Career in VFX

The interesting field of Visual Effects is most talked about but not in a career point of view. I had an old friend who had a stint in visual effects. Her inputs are compiled for aspirants in Visual effects industry. As of now she is not working. Her first job was technical in charge for a 2D animation studio.

She always wanted to get into game designing and so she took up Computer Sciences in engineering for programming background. Post that she studied Foundation of Visual Art & Design course in Vancouver Film School, Canada. She later went on to do her post graduation course in Visual Effects from ICAT in Chennai.

Foundation of Visual Arts & Design, VFS, Canada

• Requirements: Free hand drawing - basic skills, toefl score or telephone interview with Mumbai office, they forward to Vancouver over letter that we can communicate well in English.
• You have to submit your work – photoshop art work, paintings on photoshop, sketching, picture of your drawing book. You will survive better in the course if you have these.
• 1 year course
• Each class has only 20 members and every year 4 batches are taken
• Fee - 30500 Canadian dollars
• Sometimes 11-14 hour classes at a stretch
• All teachers from industry, they will get caught up in work and so no strict hour schedule.
• Overview of all streams like cinematography, director of photography, visual effects, game designing, acting, film direction
• Also taught how to behave in a film set
• Trained in Maya - visual effects course
• Live model drawing practiced in the course
• Use of actual film equipment, no notebook
• Guest lectures arranged in VFS that are college sponsored covering experience in the industry, how you apply theory, how to get into the respective fields, guidance for next steps etc
• Say, Sketching class on Monday, assignment post that, you should submit before next class. Line quality, creativity, innovation are assessed in the work
• Eg - Photography assignment – task is to photograph alphabets, in nature
• Placements – none in VFS as of now

People take up specialization courses post this. VFX specialization is for another year and fee is 54000 Canadian dollars, Film for 51000, Game design for 49000.

VFX, Second year

•  Indepth applications of VFX, difficulty increases
• Functionality of tools, usage taught in introduction, how to use the tools covered in advanced
• 3D modeling of actual human anatomy studied in specialization yea

Game designing schools are available in the world which offer longer duration courses, 3-4 years. NY film academy, though rated best only offers film production, not post production. Vancouver school has been proclaimed the best school for 3 years in a row in North America for visual effects. Other schools are Van Arts in Vancouver offering 2 year course, Gnomon in Singapore. Vancouver Film School has an office in Mumbai. ICAT, Bangalore is the best among visual effects schools in India. Few others are Arena, Reliance etc. But curriculum is better with ICAT.

 

PG, ICAT, Chennai

• Curriculum & teaching was good, organization was not managed well
• Undergraduate program is University of Wales affiliated. It is a better course and much better prospects
• Requirements: Any graduate can apply
• 1 year course, Fee – 80000-1 lakh per year
• Campus placements is available, but not good ones were coming, market scenario was bad.
• At the end of the course, a demo reel is made which is like your portfolio. You show that video and that shows your work
• Placements provided but roles might be not entirely in VFX. Wipro hired through ICAT for graphic designing roles, with pay starting at 10000 INR per month.

Job Experience:

The 2D animation studio she worked for needed 3D models sometimes to enhance the way it looks. She used to take up that work and also making sure it is in right place when they are composing. The role was interesting since she had to interact with people from across ages and states and it was learning opportunity to coordinate with all. 

Opportunities & Growth

People were outsourcing work to India, to meet the demand. Indian companies started training 12^th students for basic work and the output started falling down. And so outsourcing work routed to Malaysia and Philippines. Rotoscoping, taught to 12^th pass students is Frame by frame wire removal work which is not creative work. The pay starts at as low as 10000 per month

People who were hired for a specific project, were asked to leave post that by major companies. They started on their own and started hiring themselves. The employees who stayed with the company, they earn on par with industry.

Firefly, Makuta, Pixelloid are sought out studios in Hyderabad but dependent on specific directors for work like Rajamouli in case of Makuta. For example nearly 1000 people worked on Baahubali 1. Also these companies need to cope with the lack of organized and professional environment in Entertainment industry of India and their huge dependence on film industry.

Few of her Friends from VFS joined studios in Vancouver, one has joined Zynga in game designing. Couple of friends did the course in entertainment business management post introduction course and started the company iCube which is into 2D, 3D graphic designing. Some joined as assistant directors too.

Paygrades

Most of the work is done through freelancing in this field for American Studios. Starting pay at 15$ an hour for work abroad. Based on the reputation, the technician can charge higher with experience. No management of infrastructure is considered for pay in case of freelancers.

In India, the pay starts at 10000. The pay increases to 40000-1lakh after 5 years or so.

Dream companies are ILM – Singapore which made star wars, Weda Digital that worked on Lord of the rings and Electronica. Pay range goes to 100000$ per year in 4-5 years. Extensive work in VFX is being done in US, Canada, Singapore, New Zealand and UK partly.

Final words

“Most of the focus is into film production and VFX or post production is yet to raise to prominence. You need to be fast in this field, recognition is given for speed with quality.”