Cracked.com wrote an interesting article--The 5 Miserable VFX Jobs That Make Movies Possible. I read the article and thought that I’d offer an opinion on what they have to say.
They point out that roto artists spend a huge amount of time tracing. Tracing hairs one by one, strings and fine details in each frame of a movie where it’s required to make a scene perfect.
And, production assistants are asked to do crazy things that no one else wants to do and matchmove artists deal with dots to make computers understand what is required in a scene. And there’s render wranglers and everyone else.
And so it goes without saying, it takes a lot of hands and a lot of willingness by a lot of people to do some really tough jobs that don’t get a whole lot of recognition. We don’t think the jobs are miserable. We think it’s exciting to be a part of making movies and commercials that the world enjoys.
With our school opening in LA in just a few short months, we’ll be helping create and mold many of the artists that do some of those jobs. We know what it takes to do highly detailed CG work and are focusing on helping the best students reach their goals of being the best CG artists around. And, as cracked.com points out, although these jobs are sometimes really tedious and stressful, there is something to be said for seeing your name on the big screen when the credits are played. We love the world of CG and can’t wait to see more of you behind our desks learning the ropes. Learning what it takes to earn your stripes in this industry.
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Comments (2)
Susan,
Please help me figure out this window-jump scene from The Man From Nowhere: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K58in6s2C0o
Hi Gary - thanks for the question.
And an even bigger thanks for introducing me to this movie! I think it will go on my Netflix queue (quick! while it's still Netflix).
I had a feeling there was some clever editing and maybe a CG background involved in the first part of the shot, but my eye didn't quite catch it. All I knew was that the black levels looked a bit off (on the actor's suit) and the ground as he jumps out the window lacked realistic detail (but only if I looked very very closely - this is a nicely done shot!)
So I took it to the expert, Advisory Board member Mike O'Neal, who told me this: "The first part of the shot was probably accomplished by having the camera follow the actor through the window as he falls on a stunt bag covered in bluescreen or greenscreen. Debris is then composited over, and a cg ground plane is put in behind the actor. In the second part of the take, the actor jumps and rolls on the ground with another camera behind him. The editors find a good frame, put in tons of camera shake and blur to hide the transition".
Thanks for that, Mike!
Gary - I hope this helps.
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