2025 | SPRING REGISTRATION OPENS FEBRUARY 3rd!

Make sure to Enroll Today!


Frederic Durand

Lighting Artist

cover image

Frederic is a lead lighting artist and look developer of photo-real effects for movies and commercials. Working in films and commercials for the past 20 years in Los Angeles, London, and Paris, he has had the opportunity to work at Sony ImageWorks, Disney Features Studios, DreamWorks, Jim Henson’s Workshop, the Mill, and Moving Picture Company (MPC), among others. His approach is not only technical but also artistic, as he heavily emphasizes and integrates cinematography aspects into his work.

In addition, he has strong a drawing, painting, and photography background, and continues to hone these crafts on a regular basis. He earned his Master of Arts from the Ecole Nationale des Arts Decoratifs (ENSAD) and studied at the Cooper Union in NYC. He is very experienced with RenderMan, Arnold, V-Ray, and Nuke, and has over two decades of teaching experience, most notably at the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts.

Classes

Lighting and Shading for Film Production

Artist Gallery

Testimonials

The feedback given was great, Frederic pointed out things that can be improved and all the question were explained in the live QnA very clearly. Frederic was very cooperative in explaining material that students did not understand.

Lovina

The instructor clearly knows the subject extremely well, and he was very good at explaining how things worked in detail, and making everything clear. In the live Q&A’s he was very dedicated to answering students’ questions, was approachable, and we covered a lot of good material.

Cassidy

Frederic is a wonderful instructor. Not only he is good at explaining a difficult software into something easier for students, he is also patient and provides extra learning resources to students. Both the weekly tutorials and live sessions are helpful. Thanks Frederic.

Susanna

He is very patient and his teaching is very easy to follow. I learnt some amazing new techniques which I wasn’t aware of and how to approach.

Anupama

I really loved how Frederic started with the basic info about lights and shaders, and worked his way up to the advanced stuff. It was really clear that way.

Sandra