Career In VFX: How To Begin
You’ve made up your mind to be a VFX artist and wondering how and where to begin from? Getting into the business of Animation & VFX requires humongous efforts and perseverance. But a career in this domain can be extremely fulfilling, exciting and rewarding when you have received the right training and guidance for it. Choosing the right institute and career course for your training will help you with the appropriate resources required to build a rewarding career in this field.
Here are some of the starting steps for you to follow:
1) Choose a software
With loads of new software and updates coming regularly, it could be overwhelming to narrow down your choice to a few. However, it’s extremely important to get a grasp on the one that you can are comfortable with. Check out the trial versions of the ones you think you can work with. For beginners, Blender is recommended which is an open-source free software.
2) Self Learning
Watch a bunch of tutorials and repeat them. Start with the basic effects namely Fire, Water Clouds/smoke, Explosions, Lightning in both 2D and 3D. These are common tasks for every VFX artist and the main aim here is to get the hang of it. The more you experiment, the easier it will be to adapt to your skills. It is recommended to start with the basics like colour theory, composition and modeling and not directly approach specifics like rotoscopy and texturing. Once you have mastered the fundamentals, try and figure out what you enjoy the most and specialise in it. While big-budget projects have the visual effects tasks broken up as specific jobs, indie studios or freelancing would need you to move around these roles quite often.
3) Enroll in a course
One of the major factors for getting into a top-notch VFX company is an impressive CV and a job-ready skillset. Learning online from the available tutorials will provide you with a basic idea but a career-oriented course in VFX will help you learn from the experts and work in a studio-like environment. In the era of cut-throat competition, training from a well-reputed animation and VFX institute will secure and ease your access to the industry. Needless to mention that a career course would also help you with the technical and soft skills required to make your mark as a skilled VFX Artist.
4) Demo reel
Show-reels are a culmination of your best works that you could highlight in your profile or while freelancing. Make sure that throughout your training, you keep working towards honing your craft so that your demo reel is impressive and diverse. Don’t forget to keep improving your reel on a regular basis.
5) Learn coding
Artists who know coding are the most sought after by major studios in recent times. Coding could be lifesaving in automating parameters that usually take much longer when done manually. Python is the most commonly used coding language but you could just learn any of the scripts. Although coding is not mandatory for this profile, it will give you a competitive edge over your peers.
As a VFX Artist one can get into the gaming industry, production houses and media and advertising with ease however it takes consistent hard work and relevant work experience to get recognized.
The demand for skilled VFX Artists is constantly on the rise. You can enroll in a course that provides expert training and guidance on the latest software and techniques so that you can develop the skills that the topmost recruiters are looking for. With placement assistance, you will have higher chance of landing a job immediately after the successful completion of your course.
Begin your career in the dynamic and very rewarding filmmaking industry on the right note. All the best!
