Otis College Alum Soars from the Air Force to Industrial Light and Magic

Veteran Saul Ceniceros applies his skills as a VFX artist at the special effects giant.

For Saul Ceniceros (’24 BFA Digital Media), going from the United States Air Force to Otis College and then getting a job as a visual effects artist at Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) has been a whirlwind journey.

“I would never in a million years have guessed that my first job out of college would be ILM, a huge innovator in the entertainment industry,” says Ceniceros. “It’s a dream come true.”

As part of ILM’s interactive team, Ceniceros is what he calls a “visual problem solver,” using both the 3D software Houdini and the 3D creation tool Unreal Engine on projects like Star Wars: Beyond Victory, a mixed reality playset game in development for Meta Quest headsets. Ceniceros also hopes to eventually work on traditional film and media. “Problem solving is a big part of my job, and it’s ingrained in me from the military,” Ceniceros says, “as well as being able to be self-motivated, manage my time, meet deadlines, and explain processes and results.”

Raised in San Antonio, Texas, Ceniceros didn’t grow up interested in art and design—much less an exciting VFX job at the company behind the Star Wars universe. He played band in high school and later studied engineering at San Antonio College for two years. While focused on engineering, he took a course where he learned 3D modeling.

When he was 20, Ceniceros joined the Air Force, working as an air transportation specialist. His love of 3D modeling was reignited when he forced his military friends to play Dungeons and Dragons, for which he would make and 3D-print models of their characters.

“By the time I decided to apply to Otis, I was interested in 3D modeling,” says Ceniceros, who took several online digital media courses to prepare his portfolio beforehand. “Otis had the closest degree—now it’s called Game and Entertainment Design—to what I wanted to do, with an emphasis on digital 3D. Another big factor was that Otis is very veteran-friendly and it’s located in Los Angeles, which has more entertainment industry jobs than San Antonio.”

Being a veteran beneficiary of the Post-9/11 GI Bill and Yellow Ribbon Program was essential to Ceniceros choosing Otis. His time management and discipline skills were really put to the test during his first year at the College in 2021. Still in the Air Force reserves, he was deployed for six months to New Jersey. There, he helped receive refugees after the U.S. pulled troops out of Afghanistan.

“I was working night shifts, and during the morning I did schoolwork and went to classes remotely,” Ceniceros says. “The professor who helped, supported, and inspired me the most during that time was Raul Moreno, who taught a course on Houdini.” Ceniceros also met with other veteran students at Otis for support.

He not only learned a wide range of art skills, he also learned about the business side of the industry, as well as how to prepare for interviews and build his resume. During Otis’s Internship and Recruitment Day, he talked to a representative from the consumer goods company KessCo and was offered a toy design internship. After the internship he was hired part-time as a junior designer.

“Flash forward to my senior year at Otis, and I was doomscrolling through LinkedIn and saw a random listing for a visual effects job at ILM,” he says. “I was like, ‘That’s what I do!’ I applied immediately and the next morning heard back from them for an interview.”

Just two weeks after graduating from Otis in May 2024, Ceniceros moved to San Francisco to start as a VFX/technical artist intern at ILM, eventually getting hired months later as a junior VFX artist. “They loved my resume and saw my different interests—from engineering to the military to Otis, as well as toy design and VFX, and the fact that I like to learn,” he says.

Ceniceros’s advice to veterans interested in Otis and a career in art and design is to never discount their military experience. “If nothing else, it makes for great stories during an interview,” he says. “Some stories that might be mundane for us as veterans are interesting to people who have never been near the military. Being in the military prepares you as a whole person, which is what a company wants.”

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