Vladimir Ilic is a CG Supervisor/Lighting Supervisor at PIXOMONDO Toronto.
Throughout his career Vladimir has worked on various feature films, TV series and commercials including Wonder Woman, Power Rangers, Fast and Furious 8, Fantastic Four, The Dark Tower and more. He is joining CGA conference to share the story of his VFX work on Star Trek: Discovery.
Vladimir will share his experience from work on the Star Trek: Discovery on CGA2018 conference on November 16 @ 13:00– 13:45 at KNOW IT ALL – Main stage.
All the way from Toronto to Belgrade, that is a long trip? Great to see you! Thank you for coming and welcome to CGA2018! How does Belgrade look to you nowadays from Toronto?
I really don’t know from where I could start, from extremely cold weather or how far is from home. Belgrade is my city and can not compare to any other place in the world. Belgrade is the best in the world thas my love, where I feel everything that I am.
Already 18 years in the industry, congrats! What was the best part of growing as an artist for you?
There was a lot of good things in my career but one of the best was when I’ve learned and more figured how can I deliver the full package from concept, modeling to final renders and compositing.
Moving from TV advertising work to movie visual effects. Is this career progress or following your passion?
I thought that will be a good choice but I made the mistake of my life :))) It was the best choice what I made especially when I signed for Pixomondo. Experience what I got from Pixo I can not compare with anything else.
How long was the progression period from a junior artist to a CG Supervisor in a well-known company? Was this a smooth ride?
In a big company as Pixomondo with 170 people is not easy at all. My goal was never to climb on a higher position, I always wanted to do good stuff and best what I know and how I know. Basically, I never had the focus to be on a higher position and I never think about it.
TV shows have the fast-paced production schedule, was this episodic work influencing the quality of your work?
Definitely….because after this show a lot of people figured how render times, optimization, understanding between department is important. At the end we should think about between production and art, making good quality and fast.
The Star Trek is a long-living franchise and has the established visual identity, have you had to stick strictly to the certain rules as you would at McDonald’s?
All the stories in “Star Trek Discovery” is base on what’s happened before Kirk, Spock and Enterprise but anyway, all the concept art descriptions came from the client.
Pixomondo is a global VFX company, on seven locations worldwide, from Beijing to Canada. Do you collaborate remotely with other teams inside one company?
Yes, we always collaborate between offices. We are using the same pipeline and some tools for every department. We built the pipeline together and tested out in every office. All the IT departments still work really hard to make our work and life better 🙂
Watching visual effects-driven movies, are you able just to enjoy the film and not judge the effects?
I am not watching movies with VFX, rarely But when I’m watching I only judge when something is really good and then I am interested how they did that and how can I do by myself on my way.
How do you see the industry in 10 years?
crashed (joke) :)!! Real-time renders on the set with actors and all stunts.
What is your best work you’re proud of?
I’m proud of all of my work :)… for me personally, I really like “Crouching Tiger hidden dragon” and trailer for game “Fallout 4” I like the way how we made it because it was not possible.
Is there a talk at CGA Belgrade that you are looking forward to seeing as a guest? Is there a particular person or company you are looking-forward-to-hear?
I’m looking forward to seeing and meeting people from Chaos Group. I am using their product in the last 10 years and there helped me with a lot of projects and I’m so interested in new tools.
Vladimir will be presenting on November 16 @ 13:00– 13:45 at KNOW IT ALL – Mainstage. Register for the tickets below.
