Visit his website Compositing Pro for many tips and tricks for success in the VFX industry.
Every VFX artist needs a portfolio, to ensure that recruiters have a way to find all the information about you. It can be extremely simple looking and take very little time to setup a professional looking site.
Before we start, let’s cover a few key website terms:
Domain Name: This is the address that you type in to get to your website. They are typically ‘www.something.com’. For instance, my domain name is www.joshparks.co.uk If you want a domain name, you don’t buy it. Instead, you register it for a period of time. Generally by paying a yearly fee. If you don’t renew your domain name when the time period expires someone else can register it. For the purpose of this article, we don’t really need to worry about this as most hosting comes with a free domain name. As long as you keep paying for your hosting you will keep your domain.
Hosting: Is what we call the physical place where your website is stored. Most websites are stored on a computer in a big warehouse along with thousands of other websites. All connected to the internet with a superfast internet connection. These computers are called servers, and you rent them through a host. I use Bluehost both this site and my portfolio, it costs only $3.95 a month.
Portfolio Platform: This is what actually runs your website. Gone are the days when you had to program a website from scratch in HTML. Now you just install wordpress with a few clicks and your website is up and running.
Theme: This is what your site actually looks and feels like. It is an add-on to your blogging platform that makes your website pretty and unique. There are hundreds of themes out there, including free and paid-for ones.
Plugins: These are extra things you can install on top of the portfolio platform to make your website better. They are built by third-party developers and once again there are free and paid for ones.
Roles and responsibilities: The responsibilities of the role include modeling objects in 3D so that they later filled in with texturing, modeling, animation, and to also generate the terrain as well.
Main roles will be:
Making 3D models by respecting the norms of the simulation as defined by the company.
The production of digital terrains for different simulation rendering engines: (VBS3, Vega-Prime, Unity…)
– The design and / or participation in the production of serious games (or any equivalent program) for various industries – Support and technical assistance to the solutions used during integration with customers
Experience and qualifications:
Graduate of a Computer Engineering School or a University of Graphic Designer (Game Designer)
At least 5 experiments in a similar function desired
Tools and softwares knowledge:
Blender
Gimp (ou equivalent)
Substance Suite
Unity
*Terratools
*VBS3
*Global Mapper
*QGIS
*Vega-Prime
*Creator
(*prior knowledge not required but is a plus)
Knowledge and skills:
Polygonal 3D modeling (Blender, 3DSMax, Maya, or equivalent)
Knowledge of a real-time 3D engine (Unity, UnrealEngine4, or equivalent)
Creation and 2D editing (Gimp, Photoshop, or equivalent)
2D or 3D texturing (Photoshop, Substance Painter, Quixel, or equivalent)
Scripting or even programming skills (Lua, C #, C ++, Tcl, or equivalent)
Possible familiarity with a simulation engine (VBS3 (or modding Arma 2/3), Vega-Prime, or equivalent)
Fluent English (spoken and written)
French would be a plus
Interpersonal skills :
Ability to work independently
Adaptability
Willingness to solve complex cases and find solutions
Rapid learning ability and affinity for new applied modeling tools
Dynamic
Curious and eager to learn
Team spirit
Listening to the customer’s needs
Knowing how to communicate and interact in an international environment (important)
Introducing Tank, a new short film from Red Giant’s Chief Creative Officer, Stu Maschwitz. In a visual homage to vector arcade games of the 80’s (like Battlezone and Star Wars), Tank tells the story of a team of pilots that must take on a weapon of mass destruction in a battle to save their world. Putting aside current 3D modeling techniques, Stu looked to the past and built the world of Tank entirely in Adobe After Effects, using math, code, and hundreds of hours of painstaking animation work. Watch the Making of Tank to learn more about Stu’s journey in telling this visually unique story:
Josh Parks is an experiences compositing artist working from DNEG to ILM and many other studios. He has shared his story and gave a few great advice how to progress in the VFX industry. Lets hear his story.
Josh runs a great website Compositing Pro, and releases frequent newsletter with great tips and advice.
In The Talk Josh Covers:
0:00 – What I’ve done so far in my career at Industrial Light and Magic, DNEG & MPC as a VFX compositor.
16:59 – Tips on increasing your odds of getting into the VFX industry.
24:37 – Starting small and working up to the big VFX companies.
27:19 – Don’t be a dick
27:45 – Get yourself a VFX mentor
29:09 – How luck can play a huge part in your life as a VFX artist and how to create your own luck.
30:34 – Embracing the unconventional life that being a VFX artist brings.
Following the CGA2017 and in preparation for the CGA2018, Crater Training Center was hosting the two days CGA Warm-up event on 11th and 12th of May with 9 presenters and 14 talks in Belgrade and Novi Sad, including the screening of a SF movie Ederlezi Rising
VFXSerbia had an honour to talk to Andrew Brassington, one of the presenters on CGA Warm-up, coming from Escape studios, the industry known school for visual effects. Find out about how is it to work and strive in the VFX industry in Andrew’s talk at CGA Warm up event.
Head of Strategic Projects sounds important, who is Andrew Brassington? Ha! Yes – it sounds more important than it actually is! It basically means I look at a variety of things for Escape Studios that aren’t automatically within someone else’s remit and at the moment that includes Talent Development, facilitating External Projects, Industry Outreach and Apprenticeships Can you tell our readers a bit about Escape Studios? Escape Studios has been leading the way in education for the creative industries for over 15 years, with over thousands of alumni (dubbed ‘Escapees’) who have worked on everything from Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Ex Machina, Spectre, Doctor Strange, The Jungle Book and more!
Our students possess raw talent and big aspirations, we offer undergraduate, postgraduate and short courses in Visual Effects (VFX), Game Art, Animation, Motion Graphics and Production. We work directly with creative professionals and some of the world’s biggest studios to design and deliver all our courses.
Our tutors have worked in the industry and have been hand-picked from successful studios; they teach real-world tips and tricks learnt from on-the-job experience. We’re based in the hub of London’s creative scene and students work in an industry-style studio, to get a taste of what it’s like to work in industry!
We boast an impressive list of industry partners including Framestore, The Mill, MPC, DNEG, Creative Assembly, Cinesite, Electric Theatre and JellyFish Pictures (to name just a few!). The industry is extremely fast paced but here at Escape Studios we know our subjects inside out, our industry partners shape everything we do enabling us to always be on the pulse.
How would you describe the VFX industry to someone who would like to get into the VFX? The VFX industry is an exciting place to work and it needs people with a variety of skills from CG artistry to computer scripting and engineering to production, management and leadership. It is a growing industry and in theory there is a job for anyone who is dedicated and has the right attitude.
VFX industry is constantly evolving, what are the latest changes in the curriculum for the recent VFX graduates? VR and AR is something we are starting to incorporate into our Games courses and we are hoping to work with a major industry player next year with our 3rd year undergraduate students on their projects. On the VFX courses we are doing more and more with Houdini and there is also a lot of demand for Hair and Fur simulations these days.
Escape Studios are known for streamlining the process of students moving from studies directly to the core of VFX in London, can you tell us about the collaboration with the industry? All our our courses are designed with input from our Industry Partners. We have very good and close relationships with many companies in VFX, Games and Animation and we always try to get as much input from them as possible from the design of a course in its initial stages through to having industry visit and mentor our students when they are studying with us on both our Short professional courses and our Undergraduate and Postgraduate degrees.
What could our readers expect to hear at your CGA Warm-Up presentation? I would really like to talk to people about the skills and attributes they need to have beyond their technical and artistic skills to make sure they fit into a company and also the importance of the so called soft skills. I also want people to understand that VFX is a business and not just a hobby!
Could you predict the VFX technology in the next ten years, is it close to the episode of Black Mirror? It probably everything that people think its going to be……….and more!
As teacher/mentor, what would be your advice to the young artist? Work hard, share your knowledge with others and be friendly!
Thank you Andrew! We wish you had a nice stay and great time in Belgrade.
