I’ve graduated from the University of Applied Arts (Photography) in Belgrade, Serbia. Not long after that, I got my first job and started my career working for several local game studios. It has been a great 6 years now, and I am looking forward to the next great experience.
I had the honor of working and contributing on some amazing game titles such as Horizon Zero Dawn, Battlefield 1, Batman: Arkham VR, Unreal Engine: A Boy and his Kite, Scorn, and many others yet to be released. Also, I had great pleasure working for some awesome commercials and VR projects for clients such as Adidas, Marina Abramovic, and many others.
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.
Everything that is needed from artistic and technical knowledge in order to do the animation professionally and with teamwork sense. Lecture held by Kostadin Martić, co-founder of Spring Onion Studio and Animation Lead, in VFX Crater Training Center during CGA Warm-up . The video is really dynamic and worth watching!
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.
Awaken Akira was created by two friends, Ash Thorp and Zaoeyo (XiaoLin Zeng), who wanted to collaborate on a tribute to the iconic anime, Akira, by Katsuhiro Otomo. It’s creation took over a year, as we had to coordinate our time on it with other project commitments. We hope you find it was well worth the wait and truly enjoy our efforts.
We would like to thank Pilotpriest for the masterful score, as well as Raf Grassetti and The Joelsons for their help on the project. We would also like to give our most sincere thank you to Otomo-san and all the men and women who helped bring Akira to life. Akira has and will always be a timeless and continual muse for all of us.
For the complete experience, please visit awakenakira.com
Tribute by – ASH THORP & ZAOEYO
Score by – PILOTPRIEST
Character Modeler – RAF GRASSETTI
Photography – THE JOELSONS
Website by – OBLIO
