I’ve read the Visual Effects Career Map, so I’ve had a few thoughts of my own. The task this time was to choose two entry-level roles and one non-entry-level role that interested me to discuss, with the aim of helping me to better understand the careers associated with VFX.
I tried to get a deeper understanding of what each role in the VFX industry entails in terms of specific things to do. Firstly I googled the relevant terms and tried to understand what each role entailed in relation to my previous work experience, then I visited the websites of many relevant companies such as MPC, Disney and other larger companies as they have job listings.
The non-entry level role I am interested in is VFX Producer, and there are a number of reasons why I am interested in this career. The first reason is the same as why I came to LCC, I have been interested in VFX since I was in secondary school, and only the VFX part, not animation or anything else. It’s something I’ve been interested in for over ten years and I think interest is the best guide.Secondly, Christos,my courses leader said to me that I can’t be good at everything, just focus on one. I couldn’t agree more with that, because that’s how I’ve always done it. I’ve been specialising in visual effects since I started to learn about film and game production, and my best software is Houdini, which I use a lot for physical effects such as particles, fluids or explosions, as well as natural phenomena such as lightning and dark clouds,which is the most important reason why I chose the role of VFX Producer, a role that is highly compatible with my skills.Finally, before I came to LCC, I worked as a VFX artist for an outsourced VFX studio in China and worked on a number of animations, TV series and movies such as the film called the Wandering Earth 2 and the TV series called You Fei.
Fig. 1 The lightning in Houdini
Fig. 2 The Wandering Earth II
Fig. 3 You Fei
From this experience, I have gained a better understanding of what each VFX artist is supposed to do, what the overall VFX workflow is like and how a VFX Producer should lead his entire VFX team. Perhaps the Chinese VFX process is different from that of the UK or other countries in detail, but I believe that the overall concept and approach is highly similar.So, based on these three points, I would prefer a VFX Producer as my non-entry level role.
This activity has been very helpful to me. Not only did it give me a deeper understanding of the various roles in VFX, but it also made me reflect on my previous work and learning, and I became more and more convinced that I can only do better if I focus on one thing. But that doesn’t mean I only need to understand this one role or skill, I need to understand what the other roles need to do and how to work with them on a team project at the same time, I have to learn more about more roles in VFX so that I can work better with anyone.