http://thejuniorcompositor.squarespace.com

I have imported all the old posts from this address and am in the process of transferring the old graphics and videos across.  You can find the old posts by going to the top of the page and clicking on “Old Posts”.

At the moment I am trialing using a basic account with Squarespace, which means I don’t have a unique URL.  If all goes well I will look at upgrading and hosting www.thejuniorcompositor.com at Squarespace.

Hopefully this will mean less disruptions on your end and a lot less frustration on my part.

http://www.thejuniorcompositor.com/2009/01/25/industry-the-state-of-the-visual-effects-industry/

It seems like some kind of agreement has been reached with the artists getting 70% of their wages.  That’s right, 70% of their wages for producing A-level visual effects for a major VFX studio which was in turn part of the Discovery group.  That is to say, Discovery are not exactly hurting for cash.  There are more than a few galling aspects to this case, least of which is working for 3months and not getting paid.  There is the fact the artists got shafted and not paid just before Christmas.  That pretty much sucks the big one, but how about Meteor effectively shutting down and opening again with the same muppets running the business with the same equipment on the same premises?  This is what happens with limited liability companies.  They can go bankrupt/insolvent and wind up and there is nothing you can sue them for.  They sell the equipment and facilities to another $2 company for cents in the dollar and start again as a “new and different” company.

I bring the whole topic up again as I have seen and heard similar stories since begining my professional career in CG and it makes me so goddamned angry that CG artists are treated this way.  We are a young industry and at the moment we have no sort of union protection whatsoever.  I am not suggesting that a union is the only answer, but at the moment, artists are treated like disposable rags and the companies play us off against each other.  Given that there is a perception that CG is a “glamour” and “fun” industry and that the schools are pumping out students like there is no tomorrow (because CG students are fish in a barrel for fees, see last post), the attitude seems to be “You should be thankful that we are paying you $18/hr to play with computers all day.  It’s fun and if you don’t want to do it, we’ll get that 17 year old to take your place.”

Now, as someone starting in the industry you might be tempted to think “Whatever old man, if you can’t take it, get out and give me ago”.  That might be fine while you are living with your parents and just starting out.  $18h/r making CG cartoons might seem like mana from heaven compared to working for McDonalds, but what happens in 5 years time?  You have moved out, you have rent to pay, you bought a car, you have bills, thinking about taking a world trip or saving for a house.  You have moved up the payscale a bit and then the same thing happens to you . . . “Well we can’t afford to pay you what you are worth.  How about a pay cut and you can keep your job?” “Errr, no, I have 5 years experience”, “Hmmm, yeah, well, we have this 17yo who will work for $15 an hour, sooooo, seeya!”

The fact is that work in CG is almost *all* contractual, unless you somehow land a gig where you have ongoing full time employment (often smaller studios or if you are some kind of coding/TD guru).  That means you generally count on not working at least 3mths of the year and making up for it the other 9mths.  It also means it is very hard to get loans as you can’t show consistent income.

So, what we have is an industry where if you have 5 years experience you *might* be earning decent coin, but your job is usually not safe, you are often treated as disposable and you have to constantly watch out for up and comers willing to work crazy longer hours for less money.

If the VFX industry continues the way it is going now, there won’t be many old-timers, like their are on the live-action production side (camera ops, gaffers, riggers etc).  What we will have is an industry full of people with 5-10 years experience who eventually give it away after being kicked in the guts too many times.

Take care of yourself as nobody else in the industry will do it for you.  Sad but true.

ETA:  No images today as something happened with my hosting and FTP.  I am currently looking at moving the entire blog to Squarespace as it is becoming too much of a hassle to troubleshoot each week.

Goofy hat? Check!

Maybe a better question to ask is: “Do I need to go to school”. And the answer is: it depends. At this point you might be wanting to stick a sharpened pencil in my ear while screaming “Well what’s the bloody point of you or you blog, eh Matt?” and you might be right. Here is my general view on *needing* to get a piece of paper for your qualifications. For the more art focused side of the industry, personally I don’t feel you need qualifications. You need to be able to show you have the chops to do the work. Being able to produce good work on time and on (or under) budget is more important than a degree. For the more technical sides, like TD’s (Technical Directors), scripters, programmers etc, the fact is that studios do often like to see some kind of accredited qualifications.

Having said that, I am a great believer in education. Yes you can learn figure drawing from books, but it is no substitute for taking classes and doing real life studies. Another great benefit of studying is the interaction with students and teachers. Obviously with a teacher in a room you can immediately ask questions and get instant feedback. If you are studying at home it might take you days of trawling forums and asking questions to get a result. Another great side benefit of the class is seeing how different people work and bouncing ideas off them. Give 30 kids the same assignment and you will get 30 very different results and most likely people will learn different techniques and you will be able to swap tips and tricks.

Don't let this be you. Ask questions!

So Matt, what did you do? Well, my situation was a little different in that I was 30 or so when I went back to study. I already had a business degree and my reason for going back to study was twofold. Firstly, by committing time and money to study I was planting a flag that said “This is something that I am taking seriously as a genuine career change”. The other reason was that I found working full-time and stuyding CG after work was not effective for me. I was too tired and couldn’t give it the attention it deserved. By studying 2.5 full days a week full time, I could really focus on what I wanted to do.

In terms of how and why I chose my course, I didn’t choose the “best” course (and frankly, in my experience and others, a large majority CG courses are quite average). I chose a course that was quite cheap as it was subsidised by TAFE in Australia. It was also in a city that I had family in, that had friends and that I could transfer to and keep my safe government job. I knew that I would be learning a lot off my own bat, so for me, the course itself was not a big factor. The fact that I was going to a course full time at all was the main thing!

I realise you have probably heard this pithy little acronymn before, but really, they are words to live by. Or an acronymn to live by. Or whatever.

If you are doing a small project, or more likely, a one man/woman project there is the temptation to think big. Sometimes a little too big. There is nothing wrong with having grand plans, and I am all about using our Mad Skillz to make low-budget look high budget, but there is something to be said for a simple, snappy idea well executed.

While it’s not compositing, check out this little short. Under 1 minute, tight like a drum and funny as all get out

Or perhaps you have heard of a little movie called District 9? If not, then shame on you and everything you stand for. If you have, I am assuming you have seen director Neill Blomkamp’a original short “Alive in Joburg” made a few years ago. 6m25sec and it got turned into a feature. A solid idea well executed with no extra fat.

For one more example, go back and check out that short vid I posted, Escape from City 17. Short, snappy, low budget but focused and done well.

K.I.S.S.

To be honest, I am getting quite sick of Wordpress.  Yes it might be free, but it seems to have numerous bugs for even the most basic things you need to do.  I still can’t get the visual editor to do proper breaks between paragraphs without resorting to HTML hacks or doing in-depth edits of css stylesheets.  This should be able to be done in the control panel, not by coding.

In any event, I am too frustrated with it at the moment to battle trying to get a simple post up.

Match moving.  That darkest of visual FX arts.  Well, apart from rigging and those boffins that code in Python, but I digress.

To my mind, one of the best ways to increase the production value of your project is to take advantage of the power of match moving for set extensions, integration of FX elements and insertion of your 3D CG.  It seems to me that the first primary “go to” for newcomers is greenscreen.  Students can’t wait to get the green bedsheets up or spraypaint some plywood and get some bad actors, or classmates at a pinch and shoot some truly horrible footage.

Why not use greenscreen? I am not saying don’t use it, but it’s not the be all and end all, and when you are at the low-budget end of things, frankly they can cause more issues than they solve.  Apart from people thinking that greenscreen is some magic panacea that can solve anything, you have to light them well.  Even then, you are probably shooting with a low-end handy-cam which is going to give you rubbish results.  Keying badly lit DV shot greenscreen is a guaranteed way for you to want to stab a pencil into your ear.

So why would you consider matchmoving.  Well, as with a lot of visual effects, less is often more.  As you probably know, creating photo-real environments is a tall ask, even for high-end studios let alone individuals.  Matchmoving or tracking to the rescue!  Why not consider shooting some cool locations for your short and then extending the backgrounds to give more depth/sci-fi buildings etc?  Being further away you can get away with less detail and more atmospherics.  Check out The Purchase Brothers fantastic “Escape from City 17″, a Half-Life 2 fan film.  I recall reading that the budget for this short was around $600 and that was mainly for costumes and props.  Checking out their website shows their other projects are equally impressive with regards to matchmoving.

Staying with the Half-Life 2 them, “What’s in the Box” was an amazing short shot live-action through a European city with some excellent match-moving of effects and heads up displays.

So where can you get software to practice?  As it happens, you can still get a copy of Icarus, the pre-cursor to PFTrack  on the net.  Colin Levy has a donwload link on his website and has kind made several video tutorials to get you started.

Films to check out: District 9 (love the mother ship shots), Cloverfield

Well guys, it looks as though I won’t be able to keep up the twice weekly update schedule.  Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, work is really starting to kick in and I only have a couple of nights of the week to myself for downtime.  When I started this blog, lo those many months ago, I had a lot more free time as I was “between projects” (ie, unemployed) so obviously I had time up my sleeve to do more posts.  At this point the Sunday updates are still ago as I have a bit of time to spend on getting materials together.

So stay tuned and if you have any suggestions for topics, hit me with an email and I will look at getting some info on it!

Cheers, big ears.

On Friday I was lucky enough to scope tickets for one of the invite-only Avatar 15 minute screenings in full 3D. Unfortunately I didn’t get to see it at the IMAX theatre, but hey! Beggers can’t be choosers.

Oooh, blue aliens!

Let me preface this by saying I knew pretty much nothing about the movie before going in . . . on purpose. I just wanted to watch it and see what happens. Hence me not knowing who the characters are, what they are supposed to be doing etc.

Firstly, the 15 minute preview only covered sequences from the first half of the movie. I will try and remember as much as I can as I was obviously concentrating on the visuals. Also, the majority of the footage shown was CGI.

The first scene was in real life with the Marines as their CO tells them about the planet. Very nice real-life 3D . . . very natural. We are introduced to Sam worthington’s character as he wheels in.

Alien paradise in gunmetal grey

Next scene is real life with Sigourney Weaver putting Sam into some kind of MRI chamber thingy where they scan him and do various Minority Report visual interface things with his brain scans, which are hologramatic 3D projected from 2D heads up display style clipboards. This worked very well with the 3D glasses as you really got a feeling that the 3D interfaces were just that. Excellent tracking work.

Beep boop beep! Make spinny pictures go now!

Sam sees the light and goes through the tunnel, cue waking up as 10ft tall blue dude in a medical bay.

This, for me was where the rubber was really going to hit the road. The 3D space really felt like it had depth, and most importantly, the lip-synch was solid. I don’t care how good the CG or motion capture or lighting is . . . as soon as the lip-synch is out I am pulled out of the illusion. Interaction with props and live-action was very solid.

The next scene is Sam, Sigourney and others as Avatars confronting a large alien triceratops type creature in a territorial dispute. The dino backs down as some crazed monster lizard attacks. Think King Kong. A lot. The 3D did the job in these scenes, however the frenetic movement was a bit hard to follow as I felt my eyes were trying to focus on too many things at once. The shots also seemed to be a bit unrealisitically sharp, which again made the fast camera moves a little weird. The depth of the forest was palpable, you really felt like you were standing in it.

Next scene is Avatar Sam fighting off alien dog packs as the Avatar woman leaps in to save the day. Spectacular fight ensues, not as many issues with the fast moving cameras in this one. Hints of lurve action to come. Animation and lip-synch again are faultless. Sets and lighting are amazing.

Can Cameron make us care for CG characters?

Avatar Sam and tribe climb along a cliff edge to fight and tame lizard like flying beasts. After a prolonged struggle resulting in Avatar Sam clinging to vines over the edge (whoah! Vertigo), he climbs on the beast as it falls from the ledge and finally starts flying. Spectacular 3D vision.

I can see my house from here!

Various action shots as per the trailer

So, overall the experience was excellent. The 3D really felt like it added something to the shots, not just there for it’s own sake.

Quick post with a suggestion to maybe throw your hat into the ring with one of the various different challenges that CG websites often run.

Challenge city. Population you.

At the top of the pile you have ones like the current “Secret Agent” challenge over at CGTalk. This is a pretty high-end comp and the prizes reflect that. I mean, if you are entering to win a Boxx workstation, a copy of Maya and Houdini Master, Intuos 4 etc etc, you better be ready to bring your A-game!

VFXTalk used to run challenges but they seemed to have dried up, although I noticed that Alejandro Villabón over at Green Soda has started up some challenges. No prizes, but we should be looking at sharpening our skills.

Me? I am looking at submitting some work for the latest lighting challenge over at CGTalk. Again, there are no prizes, but that’s not really the reason to enter these kinds of things. The main attraction for me is that there is usually a focus (in this case lighting), you are provided with the scene or base elements (like the green screen for the Green Soda challenge) and you are given a time limit. For me, having the time limit and restrictions is great because like so many of us, I get started on some ideas I have, run out of steam and shelve the project. If there is a simple challenge with a deadline, there is more chance I will actual finalise something.

So, look around and enter some challenges to . . . errrr, challenge yourself!

I was talking to a young co-worker of mine the other day about some jobs that we saw being advertised around the traps. One was for the studio that does the FX for a sci-fi show that he loves and would consider a dream job if he could get to work on it. I asked if he had applied. He said no as he didn’t feel he was qualified enough, it was overseas and he had only just started his job here.

Just ask

I certainly don’t suggest starting jobs and then bailing straight away . . . bad form all around, but I don’t see the others as particularly good reasons not to get in contact and start a relationship.

Whoah, whoah, whoah . . . “starting a relationship”? That sounds awfully management speak or new-age drivel, but if you haven’t noticed, this industry is built on relationships. You mostly get jobs because of who you know. Of course you have to be able to deliver, but if it comes down to someone who can deliver and someone who can deliver who has a mate working at the studio or who knows the HR person, who do you think will get the job?

What I am talking about here is the power of asking. You have to ask. I think the best summary about the power of asking is this blogpost over at FreelanceSwitch.com. The point is that only you know what you want and a lot of times the only way to get it is to make sure that other people know it!

How to go about it?  Send the studio an email.  You realise they aren’t hiring but just want to get in touch with your latest reel and resume.  Ask if it’s okay if you keep them up to date and then DO it.  The thing you are trying to do is start a conversation.  You might get a form email response, you might get someone from HR email you back.  If it’s the latter, make a record of their details and position so that next time you can either send an email directly to them or at least mark the generic “jobs@ABCstudio.com” email address to them in the subject line.  Now you are a real person interracting with another real person.  The more you can make yourself a defined person as opposed to just another applicant, the more you will come to mind when the are looking for new hires.

Good luck!