CG Pro Community 

A Message from the Founder

When I was a freshman in high school, I faced a challenge after being let go from my first job at just fifteen. Recognizing I needed guidance, my mother arranged an internship for me at our local public access channel. That experience, working at the station for four years, gave me the confidence and direction I needed. It led me to pursue a degree in film and ultimately land a rewarding position in visual effects at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

As my career took off and I secured key roles in major motion pictures, I often found myself as one of the few women in the studio working in a creative capacity. While I was fortunate to have exceptional mentors who guided me, I couldn’t ignore the glaring disparities in education, mentorship, and representation across race and gender in both the production and post-production sectors.

The filmmaking and visual effects industries are evolving rapidly with advancements in software, hardware, machine learning, and cloud technologies. These innovations present a unique opportunity to address these inequalities and foster greater diversity of thought, culture, and perspective in our education systems, AI models, and workplaces.

That’s why we created CG Empowers, a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing diversity in the fields of production and visual effects. Our mission is to expand access to students from underrepresented backgrounds, through courses at CG Pro, an Unreal Authorized Training Center. By doing so, we aim to reshape the future of our industries.  If this resonates to you, please take a moment and donate a tax deductible offering to help move this mission forward.

Thank you for joining us on this important journey.

Jackie Cooper

Co-Founder of CG Pro