Introduction
This blog post is my Industry Research Report – Some information I have collected about the creative Visual Effects and Animation industry through research into its different facets and areas of subject, compiled into one report as per the requirements of the B1 Progression brief.
The report contains sections dedicated to the following – the VFX/ 3D animation pipelines and their hierarchy structure; working in a company versus working as a freelancer; emerging technology in the industry; research into and analysis of two job roles that I am interested in and finally, an explanation of the importance of maintaining a present and professional portfolio.
The VFX and Animation Pipelines and their Hierarchy Structure
Because VFX and 3D Animation are two separate areas of creative work, there are two different processes for producing VFX and 3D animation in an industry setting. However, both pipelines for the production of these pieces of work follow the same three stages – the Pre-Production stage: where the VFX or animation project is planned out in detail; the Production stage: where the main body of work is completed and lastly, the Post-Production stage: where the work is edited and refined to a polished and finished standard.
The 3D animation pipeline works as follows: in the Pre-Production stage, the story of the animation is developed. Then, a script is developed to make the story fit within an animated format – while at the same time, storyboards and initial designs for characters, props and locations are created. Next, the 3D models that are going to be used in the production are modelled, textured and shaded.
In the Production stage of the 3D animation process, the models are rigged so that they can be moved and animators begin the process of animation. Also in the production phase, particles and FX are simulated and lighting produced within the 3D animated scenes.
In the Post-Production process, the animation is rendered (which can take a very long time) and once rendering is complete, the sound is added and the animated film edited and composited with post-effects.
As described, the 3D animation pipeline is separated into different departments that each create an important element of the final animated film – without one of them, the other departments would be unable to do their job. Within each department there are, of course, different job roles that work together to produce their part of the film.
For example, in the animation department of the production there will be an animation director, who is in charge of directing the animation’s look and holding the creative vision of the project; animation supervisors, who oversee the animator’s work and make sure that it is up to the standards of the rest of the film as well as senior and junior animators – the difference between the two animator roles is their level of experience in the industry, as well as their pay and how much animation they are actually assigned to complete. There may also be separate job roles for animating key frames and animating the in-between frames. Each of the departments – storyboarding, modelling, rigging, compositing etc. Will have a similar structure, based on job roles that oversee the entire department, supervisors, and junior and senior production roles.
Each of these departments all report to the main people in charge of the entire production – the director, writer, producers, executive producers and ultimately the film’s production company.
Shown above is a diagram of the hierarchy in the film industry in general. For a VFX or animation production, many of the job roles will be the same or similar – especially the roles at the top of the hierarchy, as most films (regardless of whether they are live-action or animation) are produced by a film production company like Warner Brothers or Metro Goldwyn Mayer. The film production company is approached by producers, writers and directors with ideas for films that they can fund. A producer will hire writers to create a script, as well as being in-charge of who directs the film and how the film is budgeted and scheduled. Directors are then in charge of the creative direction of the film and work with directors of photography and writers to create scenes that execute the film’s creative vision and script.
The VFX pipeline is similar to the animation pipeline, following the stages of Pre-Production, Production and Post-Production except for the fact that VFX is produced as part of the Post-Production stage of a live-action film. VFX companies will be contracted by a film production company to produce the VFX in a film. There will be a script as well as other planning documents provided to the VFX company so that they can create the effects and CGI that the film’s producers envision for their film.
In the pre-production stage of the VFX pipeline, tests of effects, simulations, shaders and lighting may be conducted so that the VFX artists will know what kinds of effects and CGI they are producing and whether they align with the filmmakers’ vision or not. At the same stage of development, previz will be used to visualise scenes and shots – this is a rough version of the VFX sequence with basic placeholder models, basic set pieces and very basic animation.
Once the pre-production phase is finished, the VFX company will know how each aspect of their production should go and what they need to do to bring their concepts to a fully realised final product. Now, the modelling and photo reference-collecting (for use in modelling and photogrammetry) begins and once the film is delivered to the VFX studios they can begin colour grading, rigging, animation, rotoscoping and other aspects of the VFX production process. One important part of the VFX pipeline is Look Dev, which is where textures and shaders are experimented with to change and develop the look of the VFX shots, fine tuning them according to the film’s creative direction. The shots are rendered towards the end of the pipeline, and included into the rest of the footage in compositing – where the matte paintings and computer graphics are edited together with the live-action footage to create a final polished product.
To conclude, the VFX and Animation industry uses these pipelines with specialized departments in order to efficiently produce work for productions, and to use the full extent of specialist’s skills.
Working in a Company VS Working as a Freelancer
The two options for a career working in VFX or animation is to work in a studio company, or as a freelancer.
A freelancer is someone who does not work for a company, and instead makes money on a job-per-job basis. In the VFX and animation industry, freelancers are hired by companies or individuals to produce VFX/animation work for them – this work could be anything from advertisement videos, TV idents, or producing VFX for a live-action film.
Being a freelancer comes with many responsibilities. Freelancers are responsible for organising their work by finding available jobs and networking with people in the industry. A freelancer is also self-employed, which means that they would have to pay their own taxes – a company employee has their taxes paid for them by the company. Freelancers also have to buy the equipment they need to do their job, as well as maintaining a presence online so that they can be noticed by companies for more work offers.
Working for a company provides the job security that freelancers don’t have. Company workers have a contract with their employer to work there for a certain amount of time, and so the work and a consistent income source is guaranteed for them. Also, the hours an employee works for are set and maintained by the company, whereas freelancers can choose the hours that they work. Being a company employee also means that there are more opportunities to work on famous projects and films. Networking in a company is easier than as a freelancer, as there may be people in the company that can provide additional work opportunities on other projects, or jobs in the company at a different position.
Day to day, a freelancer might choose to follow a routine, to structure their day so that working from home is productive. They might have a set time to start their work in the morning and a set time to finish in the evening, with breaks in-between. Work in a day for a freelancer might include writing e-mails, contacting or meeting with clients, and working to a brief they have been given in their area of work – this could be animating in Animate or Photoshop, or Compositing VFX with After Effects or Nuke. Working as a freelancer may provide a better work-life balance and flexibility that the day-to-day life as a company employee may not.
For this section of the research, I used a blog from an article website as a source on the daily routine of a freelancer in general: A day in the life of a freelancer | by ETIC Club | Medium.
Day-to-day as a company employee, work could be more or less intense depending on the project the company is working on. On a major TV show production or studio film, an animator or VFX may work up to 12 hours a day on weekdays. Almost all of the work in a company job in the industry will be working in the software, animating or doing VFX work – as the company does all the rest of the work that a freelancer would have to do on their own (sourcing clients, communicating with clients and doing financial admin work).
I used this animation career forum as a source for the day-to-day life of an industry company employee: https://www.reddit.com/r/animationcareer/comments/lg78c9/hey_working_animators_what_is_a_day_in_the_life/
Over all, there are many similarities and differences between working in a company and working as a freelancer, and the career path that a VFX artist or animator chooses largely depends on personal preference and the type of work they want to specialize in.
Emerging Technology in the Industry
As technology in general progresses, so does the technology involved in the creative industries – particularly VFX production.
A prime example of emerging technology in film and VFX is virtual production. Virtual production is a range of new production methods centered around using virtual reality, CGI, game engines and real time rendering to create scenes for films. An increasingly more common use of virtual production is the replacement of greenscreens on a film set with LED screens that display a real-time rendered environment using Unreal Engine or similar software. This is a technique that Lucasfilm have been using to produce the TV show The Mandalorian and other Star Wars TV shows.
Industrial Light & Magic is the VFX company that works on The Mandalorian and employs the use of LED screens in its production as a replacement for greenscreens. ILM does this with a facility called Stagecraft – a 360-degree LED screen with a circular LED screen over to act as a ceiling. These screens are called a volume, and display real-time rendered environments. The screens are used in conjunction with set-pieces to create film footage that is quite close to the final product and speeds up the post-production of a film or TV show as a lot of the VFX work is being done along-side the main production. ILM has three Stagecraft volumes in Los Angeles and one in Vancouver, Canada that are available for hire for Film and TV as well as ILM being able to create bespoke volumes especially for productions.
Another example of Virtual Production technology is the use of VR in producing 3D animated films or VFX sequences. A clear use of VR as Virtual Production is in the 2019 movie The Lion King, directed by Jon Favreau. For this film, the filmmakers and VFX crew created 3D environments based on reference footage and photos of real places in African savannah, which were then combined with VR to allow the filmmakers to view the environment as if they were standing in it, move around and capture places and landscape features from different angles using virtual cameras to set up the shots of the film. The crew also created a pre-vis of sorts for the animation in the film by using basic character models and animating them simply in the environment to create a foundation for the film that was edited and refined by animators and VFX artists to form the final product.
Using virtual production is becoming more common in films and TV shows, with some of the main reasons why being that it allows productions to be finished quicker (as VFX is being worked on along-side production), filmmakers have more specific creative control over how the final product looks (as they can edit things in real-time) and Virtual Production can save money on big-budget films and TV shows’ Post-Production by using the technology more efficiently and conveniently.
The sources I used for this section:
- Unreal Engine’s Virtual Production ‘Field Guide’: https://cdn2.unrealengine.com/vp-field-guide-v1-3-01-f0bce45b6319.pdf
- ILM Stagecraft: https://www.ilm.com/stagecraft/
- Lion King VR article: https://www.wired.com/story/disney-new-lion-king-vr-fueled-future-cinema/
Research and Analysis: Two Job Roles that I am Interested in
As this report has shown, there are many job-roles in the film industry. From roles in VFX or animation such as compositing, rigging, modelling, storyboarding or animating to roles that are part of a live-action film’s main production work such as directing, camera operating and sound recording – young people entering the industry have many different options for specializing their career into something specific, or working as a jack of all trades in freelancing. Two job roles that I am interested in are working as a Floor Runner on a film set and working as an Animator.
A floor runner (also called a PA) is a person on a film set that is usually a trainee, who handles distributing scripts and schedules to each department on a film set, as well as making coffee and tea, managing actors and talent and driving equipment and people to and from the set. Essentially, a floor runner does anything required of them to aid the progress of the day of filming. An A-Level equivalent qualification in an art & design or media related subject is usually requested or preferred when applying. A degree is also useful, but not always imperative. The job role might also be gained as a result of an apprenticeship.
I am interested in getting a job as a floor runner because it is an entry-level position in the film industry (runners report to the assistant directors) and the job is involved with working on a film set. This kind of job seems like good experience to gain and it could lead to further employment in the industry. Guy Ritchie (Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch) is an example of a famous person who worked as a runner.
Research Source: https://www.screenskills.com/job-profiles/browse/film-and-tv-drama/production-management/floor-runner-film-and-tv-drama/
An animator is a person working for an animation studio who creates images (or frames) that are put together in sequence to create a video. They often draw by hand, create motion graphics or animate a 3D model. An animator is given a certain sequence to animate for a production – this could be a number of frames that contribute to a whole scene for a feature length film, entire scenes in a short film or entire short videos or films that are published online or to advertise something. Animators can work as a freelancer or in a company and usually report to a supervisor. A degree in an art & design or media related subject is usually requested or preferred when applying. The job role might also be gained as a result of an apprenticeship or internship.
I am interested in getting a job as an animator in either of those areas because I think that working in a company would give me some experience in the industry, and working freelance would allow me to be more flexible with the hours and which jobs I choose to work.
Research Source: https://www.screenskills.com/job-profiles/browse/animation/production/animator-animation/
Explaining the Importance of Maintaining a Present and Professional Portfolio
A portfolio is a collection of work that is used in the industry as a way of showing the animation, VFX or film work that an individual has done. Portfolios are looked at by studio company employers when hiring someone new for creative work as well as being looked at by universities to decide which candidates are to be accepted onto a course in the related subject.
A portfolio should include examples of a person’s best work in the related field. This can include showreel videos, 3D renders, screenshots and images of a work-in-progress project and breakdowns of existing projects. A portfolio might also be specialized for a specific job role – for example, a person applying for a job as a rigging artist would create a portfolio showcasing mainly examples of work where they used rigging and breakdowns of their rigging process. A portfolio is usually hosted on a website because it is easy to share links in emails and online applications.
An individual’s portfolio should be updated after each major or important project, showcasing the work the person did for the project. Also, any projects that the person feels showcases their best work (even if the projects are smaller in scale) would be important to include. In terms of the amount of time between each update, a few times a year would suffice.
It’s important to update your portfolio frequently so that you can use it to apply for jobs showing your best and most recent work. Another reason to update a portfolio frequently is because even if you already have a job, your work could still get spotted for future opportunities by other employers or people in the industry who you can network with. Maintaining a portfolio shows how active you are in the industry.
A portfolio is usually presented on a personal website. It is important to have this site organized, so that people can navigate easily on the site and find the sections of the site that they need to – portfolio sites are usually separated into a few web pages: a home page (which can be the main portfolio page); an about page that provides information about the person and a contact page where an interested party can contact the individual and get their contact information. Having a different webpage for each piece of information means that a user can quickly find the specific section that they want to.
A showreel is a video that showcases a person’s work – this can be a series of animation or VFX projects that are cut together but showreels are also used by videographers, photographers and motion graphics artists. A showreel should be short – between 30 seconds to 1 minute and 30 seconds – however an experienced artist or an entire studio’s showreel might be several minutes long. This is because employers are often looking at lots of showreels to find someone to employ and so because this is already competitive, someone looking to be employed doesn’t want to waste a potential employers time and instead show their best work in a short amount of time.
The shots in a showreel should be ordered with the best work first. This is because it grabs the viewer’s attention and an employer looking for someone that stands out will be wanting to see people’s best work.
A showreel can also be specific to jobs or university courses that a person is applying for. For example, someone with a background in general 3D animation who is applying for a 3D modelling job at a 3D animation studio would want to include their best modelling work, and breakdowns of how they modeled certain projects.
Because I’d like to shift my career towards live-action filmmaking, showing a portfolio of live-action film work would be important when applying for a job in the industry. This also means that in the future, I would need to make some films for my portfolio.
I found a portfolio site for a filmmaker named Danny Cooke: https://www.dannycooke.co.uk/
It is a good example of a filmmaker’s portfolio website, and includes all of their work in a gallery, with separate tags that filter their work based on the role they played in its creation (director, director of photography, commercials, documentaries etc.). It also includes a contact page and some services that they provide (a drone hire service for films).
Webpages I used for research in this section:
Conclusion
Over all, this report has covered many elements of the creative media industry (specifically in VFX and Animation) and included sections dedicated to: the VFX/ 3D animation pipelines and their hierarchy structure; working in a company versus working as a freelancer; emerging technology in the industry; research into and analysis of two job roles that I am interested in and finally, an explanation of the importance of maintaining a present and professional portfolio. Researching information for this report has been an important exercise that will be useful in university work.