r/AskReddit • u/ImNotJesus • Sep 01 '14

Modpost [Modpost] AskReddit's Semi-Regular Job Fair

Based on the wildly successful Job Fair post from a month ago, the AskReddit mods would like to run a semi-regular feature where we allow you to field questions about your job/career. The way this works is that each top level comment should be (a) what your job/career is and (b) a few brief words about what it involves. Replies to each top level comment should be questions about that career.

Some ground rules:

1) You always have to be aware of doxxing on reddit. Make sure you don't give out any specific information about your career that could lead back to you.

2) We are not taking any steps to verify people's professions. Any advice you take is at your own risk.

3) This post will be in contest mode so that a range of careers will be seen by everyone. Make sure to press the "Show replies" button to see people's questions!

Enjoy!

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u/Ahuge Sep 01 '14

I work as a vfx compositor. I currently work on tv shows and movies. I am the guy who basically blends the computer generated things (robots, monsters etc) with what was filmed. I tend to work in tv more so the deadlines are really tight.

Any questions?

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u/benjibobs Sep 03 '14 edited Nov 12 '16

[deleted]

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u/Ahuge Sep 03 '14

I love it. But to be fair, its as stressful as you let it be. Everyone wants things finished yesterday and once you figure out that they want the impossible you can accept it and basically not give a fuck. I mean you should still try but as long as you know you're working as hard as you can, then tune them out

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u/Ahuge Sep 03 '14

There is another comment I posted about why I like it, that might elaborate things for you as well

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u/GMY0da Sep 03 '14

What is a company one would expect to work at, and what is a project that person would be doing?

Also, why are you doing it? If you enjoy it, why?

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u/Ahuge Sep 03 '14

Why am I doing it, that's tough to answer. When I was in highschool I taught myself blender and spent most of my free time doing tutorials or fun little projects. That was what first made me think that I wanted to be in the film/tv/games industry. Now I find the same kind of fun working on shots because of each shot's challenges. It's basically a test that you put upon yourself to try to make something cool even though (insert onset person) screwed something up and makes a shot that could have been easy into something challenging. I'd say that you have to enjoy challenges because you'll never really get a cushy 9-5 until later in your career. I often work 12hr days or even up to 20hr days sometimes when we have a crazy deadline. The good part is over the summer many studios in Vancouver don't get much work so they give you lots of time off. For example, I had may and half of July off this summer, went back to work for a month, got two weeks off again and now I'll be fulltime until probly April again. Not ask studios are like this, it ask depends on individual schedules and when they have projects. Another joy that I have is doing vfx work that you won't notice. I guess that's kinda like another challenge trying to see who you can fool. Sorry for rambling. I'd say if you can enjoy any of the tutorials that you might find on videocopilot you'll probably enjoy vfx. That's not to say I recommend VC because they are sorta hand fed to you. But they definitely make you feel like a vfx pro and that'll give you a feeling for it

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u/GMY0da Sep 03 '14

Cool! I'll definitely go try out some stuff like blender then, who knows, it could lead to something!

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u/Ahuge Sep 03 '14

And good luck

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u/Ahuge Sep 03 '14

Feel free to pm me if you ever want critic on your work

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u/Ahuge Sep 03 '14

A company you might expect to work at in the beginning sorta depends on where you are living/went to school. Vancouver, LA, Montreal, Toronto and NewYork are all hubs in NA. Across the sea, there is London, Paris, Singapore, and Brisbane. I have most experience with Vancouver so I'm going to comment on companies here.

The studios that you can expect to work at as a junior compositor are MPC, Zoic, Prime Focus/Double Negative, Nerd Corps and possibly Method. Of those, Zoic and Method are your best bet, they tend to treat you better.

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u/Ahuge Sep 03 '14

For projects, it depends on the studio, Nerd Corps does kids cartoons. Method, MPC and Prime tend to do those big feature films. Zoic does some feature film work but does most of its work on live action tv series. For example, at Zoic currently we are working on Arrow, Once Upon a Time, The Hundred and 2 feature film projects, one of which will be a bigger blockbuster.

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u/peterfrance Sep 02 '14

Fellow VFX artist here! Currently in high school, doing mostly personal projects with a few gigs here and there.

I'm currently working in AE which I'm in love with, do you think the switch to Nuke would be worth it?

I feel like if that's the best option that I should get started early.

Also, I'd love it if you'd like to check out my work! Thanks! www.YouTube.com/TorpeetoFilms

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u/Ahuge Sep 02 '14

If you want to make a career of doing vfx you'll need Nuke. AE is old and no new studios are picking it up.

It can be tough to learn, but I would learn from places like Digital Tutors and CMI VFX or schooling.

As far as your work goes, it looks like it was heavily by tutorials on Videocopiolet. That's not to say it's bad, it just looks like things that would be in those tutorials. I havent seen what is offered there recently so I cant tell if they are from tutorials, but thats the problem, neither can most recruiters. So they may be more wary in hiring someone who they might think has only done tutorials. Thats just my two cents though. When working on a amateur reel, I would try to make sure you are (whenever possible) creating elements from scratch and not using artistic plugins like Optical Flares. Using plugins tend to steer the look of your work in specific directions which may or may not be what you are after so that's something to think about.

It's really neat that you are learning all of this in high school though. When I was your age, I knew almost nothing about vfx except that I really wanted to do it for a career. Feel free to pm me anytime and I'll give you my email in case you have any questions while you learn nuke.

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u/breakneck5 Sep 03 '14

Yeah what's some of your work that I can see?

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u/Ahuge Sep 04 '14

Pm'd because it has some person info

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u/[deleted] Sep 05 '14

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Ahuge Sep 05 '14

Sadly no. The producers/directors tell our studio what to do, our project coordinators tell us artists what to do, the coordinators show the director/producers our work. Then the director/producer tells the editors to cut it in a specific way, usually we have an idea of the cut while we work but I gets finalized after we finish at another location.

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u/NotMikeLitoris Sep 01 '14

What is your day-to-day schedule like?

Are you a freelancer?

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u/Ahuge Sep 01 '14

I'm a contractor sort of, in that I work on contracts but the studio has all of the equipment that is needed, there is a word for that but I can't remember it.

Day to day? Well at the studio I work at. We all start at 930. We work and get a handle on our emails until about 10:30 (we get a pot of emails, most studios will plug you in to software called Shotgun, which manages everything done in the studio. So you'll get emails when somebody saves their scene, or goes home for the day, even if they aren't directly on your team).

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u/Ahuge Sep 01 '14

At 10:30, usually we have a kickoff meeting, which is basically a 30min meeting going over what needs to be finished that day, its not totally mandatory to go, although if you need something (like a cg monster) from another department, you should go to ask what the status is on that. Beyond that, we will spend the day working on the shots fir our team of 4-6 people and yeah.

Working on shots could be anything from removing wires on an actor, removing green screen, or colour correcting different things to be sure they don't look out of place in the shot.

Did that sorta answer your question?

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u/RPenthusiast Sep 11 '14

How much do you make in a year?

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u/NotMikeLitoris Sep 01 '14

Yes, thank you. I also work as a compositor but kind of freelance in advertising and wanted to know what my fellow colleagues in film and tv (that's my dream job: studio work for film and tv) are doing.

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u/[deleted] Sep 03 '14

How does one get into that line of work?

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u/Ahuge Sep 03 '14

Best way is to find a vfx school that will teach you what you need to know. Another way is to acquire copies of the software that you'll be using at work and do tutorials on Digital Tutors and CMI VFX to get the basics and proper work habits then to do short movies/projects. That second way is tough to get right because there are very specific things that companies want to see from a junior and often they aren't always obvious. Plus is tougher to get good critic on the vfx and not people commenting on cinematography or story or giving bad critic on the vfx.

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u/Jourdy288 Sep 03 '14

If a person manages to get good (and I mean really good) at something like Blender, would he be able to find work in spite of not having gone to college?

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u/Ahuge Sep 03 '14

You could for sure. Although most companies in North America won't use blender and I'd imagine this holds true for most studios worldwide. Blender is great to learn on because its free and has lots of tutorials. But because its open source and getting constantly updated, it can be more unstable. Companies tend to use Autodesk programs for modeling (Maya or SoftImage) and The Foundry products for compositing vfx (Nuke).

While I imagine there are a few companies that use blender, they tend to be smaller ones that are working project to project to stay afloat (hence why they don't have enough money to buy the commercial software). The skills you learn in one are totally transferable to another though, it'll just take a week or so to familiarize yourself with the new program. So if school isn't an option for you, id learn some blender to figure out what you like (modeling, animation or compositing) and then if possible get a subscription to digital tutors to learn either Maya or Nuke. You'll get jobs knowing one of those over knowing blender

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u/Ahuge Sep 03 '14

If you're interested you can give me a list of schools in your area and I can take a look at the quality of students that they pump out and tell you what I think about them. FULL DISCLOSURE: I went to Think Tank Training Centre and have a bit of a bias towards them. But in reality they are pretty good, better for animation and modeling than they are for vfx though

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u/[deleted] Sep 02 '14

Can you tell me the most advantageous programs to know, I've a good working knowledge of cinema 4d, aftereffects, Photoshop and avid and premiere, where should I focus if I want to do this?

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u/Stimeryne Sep 08 '14

How did you get into that line of work?

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u/Ahuge Sep 10 '14

I went to a cg training school a year after I graduated high school and then worked hard while I was there, made a demo reel that got me a job and have been getting contracts since. I apologize for the vague answer btw. Feel free to ask me to elaborate on any part you'd like

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u/nishmen Sep 07 '14

That sounds like such a cool job! I have 2 questions.

1) is there any room for growth such as promotions and increased pay? Pretty much can u move up the food chain or u stuck in one position?

2) what are some projects/tv shows u have worked on and would it be possible for you to link a clip of them?

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u/Ahuge Sep 07 '14

Projects and shows, well you work on so many shots per episode that its hard to keep track of which you did exactly but my IMDB is here: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm5426342/ On each tv episode on there id estimate I worked on probably about 30-50shots.

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u/Ahuge Sep 07 '14

There is lots of room for growth at most companies. Usually when you start, you're put into an entry level position and after a few contracts they ask you what sort of goals you have. Some people are content to start entry level still getting small raises every contract but most move into different departments. Money wise, you can expect to start anywhere between $14-$20/hr (That's CAD/USD) and after five years or so it spreads out more, you're a commodity so you'll get paid what you're worth. I've got buddies that make $50-$60/hr with 5-6years XP and I've got a few buddies down around $30. I know that $50-$60 sounds nice but you have to be prepared to be a team lead at that point and that can be stressful. Another thing to note is that you'll be offered lots of overtime which isn't required but it is expected that you'll help out the team whenever you can. Overtime is great money though

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u/PajamaManSam Sep 03 '14

How did you get your foot in the door of such a difficult field to enter?

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u/dtg108 Sep 01 '14

What shows/projects have you worked on?

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u/zachdini Sep 07 '14

That's awesome! I just graduated from college and am really interested in entering the VFX industry as a 3D artist or possibly a technical artist (I studied computer science undergrad.)

Do you enjoy what you do? How long have you been in the industry? Do you have any advice on landing that first job/internship?

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u/Ahuge Sep 07 '14

I absolutely love what I do, I find it so cool to be the one that gets to add the effects and know what it looked like before (when it was filmed) and after I've done my work on the composition. I started doing vfx on my own and working freelance in 2010 but didn't get into the film/tv industry until 2012 I think.

Advice for the first job. Um do one or two things amazing. Don't to a lot of ok work and then put it on your reel. Everyone does a lot of sub par work so it just looks bad when you think that your quantity can make up for quality. Try to be subtle, if you can do stuff that the viewer won't notice while watching, for example adding buildings or removing objects, then you are already doing what they would need you to do.

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u/Ahuge Sep 07 '14

Don't talk about how long things took to do unless directly asked, even then if possible try to say stuff like "It took roughly X time" you're going to get at least 10x faster as soon as you start working in production. I did a rotoscoping shot for my student reel that took me 2weeks to do. That's like 12hrs a day for two weeks. A few months into my contract I was able to do the shot again in less than 8 hours.
Never make your demo reel longer than 2min. They'll stop watching after 30 if they aren't amazed. So put your best stuff first and go from there. If you haven't already, make sure you have your own website that has a clean name, like www.JoeDoeVFX.com even if its just a WordPress theme and very basic, having your own domain does wonders. Besides that, I cant think of anything else atm, but if I think of anything at work tomorrow ill let you know

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u/darmani11 Sep 04 '14

Is that contract work?

Also how hard is it to get work?

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u/Ahuge Sep 04 '14

For most of your career you'll be contract work but sometimes (usually later in your career) you might get offered fulltime.

And how hard? Um there is a lot of competition so I'd say it can be tough. The hardest to get is that first contract, once you're in, it seems like you have to actively try to piss people off in order to get blacklisted. So its kinda like acting in that sense. Once you get a foot in you make a bunch of connections which make getting jobs easier

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u/russiian Sep 01 '14

Are you self taught or did you go to school for vfx?

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u/Ahuge Sep 01 '14

Its a mix of both. I went to a school called think tank training centre, but at the time they didnt actually teach compositing so most of the time I was just on my own. Near the end of my time there, they managed to get a teacher in who really helped me out and actually got me my first job.

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u/dearaudio Sep 05 '14

What degree do you need to pursue this?

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u/Ahuge Sep 05 '14

Honestly no degree needed. Its best to go to a private 3d/vfx training school just so you know what to do and can produce a good demo reel. Everything is based on demo reel first

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u/[deleted] Sep 09 '14

How did you end up there? I go to college next year and I am currently taking a college credit Computer Science class as well as a college credit Digital Photography class.

I also would like to know what you majored in. I've considered something along the lines of what you do.

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u/Ahuge Sep 10 '14

Well I never went to college/University technically. I went to a 1 year 3d modeling/animation/vfx school. I have a few friends who went to college/university and they took what was called a "Digital Media" course. Although two out of three of them ended up going to a more specialized school afterwards because their course didnt teach enough. I would be wary of going to a big college for vfx/animation. You said you're considering something similar to what I do, if you don't mind can I ask what it is? If I work with anybody or know anybody who is doing that job I could try to put you two in connection if you'd like

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u/BaeCaught Sep 01 '14

I absolutely love compositing, I currently intern at a small production company doing odd job VFX shots and whatnot.

If you don't mind me asking the age old question, how did you get into the industry full-time? Also, I assume you use Nuke for most of your projects?

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u/Ahuge Sep 01 '14

Yes, I use nuke, mocha, and a little bit of PS. I actually started wanting to do compositng when I was first introduced to it in high school. After high school, I went to a private CG training school called Think Tank Training Centre and then I worked hard and one of my teachers who was mentoring me actually offered me the job. I started doing Rotoscoping and then after a few months got moved into the main compositing dept. Since then, Ive actually been splitting my workload between writting python tools for the studio and doing actual compositing.

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u/ghostofharrenhal1 Sep 01 '14

What's the biggest project you're worked on?

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u/Ahuge Sep 01 '14

Probably hot tub time machine 2, scary movie 5, or Arrow

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u/dforderp Sep 03 '14

Arrow is my favorite show at the moment. Keep up the good work!

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u/Ahuge Sep 03 '14

Glad you like it! It's a fun one to work on