Johan Vikström

Role: Head of 3D at Swiss International

Graduated: 2002

I'm Johan Vikström, 40 years old. I work for Swiss International in Stockholm, mostly with VFX for advertising. I've been at Swiss for 16 years, and today I'm a senior 3D artist. I've also spent 7 months in London, for the last Harry Potter film in 2011, as a 2D compositing artist.

I began my interest in photography already in kindergarten. I was drawing and sketching all the way until the end of the 90's, then 3D graphics began to take over my interest.

After my degree at LTU, I started working at Swiss in 2004 as a junior 3D generalist. Over the years I have been working with a wide range of tasks, and learned a lot about the whole vfx process.

In the last 5-6 years, I have narrowed it down more. Now I specialize mostly in lighting / lookdev / compositing. In recent months, I have started to acquainted myself with creating digital humans, which I think is a very fascinating subject to work with.

My advice to new students would probably be to first try out all the different subjects (modeling / texturing / simulation / animation / lighting / comp), but then, quite soon, you should find the part of the production you want to specialize in. That way, you can reach a much higher level earlier, and then it becomes easier when you apply for a job to show what you are good at.