Hello all,
I’m organizing the VFX bootcamp for GDC 18 and I’ll be posting information on the event as the year goes on. It might seem early to be talking about any of this but the organizing is already happening!
Before that, I wanted to ask you a couple questions on GDC. First I was thinking of mediating a panel with some people and I was considering a few different topics such as:
Pathways to becoming a Real Time Visual Effects Artist
Teaching and training Real time VFX
Or transitioning from film to real time or vice versa
So the questions are: what kind of topics or questions would you be interested in talking about at a panel like this?
and
If you were at the bootcamp last year what did you think of it?
Thanks and I hope you’re all having a good summer!
Transitioning from film to real-time sounds really interesting. Similarly, transitioning from other game art disciplines to VFX might be a cool topic too! Most of the VFX artists I know started as a generalist, environment artist, or animator.
“Thinking Outside the Sprite” I’d love to learn more about new techniques, or techniques that are become more viable with the tech we have now. Stuff like vertex animation for fluids, or the voxel and faked volumetrics l just saw in that Fortnite article or anything new that is up and coming we haven’t seen much of yet
( A Fortnite at Epic – fxguide if there’s anyone who hasn’t seen it yet)
I believe, while maybe more performance heavy, they will be the cornerstone of immersive rtvfx in VR and AR
There seems to be a trend of film starting to use realtime techniques (or even engine for that matter!). Some people might be interested by that topic.
I’m still reaping rewards from learning about new techniques, technologies, and practices used for real time VFX. Those were by far the most useful kinds of things I got out of GDC. The second would probably be design philosophies for effects.
Hey Fred, I would suggest more VR tips and tricks or how people are dealing in general with FX in VR/AR. I’m hoping to actually make it to GDC this year!
Funny you should mention that. I have someone who is going to be doing just that. Still in discussions with them on it so I’ll pass this along. Thanks!
Hey Fred, I was thinking maybe some guidance for starting off in VFX industry and their experiences as a beginner would help many who wants to become VFX Artist but are still confused.
I’d actually be really interested in talking at gdc about noise textures – how they can make effects more consistent, easier to make variations on existing effects, reduce memory footprint, etc. I got a lot of work out of using noise techniques on Paragon and on Injustice 2, and I keep seeing a great reliance on flipbooks where noise would do a better, cheaper, and more directable job (like for blood). Do you think a small talk about some advantages and techniques in this area would be useful?
Teaching and training VFX is one topic I would love a space for us to talk more about, bootcamp, roundtable, or otherwise. I could go on for days about how positive knowledge sharing has been and the MANY benefits.
Judging by the passionate thread about creating a RTVFX course I think others are really interested in it too!
I think that’s part of it, but I believe it’s more of a thing current education faculty attend to learn about new teaching methods and what to teach/ how to teach it. This last GDC ('17) there was just a lot of conversation as to how we as FX artists can share our knowledge and help teach it to a new generation. It seemed generally agreed upon between the fx artists I met at GDC this year that we as a discipline tend to hoard fx knowledge, and how there is no real benefit to the industry in doing so. There were talks there and discussions on here about what kind of curriculum and courses should be included to give someone with little to no art background the skills they need to work in the industry.
