About
Magic Pixel Academy is a hub for creators exploring the edges of technical filmmaking, advanced VFX, and playful invention. Whether we’re building creatures in Houdini, prototyping toys with 3D printers, or rigging up homegrown motion capture, we’re obsessed with the process as much as the results. We believe teaching should feel like tinkering in a garage, not sitting in a lecture hall.
We mix production-tested workflows with experimental techniques — and we teach them in a way that helps artists break rules, not just follow them.
We publish new project-based tutorials, experiments, and breakdowns regularly — with plenty of behind-the-scenes insight.
MPA is built on the idea that learning technical art is way more fun when you’re making something real — a monster, a story, a transformation, a game mechanic, or a weird little tool nobody asked for. Our tutorials focus on VFX, facial capture, procedural animation, and storytelling — always blending play, philosophy, and production.
We’re also building tools, digital assets, and physical kits to help creators across disciplines merge VFX with filmmaking, toy design, game creation, and animation.
Frank
Has more ideas than time — and likes it that way.
Frank Engen is the creator behind Magic Pixel Academy. He’s spent over a decade deep in Houdini and Nuke, directing short films, sculpting physical props, and reverse-engineering both pipelines and storytelling structures. When he’s not animating lions with facial capture or developing tutorials that go way too deep (in a good way), he’s probably testing AI tools, building toys with his kids, or storyboarding his next metaphysical sci-fi short.
Frank blends practical experience in high-end VFX with a love of storytelling, myth, and education. He’s on a mission to help others build ambitious, weird, meaningful work — and turn it into a sustainable career.