Job Title:
Principal Visual Effects Artist
Number Of Years Dedicated To This Field Of Work or Lifestyle:
16
Category Of Work:
Employment – Paid Work
Country / Area of Work:
United Kingdom
Industry:
Arts/Entertainment/Publishing
Type:
Employment
Key Skills For The Job:
– Technical skills, ie physics simulation, scripting
– Artistic skills, animation, texture creation,
– Know how to work within tight constraints, economical aspect of real-time
– Lateral problem solving, creativity
– Understanding of feedback mechanisms
– Related skills such as modeling, texturing, animation, UI, programming, photography, sculpting
Vital Key Skill:
Balance between strong technical and artistic skills, with an emphasis on making an impact on the player
Your Personal Experience Of Entering This Role:
Higher Education Level
Tips For Undertaking This Work:
VFX is not a single skill but a combination, the more skills you have the better, so a generalist with a speciality.
Future Progression Or Developments:
Various, most people do not enter the industry as VFX artist but make the transition once they realize that it is something they can excell at. People usually either start as tech-artist, environment artists or animators, but also sometimes programmers with a strong artistic side for example.
Apply to companies already doing the kind of thing you would like to do, else it might take a long time before you work for a place that does exactly your preffered type of game and VFX, and if you apply to the place where your work is appropriate your chances of entry improves. Don’t wait untill you know everything, that will never happen, expect to learn while doing it, so quite a lot of people are intimidated out of trying because of not feeling ready. Study as much as you can, nothing you learn will be wasted, you can apply huge amounts of knowledge to this application, I have worked with people who come from all backgrounds like architecture, engineering, film and comics.
What Are The ‘tools of the trade’ Used Daily:
We use both proprietary and off-the-shelf tools, typically
– 3D authoring software like 3D Studio Max, Maya, Houdini
– 2D software like Photoshop, Bumpy, Flowmap painter
– Game Editor like Unreal 4, Unity
– Video editor like After Effects, Sony Vegas
A Typical Day’s Duties:
Varies hugely which is one of the appealing aspects but could for example include:
– Synching project using source control like Perforce
– Holding a stand-up to coordinate with co-workers
– Painting a texture in photoshop
– Making a material/shader in Unreal
– Using it in a Particle System such as Cascade in Unreal
– Controlling the triggering of the particle System in a script such as Blueprint in Unreal
– Cooking and compiling the game to test out the game
– Playtesting a recent version with co-workers
– Reviewing work
– Checking work into project using a source control program like Perforce or Subversion
Is Travelling A Regularly Part Of This Work:
No
Weekly Working Hours:
Way Of Life – Hours 24/7
Type Of Hours Arrangement:
Fixed Working Week
The Best Thing About The Work You Do:
The variety, constantly having to be creative to make something possible that the tools were often not designed to do. Visual Effects are like the cherry on the cake, it can make everyone else’s work look more alive and believable if done right.
Your Least Favorite Thing About The Work You Do:
It can be fraught with technical obstacles, and often schedule will prevent you from being able to lavish the time on everything you think it deserves. There is also a working culture that take for granted that you will be crunching a lot.
Any Duties You Hadn’t Anticipated Prior To Undertaking The Work:
How closely I would work with other people like programmers, audio and environment, it really is very collaborative. When I became a lead, I suddenly needed all new skills I never prepared for up till then.
The Top Perks Of The Work:
– The people you work with are incredible and stimulating
– You can entertain millions of people using your skills
– You keep on learning cool new things and move with the technology
Other Work In The Same Sector:
– Tech Artist
– Animator
– UI Designer
– Environment Artist
What Professional Organisations Are Associated With Your Work:
PEGI
Additional Info You Wish To Share:
Most people are not even aware of this career option and is worth considering if you are an artistic programmer, a technically minded artist, an animator who cares about more than just the characters to convey mood and story. But the most essential thing is that you need to have a flair for the dramatic, or know how to affect people emotionally with artistic elements.
Where People Can Visit For More Details On Your Work:
https://www.splashdamage.com/people/niel-v
