Hellow! Kinda dumb question. I mean literally :))).
Did anyone feel like you were too dumb when you were starting out VFX? It’s just that I started learning VFX about 2 months ago but I get demotivated every day after seeing others’ VFX journeys. I just visit Artstation, VFXA dis channel, YouTube and places like that to get inspirations but every time I see them I feel like I don’t have it in me to do these effects. I’m fairly familiar with the Niagara System now and when I do tutorials I understand everything they teach because I’ve got all the fundamentals down, so I would think that “yep, I’m gonna create an effect like this next morning, alone”. But after I wake up and open UE, I get anxiety and loads of negative thoughts. I have this amazing effect in my head but I don’t know where to start. So my mind thinks, “nope you aren’t good enough, you are consuming knowledge, and you can follow along but you can’t do anything on your own, give up”. Then I would just spend the day, still checking on the stuff others have done and telling myself that “look at these, you will never be this good, just give up”.
I just wanted to know if anyone had the same or a similar experience when you were starting out. I love this field, I enjoy the process and I really wanna make this my career. But I’m at my lowest as of now, again as I said, my mind is telling me that I’m not good enough.
Anyways, I’m really sorry if it looks like yapping. Just wanted to know whether you guys had any experience like that. ^^
Firstly realtime vfx might be one of the hardest things you can do and, secondly, you can’t really compare the first 2 months of study to someone with 10-15+ years experience.
Yes it is hard, and yes your work will probably not be that great until you get some feedback and put time into practicing and polishing. But the first step to being good at something is to suck at that thing (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flkjMuaKYQU)
But just start small, don’t try and run before you can walk, and keep working at it and I’m sure you can get there.
Hey Thomas!! Thank you so much for the reply. It really means a lot me. Especially because the first vfx courses I did are yours. My friend suggested them. That’s where I started, your UE Material series and the Niagara course. I’m glad I started with those because they really hyped me up. So I’m really thankful for all the knowledge you gave me!!
And yes I have seen that clip of Ed you have suggested. It actually gave me hopes once. Thank you again for sending that!!
More than anything, I’m glad that I got an advice from a professional, makes me feel, again, that I’m not alone. I’m really grateful!!
So as Tharle already mentioned, it’s extremely hard…
I was self-taught for my first 4 years and so first 3 of those I didn’t understand shaders or textures at all… My VFX were simply particle systems with good fundamentals.
It was try and error till I got to manage to get through certain problems and usually wasn’t matter of days, but more like weeks and months. Now it’s a bit easier because there are more resources and people that can mentor you, but it’s still will take time before you understand things and some will understand them slower, some faster, nothing bad about that.
Just take your time and enjoy the process as it will be the long one
But passion itself can carry you through all of that.
Also it took me like 5 years till I finally managed to make effect on a level that I had previously just in my head, before that it was trying to make it work and it never looked good enough, it’s totally normal. Everyone goes through it!
Hey thanks a lot for the reply!! I’m glad you are doing well now Manus. And I hear you really, if it wasn’t for passion I’d be still sleeping on the bed without doing anything.
I understand it takes time but that’s another thing I’m scared of. I fear that if don’t hurry, I won’t be able to land a job in this field. But ofc good things takes time. So I get lost in thoughts when I think about all these while comparing myself to pro artists which I shouldn’t do. That’s where I’m stuck at right now.
Thanks again for taking some time for me Manus!! I’m really grateful for all this advice, which is all I need at this point.
It’s not easy to land a job in this field anyway, so I would try to think on your situation if you can maximize this time. Like having some other job and build a habit on your free time to learn vfx so that in the future you can switch etc. Because I would say that if you are lucky and dedicated to improve, you would need at least 1 more year to land a job (looking at some other people) and it can be much longer depending on many factors. So you need to be aware that it will take a long time anyway and best thing you can do is just work your way around it
I hear you Manus. I was actually a Software Engineering intern but I quit to pursue a career in 3D/VFX. Because honestly the pay is crap there and it was just too much stress. I like engineering but I love art more. Hence I’m commiting to this full-time now. Like you said, I was actually thinking of taking about 1 year and master my craft. Hopefully it’ll be worth it
there’s nothing dumb about what you write