Ermin Cakovic cover
Ermin Cakovic

Germany

Junior

Maya
Nuke
Adobe Substance 3D Painter

Teaching 3D Animation and Visual Effects at the SAE Institute in Germany | Lookdev & Lighting Artist for VFX

Biography

  • VFX Instructor at SAE Institute Frankfurt, Germany
  • Marketing and Event Officer at SAE Institute Frankfurt, Germany
  • Lookdev, Lighting and Compositing Artist for 3D Animation and Visual Effects


I started my studies in 3D Animation and Visual Effects in September 2022 and graduated in March 2025. Since December 2024, I have been teaching 3D Animation and Visual Effects at SAE Institute Germany in Frankfurt am Main. At SAE Institute Germany, I am also working as a Marketing and Event Officer, to support the national marketing team through the Frankfurt location. Additionally, I'm part of the ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) Team at SAE Institute, where I help with DEIB related issues and organize initiatives and events for prevention. Besides this, I sometimes work as a freelancer, creating small Full CG shorts for social media or doing VFX for movies and other creative work.

Films, whether live action or animation, have been my biggest passion ever since I was a kid. I still remember the day as if it was yesterday when my aunt dropped me, my older brother and my two cousins off at a local cinema, where we watched Up and it was there where I really found my love for movies and the cinema. After experiencing that, we had a ritual, where every time we meet up with them, we went to borrow as many Blue-rays as nights we were staying there, so we can watch a movie every night together. At that moment, movies were everything for me.

As I grew a bit older and saw The Clone Wars on TV, I started to wonder, "How is this done?" Many years later, I started looking into how to build a career in movies and got the courage to apply to a school and got a degree in 3D Animation and Visual Effects. As of today, I am still on my journey, wanting to fulfill all of my dreams.

Besides movies, I'm very passionate about other creative work, where you can stop thinking and just enjoy it. To name a few, I like reading comics, playing video games or listening and singing along to music. I also like connecting with people and getting to know them, their journey, their story. I simply enjoy meeting new people and traveling the world.

Skills

Roles

  • Intermediate
  • Basic
  • Basic
  • Basic
  • Basic
  • Basic
  • Basic
  • Basic
  • Basic
  • Basic

Technical Skills

  • Intermediate
  • Intermediate
  • Intermediate
  • Intermediate
  • Intermediate
  • Intermediate
  • Intermediate
  • Basic
  • Basic
  • Basic
  • Basic

Software

  • Advanced
  • Intermediate
  • Intermediate
  • Intermediate
  • Intermediate
  • Intermediate
  • Basic
  • Basic
  • Basic
  • Basic
  • Basic
  • Basic
  • Basic

Soft Skills

  • Advanced
  • Advanced
  • Advanced
  • Advanced
  • Intermediate
  • Intermediate
  • Intermediate
  • Basic
  • Basic

Languages

  • Fluent/Native
  • Fluent/Native
  • Fluent/Native
  • Basic

Other Skills

  • Intermediate
  • Intermediate
  • Intermediate
  • Intermediate
  • Intermediate
  • Intermediate
  • Basic
  • Basic

Work Experience

Present day

Junior - Freelance VFX Artist (Freelance)

Self Employed

Creating Full-CG shots, mostly environments or lighting CG scenes. Compositing shots (cleanup, editing, integrating footage, tracking).

Other creative work, such as, assisting at film sets.

2026 – Present day

Junior - Local Marketing and Event Officer (Part Time)

SAE Institute Germany (Frankfurt am Main, Germany )

Supporting the national marketing team. Creating social media content for the national and local social media channels.

Hosting local events such as; film premieres, movie nights or welcome events for new and current students.

2022 – Present day

Junior - 3D Animation and VFX Instructor (Part Time)

SAE Institute Germany (Frankfurt am Main, Germany)

Teaching and giving out weekly Feedback to first and second semester students in following departments:

3D Modeling, Sculpting, Texturing, Layout, Rigging, Animation, Lookdev, Lighting, Compositing

Education

2022 – 2025

Bachelor of Arts

SAE Institute Germany

Visual Effects and Animation

3D Modeling & Look Development: Maya, Houdini

Sculpting: ZBrush

Texturing & Materials: Substance Painter, Substance Designer, Substance

Sampler, Mari

Rendering & Shading: Arnold, Renderman, Redshift; understanding of shaders

and physically based rendering

Compositing: Nuke