Portfolio VFX - Background or No?

[Mez]

@tharlevfx

i think you’ve hit on an interesting point @Mez - trying to find good examples of student reels to draw inspiration from is quite difficult, because until recently Junior VFX roles weren’t as much of a thing and a lot of industry VFX artists would join a studio as env art and then move over into vfx and then have a published game to put all their nice fx in context in their reel. (at least that’s very much what i did). Coupled with the fact that once you’ve got a game or two published you’re going to not show your student work anymore makes it quite hard to find good examples of entry level student work that gets people hired.

Yep, and I’m actually aware of this too (I’ve spoken to quite a # of you). This is why I’ve been asking things like…

Demo Reel Scope

Greetings all! Alright… so straight to the brass tacks. I am - FINALLY - able to make a modern demo reel. So now I’m sitting down and salivating at all the potential things I could make. This is the first time I’ve ever made something strictly on my own. In the past I had access to TAs and Industry Pros who could sit next to me and point things out to me. Plus… My enthusiasm can sometimes get the best of me. I have a generalist background, particularly around the environment arts, so naturall…

Your Realtime VFX Process

Well now… here I go… …I’ve had this question for a while, eating at me in the back of my mind. It is only just recently that I think I’ve finally found the words needed to provide the concept of what it is I seek to know. Even then I still feel like I’m grasping at contextual straws here. Yet nothing ventured, nothing gained. This thought finally bubbled to the top recently while teaching myself the basics of Houdini. It was while watching the first of many Basic Houdini Lessons that it occurr…

What was your first Real-Time Effect? Is what you made then still relevant?

I have questions, and they are basically just as it says on the post title. Yet, for the sake of being a bit more precise in my questions; What was your first Real-time Effect personally ("@ Home") and professionally ("@ Work")? I know that in the beginning Realtime VFX was not a dedicated job title. I know that many of the earliest Realtime VFX artists came into doing so by chance. Next thing they knew “Hey - You did a really good job with that” became, “Hey - I guess this is what I do now”…

…because I’m currently totally on my own now. I’ve been trying to self-gauge myself with little to no external barring on what would be too far, as I know this is something to look for from experience in my journey to learn. I’ve been in that trap before for things other then VFX. How would I know my drawing is bad, if I’ve done so in the dark?

There was a point at one time where I didn’t know what the basics were. So, without that mental footing, I, like a moth to flame I seeked the flashy stuff as it was the only light I had. Why would I know, or want to know anything about proper edge flow? Or UV Packing? What beginner would know how important that is? SO instead I got caught in a rut of; My reel needs to have GPU particles with vector maps and shaders with … geeze… I don’t know, dynamically oscillating tessellated geo and…ugh. No. Just make fire. Silly. Just make fire.

A little of that actually shows in the very first thread I linked, mostly since I’m on cloud 9 that I finally have a computer, but I digress.

I’ve had to make intensive self judgements. Since I’ve been wanting this for so long… goodness, it’s probably been an elapsed 15ish years or so. I have an awareness other true beginners might not have. I know the generalist basics, and I know that VFX pretty much has it’s hand in basically every cookie jar. Even for the basics, not VFX, just 3D Basics… that’s alot of stuff. If someone today said “I want to become a Realtime VFX Artist”, but didn’t know a darned thing about “3D”, I’d feel a sense of pitty if they were any older then their early teens.

Geo, UV’s, Animation Principles, Shaders, Blueprints, … How to use ALL THESE TOOLS… it’s a mad house. It’s difficult enough just swimming though these programs, where in most cases there are menus in menus in menus in menus. That’s hella daunting. After all of that - I’ve yet to mention the basics of VFX purely, which as far as I can tell right now, is simply more a cook-book of thinking your tools, more then any other 3D discipline due to the sheer scope to the number of things VFX can be a part of. Weapons Umbrella, Environment Umbrella, Character Umbrella, UI Umbrella, Design Umbrella… and probably some others I missed. All those particular disciplines have needs that I need to figure out how to fit into. I’m going into the cookie jar of the basics, and then making a black anomalous heart on mars. A spell that rises the dead of their souls. A laser that dissolves a mesh starting at the point where it has been shot. Oh! That plus efficiency. That too.

And hey… correct me if my observations are wrong on any of this.

It should also be noted that overall the access to modding has lessened as well too, it seems to me. This is an absolute AWFUL thing. Modding is why I’m here at all, and where I learned some of my most simple of basics.

…and…

Did… did I just vent? I think I just vented a little. I feel good and I don’t know why. LOL.

Sorry 'bout that. I’m posting this anyway (obviously) and I hope it’s insightful all the same. I do have more, but… well, that’s for another day.