Howdy! Nice to meet ya! :)
The names Ember
My Elevator Pitch
My name is Ember Pettersen, and I’m a recent graduate of Think Tank Training Centre’s CG Asset Creation for Film program, where I focused on crafting creatures and characters that evoke emotion and tell compelling stories. Growing up on Vancouver Island, surrounded by natural beauty and a vibrant creative community it inspired me to pursue a career that merges my love for storytelling with visual art. Along the way, I’ve created short films across a range of mediums, including live-action, CG, VR, traditional and digital 2D, and stop-motion, further refining my ability to tell stories in diverse formats.
I’ve always been a creative person and a huge movie lover, something I shared with my dad through regular father-daughter cinema days. Growing up, I explored anything artistic—painting, drawing, music, dancing—until
My Journey
everything changed in 2017 when I attended a 3D animation summer camp called Byte Camp. Using Blender 2.5, we all together made a short film from scratch. That experience sparked my love for 3D, and I kept learning on my dad’s old Acer laptop using YouTube tutorials.
By 2018, I’d outgrown the camp curriculum and started helping others while continuing to self-teach. The following year, I discovered Think Tank through The Rookies, and it instantly became my goal. Though I hadn’t picked a specialty, I knew I wanted to do CG for film. Around this time, I began experimenting with digital sculpting—just dabbling, but it planted the seed.
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In 2020, the pandemic hit. Lockdown gave me uninterrupted time to focus on CG, and I enrolled in an online VFS animation course that summer. I was technically too young, but after emailing my portfolio in a slightly unconventional way, they let me in. The real highlight of the course was getting remote access to ZBrush. I had always wanted to try it—and once I did, I fell in love. My dad offered to pay for it, since I didn’t do sports, and I threw myself into sculpting.
Take a sift through my old work
Shortly after, and on a strong recommendation from a friend, I started listening to The Magnus Archives podcast. It ignited my love for horror and sparked my deep interest in creature creation. Transitioning to online school gave me the flexibility to focus even more—without a long commute, I poured myself into art. I worked with my art teacher to rewrite the curriculum around CG and finished grade 10 with a portfolio that included 2D concepts, 3D models, and a VR short film.
That passion helped me earn a spot in Animal Logic’s Work Week Experience—an in-studio program for just eight BC students. I was the only one not from Vancouver, and it was incredible to finally connect with other aspiring artists.
I completed all my graduation requirements by 2022 and spent grade 12 attending university as a Fine Arts student through the dual-credit program at Vancouver Island University. I was accepted into Think Tank in October 2022.
I graduated (Making Dean’s List at VIU before graduating highschool!) and moved from Nanaimo to Vancouver with my dad in 2023 to start at Think Tank. Since then, I’ve met amazing people, learned industry-standard workflows, and grown tremendously as an artist. I wrapped my mentorship project, Monster Moray, on February 22, 2025, and graduated from Think Tank Training Centre!
Just a month later I became a Think Tank ambassador—now helping to support incoming students as they start their own journeys.