Stu Schwartz Talks About His Internship at The Mill

We caught up with Stu Schwartz once again to see how he’s doing and what is going on in his post CG Whiz life. He shared some interesting tidbits with us about his internship and a typical day at The Mill. Read on to see what he had to say:

"Right now I'm working on a commercial that is kind of a suspenseful trailer for a large designer and retailer of athletic clothing.

I've been using PFTrack and 3DEqualiser for tracking, Photoshop and Mudbox for texturing, Maya for modeling, animation and lighting, and NUKE for compositing. A lot of other tools are used throughout the company but those are the ones I currently have my hands on. In the 3D department, everyone works in Linux unless they need Photoshop.

On a typical day I get to work around 9am and my workday ends at 7pm. Since I am only here for a short amount of time as an intern, I usually stay late so I can become more familiar with everything—the pipeline, the tools, etc. I have been attending meetings usually once or twice a week to watch through the spot the team is working on, to see how they critique the work and receive feedback. At the end of the meeting, they distribute the work to those who will work on each aspect of the shots.

The biggest surprise of the internship has also been the best part of the experience. I was immediately thrown straight into the pipeline like any new freelancer. I was distributed the same amount of work that everyone else on the team received. I also got to work as a generalist, as most people do here. I did some tracking at the beginning and then moved to shot setups, lighting, rendering and compositing. It has been a really incredible experience working here. I've learned more in the past four weeks about pipeline and workflow in a production facility than I could not have learned elsewhere.

The next step for me is to finish out the rest of my studies at SCAD. I have two more quarters left in order to complete my BFA in Visual Effects and then I'll likely be in LA or New York to start my professional career.

The best advice I can give for anyone starting out in the VFX industry is to expect and embrace long hours, and to ask the people you're working with as many questions as you can. I've spent a decent amount of my own time here at The Mill asking the people around me about their past experiences and what to expect from the industry. Overall, I've learned so much from my experience at The Mill and I look forward to the future."