I started in the ad agency world in Mumbai - fast, scrappy, always building. Alongside the agency work, I directed short films. One of them, a documentary about elders was selected and showcased at an indie film festival in Frankfurt in 2014. That experience of telling human stories through a lens stayed with me.

I founded a small production studio in Mumbai, built a client list, and got my first real taste of what it meant to own something you'd built.

Then I decided I wanted more. I wrote, shot, edited, and rapped my way into a full scholarship at Vancouver Film School. Literally. My application was a rap video produced end to end by me, with a sound designer friend on the mix. The instructors loved it. I got in.

At VFS, my highlight project was an animated film I made for a 'Vancouver children's hospice' won an Adobe Achievement Award in the social impact category in 2015. I AD'd my colleague's graduation film, Duality: Poetry of Movement. That film lives somewhere between motion design and cinema which, looking back, describes most of the work I'm drawn to.

At Thinkingbox, work was on many interactive, exhibition kiosks style on ground campaigns promoting the upcoming film releases, artists & big studios, I got my first real taste of creative technology, what becomes possible when craft meets code. I knew that intersection was where I wanted to build.

From there: Futuristic HUD design for Netflix's Another Life and CW's Batwoman, Flash, Arrow & Riverdale productions at Scarab Digital.

Most recently I've been at Apply Digital, lead motion & design across rebrands and actively contributing to the company's AI adoption efforts.

Fifteen years in, I'm still most excited about what's just becoming possible.

I'm a creative who likes to build, digital & physical. I build motion systems, design workflows and direct films that live at the edge of technology and human storytelling. I help brand and marketing teams move faster without losing what makes their work good.

I'm drawn to creating visuals driven by procedural animation combined with artificial intelligence as a new era for creative expression.

If you're building something and need a creative partner who thinks strategically and executes technically or if you're exploring AI production and want to connect with someone doing the same. I'd love to talk.

→ shafakat.studio