Visual Effects Trade Association

At SIGGRAPH John Textor announced he was giving Scott Ross $100,000 to help start a visual effects trade association.

This is probably a good thing.

What is a trade association?
It's a group of companies in a specific industry that organize together to achieve common  goals. The MPAA  is a trade association of motion picture studios that negotiates as a group with the guilds and unions of hollywood. They standardize and provide film ratings. They are also involved in anti-piracy protection.

There's trade associations in quite a few industries. International Dairy Foods Association  covers the nation and Dairy Institute of California is made up of dairy farmers in California.  Because they cover a specific area they then lobby the state or federal government for or  against specific bills that would affect them. Some trade organizations do group advertising as well or set standards for their industry.

TechAmerica is made up of  high tech companies.
Wiki coverage of trade associations 

As you can see these groups are able to leverage their strength in numbers to their advantage. In many ways a trade associate is like a union or guild for companies. The companies pay dues and they are working as an organized group.

Scott Ross originally estimated the association would require $3 million a year to operate. He's since cut that figure in half so the $100,000 he is receiving is seed money. And the company dues will be significant compared to a few hundred dollars most guilds charge their workers. Dues in the trade association could dwarf the cost of a company unionizing.

What could the trade association do?
They could agree on standards and practices such as visual effects bidding forms or even things like model interchange formats. The Association of Independent Commercial producers (AICP)  has standardized bidding forms and bidding processes among other things. Although my understanding now is that this may not have truly benefited the producers in the long run.

They could agree to working conditions for their workers. They could use their strength in numbers to make deals with software or hardware vendors. They could review basic business models and work as an organization with the studios to negotiate common issues.

If there were a visual effects union the trade association could be the ones to negotiate with the union compared to each each company having to do it individually.

What they have to be very careful of
Collusion. This is where companies get together to decide on financial or hiring practices that are illegal. ILM and Pixar colluded to not hire each others animators. That was illegal as per the justice department. They won't be able to set rates or agree to match pricing. Because it's planned as an international association it will have to abide by laws that affect all nations.

What it can't do
The association is currently planned as an international group. You'll notice most trade associations are region based where they can lobby for specific things. With an international group they won't be able to lobby any specific government because that would be detrimental to other members of the association. So that means things like visual effects tax incentives will likely not be addressed or dealt with.

Companies
There will also be a question as to how many companies and what size of companies signup. So far visual effects companies have been reluctant to start a trade association on their own. Will they be willing to join one if someone else starts it? Will it provide a balance for very small companies and the largest visual effects companies? In some ways it can help provide the smaller companies with more leverage but only if that's the leverage the smaller company wants. Will companies who aren't members benefit from the improvements the association makes? Will studios seek out associate member companies or avoid them? Will the the studios take umbrage with companies looking to join the association as some companies do to workers who are looking to join a guild? That all depends on the associations agreed upon agenda. It's also very dependent on which companies and how many are in the association. If all the largest companies are members then there may not be much option for the clients.

Time
It will be interesting to see how long it takes to build a trade association and come to agreement on key issues. This is likely to be a very time consuming process (at least a year or more).

Comparison
As mentioned a trade association in some ways is like a union or guild for the companies. By organizing together they provide a strength in numbers and solidarity that independent companies don't have. Same thing applies to unions and guilds. They provide a strength in numbers and solidarity to individual workers that they don't have by themselves.

The distinction is a trade organization has  different goals than a guild. The trade organization's goal would be actions that are  beneficial to the companies. A guild's goal is actions beneficial to the workers. More profitable and balanced companies would be good for the visual effects industry as a whole but doesn't necessarily result in benefits for the workers. The trickle down effect does not work. A more profitable company will tend to pass the additional profits on to investors, executive management and possible long term investments. None of this may address hiring and layoff practices and it's unlikely to provide things like continuous health care or limited overtime.

In fact a trade association could make decisions on practices that are detrimental to visual effects artists. (Amount of overtime, overtime pay, employment agreements, etc) Only time will tell how this plays out. If that's the case then individuals who quit specific companies because of certain practices may find that most other companies are now doing the same thing. Individuals have very little power when dealing with a single company and will have much less with an organized group of companies. A trade association may be even more of a reason to look at a guild as a way to keep some balance.

Summary
A visual effects trade association could be a good thing for the visual effects industry if it actually materializes and takes the necessary steps. It won't deal with tax incentives and some of the other ills of the industry. It doesn't  and shouldn't preclude a guild for visual effects artists.

[Update: DD closed operations in Florida and the company has been sold. The $100,000 being offered to help start the Trade Association didn't happen. Scott Ross had obtained a number of yeses and at least a couple of Nos. Not sure how likely it will proceed at this point.]

Why do visual effects costs so much?

Why do visual effects costs so much?

This question comes up constantly even from those who should know better. Many simply wish to ignore the reasons. If you haven’t done so yet please read The Value of Visual Effects post to put this perspective. Discussing costs doesn’t mean anything unless you place a value on it.

Here is a typical response in Hollywood:

Peter Berg, Director of BATTLESHIP, was interviewed on a podcast recently.

Berg: But the money is all going to… the business to be in is ILM. That’s whose making all the money..

Masters: The effects houses.

Berg: Yeah in particular ILM. I mean and they do great work but its what these films cost because you’ve got these giant visual effects components and they dictate the prices on them.


There a number of flaws in this thinking.

Myth 1: Visual effects are the majority of the costs. This may or may not be true depending on the specific project. Normally visual effects are less than 1/2 of the project even for 'visual effects films'. 1/5 to 1/3 is a more likely scenario. But if a movie is made almost entirely with visual effects in every shot and they’re complex visual effects it will be a correspondently larger portion of the budget.

Myth 2: High costs means high profits. Just because a line item is expensive doesn’t mean that there is a corresponding profit. Amount of costs and profit are independent issues. Just as a movie itself may be expensive but that doesn’t guarantee a huge profit.

Myth 3: ILM or any other visual effects company dictate the prices. Obviously they have to quote a price but they can hardly charge whatever they wish or make huge mark-ups. The market doesn’t allow it.  If that price is too high the studios simply go elsewhere.

Myth 4: All visual effects have huge mark-ups and profits. Even in the days before digital effects producers were all convinced that visual effects companies were raking them over the coals because they had what the producers wanted. Producers were (and still are) convinced visual effects companies were simply adding huge markups because they could. These people are convinced if they only knew some of the mystic technobabble they could get the work done for a fraction of the price.


Reality:
Short version: Visual Effects is incredibly time consuming and labor intensive work done for very little profit. In some cases it may actually cost less for the studio than the real costs incurred. Changes and compressed schedules  increase the costs further.

Related posts:
Visual Effects are inexpensive
The Miracle of Visual Effects

Full version:
Visual effects is a very competitive market worldwide. There are a lot of visual effects companies and all of them eager to get work so competition alone does not allow any company to have huge mark-ups.

The visual effects industry suffers from tax incentives in other states and countries. Some as much as 40% off. Note that these figures are not reduction of taxes but actually funds applied directly or indirectly to a movie. That means it’s not a level completive field and any visual effects company in California has to drop their prices if they wish to compete with other companies on the basis of price. Many visual effects companies actually underbid the work when required to try to keep money coming in. This means in some cases it’s costing the studio less than it actually costs. Same thing with the tax incentives. In those cases the local tax payers are in fact helping to fund the movie and thereby lower the studios expense for the visual effects.

The amount of work for visual effects companies fluctuates widely so when it’s all said and done on a yearly basis most visual effects companies make razor thin profits or may be further in debt. Many visual effects companies have gone out of business. Some of the ones still operating do so because they have the backing of a large corporation or individual with deep pockets. Some companies are able to stay afloat because they are in a country or area with tax incentives. There’s good work done all around the world and price is not the only factor studios look at but the visual effects industry would be much different if there were no tax incentives.

If visual effects were really such a profit center the studios and investors would be breaking down the door to buy or create their own visual effects companies. Some studios have had their own visual effects departments in the past. Disney had Secret Lab and Image Movers at different times. They closed both. The only major studio currently with a visual effects component is Sony with their Sony Imageworks. Sony had moved a number of jobs to Albuquerque, New Mexico a few years ago in an attempt to get in on the New Mexico tax incentives. They’ve now closed that and are moving many jobs to Vancouver for the tax incentives there. There may be a future where all visual effects for Hollywood based movies are all done out of this country simply due to tax incentives. This is the outsourcing that isn’t talked about.

See the Digital Domain IPO documents showing one of the more successful California companies. They’re trying to make animated films, getting involved in for profit schools and getting money from Florida in an attempt to make money since visual effects is not cutting it for them.

[Update: 7/21/2012  New Digital Domain news item
Textor said investors are punishing Digital Domain because of the low-margin nature of its visual effects business.
...
In the first quarter of 2012, Digital Domain reported a loss of $14.8 million on revenue of $31.1 million.  

Digital Domain is one of the largest and more successful visual effects businesses in the U.S. And it lost $14.8 million in a single quarter. Hardly the idea of a big profit center. What if they had billed the full out of pocket costs? ]

[Update: 9/11/2012 Digital Domain has closed it's Florida facility and has spun off their visual effects group for a much smaller amount and filed for chapter 11 for the main holding company. This after going with a full IPO less than a year ago. No, visual effects is not a big profit center. ]


Most of the larger animation companies create their own content and receive the profits from how well the films do. Visual effects companies at times have a small percent of a film but most of the time the companies are doing work for hire.

Live Action Movies:
The blame for high priced movies seems to be placed directly on visual effects by some people but lets look at non-visual effects films.
Why are movies so expensive to make even without visual effects?

That’s a common question for laypeople. Why should it costs millions to make a movie let alone $100 million or more? How long can it possibly take to shoot a 2 hour movie? And isn’t it all done by a handful of movie people?

Time:
A movie typically takes a year to make from green light (approved funding) to theaters. That’s after possibly spending years in development. There’s a pre-production stage (building sets, casting, working on the script, finding locations, etc) that can be a few months, production (filming) can take 40 to 100+ shooting days. A 100 shooting day schedule is 20 weeks. The shoot days are the most expensive days of the film because there’s a large crew working so the more shoot days the more expensive the film, all things being equal. And time is the gold standard for shooting such that production is guiding the director to do it as quickly as possible and to remain on schedule. Once shooting is finished the film goes into post-production. This is when editing happens along with sound mixing, composing, recording of the music and this is when most of the visual effects work is done. This is also the most likely compressed stage since the movie has already been booked into theaters and that date cannot be changed. So studios tend to provide shorter post-production schedules than in the past. sometimes this requires the director to edit and lock sequences even before the filming is finished just so there is enough time to do the visual effects.


Costs:
Even non-visual effects films can be very expensive. Ignore high actor salaries and marketing costs. Even looking at just below the line costs (crew) on a large production. Camera crew, grips, electrics, wardrobe, makeup,  audio crew, etc. And consider all the people not on the set that are required to make a movie - art dept. with carpenters, painters and others making sets, orchestra, sound mixers, sound effects, etc. Watch the credits of a large non visual effects film and see how many people are listed. Those are skilled, experienced, talented people being paid a reasonable rate for the services they provide in this freelance world. That’s hundreds of people. It’s as if you started a company, staffed it up and ran it for a year before any revenues appear. That’s expensive.

Labor:
Few people actually sit down and consider the enormous cost of labor.  I’ll be making up some numbers so don’t take these as actuals or even averages. Let’s suppose we had 300 people working on a project at an average rate of $80,000 a year. The average income in the US in theory is around $30,000-$55,000 a year but most in the film industry don’t work full time over the year and this also has to take into account overtime which most jobs don’t have so don’t assume even someone making $80,000 rate ends up with $80,000 at the end of the year.  That’s 300 people at $320 a day = $96,000 a day in expenses just for labor. Now you can adjust the number of people or the income either way but the fact is labor is more expensive than most people realize. Even in this example that’s $480,000 a week (almost 1/2 million dollars) A 6 month project with these people will rack up $12 million just in labor costs. It would be $15 million if the average rate was $100,000. Add all the extras costs (building, supplies, support, rentals, etc) and adjust for overtime and work required. In the case of a movie add in the high priced talent, directors and other above the line costs along with transportation, locations, equipment and other costs as well as marketing.

Take a look at the company you work for. How many people work there and what’s their average pay? This will help you calculate how much money needs to be coming in just to break even on labor alone. Don’t forget most workers get benefits so the cost to the company per person is above and beyond just their rates.

The visual effects work:
Each visual effects shot (5-8 seconds typically) is unique. It's the same as having to do a complete new setup in live action which requires changing the camera position and the lighting. In many cases even shots can be equivalent to the doing a full 'company' move where the live action crew has to travel and setup at a new location. a time consuming and expensive process.

In a previous article I noted that shots are like snowflakes since no two are identical.  I compared them to oil paintings. Another analogy is to consider the visual effects crew is constructing a building based on nothing but a sketch on the back of a napkin and the specifics of where walls go and what carpet is selected for each different room is in constant flux. Creativity combined with technically challenging work, fixed bids, changes and deadlines does not make the process easy. I don't think there is another industry like visual effects that has this same type of business model.

Visual Effects expenses:
Beyond what most businesses have as basic expenses (buildings, desks, basic services, etc) visual effects companies have to provide at least one high end computer per worker. These tend to be top of the line fast computers with a lot of memory, large hard disks and advanced graphics cards and graphics tablets. Each needs  to be loaded with high end graphics software. In addition there’s typically at least one large room with racks and racks of computers for rendering the images you see. These are the render farms and usually have special power and air conditioning needs that make them very expensive. All of these computer systems require advanced and costly wiring along with an IT department to support it all. Hundreds or thousands of shots at 24 high resolution images a second times dozens of elements equates to a lot of storage space that needs to be maintained and archived to avoid losing critical work.

Visual effects companies have screening rooms and editors with editing systems so they can be synced to the production. They have special security systems as mandated by the MPAA to keep all studio materials under safeguards. Many companies have at least a small insert stage to shoot elements and odds and ends as required. A visual effects company may also have a motion capture stage, 3D scanners and model shop or have to sub-contract this type of work when required.

Hidden crew:
But even with these expenses the labor is the largest cost for doing visual effects. This labor is the hidden crew. Most directors and producers seldom see much of the visual effects crew because these crews work away from the studio. Even for those directors that visit the  companies they likely only see part of the crew and since most visual effects these days are spread out over multiple companies (shorter time schedules) the work is being done all over the world (thanks in part to tax incentives).

On a live action set most of the crew is standing there, ready to work. It’s obvious that decisions need to be made to keep these people productive and there is a schedule for what needs to be accomplished everyday. Since most of the visual effects crew is out of sight, they’re out of mind. There’s a disconnect to making decisions and changes and what that relates to in terms of costs and time. On a set if the director turns the other way and wants an elaborate set built the cost and crew time is evident to all. In many cases the notion may be dismissed as not being worth it. A director is constantly making decisions and makes a number of compromises at all steps of production. Should the director shoot another 10 takes of the actor to try to get a better take? Should they try a totally different angle or camera move? Make adjustments to the set? At some point the director has to move on if they want to make their day and complete the film in the number of shooting days budgeted.

Disconnect:
But none of that is evident when working with visual effects. Adding a 100 shots or doing 100 takes of an animation only takes a request. What impact it has on the schedule and costs is seldom considered. Because of the competitive nature of visual effects and the fact that the number of potential clients (the studios) is less than a dozen, companies forego many change orders, thereby lowering the price of doing the actual visual effects work even more.

And this is another disconnect. Just about everyone else working on a production is  employed by the production company directly. Should they be required to work more days or hours they tend to be paid. And crew members are union members except for visual effects workers. Visual effects people are primarily employed by a visual effects companies and not the production companies. Most are freelance and have to switch projects to keep working. Artists may or may not be paid overtime. They also may or may not get benefits. All depends on the company and location.

Color correcting, making film prints and other services are done at a lab. Sound mixing is done at a sound company. These types of companies typically work on a time and material basis. If the director wishes to spend another day making adjustments then that cost is obvious and billed accordingly. A visual effects company bids on a fixed bid even with partial information. Even with accepted change orders this tends to whittle down any planned profits.

Visual effects crew size:
The number of people working on visual effects varies with the scope of the work. It's not unusual for a major visual effects film to require hundreds or more people. On larger projects the size of the visual effects can easily eclipse the size of the rest of the crew. Next time you're at a large visual effects film sit through the entire credit list. There are a lot of people listed under visual effects. And usually there will be quite a few companies listed. Note that you won't actually see the full list of all visual effects people who worked on a film. The end credits is usually a partial list since the studios only allow so many credits to each company depending on the contracts. There may be people from visual effects not listed that worked for a year but it's likely someone who was an assistant to an assistant getting coffee for a week on the set is in the credits.

What do all of these people do:
(I'll have a post in the future listing the various positions. The Visual Effects Society lists over 200 job titles) [Update: Here's that post that sits many, but not all, key positions. In some cases there may be a few dozen people in the same position, working on different shots. ]

A visual effects company is like a mini-studio with a wide range of artists and craftspeople.  In pre-production artists are drawing and designing, modelers are sculpting every set, actor, prop and location required to be rendered. Everything is built from scratch. Every computer graphics actor or creature needs a skeleton and skin that moves correctly. Texture painters are painting everything down to the finger nail or leaf. Specialists are focused on how the clothing moves.

If the project was shot on film a small team will be going through every frame and painting out the dirt. Yes, there are a number of jobs in visual effects that require working on every frame. By hand. Others are hand tracing actors in specific scenes so new backgrounds can be replaced. Anywhere something had to be removed (stunt rig, etc) needs someone to hand paint it out. Remember that film is running at 24 images a second. Visual effects on a 2 hour movie could be  a lot of frames (172,800 frames). Most movies probably around 2000 shots - visual effects films likely have at least 500 or more shots. In some cases every shot in the film is worked on.

Match movers have to create a computer camera that exactly matches what the real camera did. Animators have to animate any computer graphics actors or creatures. Lighters and others will have to light scenes just like a cinematographer. All of these images have to be calculated and rendered. And then compositors work to combine all of these images into the final shot to be used in the movie. In addition visual effects requires a supervisor, producer, editor and numerous other support people.

Visual effects time:
Visual effects is one of the first departments involved on a project in pre-production  (or should be ) and continues until the end of post-production. This can be a year or more on large projects. Remember that a large animation film probably averages 3 years. Post-production time is frequently being squeezed into 4 to 9 months. Because post-production time is less than it used to be most of the crews start working overtime from the start. The films release date is locked so it's not unusual for the last few weeks or even months require working 80+ hour work weeks. 24 hour work days are not unheard of.

Computers:
The question of computers comes up as well. Don't computers do all the work anyway? NO. A camera doesn't film a scene by itself and a word processor doesn't write a script. The computer is simply a tool. And no, there is no magic button on the keyboard to do the work.

Computers are getting faster so why aren't visual effects a lot cheaper and faster to make? Just as a faster computer doesn't allow a writer to now create a novel in a day it doesn't allow a visual artist to do a shot in a shorter time. Much of the time is spent thinking, planning and working. Any speed ups or reduction in costs due to improvements of techniques and people is eclipsed by the next project since it requires more shots that are even more complex in a shorter period of time. Many movies are about taking it up to the next notch for the audience. That next notch absorbs any gains. Newer requirements also demand extra time and labor - 3D, 4k resolution, and/or higher frame rates.

Base cost:
All of this totals up to a  large price to have a very large crew of very talented, skilled and experienced people working long hours over this length of time. Consider  that the companies had to provide a fixed bid based on how many people and how much time was required, simply based on storyboards and some previs. (rough animations) They also have to estimate how much a new and never before seen effect for the film will cost. Calculated in these budgets is the assumption of how many takes will be required by the director.

The reality:
If the company estimated 4 takes per shot it's just as likely the director will require 12 takes for every shot. And that's just the start of things that happen to the 'profits' of visual effects. On a location in a forest clearing the director may decide to replace the sky for the entire sequence. Seems a simple enough task given all the other work the companies are doing but now people have to try to separate the existing sky in every shot. Some of that may be possible using semi-automated techniques but more than likely it will require a team of rotoscopers (artists who trace to create mattes). Every leaf and branch needs to be traced and any actor (and their hair) have to be separated. Maybe a prop doesn't work. That's added to the list as well to be added or replaced later in visual effects. If a stunt or special effects action doesn't quite work or isn't as big as the director wanted, that's added to the visual effects shot list.

When projecting the dailies in a theater after the shoot is finished, the studio may notice they don't care for the makeup or may spot wig netting or other flaws in the footage. That's added to the list of visual effects shots. Boom mics and crew members in shots are also added to the list. Some shots that were originally planned to have no visual effects now require them based on the edit. Based on test screenings there may be a need for reshoots or new scenes to be shot. Since the sets may have been struck or the actors may not have time to go back the location, these are shot as greenscreens with the visual effects company responsible to add the backgrounds and match all the other footage.

There are times when visual effects are held to a different standard than live action. On a location if a stunt car rolls over for a couple of takes the director may accept it and move on. The shot works fine in the movie. It may not be exactly what the director had in mind but it tells the story. Since visual effects can control everything down to the pixel with precise adjustment the director and studio may wish to tweak and adjust down to the last minutia. If the stunt car was done as a visual effects shot it may be requested to make it roll 6 frames earlier and to roll 5 degrees more. On the 20th take it may be decided to hit a specific parking meter which needs to bend at a specific angle.

Most of this feedback and the changes requested are sent to the hidden visual effects crews. Since these people are seldom seen (with the exception of some people in Skype conferences) it's easy to lose sight of the labor costs being incurred daily. Also unseen is the amount of work and overtime being put in to making the visual effects.

The need to get all of the shots done by the finals deadline drives the pacing. It's easy to spend months on a small number of shots and tweak them and then end up rushing the last batch of shots. The quality of visual effects shots in most cases is directly proportional to the time allowed to finish and polish them. Rushed shots will have flaws and that's why companies sometimes push for a CBB (Could Be Better) shot status. It's not perfect but it can work in the movie. If time permits some or all of these will revisited but that's better than the alternative of tweaking shots the first batch of shots and having a week to finish half the movie.

Remember this all started with a fixed bid for a specific number of shots in a specific time frame. The deadline never changes so the companies now find themselves having to do many more visual effects shots with increased complexity all in the same time frame. In some cases there may be clear changes that enable submitting change orders. But in many cases such as increased noodling and takes, it's a gray area. That tends to erode much of the profits the company was able to build into the original bid.

The amount of work flowing into a visual effects company can also fluctuate a lot. They may finish a very large project and then have a few months with no or little work. Many of the crew are laid off but there's still a need to keep a core team along with paying for all the overhead costs. Any profits made on projects will have to pay for these lulls in production.

Extra costs:
But that's not the end of the story. Many decisions may be delayed. There's usually no one keeping the post-production moving in the manner that the live action was. Sequences aren't turned over while edits and re-edits are done. The studio and director may have conflicting ideas. Test screenings popup with little notice. Results of test screenings require more changes. Sequences are added. Shots and sequences that had been approved 2 months earlier need to be redone with major changes. In some cases the majority of the visual effects happen in the last month or two of the film. What had been scheduled for 6 months must now be done in a fraction of that time and it must be done well. The deadline remains fixed since it must be in theaters as scheduled. And it's not like they can just hire another 1000 people to help out at that stage and make up for the added work. No, the original team will have to put even more hours a day and work 7 days a week. The more hours worked the lower the productivity of the workers. Some work may be farmed out to other companies when possible as 911 emergency calls are made. But that comes with a price of time and money as those companies get up to speed.

To put this in perspective think how much it would cost a live action production to scrap a month of shooting and be required to build new sets and reshoot on new sets, all in the period of a week.

If the artists are compensated for the overtime then prices really start to skyrocket. And more than likely after this big push most of these artists will be laid off until the next rushed project comes through the door.

And that is why visual effects cost so much.



Related posts:
Visual Effects are inexpensive
The Miracle of Visual Effects
Visual Effects - The Big Picture
VFX Business Models
How VFX is perceived by at least one DP
People, not computers, create visual effects
Getting the most out of your VFX Budget

The Value of Visual Effects

The Value of Visual Effects

There’s often discussions about the costs of visual effects. But for now let’s take a look at something seldom discussed and that’s the value of visual effects.

What are the benefits of visual effects? - Story telling freedom.
Freedom for filmmakers, writers and directors to tell any story they like.  Humans have been telling stories since communication made it possible. Verbal and written story telling can and does cover everything imaginable. A writer has full freedom to do anything including having their main character turn into a giant cockroach. Myths from around the world describe actions and creatures that don't exist in real life. Even the Bible has a number of stories that would be difficult to realize beyond the written word and paintings.

The various mediums of story telling all have their place and good stories are tailor made for each medium. Converting a novel to a film script takes specific writing skills to boil the essence down to 2 hours. It also means that writer descriptions that would form images in the readers mind now need to be generated in photographic reality for the movie viewer.

Visual effects
Visual effects have been used in films almost from the beginning of movies. Méliès used visual effects extensively in the early 1900's. (More info on Méliès) Since that time visual effects have been used frequently and not just for special purposes. Some movies used matte paintings to add ceilings that were non-existent on the sets. Visual effects continued to evolve and provide sights not viable to actually film. Their style tended to be in keeping with the film styles of the day (shooting outdoor scenes on sets, rear projection, etc). But visual effects were not without their limits. Camera moves and other restrictions were simply due to the limits of the technology at that time.

With the advent of digital and computer graphics as tools for visual effects, artists are now able to have full control over their images in a way not possible before. These are in addition to their toolbox of previous techniques including models and miniatures when desired.

Almost all films coming out of Hollywood use visual effects to some extent and even many independent films have visual effects. Keep in mind that visual effects is not just for science fiction and fantasy films. They can be used extensively in period films and even in present day comedies. FIVE YEAR ENGAGEMENT used visual effects. WAR HORSE used visual effects extensively including some of the field shots, leaping horse, etc. FOREST GUMP showed an actor missing a leg.

Visual effects cover such things as:

Creating entirely virtual shots
Changing the background
Creating the background
Adding actors, characters or creatures
Changing actors
Adding objects or props
Removing objects
Obscuring objects
Specialized speed changes
Fixing problems on the set, adding eye effects, removing wig netting, etc.

The visual effects team works closely not only with the director but also the cinematographer. Working with the production designer we can expand the sets that are built or build sets that would be impossible to build for real. Working with the stunt team we can remove their rigs (car ramps, wires), help to provide the visuals needed while trying to maintain reasonable safety and can extend or create a stunt if it’s not possible. Working with the special effects* team we can hide their rigs if required and expand and enhance what they’re able to provide. Working with the wardrobe department we can expand the capabilities of their costumes when required (IRON MAN, BLACK SWAN, etc) Each of these departments are very helpful in providing visual effects with what we require to get the best material.

Visual effects is normally focused on the augmentation or modification of live action but visual effects artists and tools are also used for:

Computer graphics animated films (Pixar, Dreamworks, Sony Animation, etc)
Video games
Previsualization
2D to 3D conversion
Titles
Logos
Special venues and multimedia (in addition of course to films, television and commercials)

Now to those of you who may hate visual effects or computer graphics keep in mind you’ve already seen an incredible number of visual effects shots and never even noticed. Much of the work done is not over the top theatrics. In many cases it’s to allow productions the option of shooting something elsewhere or to fix problems on the set (boom mics, makeup, etc). Even television shows like Ugly Betty did a couple of years with green screen to place the characters in New York. Unlikely that most viewers even noticed.

Next time you watch a period film consider that many of the buildings you see may not exist or may be currently covered in tv satellite dishes. The bay you see in the background filled with ships was likely added.

Visual effects artists and craftspeople have been developing and refining their tools for decades. Digital Intermediates (DI) is used for color correcting films. These and many of the digital tools that film productions use daily were pioneered by visual effect artists.

So we are now at a point where just about anything that can be imagined can be created on the screen and look good. Realistic when required or fantastical when required depending on the production.

When visual effects don’t look good these days it’s likely:

Too little time (changes or additions to visual effects from the director or studio can happen up to the final week of work). This means there’s no final polish or in many cases not even a chance to do a good take. And these days many productions start with too little time to begin with.
Selecting a visual effects company or people that may not be up to the task or lack experience with specific aspects.
Poor shot design
Poor creature design
Not being able to shoot the required elements as planned
Not enough time on set to gather necessary images and data

Freedom
In the end studios no longer have to leave scripts on the shelf for years because they’re not doable (DRAGONHEART, WATCHMEN, BENJAMIN BUTTON, LORD OF THE RINGS, etc). Directors and writers have complete freedom to bring their imagination to the screen and to tell just about any story in the manor they wish to. At least as far as visual effects is concerned.

The amount of control and freedom for a director is almost unlimited. That along with the fact many movies are concerned with pushing the envelope creates some sequences where the believability is pushed too far. Where the onslaught of in your face imagery causes audience overload or eye rolling. This happens with stunts and special effects when they are pushed too far as well and the audience says ’oh come on’.


Box-office

In addition to allowing filmmakers freedom of story and flexibility to change or modify scenes, visual effects certainly help the studio’s bottom line. Film is a visual medium that can be shown and appreciated all over the world. Visual effects can provide unique worlds, views and characters that ignite the imagination of those that see them. They can provide the spectacle that goes with specific types of stories.

If you look at the top box-office list of 25 or 50 films you’ll notice almost all of them required visual effects and in many cases they are full of visual effects.

Here's US top films
Here's the Worlds top films

Hard to find non-visual effects films, especially in the world list.

Studios choose to visual effects heavy films as tent pole films because they’re profitable. With some of the top films earning over a billion dollars the sum total of successful films in which visual effects played a significant role is staggering.

[Note that I’m not saying all films need visual effects or that the film world revolves around visual effects. I’m a fan of well told stories of all types. I’m simply documenting the current state of visual effects and what the potential is. Visual effects do not make a story better or worse, just that they allow bringing certain types of stories to the movies.]

A world without visual effects
Try to imagine many of the top films without visual effects. STAR WARS without space, spaceships, lasers. TRANSFORMERS without the Transformers. The MATRIX without bullet time and impossible physics. AVATAR without it’s world, without it’s plants, creatures and Na ‘vi. TITANIC without the water and the entire ship. ALICE IN WONDERLAND without the world and characters. HARRY POTTER without the magic. JURASSIC PARK without the dinosaurs.

Look at this year so far - AVENGERS, SPIDERMAN, MEN IN BLACK 3, SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN, BRAVE, PROMETHEUS and a number of other films with 5 months still to go.

It’s hard to begin to imagine these films without visual effects. Needless to say these films would have not done nearly as well without visual effects. It’s likely they wouldn’t have been attempted without visual effects. Showing an actor saying ‘You should see what I’m seeing right now, it’s fantastic’, seeing actors jumping around in front of a green screen or painted cyc or adding a Prologue at the start of a film to ignore certain aspects (such as tv dishes in a period film) would not tend to make for a great movie going experience. A play, musical or opera tend to be confined to a live stage and as such the audience accepts the limits as they’re presented. These days however most film audiences are looking for a sense of reality in the movies (even if the movie is a fantasy).

As we can see visual effects provide both monetary and creative advantages to the studios and filmmakers. They play a very important role, especially today, in not only the movie industry but in television, commercials and other content.

Visual effects and the shooting process
Many directors in Hollywood not only accept visual effects but embrace them for being able to provide the vision they need for their film projects. These directors usually get the most out of their visual effects budget. However not everyone agrees. Some directors would prefer to consider effects a necessary evil and put them lower on the priority list, even when working on a super hero or talking goat movie. In this case the super hero powers or the talking goat are likely the key things in the trailer and one of the main reasons the audience is interested to see the movie. But some choose not to acknowledge the value that visual effects can bring to their project.

In some cases the directors don’t interview potential visual effects supervisors but simply let the studios or someone else make that selection for them. Do they approach hiring of the cinematographer and other key creatives in the same way? Unlikely.

The attitude of the director, producer and 1st assistant director has much to do with how successful the shooting process is to the visual effects crew. One of the aspects of creating great visual effects is to shoot the footage correctly for visual effects to begin with. This means typically having the visual effects supervisor and a small group of people to take references. Because we have to create and very precisely combine multiple images together we want to make sure we know exactly where we can place the objects and make sure to light them to match. Shooting references involves holding up a gray and silver sphere in front of camera or shooting with a special camera setup.

When shooting, a large amount of time is spent setting up to get the shots. A 2 hour movie may have a shooting schedule from 40 to 100+ days. Each day can cost $100,000-$300,000 or more depending on the size of the project. Each setup takes time. The grips may lay down dolly tracks or a ‘dance floor’ to shot. The cinematographer spends time lighting the set and the other departments prepare. The audio department records 30 seconds of silence at each location to make sure they have the raw materials they need in doing the final sound mix and edit later. The entire crew is silent during these takes. When an airplane flies overhead it’s likely the crew holds until it passes so they can record good audio. Yet when the visual effects team needs to spend a minute shooting a reference it’s not unusual to get eye rolling and gnashing of teeth. “You’re slowing us down. We’re trying to make a movie here.” are common phrases heard at that time. They easily forget that most of the movie is being completed later in visual effects and visual effects are critical to the success of the movie. As pointed out visual effects may have enabled the project even to be made but some crews look at visual effects as the lower department. On the better projects it’s all part of the process from the beginning and not a problem.

There may be times during shooting that the visual effects crew is not scheduled or have been released for the day. But that doesn’t stop production from sometimes attempting to shoot visual effects on their own. They don’t try to shoot shots if the camera crew isn’t there. They don’t try to do a stunt or start a fire without their respective departments being there.

On shows with a lot of visual effects there’s the notion that anything can be done and that it’s all in the budget. Rather than removing something from set or location (8 x 8 ft silk, compressor, truck, etc) the crew will sometimes ask if visual effects can simply remove it. They suggest they can cover it green as if that provides us the magic fix. If production is running behind schedule, something isn’t working (such as a prop), or hasn’t arrived (contact lenses, etc) then production has a tendency to push that onto the ever growing visual effects list. We barely have enough time and money to do the planned work let alone this ‘extra’ work but since the studios typically have visual effects and live action as different budgets that is not of concern except to those who see the big picture.

And of course the cost of visual effects is brought up frequently.
So why use visual effects (in addition to the reasons provide at the start):
1. It’s cheaper than the alternative. Consider how much it would cost to destroy a city or a planet. Visual effects don’t look as expensive in that context.

2. It offers more precise control. Since time is money on set and the director may want exact control or the option to precisely change it later, visual effects may be the correct option.

3. Not enough time. Maybe you have the money to build an entire castle but do you have enough time to do so before shooting starts?

4. It’s not possible any other way. Floating space ships, talking dragons, people flying and shooting lasers are not exactly easy things to obtain. How long would it take and how much money would it require to build the Transformers? How long would it take to genetically produce a dragon?

Keep in mind visual effects models and environments have to be created from scratch. We can't rent a house to shoot in or props to fill it. We can't rent a field to shoot on. We have to build and paint everything from scratch. When we move our characters or creatures we have to make sure their feet touch the ground without going into the ground or floating above it. Many of the things taken for granted in live action has to be worked out in great detail in visual effects.

Summary
Visual effects allows filmmakers an incredible freedom to bring any story they wish to the screen from a creative and technical standpoint.

Visual effects  are used in just about all films, above and beyond just science fiction and fantasy films.

Visual effects film do very well all over the world. The top box-office films of all time use visual effects and most use visual effects extensively.

Visual effects artists are the only group involved in Hollywood filmmaking that don’t have a union. Most are freelance project to project just like other film jobs. Visual effects craftsmen work long hours like other film people and at times are likely to be putting in 80 or 90+ hours a week for weeks or months at a time due to compressed schedules and last minute changes. Much of visual effects is outsourced around the world due to film tax incentives just like some of the jobs in Hollywood. Some artists have to uproot their families and move to other countries in an attempt to remain employed. I believe to get the best out of people you should respect them.  Given all that visual effects brings to films, the people who make them and the people who watch them, I think visual effects artists deserve the same respect as the other departments and workers in the film industry.

Related Post

The Miracle of Visual Effects, will it continue?  - images show what visual effects can do

Why do Visual Effects cost so much?
Visual Effects are Inexpensive


*Special effects are explosions, breakaways, wire rigs and other on set work as opposed to visual effects which is about images and primarily done in post-production.

Getting a Visual Effects job

Getting a Visual Effects job

This article is primarily for professionals who are already working in the visual effects business.

If you’re just starting out make sure to read the post on Career in Visual Effects and Visual Effects Schools. Is this the right career for you, do you have a specific area you’re focused on and have you learned enough to be able to do high quality work in a reasonable amount of time without having step by step instructions?

Here are some of the positions in visual effects - Visual Effects Positions

If you’re exploring visual effects then take a look at job listings to get an idea of the different jobs and requirements. That should give you a guide for what you need to strive for if those are the types of jobs you want to work on. Also be sure to check their locations so you know where in the world the job postings are coming from. Do NOT become focused on the pay. If that’s what you’re focused on you should just move onto another career. While the pay for visual effects is good you have to normalize if you want to compare it in any meaningful way to other jobs. You will be working longer hours, may only be employed half the year and may or may not get any benefits (including health care) or overtime pay.

Companies don’t tend to hire year round. They typically hire when they have been awarded a project and need additional people to complete the project. Remember that most visual effects work tends to be project to project freelance.

The order of hiring:
1. People already working at a visual effects company are retained to work on the new project

2. People who have worked at the visual effects company in the past (and were good) who have been laid off between projects are rehired.

3. People who are professionals with experience who have been recommend by someone at the company.

4. People who are professionals with experience.

5. People who have the knowledge but still have yet to get the experience.

Occasionally companies may hire people with no knowledge of visual effects but these are likely for non-visual effects related work, production assisting or for rudimentary work when they need people quickly and are willing to bring people up to speed with just enough knowledge to do the specific task.

Basic tips for getting work

There are no secret handshakes or magic words to getting jobs in this industry.

1. Do great work. Know the principles, know your tools and be able to do your work in a timely manner. See What Makes a Good Visual Effect Artist post. This will be one of the key determinates whether the company hires you for their next projects and how likely others you meet at the company will recommend you.

2. Create a great reel.  Reels are covered in the Career post. You make a short (3-5 minutes max) DVD of your work, typically with before and afters. You also will want to post your reel somewhere on the internet where you can direct potential employers to. Note that if it’s only in Flash format then it own’t be viewable on iPads and some other devices.

I shouldn’t have to say this but do NOT put work by others on your reel and pass it off as your own. Evidently this is becoming more common. I once worked on an emergency project that required scrapping all the temp work from the previous company and doing all the shots from scratch. Months later someone came in with a reel using the shots they didn’t actually work on. Needless to say they weren’t hired.

3. Create a CV or resume listing your job title, credits (latest first) with specifics of what job did. List the software and Operating Systems you have experience with and what level you are. Do NOT put down expert if you’ve only watched a 10 minute YouTube clip. List any related skills (Python programming, rigging, etc) List information such as schooling if it relates to visual effects. Once again make sure this is accurate. Do NOT take credit for work that you did not do.

4. Be a team player. You’ll be working long hours next to your co-workers and have to interact with them, supervisors and various production people. If you do great work AND are pleasant to work with then your co-workers are likely to recommend you for future projects where they’ve been asked to provide names of people to hire.

Keep in mind that production assistant or roto artist today may be your potential boss tomorrow.

5. Network. Not schmoozing type of networking but it’s good to keep in touch with people or at least keep their phone #s and email handy. If you get hired on a project and the company asks for recommendations you can provide some. Likewise you can let others know when you’re finishing a project so they might be able to keep you in mind if they hear of anything. With things like LinkedIn, Facebook and other internet communication it’s much easier now to keep up with people. LinkedIn and Yahoo and others have various visual effects groups specific to areas, software, companies, etc. The Visual Effects Society is a potential way to network with new people as well as the various visual effects forums and websites. Keep in mind that networking won’t help if you do poor work.

6. Read the job posting in detail. Make sure you understand what they’re looking for. They may have specific requests in terms of CV or DVDs, etc. Check the requirements for submitting work or contacting them. If you can’t follow basic instructions for job submissions then they’ll worry how well you’ll follow other instructions.

If you’re in one job position now and wish to do something else then you’re going to have learn the tools on your own and create some demo material to show that you can accomplish this new job position.

How NOT to get hired (or avoided next time they hire)
1. Do the opposite of all of the above. Do mediocre work, take much longer to do the work than others, require someone to help you through every step and be irritating to everyone.

2. Constantly send email or make phone calls to companies

3. Constantly send email or make phone calls to crew members, supervisors or producers. This applies to all the social media and websites as well. If they don’t know you and have not worked with you on a project then it’s unlikely they can really recommend you. If they know you then let them know but no need to remind them every other day.

4. When there is a name actor or director in your radius (visiting the company, on stage or location, etc)  drop what you’re doing and go running through the halls screaming their name and requesting that they autograph a body part for you with your marker.

5. Ignore all the notes from the director and supervisor.

6. Post pictures, story lines and other information about the current show you’re working on.


Looking for Work
I won’t be listing all the visual effects companies here because there are a huge number of them with more opening or closing monthly. I’m sure I’d miss some anyway. The VES (Visual Effects Society) has a database of visual effects companies their forum site. If you’re a member check there.

The movies will have company credits, IMDB.com has company credits and Cinefex and other magazines will list credits of companies as well. All visual effects companies now have websites. Search through those for information about the company, projects and their job listing area. Many companies have twitter accounts so it’s worth following to see if they post new job openings.

Other areas to find visual effects jobs
There are now a number of visual effects job posting sites. Many have twitter accounts to see new postings.
Some of these include: (in no particular order)

VFXJobs

VFXJobHunt

VFX-Recruit

Smooth Devil

Creative Planet

Creative Heads

Creative Cow

Motionographer

LinkedIn

Search the internet for others. Go ahead and post comments with links to additional sites or sources.

Sometimes people previously employed by a company or on a specific project may have newsletters, email lists or groups.


Job Fairs
The VES has a job fair every June (they just had one a couple of weeks ago in 3 different cities around the world)

SIGGRAPH is a computer graphics conference in North America. The next one is in LA in August.

There are various other animation, visual effects and computer graphics conferences around the world. Check the companies you’re interested in and see if they will be attending any near you.

Find out the companies near where you live. That’s certainly the easiest way to start.

Feel free to submit your info to multiple companies at the same time. You can submit even to companies not looking for people but some companies may simply toss the material if they’re not hiring or they may ignore it when hiring starts up.


Research
Do some basic research on the company. Know what projects they’ve done, what they specialize in, etc. Check with any friends that may have worked there to get some idea how it works and how it is as a company. Note that some companies change a lot with changes in management or the workers currently employed so a company may become better or worse than a few years ago.
Find out what type of benefits they offer. How much overtime do they put in and do they pay overtime? What type of credit would you get on the project, if any? What is the actual pay rate and how is that computed? Which project is this for (they may not be able to tell you early on)? Be very clear with them about the actual job duties and description. There’s no locked job title definitions so you have to confirm details. There’s nothing wrong with doing composite work on 2D to 3D conversion projects but the company should be forthright about it and make that clear. Likewise animating spaceships is a different thing than animating a character.

[Update 6-20-2013
There are at least a couple of sites where workers can rate their companies. You might check there as well for research. Take any of these with a grain of salt because one person may have had a bad experience out of hundreds.

The VFXWatchers
GlassDoor      ]

Big company versus small companies

Visual effects companies vary in size from 1 man bands to over 1200 or more people.

Each company will be different so the below are just some general notes that may or may not apply.

Big companies
Tend to be more structured with more management, department heads, etc.
Tend to work on more projects at the same time.
Tend to work on larger and more tentpole type of pictures.
Tend to work on more shots at a time.
Artists are more likely specialized.
Likely has more of an R&D departments and support staff.
Larger render farms.
Have Human Resources departments
More likely to have health care and other benefits
More likely to have a training department or person.
More people working at the company means more connections.
More projects may mean more likelihood to move to another project when finished on current one.
More likely to have more skilled and experienced people that may be able to do some mentoring.

Small companies
May have minimal management
More interaction with the key personnel at the company
Will take on small projects and smaller number of shots.
May specialize in a specific area (roto, wire removal, titles, etc)
Artists may do multiple tasks on a shot
Less support team and R&D people
Smaller company means you actually know people more and are likely exposed to everyone at the company unlike a large company that may be spread over multiple building and floors and be broken into departments.

Each has their strengths and weaknesses. How fun a place is or how well organized a company is depends more on the people than the actual size of the company. Both types will lay people off between projects and both types will likely suffer from some politics and inept management at times. Cream may float to the top but management sometimes does so in reverse.

Choosing
Most of the time you don’t get a choice. It's not like someone offers you all the big visual effects projects for the next year and you get a choice. There’s a job open at company X and they’re currently taking applications. If you pass it by it could be tomorrow or 6 months from now before another opening is available in the area you want for the position you want. Only you can consider the various tradeoffs. Some companies are large or more prestigious. Some may work on more interesting projects or larger and well known projects. You may like to work with smaller teams on less time driven projects. You may prefer to work in multiple areas rather than specialize. It’s your call. What projects do you want to work on? What will be better for your resume? Which do you want your name on and to say you worked on that? You may not get much of a choice but you can be as selective as you want to be as long as your money holds out.

Most visual effects companies are located in large cities but you may actually be happier working at a company outside a big city. Spending more time with the family and less commuting is certainly nice and smaller cities tend to cost less, especially for housing.

In the end make sure you get whatever the company reps say in writing. Please see the VFX Deal Memo post and certainly try to get a deal memo with the company if they’re hiring you. Best to know going in what the arrangement is. Be clear on the time commitment of the company and yourself and what the penalties are. Even if they offer a contract, many contracts are lopsided. One company may require you to sign a 3 year contract but they themselves are only committed to a year long contract. I’ve also seen large companies break contracts. As an individual can you afford to pay tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees to fight a company with full legal counsel and deep pockets?

Be very leery of internships and contractor positions. Unpaid internships for productive work is illegal in the U.S. and working as a independent contractor is illegal for most vfx positions according to the definition of the IRS. Be sure where ever you are the company and you are following the laws and regulations.


Moving
Visual effects is now a global industry and because of tax incentives work may be in a different country or state than where you currently live. The VES Business group has been putting together info on details of the various countries but I don’t know where that currently is. For now you’ll have to do your own research even if you’re simply moving to another state or city.


Before you move
Do you have a job offer already or are you simply hoping to move to an area and get hired? If you have a job offer make sure you have a clear deal memo before moving. What if they cancel the project right after you move? Do they cover any moving expenses? Travel expenses? Housing? These types of expenses can eat up most of your income if you’re not careful.

Be very careful. Obviously it’s very expensive to move and could be quite costly if things don’t go as planned. Some countries have very strict employment limits that require work visas, permits or other legal documents. Without official paperwork you may not be able to work at all or may be very limited for time. The country or state provides tax incentives to the producers that may not kick in for them unless you’re a full citizen or have lived there a certain amount of time. That means that some companies may be more reluctant to hire you if you don’t meet those qualifications in addition to the creative and technical qualifications.

- What about your family? Are you moving your family as well? Do you have to take children out of school and get them enrolled in a another school? Will your spouse have to quit their job and find a new one at the new location? Is this a ‘permanent’ or temp move?

- Whenever you move you have to consider where you want to live and how long the commute is. You might find a nice place but if the commute is 2 hrs for one way that will be too much for long days. If there’s no ‘nice’ areas around where the company is or no affordable areas you’ll have to do some research.

- Consider the cost of living and housing. The salary may sound good but if you’re moving to a place where the housing is 50% higher then that could be a problem. If you’re begin brought in at the last moment or working crazy overtime you may not have time to look for an apartment to rent. You may have to get a hotel room at a higher cost. Will you be there long enough to cover a 1 year rent? Are you sure? Or will you need to rent month by month? What about utilities, cable tv, telephone, etc? Can those be month by month? How long do they take to setup? How are you shipping or moving your belongings? Are you keeping a place where you currently live and this is a temp project?

[ Here's a handy site pointed out by a vfxsolder.com commenter Expatisian ]

- What about health care? If you’re moving to the U.S. be aware there is no national health care. As in none. And be aware we have some of the highest medical expenses in the world. If you have an emergency and have to go to the emergency room you may have to wait hours to see someone. One night in the hospital may cost over $20,000. Health insurance may range from $250 to over $2000 a month depending on preexisting conditions, family coverage, etc. Does the new job offer any health care? How long does it take to kick in? Most U.S. insurance takes at least 3 months before you’re covered so you will have to buy your own for 3 months. Once your employment stops you will likely have to go on Cobra (independent health insurance at high rates) and you’ll have to go through the waiting period again once you start at another company.

- If you’re from the U.S. moving to another country then you will have to research the health care requirements there. You may have to sign up for special health insurance. When does that start up?

- What about taxes? When you move to another state or country there will be tax changes. You may have to get a tax wavier or you may have to pay a specialized tax accountant a fair bit of money to sort out the details of working out of the country or splitting your time. Sometimes the tax kicks in after you have been there so many days so you have to either complete the project within that time or take that into account. The tax rates may be much different than you currently pay. If it’s like most things it will be higher where you’re traveling to. Keep that in mind when you consider the pay rate as well. Are there any other special taxes or other costs that will be incurred? Even moving to Los Angeles county if you’re an independent contractor or loan out company you have to submit a number of forms and potentially pay special taxes.

- What about cell phone service? What about a car? License? Registration? What about transferring money? Bank accounts? etc. All this can get very complicated very quickly so be sure to do your homework. That's why having made friends of co-workers who may now be living in the country can be very useful.

[Update: 11/6/2012 Please make sure to have HR provide you all the paperwork for your Health Care Coverage before you sign your deal memo. Check for maternity, pre-existing conditions, exclusions, vision care, disability, etc. so you understand what is included and what isn't. Check on cost of options to get more coverage if you wish.
Here's a sad example of the fine details: Lucasfilm Employee Terminated After Tending To Pregnant Wife 
More tips there from users in the comments related to working in other countries. ]

Improving yourself
Learn from any company you’re at. They likely have a different way of approaching the work. Glean the better parts. Try to learn from others at the company, especially those more experienced or experts in specific areas. Consider areas that you could learn that would make you more useful and more efficient at what you’re doing. A Nuke compositor may want to learn Python or an animator want to learn more about rigging. Keep learning. Buy books, DVDs, etc. Keep up to date on new developments. VFX Guide has podcasts and there are other sites with information. Cinefex covers visual effects as a magazine and Animation World covers animation and visual effects. There are also plenty of visual effects related links on the right side of this blog to explore.

Having multiple strengths and some variety in your background may make you more valuable to companies looking for people, especially if they can shift you to different departments or if they need another hand for a short time in another area.


Promotions
If you’re working in one position for a longer period of time (you’re on staff or some equivalent) and you wish to move up make sure you’re actually qualified for the next position or other position if it’s in a different area. Make sure to let management know. Management may have no idea. Sometimes management would prefer to hire someone else from the outside for a newer, higher position if you’re doing a good job in your current position. If you’re in a job for a real length of time they should do a review with you so you should be clear about what you think you’re bringing to the company.

Be very careful about moving up. There are tradeoffs to be made. As you move up you may be paid more but may be doing much more management and meetings and much less hands on work that you may currently enjoy. Also be aware as you move higher there are less positions at your company and other companies. There’s likely just one CG supervisor on a project at the company. There’s likely just one CG department head at the company. That means if that position is currently filled you won’t be able to move up until it’s vacated or you’ve switched companies. If you’re looking for work the higher the level the less likely you’ll find a job listings. As an example a company may have 40 animators but just one animation supervisor. So what seems like an increase in salary may not mean much if you’re employed less. Companies tend to avoid people they feel may be too qualified so if you a composite supervisor and willing to work as a compositor to get work, the company may opt for someone else because you’ve had higher level experience. They may think you’d be frustrated.

This also brings up the same issue as covered in the VFX Deal Memo post. Make sure your job title and description are correct. If you’re at a large company then there will likely be quite a few potential candidates for higher level jobs within the company and so you’d have to be highly qualified. With a much smaller company you may be able to be promoted much faster but that may not be a good thing. If the company only has 3 animators they have to assign someone as the animation supervisor and that someone could be you. But if you don’t really have the experience or knowledge to be the supervisor it could be problematic there and could be a real problem if you try to get a job as an animation supervisor at a larger company.  Just be aware of the tradeoffs and make sure you consider it.

Re-evaluate
Where ever you work, take some time at least every year to re-evaluate where you are and what you're doing. Are you having fun? Is this what you want to do?  Is where you thought you'd be at this time? It's easy to get into a rut of one project after another and have a few years pass by before looking up. Look up from your desk and consider the possibilities.

Related posts:
VFX Deal Memos
Visual Effects Positions
What to do when you're laid off
Career in Visual Effects
Visual Effects Schools

On internet
How to land a job at Pixar

Visual Effects Tips 2

[Visual Effects Tips 1 post]

Time is important in visual effects. There’s never enough of it so make every attempt to minimize wasted time and simple mistakes.

Many of these examples are animation or compositing but most apply to the majority of visual effects work from texture or matte painting to lighting.


Checking materials
When starting a task or shot check the materials you’ve been provided.
Are all the materials correct?
Does the live action match the count sheet?
If there’s a match move is it correct?
If you’re composting are the supplied renders correct with correct alphas?
If there are problems flag them immediately. If you don’t check you may not know that there are problems until well into the shot, at which time trying to correct the mistakes will take longer and be more difficult.

After confirming everything is ok become familiar with the material. If it’s a greescreen take a look at the screen and potential problems extracting the mattes. If you’re going to roto the live action run the clip a few times to see what’s happening so you can plan your approach.

Note to visual effects companies: Make sure your contracts include explicit details for deliveries to your company. File formats, schedules, naming, file organization, size, etc. Sometimes it’s amazing the amount of incorrect material received from a client. On one project I worked on the editorial dept seemed to have a PA who was simply recopying everything onto hard drives and shipping them with no information and no organization. The visual effects company then would have to spend hours sifting through the material to determine what was new and what had changed. In other cases I’ve heard of some editorial departments constantly providing incorrect count sheets. By having this info in the contract the first time this happens flag it to the client and inform them that additional lapses that require rework or unplanned man hours correcting will be billed on a time and material basis. Additional costs seem to be one of the few ways to get a clients attention unfortunately but it also means that the meager profits will be less likely soaked up by these types of sloppiness or errors on the clients part.


Thinking
Now that you’ve reviewed the materials take a moment to think through the task at hand and how this will be accomplished. What are the critical elements, what are the steps that will need to be done, what tasks will have to be done by other departments, etc. What are the items that will likely change or that will need special care? If this a stereo shot or will be converted to stereo after the fact then you will have to consider the implications of working in real 3D space. If you’re compositing you’ll need to think of the layering process.


KISS
Keep it simple stupid. In your plan for the task try to keep it simple. You have to anticipate the areas that will need to be controlled independently and break it up accordingly but avoid going crazy with layers or keyframes if possible. A complex shot will probably require more than simple work but don’t needlessly make the project or the work complex.


Sharing
As you start thinking of the shot and the steps required keep in mind it’s likely you will have to pass the work on to someone during the course of the show. That someone could be you having to re-open the project and make changes two months after it was finalled or it could be you re-starting the shot after it was put on hold for three months. Or it could be a co-worker who has to take over the shot while you finish something else or the shot may have to be split up because of an impending deadline.

With that in mind you want to make it so no one, including yourself, has to spend hours reverse engineering what you were doing and why. (I’m not even going mention the possibility that a sequel may mean some of these files and projects are opened years later)


Fundamentals
Start with the fundamentals. If you’re an animator then you want to make sure you have the proper poses at the correct key frames. Don’t get lost in trying to do the secondary animations, just focus on the fundamental animation. If you’re a compositor adjust the black levels and adjust the basic color of the assortment of elements you’ve been provided before throwing in all the layering atmospherics and other enhancements.

Once these are done and approved then you know you have a solid foundation to build on. It allows the supervisor or director the ability to review the work before you spend a lot of time on it. There may be radical changes that would make all the additional work worthless.

There will be times when it will be useful to do slop or rough animation, renders and composites. Frequently it’s necessary to block in an entire sequence so the director and editor can review before proceeding. Other times it may be necessary to provide shots for test screenings that were scheduled to be done in the future. Regardless you’ll get notes on the shots and the first impulse will be to take these quick and dirty versions and start making adjustments. However it’s almost always best to get back to the foundation and the basics before addressing the notes. If the black levels are off or the basic timing of animation is wrong, it will still be wrong even tweaking the other aspects of the shot. And in the end it’s likely you’ll waste a lot of time and have to scrap it to get back to where you should have started from.


Priorities
You should have a To Do list for every shot you work on. With feedback from the supervisor or director you may be changing the order of priorities. Neither the director nor supervisor will want to ask multiple times for the same thing. Let them know if there is an issue accomplishing that.

If you’re reviewing yourself play the shot through and note the items that stand out to you as not in keeping with what the final shot should be. Determine the priority based on which issues truly jump out the most and which ones are fundamental issues versus getting sidetracked and spending time noodling with a few pixels in the corner. If it had to go in the movie tomorrow what are the top 5 items to be fixed or changed?

As you work on each item mark it off your To Do list so you always know how much you’ve done and how much is still to be done.


Monitor
Is your monitor actually calibrated? Are you using the correct lookup table and gamma settings? Are you seeing the same results you see in dailies review and that the supervisor and director see? If not check with your company to see if your system can be calibrated or you’ll have to develop an eye to compensate for the difference. Be aware if your system or playback has limited color depth.


Reviews
If you’re presenting to the director or supervisor it’s usually worthwhile having the previous version loaded and ready to review since many times it will be used for reference and comparison. If you’re showing with and without results in something like Nuke then wire up the viewer so you can quickly cycle though the different versions or variations if possible. Having to zoom out, find the areas, relink the viewer, etc are time consuming and should have already been done ahead of time.  Sometimes it’s worth putting in a switch to quickly change the composite flow. Create snapshots in After Effects or other apps.


Reviewing your work
For your own reviews crank the gamma up and down and the exposure up and down to spot any inconsistencies or level issues. Try the alternate lookup tables (make sure to return to normal once done reviewing). Will the shot hold up in the DI or once it’s transferred to video? Are areas being clipped or is there a mismatch of blacks and levels? Is there any quantizing? Check the blue channel for grain issues. Have you added the proper amount of grain and does the whole shot match?

Play it slow, fast and in reverse to see if everything is working as it should. This can sometimes show flaws in the animation or simply allow you to spot fluctuation problems.

When you’re staring at something a long time you may not spot some of the flaws that might be obvious to others. Painters sometimes look at their work in a mirror to give them a different feel for the painting. This was common in the pre-digital days with matte painters. Flopping the image in the viewer or composite will provide this same option of seeing the shot in a new light.

Be honest with yourself. If the animation or whatever you're working on isn't working consider how to fix it. Discuss with a co-worker, lead or supervisor if you know it's wrong but aren't sure how to proceed.


Organize
Do your work in an organized fashion that follows logical thinking. If your company has templates or guidelines be sure to follow those. It’s easy in some apps such as Nuke to end up with something that looks like a mess of spaghetti. This will chew up your time daily to maintain and change and it will mean that anyone else who needs to work on the composite will spend extra time digging through the composite.

Come up with some basic conventions yourself if none is provided by your company or lead. Try to be consistent about the approach and naming. Group parts of the shots as modules. This makes it easy to enable/disable sections or to switch sections. If you’re working in Photoshop you might want to put sections in folders to keep it more organized. Likewise with some roto packages and other apps there are opportunities to group related items.


Document
It’s not always clear what your project file is doing. It may seem totally obvious to you now but to others or even yourself a few weeks from now it will likely be a totally mystery. If you’re writing software code then include comments. If it;s a complex process with multiple files consider writing a Read Me file or some basic document describing what the process is and how it works. By including some forms of documentation it will be easier and faster to keep track of what is what. Many software packages offer methods to document the work as you’re doing it. Label layers in After Effects and Photoshop. This minimizing the amount of guess that is done or the toggling of layers to determine exactly what each is doing. Label key nodes in Nuke.

Some apps allow adding comments. Nuke provides Sticky Notes so you can mark a specific area with a reminder to yourself or an explanation why you’re doing it this way. Their backdrop can be placed behind a number of nodes with text and with user defined colors making it easy to spot key areas even on a large and complex composite. Nuke also provides No Op nodes that can be labeled. Take a look at the software you’re using to determine how you can use labels and other built in documentation. If none exists consider writing up a short text file in the director with your notes.

Add slates to your rendered images and add useful comments there. These are going to become very valuable when you have to dig back through them for yourself or a client.


Save often
Many software packages have autosaving functions. Make sure these are turned on but also get in the habit of saving yourself to make sure your work is being saved where it needs to be saved.


Save versions
Save your files and projects as you go along with version or take numbers. Use the company defined file structure and naming conventions. Especially important if you’ve made major changes. It’s very frustrating when the client or supervisor likes a test or previous version you did but you didn’t save the project. Now you have to spend time trying to recreate what you already did once before.


Optimize
When you work on a shot you will likely have to render quite a few takes on your machine and/or on the render farm. If for some reason your render isn’t optimized that can equate to quite a few hours of lost production time and processor time.  As you manipulate, test and review interactively an unoptimized configuration can mean the difference of trying multiple changes in a short time or become a slog of spending most of your day making a few simple changes. It may mean the difference of producing a great result on a short turnaround or a mediocre result since you didn’t have time to manipulate and render a better version.

Optimize your renders when possible. Know the application you’re working in and know what options there are when rendering. Here’s a list of optimizations for Nuke. There’s likely more than a few lists for all visual effects software packages. Avoiding things that slow down the app and doing more of the things that speed up the app may have a big impact on the day to day work. Consider using low resolution proxy models or elements when you can for working on animation or basic testing. Consider pre comps and caching when working on the top layer. Consider rendering just a frame range of the shot and combining it previously rendered frames to check the new frames in context.

For specific tasks you might turn off some of the advanced settings - motion blur, fur render, etc. as long as you know what you’re evaluating. You might be able to disable specific areas of a composite or render if that’s not what you’re working on. Just make sure to restore all of the settings for the final render and another other renders that require full reviews.

There’s no point in spending 3 days trying to shave a few seconds off the entire shot render but if your render is running much slower than it should due to simple changes, then it’s a waste of time and resources.

The other thing to consider optimizing is yourself and your approach. If you’re working a lot in one software package then get to know all the keyboard and mouse shortcuts. Configure the app keys or your Wacom to take advantage of specific and frequent tasks. Use macros or scripts as needed for repeating common tasks. In Photoshop use actions for tasks that you do a lot of.


Check your results
Check all the renders or tests you generate and consider them in terms of the request from the director or supervisor. Make sure to check your work before passing it on to others to use. Do NOT assume that its correct. If you’re an animator check the final animation for any stray keyframes or oddities. Rotoscopers should make sure the motion and coverage is correct. If you’re rendering simulations make sure they’re the required length and have correct alphas. If you’re a TD make sure there aren’t any glitches or bad frames rendered.

It’s far better to find out now and fix it rather than getting a frantic call late at night two weeks later.

Once you’ve checked the results make sure everything has been correctly entered int whatever asset database your company may be using. Make sure to prep the files for archiving if you’re finished.


Keep a log
Keep a log of the time you work and the shots and tasks you’re working on. You likely already do this for your timecard or for production but it’s worthwhile recording it as well for yourself. It can be a real eye opener to see how much actual time was spent on a shot or given task or how much linear time it took by the time the back and forth happened with the director. Use this as a reference when you’re asked to bid on a shot or when you’re asked how much time you think is required to get the version done. All of us in visual effects are eternal optimists. We assume we can whip out the next version in a couple of hours. Time after time of saying that with a client waiting and disappointing them with something two days later is a problem. It’s also a problem for the visual effects company who bids on the amount of time required and unknowingly underbids the work simply because everyone is optimistic. The company should in fact be doing their own reality check of what the typical shot requires but most companies don’t work that way. No point in budgeting 2 hours of roto per shot on a new show if the company average was 8 hours of roto per shot on the last show.

Also keep a record of the bids you provide when bidding a show. Don’t be surprised if the numbers changed quite a bit when you go to do the actual work months later. Especially problematic when they try holding you to it. The supervisor or producer may think you were pessimistic and ‘adjusted’ the amount of time much lower. Or in some cases they may have added a lot of padding.


Check the next phase
Once you’re done with your tasks and passed the files or elements on it’s usually out of your hands. And the company probably wants you to be focusing your efforts on the next task. But when possible it’s worth checking the next step, the next render or task. You can check to make sure the correct version is in fact being used of your animation. You can make sure the root elements or renders are the right ones and are being used correctly. It’s possible there’s been a mixup or confusion on the next step and by viewing the 10 second shot you can flag an error that may not be evident to others.


Check the final
If a shot you worked on in any form is finalled check it out. Its worth doing a reality check of what you did and how it was used in context of the shot and project. Did you over build details of the model that never show up given the action or smoke levels? Did texture map you painted work? Did that elaborate 30 second shot get cut down to 2 seconds? Would you have done more on a specific aspect that would have made the shot better? There may not be much you can do about some of these things but it’s worth getting the experience and understanding how things come to be. It’s also worth considering how would you approach this same task or type of shot next time. Would you change anything? Have you learned anything you can apply to the remaining shots or to future projects?

[I'll have future tips posts. Feel free to add your own tips in comments]