Carlos Vin Lopes
Tutor, Visual Effects, Digital Arts & Animation
Carlos Vin Lopes is a Brazilian-born filmmaker, art director, and visual designer who has been based in Berlin since 2012. He holds an MA in Visual Communication from Kunsthochschule Berlin Weißensee and is one of the founders of Grupppo - Image-Making & Storytelling, a visual arts and film/design studio he has been running for nearly three years.
Carlos joined Catalyst as a teacher in September 2024. His approach to teaching emphasizes fostering an open dialogue with students and demonstrating the real-world intersections between graphic and motion design, filmmaking, and storytelling. He guides students through the principles of creating graphic and audiovisual compositions, exploring narrative structures, and honing post-production techniques.
In his professional work, Carlos takes on multidisciplinary projects across the cultural, artistic, and commercial sectors. His portfolio includes directing and editing short films, documentaries, and music videos, writing screenplays, and creating graphic design and experimental visual art projects. At Catalyst, he most enjoys helping students integrate theory and practice throughout different stages of visual composition, encouraging them to experiment and discover new possibilities in developing and finalizing their ideas.
When he’s not at Catalyst, Carlos is usually at his studio, Grupppo, working alongside his two partners. Outside of work, he can often be found at the cinema or traveling with his camera, capturing abstract images of the places he visits.
Carlos thrives on collaboration, especially with friends and colleagues he trusts, whether it’s on a film, a poster, a story, or an art project. For him, these shared creative processes are about finding inspiration, admiration, and emotion in a collective effort. One of his guiding principles is inspired by Brazilian philosopher Paulo Freire: “No one is born ready-made, it is by experiencing ourselves in the world that we shape and become ourselves.”
Carlos’s taste in music spans from Tropicália rock and electro-psychedelic to Piazzolla’s tango and Bach’s classical compositions. His love for cinema is just as diverse, ranging from Nuovo Cinema Paradiso to Mad Max: Fury Road, from the Brazilian classic Central Station to the Japanese film Godzilla Minus One, and from Toy Story to Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell. Other favorites include Cold War, Toni Erdmann, Monsters Inc., There Will Be Blood, I, Daniel Blake, Whiplash, Vertigo, and Volver.