Emmy winning teams working on such works as Game of Thrones and Hugo, directed by Martin Scorsese. This is a wonderful achievement and all of the course team are proud of our graduates.”