Introduction

This blog post is some collected research into the client for this brief – Access VFX.

Access VFX are a nonprofit organization that aims to help people with pursuing a career in the VFX, animation or video games industries. They have a particular focus on pursuing diversity and inclusion in those industries.

What are Access VFX doing to achieve this?

Access have ‘four pillars’ which outline their main approach to promote diversity in the creative industry: Inspiration, Education, Mentoring and Recruitment.

Access VFX are present at industry events, host events on YouTube, have a podcast and post mentorships and internships offers on their website. They are partnered with many VFX and animation companies. All of these things seem to be generally effective at putting those four pillars into practise.

Young Animator of the Year UK

Access VFX also partnered with screenskills, 3D Ami and NextGen Skills Academy to create the Young Animator of the Year programme or YAY – a series of competitions, challenges, clubs and workshops that are open to animators ages 11-18. These competitions and other events aim to give young animators a way to practise their skills and start an industry career – it helps with a CV or internships etc.

The program seems to help with supporting young animators entering the industry – there is a section on the YAY website dedicated to bio sections from industry animators and modelers who participated in the contests.

X-VFX & Q-VFX

Access VFX runs two campaigns to promote diversity and inclusion in the creative industries called X-VFX and Q-VFX/.

In the words of the Access VFX website X-VFX is “a space where Practitioners of Colour can network, & to serve as a platform that the next generation can tap into for inspiration.”

It is aimed at people of colour to promote their inclusion in the VFX industry.

Q-VFX, in the words of the Access VFX website is “a new, inclusive LGBTQI+ community hub where both our staff and aspiring talent can access information, events, mentorship and support.”

It is aimed at LGBTQ+ people and, similarly to Q-VFX aims to promote their inclusion in the VFX industry.

These campaigns could be helpful to their respective groups in order to give the people in those groups the opportunity to network with each other, as well as to have them included at industry events and considered for job roles. There has been meet-ups and events for Q-VFX and X-VFX.

One drawback that I saw of these campaigns was that neither of their social medias had been updated for more than a year, and it so it is unclear whether or not the campaigns are even still active.

Mentors

The mentorship program that Access VFX runs is a free program where students and recent graduates can sign up to have a mentor assigned to them that can provide feedback and guidance for the student’s work/skills.

The mentors are employees from the VFX, animation or games industries who help their mentees to develop career plans, get feedback and ‘get their foot in the door’ to studios from their chosen industry.

This could get the students a start in a career in the industry, and lead to different opportunities for them. They can also improve their work and skills with the feedback provided.

A drawback of the system is that a mentor could suggest advice for a mentee that isn’t quite right for them but usually I would assume that the advice is good, since the mentors are experienced professionals.

Prepping for the future

Access VFX also has a blog full of career advice posts, one of which provides students with advice and information for applying to university – with tips about portfolios, interviews and what universities and employers are looking for.

Here are a few tips from a list of many:

• Sometimes the interview may be with more than one person   
• It is likely they will want you to submit a portfolio of your work
• Be ready to talk through each piece of your work and explain your processes
• Your interview should be a two-way conversation

There is also a list of questions that the university interviewer may ask a student, as well as important tips for creating a portfolio. Here are a few out of many:

• Where you can, include examples of visual work across a variety of mediums; your portfolio should illustrate your working processes
• Provide examples of photography, image composition, design and concept work; a sample of your best work highlighting your main area of interest and skill would be good
• Show evidence of your use of any relevant software
• Put together a showreel of your work – no longer than 3 minutes

Extra tips include creating and maintaining social media accounts on sites like LinkedIn and Instagram.

These tips make it clear for potential university students to know exactly what to include in their portfolio and how to prepare for their interview.

Conclusion

Over-all, researching into Access VFX and particularly reading through their section on what to include in a portfolio was useful to think about what I need to include in my own portfolio. Access VFX seems to be a useful resource for people entering the VFX and Animation industry.