Mario Pochat - Facial Expressions

Mario Pochat's Biography

Mario Pochat is the CEO of VANAS, the first online school in Canada training artists in digital entertainment since 2009. Driven by innovation, Mario leads VANAS to fulfill the talent demand for digital content in Animation, Visual Effects, and Video Games. When not at VANAS, Mario continues to learn at his alma mater Harvard University and explores with his family our wonderful planet.

As a kid, Mario satisfied his vivid imagination through drawing, painting, and other art forms. Yet, he quickly faced a shortage of art materials because brushes, oil paints, and canvases were too expensive. So more than once, he borrowed art supplies from his elementary school and satisfied his curiosity through visual art forms. But one day, a phone call halted his creative ventures; the school principal informed Mario’s mom of his borrowing activities and explained how the art class ran out of art supplies inventory. So, literally, he went back to the drawing board using simple, inexpensive, black and white, pencil and paper.

Later on, as a teenager, Mario’s oldest sister received a birthday gift, a giant box, and of course, Mario was enthusiastic to see the contents, but his mom asked him to bring his excitement out of the room. Still, Mario snuck in and recognized a machine with a colored apple symbol on it, an Apple Computer. In the following days, Mario learned how to use the mouse, discovered electronic painting and, certainly, video games. But his sister was cranky because her computer was for work, not for silly jagged monochromatic drawings, and she wanted Mario out of her room. But, as the youngest sibling, Mario had a compelling way of buying time, Please, five more minutes, [sad face] best sister? A petition her sister couldn’t deny, and extended access to his pixelated world.

During his adolescence, Mario learned from computer manuals hoping one day to enroll in professional computer graphics courses. But, after inquiring at five local universities, they only offered computer accounting courses, Yuck. So, he continues learning from manuals, books, and special interest groups in digital arts. Finally, at 15, he is given his first computer, a Commodore Amiga Computer. For the next two years, with plenty of technical experiments, duck-taped video cables, and beginner’s luck, he completes his first computer animation portfolio. He transfers it to a clunky VHS tape and shows it around at the most prominent computer graphics tradeshow in Mexico City. To his surprise, he is hired at one of Canada’s top computer graphics software companies.

In a series of fortunate events, Mario helps build one of the top three animation studios in Mexico City. He becomes part of the visual effects team for Hollywood blockbuster movies and video games. Then, he creates VANAS, the first cloud school in Canada for Digital Arts. Today, Mario helps high schools, colleges, and university art students to enter the Animation, Visual Effects, and Video Game industries.