I don’t know if it is too late to answer or not but I agree with what Manus and others said above.
I would add that what helped me to be motivated to keep practicing was having a goal, a plan to reach it, a deadline for that goal AND a reason to be motivated to reach that goal.
In December 2022, my visa in Japan was running out so I had to find a job in 4-5 months.
I was a Game Designer before but I didn’t have enough experiences and my japanese language ability wasn’t enough to find a job here. I had an interest for VFX since multiple years and I wasn’t completely satisfied while working as a Game Designer for multiple reasons so I thought it was a great timing to give VFX a try. Fortunately, I had a bit of experience with Unreal Engine through my student projects and personal projects (mostly code and script) so it helped a lot to get started.
I gave myself 2-3 months (
my deadline) to make a demoreel ( my goal) that would leave me 2 months to apply to positions and find a job and be able to stay in Japan ( my motivation).
After looking at student-level demo reels that were able to get a job and reading advices from confirmed VFX Artists working in the industry, I decided to organize my demo reel in the following way ( my plan):
-
A more complex and showy VFX
- To try to catch the recruiter attention and try to make my portfolio stand out
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Around 4 smaller more standard VFX with different types (An explosion, a slash, a shield…)
- To show my versatility and learn new things while making them.
- Making them short allowed me to not get burned out and replace/throw away a VFX quickly if I wasn’t happy with how it looked. (In the end I think I threw away 2-3 VFX but since I just worked on it for a day or two it wasn’t so bad)
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Something using Houdini to close up the demoreel
- I figured out that while making my portfolio and looking that job offers that it would helped greatly if I could add something made with Houdini in my portfolio. (Unreal organized a VFX Contest and gave away a free license of Houdini for the duration of context so timing was perfect)
I was able to get 3 offers in the end, while sending less than half the applications I did as a Game Designer!
I want to add that I wasn’t working, just going to school in the morning at that time so I had all afternoon and night to work on my effects, so I know it is unfortunately not a situation that everyone have the chance to have.
I wish you the best to be able to learn VFX, it is a wonderful craft and I’m much more happy in my work that I was as a Game Designer (while being able to use all the technical skills I learned and learn a lot new more various things (both in art and tech) during my work hours! 