Visual Effects Working Conditions Survey

Visual Effects Working Conditions Survey

[Update:  What follows is the details of the survey and then final summery at the end.  I'm adding some of summary results here for those who simply skim.

In New Zealand 38% of the workers had worked 100hrs a week during their heavy crunch time.
Keep in mind a regular work week for most countries is 40 hours. At 100 hours that's 2-1/2 times the number of hours per week as a regular person has to put in. That's over 14 hrs a day even if you work 7 day weeks. Equivalent to 20 hrs day if it were a 5 day work week. Also keep in mind most countries and fair trade organizations have a cap of 60hrs a week total.  Anyone putting in 100hrs in a week has exceeded the limit in most countries by a full weeks worth of labor on top of the maximum.

This also wasn't simply for 1 week for most of those working. In New Zealand 13% of the workers put in long weeks for over 10 weeks. 19% put in 8 weeks of heavy overtime. 10 weeks is 2-1/2 months or likely 70+ days non-stop without a day off.

While New Zealand was the highest, most countries far exceed regular labor limits. Details in the survey and end summary.

Globally 18% of visual effects workers had put in at least one 24+ hr day in the last 2 years. Almost 1 out of every 5 visual effects workers had not stopped to sleep during a 24 hour period. In one day these people put in over 1/2 of what most people take 5 days to do.]
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I conducted a simple survey of visual effects professionals and animators over the course of 2 weeks via twitter, Facebook and this blog and conducted on survey monkey. This is not a scientific survey, it's just a rough gauge of some of the issues for visual effects professionals around the world. Because no one monitors the visual effects industry there is a lack of any real data regarding companies and workers. The Croner survey is done for animation and visual effects companies so they know what the salary range is for different positions but otherwise wide spread information is severely lacking.

I posted this survey in the hopes of getting a sense for any consensus on some of the various issues visual effects professionals have to deal with. What are the priorities of vfx professionals? We talk about hours and other problems but how much of an issue are they? Do they vary by location?

I focused on issues that the visual effects companies have some control over and that are measurable. I've avoided asking about things such as respect or good projects. While important issues for individuals these are not something easily measured or controlled by the visual effects companies.

This data will be submitted and used by the VES Strategic Committee and I'm making it available here for reference.

Basics
In the end 663 people from around the world filled out the survey.
31 countries were represented.

Number of surveys done in the following countries:

• USA             303
• Canada         113
• UK                 87
• India               31
• France            17
• Australia         16
• New Zealand   16
• Germany          8
• Singapore         5
• Mexico             5
• Spain                5

The other countries had less than 5 people each.
China had 3 people report and I have included that in some of the following charts just to have a data point.
27 people did not provide location information so won't be used for the location info section.

Caution
663 people responding to the survey isn't bad but with thousands of people in the industry (unknown exactly how many are in any one region, let alone the world), the sample is only a rough sample and can only represent those that took the survey. The small number of sampling in some countries can greatly skew the results so don't extrapolate these into representing a majority of cases.

I've tried to double check the calculations but if you see something amiss go ahead and flag it.

Results
The next several charts are what the survey web site provided. After the charts are corresponding tables of the actual values. Note the values are averages. These are for all the survey results (global).

I ran numbers in Excel to get Median values, which I think are much more useful, as well as breakdown by country. These are posted at the end.

The first two questions have values of 1 to 5 in terms of no importance to highest for each topic.
Priority of 5 meant that it was a requirement or a big concern.
Company meets needs, a 5 indicated the company was doing very well at meeting the needs.

It was interesting that every topic received some 5's and some 1's, so something that was critical to some people was of very little concern to others. And that's why the averages shown in the first batch of data points is not as interesting as the median values that are listed later.

Global Medians

The following data was sorted in Excel and shows Median values in addition to Averages.

Priorities is the importance of what professionals placed on each issue.
Below is the global priority list sorted.

Country breakdowns

Here is the original list showing the comparison of different country responses.
Yellow represents values below the Global values.
Blue represents values above the Global values.




Companies shows how well the companies are dealing with the specific issues from the worker's perspective.

Yellow represents values below the Global values.
Blue represents values above the Global values.

Topics by country

Global includes all survey results, even if no location provided. All values in nearest %

Small sample sizes provide questionable results for many countries.

Summary of Results

I've just completed organizing the numbers so haven't analyzed them in detail. I will do a follow up post with comments from those taking the survey. [Comments from the survey are now up ] There are certainly some differences between locations. Some of the attitudes about priorities are likely to be relative to the perspective at that particular location.

Compensation for OT, minimizing OT, and avoiding moving are the top in most countries.

Low on the list is credit placement. Doesn't mean it's not an issue but other more pressing matters.

And to be clear anything marked as compensation pertains to being paid for Overtime when it is worked. 'Compensation for all hours worked' is just what it says. This is not to imply higher wages but simply being paid for work done.

Almost 39% receive no OverTime compensation on a global average.

Almost 36% don't know the overtime laws in their location.

14.46% get regular pay(or comp time) instead of overtime pay.

Those who had to put in 24hrs or more in a continuous day were 2nd only to those who had put in 14hrs a day.

50hr work week is most standard 'normal' week and 70hr more likely heavy week.

[Updated 6/18/2013 Added a couple more paragraphs because I want to make sure the numbers sink in and don't just appear as numbers on a chart.

In New Zealand 38% of the workers had worked 100hrs a week during their heavy crunch time.
Keep in mind a regular work week for most countries is 40 hours. At 100 hours that's 2-1/2 times the number of hours per week as a regular person has to put in. That's over 14 hrs a day even if you work 7 day weeks. Equivalent to 20 hrs day if it were a 5 day work week. Also keep in mind most countries and fair trade organizations have a cap of 60hrs a week total.  Anyone putting in 100hrs in a week has exceeded the limit in most countries by a full weeks worth of labor on top of the maximum.

This also wasn't simply for 1 week for most of those working. In New Zealand 13% of the workers put in long weeks for over 10 weeks. 19% put in 8 weeks of heavy overtime. 10 weeks is 2-1/2 months or likely 70+ days non-stop without a day off.

Globally 18% of visual effects workers had put in at least one 24+ hr day in the last 2 years. Almost 1 out of every 5 visual effects workers had not stopped to sleep during a 24 hour period. In one day these people put in over 1/2 of what most people take 5 days to do.

Those who don't work in visual effects tend to have a hard time to grasp this concept. ]

The bottom line is visual effects professionals are putting in a lot of hours, frequently beyond limits set by both countries and some industries. And many of the hours are not compensated so a majority of these workers are being exploited unless their pay is correctly calculated to cover heavy overtime.

[Update 6-20-2013 Overtime links
Overtime post
Why Crunch Mode Doesn't Work: 6 Lessons

The death march: the problem of crunch time in game development

More Productivity Myths, Debunked by Science (and Common Sense)
Myth #1: More Hours Equals More Work  ]

Summary
First, thank you to everyone who took the survey.

Hopefully this will shed some light on issues for visual effects workers around the world and help to show similarities and disparities between areas.

There have been other surveys done in the last year by VFX Solidarity, the UK VFX group and others. I'll try to post links to those here.

Updated 5/22/2013 BECTU UK survey results

This information could at least be the start of research for both guilds and trade association. More surveys will be likely coming from a number of groups including the Visual Effects Society.

I'm still pushing for workers to come up with a Code of Conduct addressing these issues.
More info in these posts:
VFX Professionals United
Global VFX Workers

If you wish to have a voice in the future of visual effects you will have to speak up and make yourself heard. Participate in surveys, post comments, post you own blog, get involved with forums, etc.

If you have other issues or solutions please go ahead and post them in the comments. Last week someone wrote a comment to a post I had, that I did not cover issues and solutions in non-LA areas. For the same effort they could have listed their specific issues and solutions in the comments.

And again, very little I've posted has been LA specific. See VFX World Wide PI talk which lists issues and solutions. With the exception of health care, ALL of the issues were world wide. Subsidies have a huge influence, good or bad, no matter where you work. We are not working locally for local markets. The visual effects industry is global with work being done around the world and with many professionals having to move around the world. Any change in any area will affect you.

Massive Overtime and unpaid work hours are problems all around the world. See the survey results.

The solutions included a global trade association and guilds among other things. For those who think guilds are LA centric, many guilds cover the entire US. Also note that most countries of the world have guilds and many have specific film related guilds, including Canada and the UK among others.  And yet there is an amazing amount of ignorance or denial regarding all of these things. See Visual Effects Guilds to learn more about guilds.

For those who wish to see improvements to this industry, have courage to stand up and be heard. It's in your hands. The time for finger pointing or waiting for someone else to solve all the problems is over.

If you have thoughts or insights based on the survey results please leave them in the comments below. If you have suggestions for future survey questions you think are important go ahead and leave those in the comments section as well.

Survey comments are covered in the Survey Comments Post

VES Board Member thoughts

Van Ling, a visual effects artists for many years and a fellow board member at the VES has asked me to publish his open letter.  I've never had a guest blogger post here before but I thought I should make an exception

 -Scott Squires

To my colleagues in the VFX industry:

I wanted to make some observations regarding the recent VES Open Letter, with the understanding that these are solely my opinions as a long-time member of the VFX community who also happens to be a VES Board member, and that I am not speaking on behalf of the Visual Effects Society in any official or unofficial capacity.

I think we as a Society should follow up and clarify, publicly and definitively, a few points that seem to get lost in the initial reactions we see in many articles and posted comments:

1) As a global organization, any push we make for subsidies in California should and must be made IN THE CONTEXT of promoting local incentives for ALL states and nations, and we encourage ALL of our Sections and global members to do the same in their territories by encouraging the hiring of local talent.  What we'd like to try differently is to COMMUNICATE with each other about the process so that we can reach as balanced a system as we can for all.

2) The VES will remain first and foremost THE professional honorary society for the visual effects artform and industry, championing what brings us together, rather than feeding what tears us apart. 

3) The VES will NEVER turn into a union or a trade organization, as it goes against our charter and mandate, but we DO support efforts to create either or both of these entities and would work with them for the betterment of our industry.

4) The VES should be and is dedicated to taking a proactive stance on the business side of VFX moving forward, not only because everyone can clearly see that the artform and its creatives are materially affected by the way the business works (or doesn't work), but because we ARE our membership and our members want us to help them find ways to solve the issues that have a significant impact on their lives and livelihoods.

The VFX community and the VES membership itself are microcosms of the entire entertainment industry, and are comprised of artists and practitioners from every corner, and there are too many entities who try to benefit from pitting us against one another, either on a single production or on a global level; we have to find the common ground if we are going to find solutions, and the strongest commonality we have is our dedication to making stunning visuals that help tell stories and create wonder.  From that shared foundation, we can foster discussion between all levels, from artists to facilities to studios.

To those who consider leaving the Society because it does not serve your needs: doing so is certainly your right, but why not try to get more involved with the Society and help us become an organization that DOES serve your needs as well as the needs of the VFX community as a whole?  I may not agree with everything my fellow members choose to do or espouse, but I believe in the mission of the Society and I think we are better off engaged, listening and talking honestly with one another with respect rather than sniping at each other (online or otherwise) and walking away.  And I know of hundreds of VES members and the three dozen dedicated members of the VES Board, from all corners of the industry, who feel the same way.

So I'd encourage everyone in the VFX community to bring your ideas, your passion, your creativity and your dedication --the same qualities you use to create amazing images-- to bear on finding solutions that can work for all of us, around the world.  We are some of the best problem-solving minds in the entertainment industry, and it's time we apply those minds to the challenges at hand. 

Hope to see you all at the VFX Congress.

Van Ling

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PS: my thanks to Scott Squires for giving me a space to say my piece.

VES feedback

VES Visual Effects Handbook feedback
We are having meetings and starting to work on the revised VES handbook. Most of the feedback we have received has been very general. If you want to see additional information, improvements, changes, etc to the handbook please post here or email to the VES. Is it working for you? Is there anything lacking? How is the Kindle or other eBook version for you?  Get in your feedback in NOW.


Townhall meetings
Today there was a VES townhall on the web where members and others were able to ask questions and hear Jeff Okun and Eric Roth discuss VES 2.0

There will be additional townhall meetings.

VES 2.0 feedback
As requested if anyone has something to say regarding VES 2.0, especially solutions and suggestions contact Jeff Okun at: jeffokun at aol.com
You can also contact: leadership at visualeffectssociety.com

VES Forums
The VES has expanded their online site with a beta version of VES Forums. Check your VES emails to get the info on it and some upcoming VES events.

VES and VFX trade organization

There's a LinkedIn discussion going on regarding Vfx trade organizations and the Vfx foundation.

LinkedIn discussion

This also includes some potshots at the VES. I wrote up a response but thought it best to post here as a reference.


I'm on the board of the VES but I don't speak for the Ves so these are simply my personal views. Bob and Colin have brought up some points but I'd like to clarify a few things.

I don't see what's to be gained by bashing the VES. The Ves was formed 15 years ago to be an honorary society, similar in many ways to the ASC and the Academy of Motion Pictures. To honor professionals, to provide education and to advance the art of visual effects where possible with standards and research. And to that end, it's accomplished that. Educational programs are frequently held around the world. A couple of weeks ago there was an event covering the latest on performance capture. Many of these event videos are online at the website (upgrades in progress) The Ves created the Ves handbook and is looking to do more in this area in the future.

I pay dues to the Ves because I do this for a living. I'm a professional and the Ves is the largest group of visual effects professionals. Just as I buy books and magazines and pay to attend events related to my professional. It's a business expense.

I don't begrudge paying dues to the Academy and wouldn't begrudge paying into the ASC if I was a member. If you don't want to join the Ves then don't. If you're a Ves member and wish to see improvements then join a committee. Most of the Ves is volunteer based and that's how the Ves handbook came to be.

There are those that want the Ves to be a trade organization or a union. But that ship sailed when the Ves was founded. It may sound like an easy thing to change the structure and intent of the Ves (or other existing non profit) but it is not. To totally switch to a different type of organization would likely require dissolving the Ves and creating a totally new and different organization. The current members wouldn't be members under a trade organization and the same might apply as a union. The US government treats unions differently than standard non-union groups regarding legal issues. The same likely applies to a trade organization. There are also tax issues that would change. If a cinematographer has an issue getting paid he/she doesn't go to the ASC and tell them to change their entire focus and structure to accommodate the cinematographers needs. If a studio has an issue they don't go to the Academy and demand they become something totally different because the studio has a new need.

The Ves has tried a few times to get companies together to discuss a trade organization but many visual effects companies are very competitive and fiercely independent and didn't want to even consider such a thing. The Ves has also been in talks with the union.
Since none of these things happened (as of yet) the Ves decided to do what it could do to fill some of these gaps and still be true to the type of organization it is. The Ves is proceeding with doing what it can. Is there still room for a trade group or union? Yes, but at this point those aren't formed. So once again, what's the point of bashing the Ves?

Scott Ross has his work cut out for him to try to come up with a plan and sell it to all the major companies. Just as the union has to create a plan and sell to workers.

Trade organizations are typically made up of similar companies with similar needs. They don't tend to be made up of individuals. A Vfx trade organization would likely be based to some extend on the AICP and be about trying to standardize the billing and client relationship part of business. That's a different need than most workers.

Outsourcing
Here in the US we've been hurting because of the amount of tax incentives and outsourcing going on elsewhere. Some of the thinking is that the trade org or the foundation would be able to solve this problem. However both the proposed trade org and vfxfoundation are international, same as the Ves. You'll notice most unions and trade groups are regional (state, country, etc) Part of the reason for that is so they are all on the same page and can advocate their government to do things that would benefit them. (It's also cleaner from a legal perspective as well.) Being international means you can't hurt one subgroup while aiding another. I don't think London Vfx companies would be thrilled about the trade group they pay money into using that money to lobby California for more tax incentives. And we're now to the point many companies have satellite companies in other areas of the world and what were once local companies are now owned by large companies elsewhere. All of which makes it difficult to try to reduce or balance outsourcing.

Expenses
The trade group is budgeted at $3 million a year. That's a lot of money. Certainly more than the Ves. The foundation is at the other end of the spectrum. It doesn't plan to ever charge any membership fees. I've never belonged to any medium to large membership organization (professional or hobby) that didn't charge for membership. Sure, you can get a bunch of people together on the web without charging but much beyond that will require some funds at some point. Real expenses start happening when you're trying to service a number of people. Office supplies, web registration, web updates, legal fees, etc. Not everyone can volunteer full time for any length of time. Will job postings cover these costs? If you want sponsors then someone is going to have to spend time contacting companies and trying to make arrangements. One of the benefits of some type of paid membership is you separate the serious from those who aren't serious. Those who simply join everything on a lark.

Trade organization
One of the potential benefits if there was a trade organization it might it simpler for a worker group (union or other group) to negotiate. One group to deal with instead of dozens of smaller companies.

The downside is a trade organization could use it's strength in numbers to avoid any worker groups. One of the member companies could simply state that they were planning on cutting down certain worker benefits or thought certain types of jobs in Vfx were paid too much and they weren't going to be raising their rates for the next few years. There are legal issues with collusion but it can also be a gray area.
There are those that think if a trade organization benefits companies with more profits, that those profits will trickle down to the workers in benefits and pay. That's unlikely to happen. If companies make more profit then they will likely award their management and return more to their investors. They might put more money into equipment but they will still layoff people at the end of the project.

The hope is that if there is a trade organization it will create a stronger industry and if that trade organization is setup correctly more companies will be profitable and stable. And likewise it's possible it may raise the bar on bidding work and doing the work. All,of these do indirectly benefit the worker but it's important to not confuse the purpose and aim of a trade organization with a worker organization.

Ultimately it would be good for all of visual effects if in addition to the Ves there was a true trade organization and a workers group.

VES Board of Directors

If you are a Visual Effects Society (VES) member you should have already received email regarding the Board of Director's nomination forms. If not, make sure the VES has your current email or check your spam filters.  They are due back this Friday.

Feel free to nominate yourself or someone you would think would do a good job (with their approval of course). Usually it involves being in LA once every other month or so for a meeting. Details should be on the VES web site.

Sometimes people complain about the board being made up of vfx supervisors, producers and owners. We do have people working in other positions on the board and that' swhy I'm encouraging people who are interested in getting involved to go ahead and nominate themselves. Certainly names you've heard before tend to be more likely to be voted on by other members but I do think members are more open to voting for people in all phases of production.

You can also volunteer to be on one of the various committees even if you're not on the Board of Directors.

Don't forget the Annual Member Meeting is Oct. 20 in Los Angeles.

VES Visual Effects Bill of Rights – Now what?

VES Visual Effects Bill of Rights – Now what?

By now most of you have heard and hopefully read the VES Bill of Rights. If not check it out here.

This first step was to try to define where we want to go in terms of working experience for visual effects workers worldwide.  The next step is to try to implement what we can and to encourage steps to make it possible. The details are still being worked out. I’m hoping we end up with more concrete approaches and specific working conditions guidelines.

As always if you have input, feedback on the Bill of Rights or have suggestions and solutions, please send email to VES Leadership.  You can post here in addition to emailing if you wish to open it to discussion by all.

The VES Membership meeting is October 20 in Los Angeles and most of the world wide sections can be linked in. The Bill of Rights will be covered. See the VES website for info.

Most people seemed to be positive about the VES making these issues more public and to at least start the ball rolling. As some have pointed out the VES doesn’t have Collective Bargaining, nor is it a union or a trade organization. Yes, that’s true, which can make it tricky but we are the largest organization of visual effects workers. The VES has been in discussions with all 3 groups of players in this industry: studios, visual effect companies and the artists themselves. Hopefully we can help broker some arrangements that will help our industry based on the bill of rights.

A few have suggested it’s a distraction. From what? The VES stand does not preclude a real union or a real trade organization. If anything, the bill of rights should make some issues clearer for everyone. As always I’m hoping by providing information and inspiration here people will join in to help find solutions.

There have been a few that suggest the VES is an elite group made of elite members. The VES is an honorary society. You need to be working in visual effects for 5 years to be a member of the VES and need 2 members to submit letters for you. I don’t think of that as elite. It does mean that VES members are experienced professionals. The main reason the VES has gotten involved in these types of issues is because there are problems in the industry and members were asking the organization to get involved and help find solutions. No other group seemed to be making progress in this area. And the approach for the VES is to try to make solutions apply to all visual effects workers.

IA Union of visual effects artists – The IA would certainly be the natural fit for visual effects workers since they cover most of the crafts in motion pictures, including the camera crew. The IA spent a year ‘researching’ visual effects industry and has now spent almost another year with someone spearheading the effort to unionize the industry. Unfortunately that has yet to result in anything. You would think they would like to get the word out to as many visual effects workers as possible and that they would try to sell the idea of the union with a clear and concise guide of the benefits and costs. They should have also been selling the idea to the visual effects companies as well. But to date most of that hasn’t happened and it hasn’t seemed like the IA has put much into this process. Many visual effects workers have either not heard of the effort or now assume it’s not happening.  For more info on the IA check out their blog here.

Meanwhile the Art Directors Guild (union) has taken a definitive stand to bring in previs artists as part of their union. See their website here.  And the Vancouver IA has a good website and info here. There’s also a movement for the motionographers union.

Will the IA get going or should there be an independent group that forms a new type of union?

David Rand wrote a response to the VES Bill of Rights here.
Dave is correct that the current bidding process is broken. For more info on some of the business models in visual effects check out a previous post here.
To fix this process will require many visual effects companies to get on the same page because ultimately only they can control the situation. Most visual effects companies are very competitive and fiercely independent. The VES has been encouraging the companies to meet and discuss.  Many of the companies are in as much denial about issues as the workers and studios. Those doing well (especially if they’re in a location with tax incentives) see no reason to change. Why should they bother fixing the leaking roof when it’s sunny out? And of course once it’s starts raining it will be too late. The days of milk and honey will not last forever for any location. Scott Ross points out that if 4-5 of the major visual effects companies got together they could lay out some basic guidelines or requirements with their clients.

Currently there’s also been discussion among Indian visual effects workers about their situation that doesn’t sound too far off from the ones in the U.S. As I’ve said before many of these are global issues and do in fact affect you no matter where you are. And they of course make some of the same errors and false ideas as other here do.

1. Unions are only for laborers. We’re artists.
Guess what? The director’s are covered by the DGA (union). The Writers are covered by the WGA (union). The actors are covered by SAG (union). The Cinematographers are covered under the ICG (union). And so on for just about every position in motion pictures except visual effects. Are none of those other people artists? Do you gain anything by being a starving artist? Do you gain anything by not having health care insurance? Do you gain anything by not having a united group of similar artists? Can you change things by yourself and will the company change at your lone request?

2. Unions? Look at what happened to American automobile industry.
Stereotyping everything certain is not a solution nor is ignoring details of history.
Please see this previous post Using the Nail

3. Producing good work is the solution
Producing good work will certainly help you get work but it alone will not guarantee employment nor will it guarantee you fair treatment.

4. Working for free
Many starting out in this business thinks that they’ll work for free to prove themselves and then the companies will hire them.  You’ve already devalued yourself when you choose to work for free. Do you think the company that hires free labor will suddenly start paying people what they’re worth and stop the practice of hiring more free labor? Each wave of new workers comes in and is willing to work for free which means those with experience now will either have to continue to work for free or will have to move on. Some visual effects companies are run by people without the passion for visual effects.  Some can’t grasp the simple business solution that by hiring experienced and qualified people, treating them properly and paying them properly, they will have a true business that grows and can increase productivity and profits. Providing a quality product is of value. By simply hiring free labor they have forever tied themselves to the mediocre and will just continue being in a race to be the cheapest provider. And that’s a game that cannot be won. There will always be somewhere else cheaper, either by cost of living or incentives.

5. Working as independent contractors
One of the notions expressed is to be a remote freelancer for a visual effects company in another country.  Why would a visual effects company in another country hire someone directly in another country? What experience would they have had with that person directly? Most of the major films are covered by restrictions and guidelines so images and other movie data aren’t leaked out. Can you set up to qualify? Can you do an entre shot yourself (animation, lighting, composting, roto) or will they be sending just one step of a shot to an independent worker in another country every day or every few hours? If that were to work there will be websites where artist bid on how much to do a shot. The lowest bid would likely get selected. Every independent contractor is now in a race to the bottom themselves.


As always if you have input, feedback on the Bill of Rights or have suggestions and solutions, please send email to VES Leadership.  You can post here in addition to emailing if you wish to open it to discussion by all. Personally I’d prefer suggestions and solutions over complaints and reasons why none of this will work.

VES 2.0 feedback requested

The VES 2.0 group  (Visual Effects Society)  continues to meet and explore options for the vfx industry.

I'd like to once again ask all vfx artists and companies to submit their thoughts, ideas, solutions and concerns to the VES Leadership group.  Email VES Leadership group You don't have to be a member to submit. You can also post in the comments here or email me directly. **

If you're in the vfx industry you do really owe it to yourself and your future to submit your thoughts. Now is the time, not 6 months from now.

Please consider reading the links on the right side under VFX INDUSTRY - STATE OF THE INDUSTRY heading if you haven't already.  I posted these to try to provide information and different perspectives of some of the issues.  Pass Me That Nail covers some of the key problems with the vfx industry. Using the Nail covers some of the VES 2.0 issues.

I also urge vfx artists to become informed and try to make open minded and balanced decisions and comments. It's easy to repeat the same phrases and become narrow minded, especially under the circumstances. Also keep in mind incentives will not last forever anywhere. Don't assume smooth sailing where you're currently working to last your lifetime. What you perceive as only a US problem could be your problem in the next year or two.

For more info: Visual Effects Society
VES 2.0 Letter to VFX Industry

From Shoot magazine report on VES 2.0


[**Update: Please check out the comments below (you may have to click on the comments link.
I'm listing a few of the types of things to consider in your note and included a few questions from the IA (snippets from the comments)

What are the problems people are facing? You may have some issues I haven't touched on or you may have a totally different priority.

How would you like to see the vfx industry structured?

What should the vfx companies be doing differently to make it better for the workers?

What should the studios be doing to make it better for the workers?

What about the studio and vfx company relationships?

People writing in should mention their views on the IA and why.

What's their views on a vfx trade organization?

From the IA:
"..we continue to seek out some direction as to the type of organization the rank and file really want?
One integrated visual effects organization?
An independent guild?
Affiliation with several different IATSE locals (matching job-skills) such as camera, editorial, animation, or art directors?
We could charter a guild and have it function as a separate entity, benefitting from the experience and strength of the International, and, where appropriate, adopting the Major Studios Basic Agreement. We just need some direction from the affected parties."]



There's also a relatively new take on this which is to focus on management.

While I agree that improving management would help I don't see it being the all in one solution.
Some vfx companies are managed better than others but I don't expect to cut the required time in half or another 20% in profits simply by improved management. Many vfx companies are already reasonably run and while there's room for improvement it's unlikely to be huge. The variables from directors and studios tend to be larger than these gains. Likewise don't assume just because a company is more efficient that it will make more money (it may just get more work) or that benefits, wages and working conditions will improve for employees. The trickle down theory doesn't work. Most general US companies are making 20% more in profits the last couple of years but continue to reduce their workforce and reduce employee benefits. Those added profits go to the executives and shareholders, not the people being more efficient.

What we'll need is improvements/changes to the 3 key parts of this issue (Studios, vfx companies and vfx workers) to get a balance that works and is sustainable.

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Using the nail

Using the nail

The last post I covered  some of problems facing visual effects workers. Today I’ll cover some of the potential outside groups that may be able to help the VFX industry.  (* I’m not a lawyer so legal comments are based on my understanding and as always could be wrong)

As an individual you have to make decisions about your employment and situation. You have to be able to control what you can. If you’re being treated improperly then try to resolve it.  If you're not being paid then quit and change companies if at all possible.

However there are many things outside an individual’s control. Sure, you can talk to your manager but how good that does is very dependent on how important that manager feels you are to completing their current project at that moment. You can also quit but beyond these actions the individual has little control. You may quit a company only to find all the other companies doing the same thing simply because they can.

A company tends to have all the control because they have the money.  They are organized and made up of a number of people (manager’s, owners, etc) whose sole purpose is to make as much profit as possible.  Laws prevent them from exploiting workers too much (laws in place thanks to the unions) but beyond that it can be David versus Goliath if you have an issue with the company you work for that isn't handled by your manager.

There are many issues bigger than individuals. Bigger than single companies. Outsourcing, health care, overtime, and other problems are systemic issues and can’t be solved by a single artist.

In the past when situations like this happened the individuals would group and work together with like-minded individuals.  Suddenly it’s not one lone voice in the woods but thousands. Some of these vfx issues will have to be dealt with by some type of organization of many individuals if the hope is to make improvements to the situation.

UNIONS
Unions are organizations of individuals in the same situation. Their point to exist is to allow some voice from the worker’s perspective. They try to provide a balance to the companies. In the extremes a company will try to push to make as much profit as possible and to incur as little expenses as possible (paying workers less, etc).  A union will push to get as much as they can for their members  (benefits, working conditions, etc). Now neither side is nearly this extreme but it doesn’t take much to make it out of balance.  Large companies like GE are pushed by shareholders to keep making large profits.  The CEOs and executives simply view their workers as faceless drones that cost money.  Anything they can do to reduce these costs earns them a bonus.  Many vfx companies were started or are being run by people who were involved in vfx hands on at one point.  Most of them try to do a reasonable job of dealing with their workers but situations and changes may throw even that relationship out of whack.

The trick here is to find balances so the companies and the workers can both succeed.  It doesn’t help anyone if the company or the workers fail.

Since most vfx workers today work for vfx companies those are the places that would have to unionize if workers wanted them to.  The studios sometimes place the vfx companies in difficult situations so it's not necessarily an easy step to make for the vfx companies.

As I’ve stated before most people say of unions and vfx is ‘it will be the nail in the coffin for the vfx industry’.  This implies ‘keep quite and hope that wages and benefits don’t drop too quickly’. Like the man who swept up after the circus elephants, we don’t want to give up showbiz. The other favorite phrase is ‘look at the auto industry and what the unions did’. Really?? You’re trying to correlate the vfx industry of today with a totally unrelated industry from over 60 years ago?  Really? The Hindenburg caught fire in 1937 so we shouldn’t fly today.  In 1950’s there were only a few computers and those filled entire rooms so any vfx company should only have one computer.  “640K ought to be enough for anybody.”  PLEASE do some research on the actual facts of the auto industry and it’s ills before blaming them on the union.  Instead let's focus on the motion picture unions of today rather than a different industry over 60 years ago.

IATSE (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees) covers the Camera Guild, Art Directors Guild, Editors Guild, Costume Designers Guild, Sound Technicians, Stagehands, Makeup Artists and Hair Stylists, Studio Grips, Publicists Guild, etc.  In addition to the IA related guilds are the Director’s Guild of America, Screen Actor’s Guild, the Writers Guild of America and other guilds.  IATSE was formed over 100 years ago for those who want to see how it  compares to the auto industry.

What group is involved with creating some of the top money making films and is doing more work on films every year? What group of artists and craftspeople currently involved with creation of motion pictures and television is the only one without a union?  That would be visual effects.

So exactly why are we undeserving of having basic bargaining rights and basic health care that a union provides? I think our contributions speak for themselves.  I think the amount of work and effort and skill is certainly without question.  There are those that say our wages are above the median so we don’t deserve coverage. Look at that list again. We’re not out of line with any of the groups nor are we the most expensive.  Others have said we want to be union to be cool. I still don’t get that.  Some say we shouldn’t get paid as much as other skilled high tech workers.  These same people forget that a large portion of the vfx workers are project to project. Much different situation for both workers and employers than having a standard job.

Now the majority of those other groups are hired directly by production whereas most vfx workers are employed by vfx companies.  But there are labs, DI and other companies (sound mixing, etc) that are union.

Unions aren’t perfect.  Anytime you have more than 1 person in a group you’re likely to have differences of opinion and politics. But the union does provide a voice for workers.  It does provide the potential of continuous health care and better protection from companies that go out of business or companies that force people into independent contractor employment.

Both the IBEW (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) and the IA have stepped forward in the last year simply because they were contacted by a couple of vfx workers.  The IA tends to cover the majority of the creative arts guilds in motion picture and television and would seem to be a better fit with other craftspeople in the motion picture industry.

Unfortunately the IA has done a terrible job of getting the information out. They have something of value that vfx workers should at least review but they have been having difficulty providing a clear message.  The details and the plan have yet to be provided. Some of this may be changing.  Latest personal meeting notes from the union and from Joe Harkin.

Just to respond to a couple of items in Joe's posting:
"The AMPTP thinks facilities are screwing the studios with over-inflated bids, and that they are making out like bandits.  I told Jimmy, it’s true, most of the VFX CEO’s are loaded with over-inflated salaries, and that he can quote me on it."

Producers have always thought vfx were over-inflated bids even in the optical days. "Sharpen your pencils" was a favorite catch phrase.  If it wasn't something they knew or were involved with they couldn't understand the amount of time, work and skill was required to do the work. At Dream Quest we had provided a production a basic shot estimate since they didn't know how many shots they were going to need. The project was shelved for a time and  had a new producer and team come on board months later. The new producer had a note from the previous team regarding the price and had misinterpreted that to mean do all the work (now 12 shots).  He went into full rant mode when we told him that was for one shot.  According to him all vfx people were just raking productions over the coals. You couldn't even assemble a minimal camera crew for a few hours for the price he was talking about.

They see the work and amount of time on the set when the DP lights a shot or when the production designer has a set built.  The vfx people are always hidden away somewhere else.

Most producers, executives and directors are not interested in really spending a full day seeing all the work involved in vfx.  And of course some of it's our fault for wanting to keep it short and dazzle them by cycling through the rendered takes or by making a few adjustments in real time.  What they walk away with is that it's simply a matter of knowing which button to push. Giving them a shot to roto might do a world of good.

Now to correct a few things Joe says.  VFX bids are not over inflated. With the current competition it wouldn't be possible even if you wanted to. Multiple companies bid on just about everything.  If any of them are drastically different that will affect their ability to get the work. In the bidding phase there's only so much accuracy you can put into a bid, especially if it's in script or storyboard form.  Not knowing the director means you're only going to be so close. Nervous vfx producers may bump up some shots slightly to increase the odds of being covered but these same producers will reduce prices on other shots (likely below what it will really cost) to try to hone it down.  When the project is all done the amount of profit is very small, compared to other businesses and especially when you have to cover the dry spell.

Joe also mentions most vfx CEO have huge salaries. Frankly I don't see how anyone could know what most vfx CEOs are paid since that's not public information. I think Joe's making the same type of judgements as producers. Once again there's not a huge profit for most vfx companies these days.  I think it also depends on what you think an over-inflated salary is.

Here's an interesting tidbit: "A typical chief executive at a U.S. company earned 262 times the pay of a typical worker in 2005, according to a recent report. With 260 workdays in a year, that means that an average CEO earned more in one workday than a worker earned in 52 weeks."  From what I've read that's already eclipsed in 2010.  I can guarantee vfx CEO's do not make 262 times their employees.
Whether a vfx CEO is over paid depends on how valuable they are to the company. The CEO may be a part owner as well. But I think you'd be hard pressed to find most vfx CEO's being paid way above everyone else. Not to say it doesn't happen but that would be the exception.

UNION TO DO ITEMS
Some of the recommendations for the IA if they are serious:

1. List key union benefits for vfx workers.

2. What would be the benefits to the vfx companies? (potentially lower health care insurance, etc)

3. What would be the benefits to the studios? (certification ,etc)

4. Post a FAQ - Do you have to always work for a union shop? What happens if you work for a game company for 3 months? What are the dues? What is the initiation fee? How will this prevent outsourcing?  Won't this simply cause vfx companies to go out of the country? Is this only for LA? Only for California? etc.

5. Cost analysis of a medium vfx company with and without vfx union.  More? Less?

6. Overall Plan - What’s the plan to organize and more importantly what is the plan for how this will be structured?

[Update: some items now covered by Union website. Start at  VFXUnion.info ]

COSTS FOR VFX VENDORS
Many people are worried that the union would impose a very high cost increase for the vfx companies and this would simply drive the work out of the country.  Obviously it doesn't do the union any good if they truly price the companies out of business nor would workers vote for the union if it meant a vfx company closing.

Here’s a valid blog post from a small vfx vendor covering this issue.  What's best for *you*? 
This expreses the concerns raised by a number of companies.

I've owned and operated a vfx company.  It's not easy to do so and make a profit and it's even more difficult today. But there are some basics of business, one that you can't continue to work for less than it actually costs you.

Let’s review a couple of the key concerns mentioned in that posting. Health Care and Overtime.   Somehow many get the idea that these issues don’t exist if there is no union.  These in fact are issues regardless if there is a union or not.

If a company is not paying for some type of health care for their employees then the employees are footing the entire bill themselves already (or going without).  Take a look at real job listings for full time work at legitimate businesses.  Among the benefits listings are typically health care and 401k plans (after 3 months).  The company down the street making widgets likely has some form of health insurance for employees.  The bank or store you shop in does as well. These are the benefits that make up your total compensation.

Overtime pay is covered under the law and there are specific criteria that need to be met to avoid paying overtime.  The choice of being an independent contractor is not a choice to be made by the company or the individual.  It is the IRS.  It holds true for whether someone is technically exempt from overtime. The company has to have legitimate reasons to not pay overtime and just because isn’t good enough.

So using the numbers in the post the estimated costs are 20% (I’m not sure how accurate this is). Well either than 20% is made up by the employer or by the worker. And if the worker isn’t covered (which seems to be the case of the post) then the worker is already accepting a 20% cost overhead without a union. If you were paid $100,000 salary this would equate to $80,000 elsewhere (with benefits) if the numbers are correct.  As a worker you would have to consider these figures and how much overtime you expected to work for the same rate without being paid.  Is the pay high enough to cover all of this?  That's why I urge newcomers to use caution when simply looking at salaries without knowing what it truly means.  You can't do a straight comparison with a regular job since the hours, benefits and other circumstances differ. It's not uncommon to hear vfx workers are paid too much (by those not doing vfx).  However compare their adjusted pay (potentially no benefits, no overtime pay for what could be a lot of overtime, the length of unemployment, etc) and that of other high tech jobs that require a lot of skill, experience and knowledge.  It’s certainly not out of line in that context.

Overtime and some form of health care should be looked at as the cost of doing business just like computers, rent, power, etc.

So if you operate a business and do not cover health care to some extent or overtime and you can’t afford to cover these business expenses, then you’re under bidding.  When you bid a project these costs need to be included in the bid if it is required to get the work done.  If there are management mistakes then it shouldn’t be the workers who have to pay for it by putting in uncompensated overtime. If the client changes the delivery schedule or causes something that requires overtime, then that should be billed to the client. The workers shouldn’t have to be the ones to pay for an insufficient contract.  Now if you and all your competitors are bidding razor thin margins or underbidding projects, then it’s simply a race to the bottom where no one survives. How many other business expenses will be ignored or skipped to bring down the costs?

In any case the union will have to work with the vfx companies to come up with a balance of pay and benefits that is affordable by everyone involved.

Now we’ll have to see if the IA can ramp up and actually make this happen.

Since there is a need for some type of organization of workers to help solve some of these problems, the other possibility is a whole new group. The potential could be open to vfx workers worldwide and to focus on a way to achieve this in some form that would be built for today’s world.  Is there an equivalent or an alternative to the union now in 2011 that could achieve all the same results and more as a union?

Joe Harkin has suggested the VFX Foundation as a non-union, union.
Setting up any type of organization is a huge undertaking of time, money and effort. If you think it’s slow going now consider how long it will take to start from scratch. Trying to cover the legal issues, tax issues and organizing it is a full time job for a good size staff.  Even a non-profit requires spending money on staff, rent and legal bills so as much as some people wish to avoid some of the issues they see in unions, it’s likely the final results will be very close to a standard union

Newer post:
Visual Effects Guilds

Other union info:
35 Ways Unions have improved your life
How Companies Turn People Against Unions
When Did “Union” Become a Bad Word?
Anti-union and Certainty without evidence
Labor Stats - Guide to Motion Picture Industry


TRADE ASSOCIATION
When this is mentioned there’s usually the cry of collusion but there can be and are real reasons to have some type of trade organization for businesses.  This is where companies organize as a group on things that make sense.  Some of the reasons include standardizing practices, standardizing on technical formats (Blu-ray, etc), research and development, advertising (Got Milk?), and lobbying government for issues that would benefit the collection of companies.

One example is the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP)

According to their documents “In 1978 the AICP undertook the task of developing guidelines to be used to foster responsible business practices between production companies and their contracting-clients.  Since that time, these guidelines have been recognized as the industry standard. “

Sounds pretty good to me.  Those guidelines include standardized bidding forms, firm bids, cost plus bidding, payment guides among other things.  Guidelines pdf.   The VES had been looking into standardized bidding at one point. Certainly these are a list of potential items to explore.

Another group is the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) which represents a trade association of the studios.  The MPAA deals with movie  ratings and piracy issues among other things.

From their site:
“What are the key functions of the MPAA?
We are the voice and advocate of the American motion picture, home video and television industries, domestically and, through our subsidiaries and affiliates, internationally. We champion a healthy, thriving film and television industry by engaging in a variety of legislative, policy, education, technology and law enforcement initiatives. These efforts range from safeguarding intellectual property rights to using technology to expand consumer entertainment choices, to championing fair trade agreements and a secure future for artistic freedom of expression.”

Now the vfx companies could do something similar (trade association) and actually had some initial meetings but nothing ever came of it. As I mentioned before such a group could likely set up standard health insurance for vfx workers if it wished to. They can’t collude on price but I would expect it’s possible to have all companies agree not to bid below cost as seems to happen in the vfx industry.


VES 2.0
The Visual Effects Society (VES) was setup as an honorary society for professionals in the visual effects industry.  This was to provide some type of common organization to share information, help to educate and overall to help further the advancement of visual effects and those involved with visual effects.

Along those lines it was somewhat similar to The American Society of Cinematographers (ASC).  The ASC represents some of the top Cinematographers in the U.S.  They publish the American Cinematographer Magazine, run comparison tests, help to standardize, give educational presentations, etc.  You have probably seen members in film credits with the ASC after the name.  There are similar Cinematography honorary societies for many other countries.  The ASC is very selective and limited to Cinematographers (not camera assistants, operators, etc) They have  approx. 350 members. The VES is not as restrictive and is global with over 2400 members worldwide.

The ASC is an honorary society and exists to celebrate the best artists in cinematography. This fits with the other parts of this equation. The International Camera Guild is the camera union that covers cinematographers, operators, and assistants and helps to provide them collective bargaining, pay scales, benefits including health care and pension and proper working conditions. The Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (AMPTP) is a trade organization (there’s that idea again) that represents the producers/studios in negotiating with all of the film unions.

Here’s their info:
“Since 1982, The Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (AMPTP) has been the trade association responsible for negotiating virtually all the industry-wide guild and union contracts, including the American Federation of Musicians (AFM); American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA); Directors Guild of America (DGA); International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE); International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW); Laborers Local 724; Screen Actors Guild (SAG); Teamsters Local 399, and Writers Guild of America (WGA).”

The VES as noted is an honorary society and ideally there would be other groups to balance the business aspects (the union and a trade association) as there are with the rest of the motion picture industry.  The VES could not become a union or a trade associate.  It’s mandate was to be an honorary society and even if it wished to change this would require major legal and structural changes and no society would exist at that point.

It’s been evident the vfx industry has been hurting and facing some real issues.  Members have been asking the VES for help in dealing with this situation. When it became apparent that the vfx trade association was not happening and the vfx union effort was taking time the VES announced plans to do what it can as VES 2.0.  Because it’s not a union it can not collective bargain for its members.  Nor can it represent the vfx companies as an association but as noted in the announcement (and the followup update) there is strength in numbers and the VES hopes to explore solutions that will benefit the entire vfx industry.

I’m on the VES Board of Directors and on the the committee involved with this.  I can’t discuss any specifics but will say meetings are happening and we’re making progress.  The VES will be making official announcements when it’s appropriate.

Make your voice heard. Do some research.  post possible solutions.  Join a VES committee. Feel free to post comments here or email the Leadership group at the VES.  The VES Forum sometimes works as well.  Hopefully that will be improving shortly.

VES handbook thoughts?

Now that the VES visual effects handbook has been out several months it would be great to get some specific feedback. Sometime in the next 2-3 years it will likely be updated slightly.

Keep in mind the idea of the handbook was to cover the full range of visual effects from pre-production to post-production. Most people working in vfx are primarily focused in post-production but we felt it was necessary to encompass the full range. If you're already an expert in any one area we still hope it provides some useful tips or info in that area. More importantly the hope is it allows vfx artists to see the entire process, grow into other areas if they wish and to understand others facets of the process.

The idea was to provide reasonably detailed information by experts but we had a limit of 700 pages (and ended up with almost 1000 as is was). So while many of these articles could have turned into full books we wanted to provide a good base for the specific topic. We also wanted to try to balance the tone of the writing so there was a constancy even though we had 89 writers.

We tried to minimize specific software and hardware details since this was to provide the fundamentals no matter what you were using (and would avoid being out of date the moment it was released.)

So this is an opportunity to provide some feedback on the handbook. What did you like abount the handbook? Not like about it? What areas didn't we cover or cover enough? Are there particular areas that could be expanded or you felt were too long? What would make it more useful to you? It would also be good to have an idea of your experience level and specific area of interest if you're so inclined.

If the VES were to do other books in the future what would you like to see?

Emailing me would be best but you can post here if you wish.

Thanks.

VES Handbook up for a Prose award

I've been notified the VES Handbook is up for a Prose award, which is nice recognition for all of those who worked on it.

Richard Kerrigan wrote a review on Animation World Network here.

Oddly on Amazon:
1. The Kindle version isn't listed any more.  I suspect this is because we (and buyers) flagged to Focal Press that the ebook was lacking a Table of Contents so they may want to fix it before selling more copies.

2. There are at least a couple of people selling it for $122 through Amazon.  Not sure why since the book is
still available as far as I know (Amazon lists it as in stock)  

VES Handbook of Visual Effects now available in Kindle

VES Handbook of Visual Effects now available in Kindle electronic form!

VES business for film and VFX artists event

The Visual Effects Society is having an educational business event for artists.

1099 forms, payroll, insurance and other issues will be covered. Open to non members as well (for a fee)

Oct 5, 2010 in Los Angeles, CA

More details

Update:
fxguide did a write up and interview regarding this as a follow up to the event.
Read the article here.

VES Annual Meeting

For those VES Members in Southern Calif. don't forget there's the VES Annual Membership Meeting.

(This is a members only meeting.  Sorry, no guests)

When: Tomorrow, September 23, 2010

Where: Hollywood  (see email or check VES site for details)
Reception: 6pm
Meeting: 7:30

Meetings in Vancouver and San Francisco Bay as well.

There has been remote access for non-local members

VES Handbook Released

The VES Handbook of Visual Effects is now shipping. I know at least a couple of people I spoke to thought "why do we need another vfx book?" Once they saw the scope and depth of the handbook they changed their minds. It's not a tutorial. It doesn't deal with specific software or hardware. The book covers a wide range of things: budgeting, previs, shooting on set, shooting elements, color issues, digital cameras, stereo, rendering fur, video game creation, workflow, etc. We've tried to at least touch on a bit of everything and in most cases we had experts writing a detailed article. I'm hoping vfx artist of all types will find a use for it as a reference, to help fill in gaps of knowledge, tips and tricks and as a means to come up to speed on other areas of visual effects that may be outside their expertise.

If you're at SIGGRAPH this week they have some copies at the Focal Press / Morgan Kaufman booth that you can check out. (update: Told if you show your membership card you'll get the discount there)

VES members check emails for member discount.

Amazon does have it on sale at 10% less than the marked retail.

Focal Press is hoping to release the book on Kindle and as a paid eBook PDF on their site shortly. There's some conversion involved to get it into an electronic version. They are also trying to get it on the iBook store but that may take a little longer.  Kindle edition would work on any device with Kindle software - iPhone, iPad, PC/Mac, etc.  iBook version would be for the iPad and iPhone. These eBook versions will be handy to have available where ever you are.  The printed book is 922 pages.

NOTE: Focal Press did want to alert buyers that the electronic versions will be missing 70 photos that are in the printed book. These are photos from the studios or other sources that we don't have e-rights to.

PIRATE COPIES:  Please don't pirate the book.  Pirating is stealing, despite what excuses people give themselves.  Assuming you are involved in vfx you are involved in making IP (Intellectual property) that can be pirated.  I suspect you'd like to be paid for your work and the time you put into something. Respect yourself and the business you're in.  I and the other authors/editors who worked on the book chose to volunteer so the VES could provide something of value to vfx artists and that could also provide a source of revenue for the VES.   The more copies that are pirated, the less likely updates are made. This is true of any product for sale.

Focal Press will also have a place on their site that will have some extended articles which were trimmed down for the book.

I was a co-editor and did write some of the articles. I cover some of the issues from this blog but these were all re-written from scratch for the book.

Added:  Focal Press has a sample online.  The page also lists the table of contents. See link lower on that page for a sampler.   This is a section of Bill Taylor's article on shooting greenscreen/bluescreen.  This article gets into a lot detail because it's a defined technical process.  In the handbook there are a mix of articles, some that deal with very specific technical issues and some that deal with broader issues.

VES Handbook companion site - Includes author bios and extended versions of some of the articles.





10/27/2010 Update

VES Handbook of Visual Effects released for the Kindle!  Now take it with you on the Kindle, iPad, iPhone, etc.

7/20/2011 Update  Now actually out for good on the Kindle and Nook.

8/4/2010 update
I was interviewed about the handbook by fxGuide which always does a fantastic podcast.  (Subscribe through iTunes)  In the video I'm trying to blink at 24fps and as always my hands are juggling invisible objects.  Sorry. I would be remiss if I didn't mentioned fxphd, which is an great online training program created by the same team involved with fxGuide.  They cover Nuke and many of the professional packages.

One other note is someone on Amazon reviewed the book and didn't think it would help you get a shot finished.  No it won't. It was never designed to do so.  As I mentioned in the video interview if you're already an expert in any one thing and that's the only article in the book you read then you're not going to get a lot out of it.  The book is designed to provide the principles to areas outside your expertise. It does cover pre-production and production, which not all vfx artists are involved with, but are critical in seeing a shot all the way through the process.  If the live action is not shot correctly then there's less likelihood of success downstream.

There are also an infinite number of vfx shots and numerous programs and other tools that can be used so trying to come up with a solution book for all 3D rendering, compositing, animating, (etc) issues would be impossible.  You're better off getting a specific book or online class targeted your specific software applications (and kept up to date).

You can post comments here for what changes/additions you'd like to see in the next update. I view the handbook like a software application that will get updates and have improvements made to it.  If you're a VES member there's a specific area of the forums at the VES site to provide feedback as well.

VES Handbook of Visual Effects

I'm told the VES Handbook should be available July 30 (currently listed as Aug 13 on Amazon).
960 pages of info written by 88 vfx professionals. (I wrote a few articles and was a co-editor)
Full color.

It is available as a pre-order from Amazon (10% discount) and I would expect many cinema related bookstores would carry it. The VES was exploring discounts for members but no word on this.

The current plan is to try to provide it in eBook format as well for Kindle and iBook but when those options will be available I don't know.

Update:

For full details on the handbook and it's release, please follow link below.

Latest Info: Handbook has been released posting.