Hey guys! I’m trying to put down some kind of description of what a VFX artist is. I haven’t yet dared to take the step to TA so for now, I’m content having someone else sort out my tools and complicated problems :):
It’s a hard thing to define what a Technical Artist is and I have read discussions about it while lurking here. It made me think of what the definition of a VFX artist is as well. After having a look around I didn’t find any good clear cut answers so I figured I’d take a stab at explaining it.
Feel free to have a read through and let me know if there is something big and obvious I forgot to mention or if it’s just horribly poorly written.
Sounds about right to me. Although I’m involved with VFX, I’m not in charge of all that type of stuff. But my lead is.
You might also want to mention that a VFX artist has to coordinate with people across all the disciplines. Someone in code might do the shaders he wants. Someone in animation might be producing an animated object doing its thing. Someone in environment art might do the destruction sim. Someone else might even produce the textures used for the particles. And of course someone in design might be triggering the effects.
That would depend on the size of the studio and project I guess. If you’re doing all that stuff yourself, then you’ll be very busy.
You are correct that there is a lot of communication between discplines.
With regards to being busy doing all parts myself I find that to be a tricky problem. Sure, if I am the only VFX artist on the proejct, doing everything might be overwhelming, but there are are more of us I think the added control actually speeds up the process.
For example the shield shader. I waste a whole lot more time explaining and testing a shader someone else is building than if I just make it myself and iterate quickly. It ensures that I get the result I want and the coder can get on with other stuff.
I believe breaking it into different disciplines just interupts the workflow.
That said, if it’s a cutscene, of course I want the animation team to animate it and I’ll add the effects in the end and so on. But small things that are generally considered to be a Visual Effect, I prefer having control over them from start to finish.
Great write-up! Going to share this if you don’t mind I guess I would consider myself a technical VFX Artist, but no way a Tech Artist, since i touch very little code/script. I tend to play around with rigging, shaders and tech outside of work.
FX Artists, should always be looking at other game/films/concepts, we come up with stuff that sometimes has no reference or is very vague. “I want this power up effect that looks like spikes tearing though the air, but they aren’t ice spikes, they are mystical”
Out of the other disciplines that I have done, FX Artist has been the most rewarding.
Hehe, of that description I know just what you need! Sometimes you get even less. “I want it to be more fwwoorshhskk (Violent hand gestures).”
Yes, it is deeply rewarding. I enjoy the multidisciplinary challenges, but I am also too much of an egotistical artist to stay in the shadows like a TA :D:
[QUOTE=Demno;13999]You are correct that there is a lot of communication between discplines.
With regards to being busy doing all parts myself I find that to be a tricky problem. Sure, if I am the only VFX artist on the proejct, doing everything might be overwhelming, but there are are more of us I think the added control actually speeds up the process.
For example the shield shader. I waste a whole lot more time explaining and testing a shader someone else is building than if I just make it myself and iterate quickly. It ensures that I get the result I want and the coder can get on with other stuff.
I believe breaking it into different disciplines just interupts the workflow.
That said, if it’s a cutscene, of course I want the animation team to animate it and I’ll add the effects in the end and so on. But small things that are generally considered to be a Visual Effect, I prefer having control over them from start to finish.[/QUOTE]
I can appreciate being in control of all the areas. I used to do that when working at small places. You’re right it can save time. And it is rewarding.
I’ve found that on larger projects we tend to find people are pushed into specialising in one area more (where I am anyway, maybe not universally). Once someone has become good at something technical or difficult it’s easier to give them all the related tasks. This is where I’m at at the moment. I do physical destruction sims. Mostly (I’m an environment artist, so there’s modelling and UVs to go with it). I don’t get to do the accompanying particle effects. Much as I’d like to do it all, I’m valuable smashing stuff up. But I do coordinate with the particle guy. We go over what we need to do. He sets up the first pass effect. I add it to the scene and set up the trigger keyframes. Then it goes back to him for tweaking while I smash up something else.
I guess if you’re working with a system like Unreal Engine where anyone can dip into any area pretty easily it’s less of an issue just letting people handle all areas. Then you just have to ensure everything looks consistent and nobody goes mental firing off a million particles and exploding physics objects in the middle of a dense crowd scene. Everyone has to keep track of that sort of thing anyway.
I guess I would consider myself a technical VFX Artist, but no way a Tech Artist, since i touch very little code/script. I tend to play around with rigging, shaders and tech outside of work.