At this year’s International Broadcasting Convention 2013 (IBC), the Autodesk Flame community named the very first Flame Award winner, Vico Sharabani, Flame Artist, ECD and Right-Brain of The Artery VFX.

With 23 years in the advertising and entertainment industry, the Advisory Board was impressed with Sharabani’s contributions to advance the digital effects industry, his impressive technical skills, and his ability to push the boundaries of visual effects creation. He’s regularly contributed to the Flame community, most notably his SIGGRAPH 2003 technical paper and presentation, showing off an innovative 3D rig within Flame’s Action.

While Sharabani has a remarkable portfolio, working with a diverse group of projects such as Nike, Mercedes and Kanye West, his ability to build a business on his Flame skills pushed his name to the front of the list of impressive nominees.

“I’ve been a proud Flame artist since 1995 and I’m very humbled to accept this award  from such unique and talented group of artists,” said Sharabani. “Flame is the  foundation of my business and an invaluable part of it. From compositing to  editing, it provides an interactive experience that is important to my artists as well as clients. It’s been an exciting journey growing my career with this  technology and to experience its evolution. I’m excited to see what will happen  to this dynamic tool in the next 20 years.”

Vico Sharabani

Stig Gruman, Autodesk Vice President, Worldwide M&E Sales

Watch this video to check out how the community celebrated the  awards at IBC: