r/vfx

I haven’t read the Terms and Agreements in total yet but I remember I was slightly confused about the Licensing part: Is it okay to use Unreal for an Independent Film? Thank you.

Do you have to show perfect animation if your point is two cross over and show you understand unreal better when you have used maya for so long. And you don't want to be an animator your more showing your understanding the the structure using unreal from maya as layout perspective. Thanks! I'm helping someone needed some opinions.

Howdy all,

I don't want to be that guy, but I've put a several days into this, watched a bunch of SynthEyes learning content, and I don't seem to be any closer. I'm assuming it's my unfamiliarity with tracking and the 3D world. I haven't worked a lot in the space, so I'm not even sure what I need to learn in order to tackle this successfully, which makes googling the answers kind of tough.

Anyway, long story short, I'm looking to get a camera solve for these type of shots. I've tried supervised tracking, which works slightly better but I'm having to create keyframes every 2 or 3 frames, and it's exhausting just getting enough trackers on one clip when I'm basically rotoscoping them in. I've tried lots of different settings on features and peeling them, but all I ever get are distant foreground track points going that path.

Here's the video . I'm needing to add some sponsor elements to the sides of the track. I'm not even sure if it's possible to solve a camera for these wide GoPro shots in SynthEyes, but the alternatives are a little out of budget for a one man show. I figured if anyone is able to at least point me in a direction and give me a push it's this community.

I found this breakdown of Metaphysic's work for the Bullet Farmer from 'Furiosa' on their website. They'd been a little quiet about recent projects, but I think they're opening up a little more about their AI/machine learning tech for digital human work (which also includes VFX for 'Romulus' and the upcoming 'Here').

I thought this work in the film was very convincing.

I added some of the discussion that came out of this to the befores & afters coverage of the film, too:

What do you think about all this? I am generally fascinated by the tech, wary of the ethics, but curious how this kind of thing makes it into features and elsewhere (ie the legal navigation and the tech/artistry).

Hey guys! I wanted to ask how studios tend(ed) to handle the publishing of looks and assets (to share between DCCs) prior to USD.

I might be wrong with my assumptions, but I guess the model would have been an alembic or obj, and the look would have been a .ass or whatever the renderer of choice was?

Now since alembics don’t carry over shader data (if I’m not mistaken), how would the imported looks have been assigned to the correct geo (if the look consists of multiple shaders)

Would the material name be included inside each geo object name (for example, inside Maya’s outliner, “assetname_GEO__material� etc, or would it be an extra attribute, or would the information for what geo was to be assigned what material be stored in an info.json or something at publish time?

Hope that makes sense 😅

Curious how it worked behind the scenes and what the workflow was like between different studios.

I appreciate any help! :)

Hey there,

I'm a compositor and I was wondering if learning lighting for houdini (solaris/arnold) would be good for my arsenal, now that I've been thinking of learning a new skill, just as a complement for myself.
I already know maya and arnold (not a great level though), so I really don't if learning this aspect of houdini will be that beneficial.
I did a basic course of houdini, over 3 years ago. Haven't opened it again ever since.

Cheers,

I’m working with talent whose face breaks out easily with face paint so we need to explore a digital route. Do you think either the Lockdown plugin or Mocha pro would work for this?

� Excited to share our latest Tech Arts Meetup presentation! This time, we had the privilege of hosting Colin Campbell, Lead Compositor and VES Board of Directors member, as he delivered an insightful talk on navigating remote work in the VFX industry.

Colin’s career is nothing short of legendary, spanning projects that have shaped the visual effects landscape. From The Abyss and Alien 3 to Star Wars: Episode III, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and more recently, Thor: Love and Thunder and Fast X, Colin's contributions to VFX are truly inspiring.

� Dive into the video and gain valuable insights on thriving in remote work environments, straight from someone who's been in the heart of it all.

This talk was presented just after the writers and actors strikes ended last year in the hopes that it would help artists with bounce back work. Nonetheless, remote work is here to stay as more and more artists see it as an excellent way to build a more sustainable life and career. So, I hope this will benefit those who might be considering more remote work in the future.

Watch here:

Just saw that ~25 staff (aka all of them) at Annapurna Interactive resigned after negotiations to spin off their division fell through... Thoughts?

Hi everyone. I'm in a sorta precarious situation concerning my career. I have a background in photography and art and a masters in visual effects. I'm currently in the UK, however I have just a couple months left on my post study visa. I did get a job as a junior compositor last year but I was fired from the job in February of this year. (Long story). I come from a third world country with a rubbish economy and job market where vfx is pretty much a non existent market. My plan is to go back home and lock in self studying and doing projects for about two years and be competent enough to get hired remotely. My family has no problem with this and will support whatever choice I make. They're even willing to help me with building a new pc to whatever standards I require. However whatever choice I make has to be carefully thought out, hence my request for advice. I have the following questions to ask:

1. Is getting remote work as a freelancer possible in about 2 to 3 years from now?

2. What software would give me the highest chances of getting hired for remote work in about 3 years from now? I'm comfortable with nuke compositing at the moment. Did a bit of Houdini in school and I've been learning unreal engine in my free time. I want to be a competent 3d environment artist for film and TV. However I'm willing to do anything else vfx related as long as I can get hired eventually.

3. What countries or studios are likely to hire for remote work in that time? I ask this given the fact that vfx studios are gradually pulling away from Canada.

I'd appreciate whatever answers and advice I can get.

Hello everyone!

As a lot of people, I have been out of work for a long time, so I would like to share my demo reel with all of you here in hopes that the right person might see it or if anybody here has a contact that might need an artist and you feel positive about my work, please, feel free to share it.

Also, feel free to critique it, give your thoughts, advice, whatever. I am always happy to hear and learn from you.

Anyways, here it is:

Enjoy!

Hey everybody, thanks in advance for your time and help!

I'd like to film footage of empty roads. I'll also be filming 360 footage of the same (to use as HDRI image sequence).
What would the process look like for placing car chase shots over short clips?

What are some best practices for camera tracking? Do I need to track the camera for very quick cuts?

Do I need to LiDAR scan the road geometry?

I will be shooting reference footage with cars present on the roads, but without the stunts.

Having the roads closed and smashing up cars is not an option for me. Am I fighting an un-winnable battle here?

Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again.

There are a lot of posts about hiring, pay, and HR questions lately and the posts don’t have regional information. Can we add a region flair for these types of posts? A recent one was mentioning HR demanding payslips for freelance work and that is not remotely legal in the US, but may be where they’re from - but there’s no way to know.

Hr asking me why I have a gap on my resume. I told her about strikes. she told me, we are hiring 365 days why you not apply in our company before. I told her, I applied but you guys never reply on email. She then told me, we will follow up. This incident happened 2 weeks ago. and I’m still waiting for her reply.

Really studious doesn’t know about strikes?

An interesting discussion with industry experts. It's a bit UK focused but probably applies to the industry as a whole. Speakers:

Ros Webb – Talent Consultant at PXL Talent / Animated Women UK

Paul Mellender – Artist

Neil Hatton – CEO at UK Screen Alliance / Animation UK

Long TL;DR

State of the industry
Studios have closed, but other boutique studios have opened up.

Things are probably not going back to where they were in 2022 when there was a huge boom, but there will be a challenge to the status quo.

2022: streaming wars were at their height. Post covid hangover and restocking of the inventory which had all been watched for the streamers. Netflix was the only one making profits.

Now the industry has started to concentrate on profitability.

In 2023 there was a 40% drop in spending in film, TV and advertising, back in 2018 levels. People in the UK were happy with that level back in 18. What is needed to be seen is growth.

The current state of the industry is not due to the strikes. The slowdown was more driven by Wall Street and by the streamers taking their foot off the gas.
The strikes caused the slowdown to happen suddenly, whereas it would have happened more gradually.
We’re probably at the beginning of the recovery, and companies have weathered some of the worst of it.

Recruiter: Seeing a decent amount of work in advertising (?)

Specialty compared to generalist skills has become an achilles heel. Specialists are brought in like they’re in an assembly line. Replaceable, reusable, often seen as software jockeys.
In a contracted market it can be challenging to be a specialist.

Even as a specialist, you need to have a breadth, some knowledge of the other areas. Skills for mid and senior level artists to grow in the industry: communication and leadership. More senior people need to be generous with their knowledge. That will be noticed.
In 2022 the industry was growing so fast that mid and seniors didn’t have time to do their own jobs, let alone mentoring.

AI

Paul is not too worried that AI will replace people, but he’s worried that the quality standards will drop due to financial interests. 

Education

In the UK about 80 establishments are offering VFX or animation courses. From a study of 40 VFX and animation companies, it was found that 65% of people working were alumni of just 12 unis.

If you have a degree from a university, it’s a lot easier to work in different countries.

UK industry situation
The work is picking up (UK). There’s a lot of pre-production and production work that will flow through to VFX, but perhaps not before Q1 2025. 
UK tax release: The producer can claim a rebate of ~25.5%, but that’s limited to 80% of the core budget. VFX is the most portable part of a production. No producer will leave money on the table, so they’ll ship the remaining part of the budget overseas (Canada) where they can get 30% off.
Last spring it was announced that VFX would be immune to the 80% cap. Since the government changed recently, there’s uncertainty still that this will be implemented. The new government said it will be implemented in April (2025?)
Research 2017-2019: On film and TV series that were shot in the UK at that time, they claimed the tax credit for filming, but there was 1billion pounds of VFX work that went overseas.

Screen Business Report: 1pound of film tax relief generates 8.30p for the value of the UK economy

Don’t wait for the VFX industry to pick up. Find any job, it will also look good in your resume.

Remote work

Opportunities won’t be as common as they have been (due to tax incentives, need to oversee more junior members). If you’re a senior proven to the studio that you can work remotely, may be given more flexibility compared to junior and seniors.

Working holiday visa
In some cases, you can get a visa to work in another country for up to two or four years (Australia, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Japan). A great way to get yourself to a VFX hub and not need a visa sponsorship.If you’ve worked at a few studios, don’t wait for them to open up positions, but reach out to them first.

Hi people, its me.

I just sent a application to ILM website for a Jedi Academy internship. I think I am the first one to submit the application(maybe not) and Im still not getting any emails regarding the interview offer.

I submitted on last Wedneday at 12AM. Today is Friday, 7 business days have passed.

What is going on? Are they still on process?

Hi Team, I am looking to have a LUT created, to act as a Blue Light Filter for my TV Monitor. I have a Black Magic Mini Converter SDI to HDMI 6G, which can load 33 Point .cube LUT files into it, so I can cut the blue light down heavily. Does anyone have the interest in creating these for me? Can send Venmo. Please send your rate for this in a DM and hope to work with you soon. Thanks all!

Here's a video which explains more:

Hi guys!

I am exporting a simulation from Houdini to Unreal as an alembic. I have a v@v attribute on the vertices and I try to use the "Use abc velocities as motion vectors" but I cannot make the motion blur work.

Does anyone have similar experience or have encountered this issue?