My name is Leli. I’m a 26-year-old beginner VFX artist (or at least trying to be). I’m studying game development at a university in my country. However, the program is very programming-oriented, and we have very little focus on the artistic side—just a bit of 3D modeling, sculpting, and the basics of texturing and, my main interest, VFX.
After a very brief introductory course on the topic, we didn’t go any deeper. So I’ve been looking for reputable learning courses. While I don’t mind paying for some of them, unfortunately, I can’t afford to drop $1000+ on them (Let’s say $200 tops).
So I’ve come to all of you to ask if you know of any relatively cheap courses—not just for beginners, but also for intermediate levels. I’d like to not only learn the basics of VFX but also know where to go once I’m past that stage.
It can be for any software. While I’ve been working with both Unity’s URP and HDRP, I’ve come to realize there’s a wide variety of software you can use for VFX—like Unreal’s own shader system, Houdini, and other complementary tools like Embergen. I don’t like limiting myself to just one tool, although I do understand the value of sticking to one tool until you mastered the basics.
And this is more of a personal question: have any of you had similar experiences trying to break into the video game industry a bit later in life? I know 26 isn’t exactly old, but I constantly see so many younger people who are already so advanced—it can be a little demotivating.
From my point of view, it doesn’t depend so much on age, for example I entered the industry at 29 and started studying VFX at 26.
I can’t assure you that all companies are the same but if they want to hire you the most important thing will be your portfolio and not your age.
Regarding the courses, I don’t know how much knowledge you have, but on youtube there are quite a few and they are very good, you have the VFXApprentice page with their courses or SirHaian.
Of paid courses that I’ve used have been VFXApprentice and some of Udemy.
So good to see another person trying vfx
There are plenty of good materials! (TharleVFX, Andreas Glad, BeyondFX, PrismaticaDev, 1maFX). And plenty of those are free! So worth checking out
Tho there is a problem that there isn’t really anything that would do a good job of doing overall introduction to vfx and kind of preparing you for what being a junior would be like. So we tried to help out with that gap.
There are tons of blog posts and some videos that are free that you could check out on our site: https://www.mad-vfx.com (or you can join discord and we are always happy to answer any questions). Check the YT, there are free lessons from every course for free.
We also made paid courses and especially Intro to Environmental Effects would be probably a great fit, as it’s basically what juniors do when they start up and we aimed it at that. Tho prob better if you start up with free resources. However we could probably figure a discount for the course if you were interested, so you don’t have to use all of your budget.
As for the age. Don’t worry. I have plenty of friends that started 30+ and they are doing great one very recent found work after learning vfx for a bit over 1 year off hours from his normal job. I never encountered any problems in that matter.
All the best!!! It can be a bit overwhelming path, but I hope you will manage well <3
I had a semi-similar experience in that the university course I took covered everything art wise except for VFX, so I ended up doing a lot of self study.
One of the biggest things that helped me was just talking with other vfx artists, so I’d strongly recommend joining community discords & group chats when possible (the MadVFX discord is very helpful).
I’d suggest getting your hands dirty and making something, getting feedback and implementing it, then rinse and repeat. Don’t spend too much time on one project, as you can easily get bogged down on the details of things when at this stage you want to be focused more on the overall workflow.
One thing I’d recommend focusing on a little earlier on in your career is performance and optimization - what makes things expensive, how to work around those limitations, etc. Game Art Tricks by Simon Schreibt is a great reference for how developers have done so before.
