It's funny how the career paths we take are often as much dictated by conscious thought as it is perchance, as well as a combination of both. In the case of Maurice Patel, head of product marketing for Autodesk's Media & Entertainment Division, the angels of fate probably had a bigger role to play.

Said Patel: "My background isn't in this industry at all. In fact, I did a degree in mining. After that I became a teacher training professionals how to communicate in English. It was in the early nineties that I became interested in computer graphics."

Today, Patel's is one of the most familiar faces in the industry for product evangelism, particularly in the field of visual effects for film and broadcast. The graduate of Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, UK, has been working in digital post production since 1995, when he joined Avid Technology as product specialist, and later became industry specialist. Joining Autodesk's Media & Entertainment Division in March 2001, he is responsible for all product marketing aspects of the division's systems such as Lustre, Inferno, Flame, Flint, Fire and smoke; software like Toxik, 3Ds Max, Viz, Maya, Motion Builder, FBX, Cleaner and Combustion; infrastructure products and future technologies. Basically, he's the guy you go to if you're looking for middle-to-high-end post solutions - for today, and even the future.

While still an English teacher living in Paris, Patel had been introduced to a new digital paint system known as Matador, which got him started on computer graphics software. At the time, his wife had just landed a job at Parallax Graphics, the company that manufactured Metador in those days, and told him about the product. Patel recalled his initial skepticism towards the "too-good-to-be-true software":

"My wife was telling me about this wonderful company she worked for, that made this wonderful software, and I didn't believe her. That's because she was using the software on a SGI Silicon Graphics system that was considered very powerful then. At the time, my home PC was a dell computer that had 256 colors, and yet she was talking about all these wonderful colors and I just wasn't convinced at first."

By the time Patel knew what the system could offer, he became very interested and gradually taught himself how to operate the software. Unable to afford the system, the only way he could access the technology was at his wife's company. This continued even after his wife moved to the company's regional office in London, where he also re-located.

On one fateful occasion, at the Parallax Graphics office in London, the director of sale and marketing saw Patel using the digital paint system, totally immersed. Approaching him, the man learnt that Patel had been a teacher for seven years and wondered if he'd be interested to train Paintbox users to use Metador.

In short, Maurice Patel took up the offer, and hasn't looked back since. He joined Avid when the company acquired Metador, and continued working for the company when it made another acquisition in Softimage. He left Softimage for Autodesk in 2001. Patel currently spends about 80-90 days a year traveling the world over, taking his expertise and training courses to post facilities, TV & Film schools, visual effects companies and broadcasting stations.

"Traveling gets a bit tiring because of jetlag and things like that, but it is rewarding because you get a real feel of what's going on. Unless you're traveling, and out there talking to customers, to the different communities around the world, you don't really understand what's going on.

"Unless you're in India or China, you don't really understand the many different characteristics to how people use technology, their understanding of technology and the way they apply it. Hearing things second-hand, say from your resellers in the region, don't really help as much as hearing it, as they say, from the horse's mouth."

When pointed out that Autodesk products tend to be designed for high-end post work, hence may not be suitable for small to medium post setups, that are prevalent in this region, Patel counters:

"We are a company that specializes in selling solutions to businesses. We target the professional users, people who are in it to run a business. We also sell to freelancers and independent producers but generally the understanding is that our customers are professionals and not hobbyists.

"To me, the term 'high-end' is a bit of a misnomer, because it really boils down to productivity. Therefore we have 'high productivity' solutions that are used for large-scale business with high throughput and multiple projects etc. Then you have the mid-sized firm - be it an individual or a small group of individuals - who do not have the same productivity or throughput requirements but still need the same level of professional tool sets, and the quality of the creative toolsets is critical in all these environments."

He explained that each specific target workflow that a post house has set, would determine which creative toolset is being implemented. That, he reasoned, was the rationale behind Autodesk's arsenal of compositing and visual effects application tools.

"You may ask why we have five different applications - Combustion, Toxic, Flame, Flint and Inferno - instead of just one all-encompassing solution? That's because each solution targets a specific workflow and productivity requirement and it allows us to attract a broader range of visual effects professionals than we could with one single solution." Changing the topic to April's National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) meeting, widely regarded as the biggest and most influential International trade show, I asked Patel what he thought was the big buzz at the show. He replied rather candidly, "I think the Red Camera captured the public interest, there's no denying that. I think that what's happening in the digital acquisition field is very interesting. It allows you to move to these completely data environments from acquisition to distribution. I think we're still in a very early stage of these workflows but being a digital solutions provider, I think the ability to ingest digital media into the pipeline is a powerful enabler.

Asked to name one product display at NAB that he's most proud of, Patel said; "Since I take care of the entire product range, I have to say I love all my children equally. I think I'm proud of all the accomplishments we've had across the board, for different reasons. "I'm proud of the fact that we still drive a lot of innovation and capability in our core product line, and that we keep those products one step ahead of the competition every year."

As for what he likes most about his job, he believes are the opportunities to meet people from different walks of life, and learning from them. He answered almost hilosophically, "Sometimes, the most rewarding part of my job is when I get to hold a conversation with someone, and after that, I walk away with something, and the other person also walks away with something."

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