VFX r u ok? Why It Feels Like the End of VFX

[@tartiflette6428]

To illustrate the point about pixel f-ing, in more than a decade of VFX animation I worked on *ONE* major project where the client truly trusted the team to deliver. It was a game trailer where the clients set up boundaries on what we could or couldn't do, but within those we had free reign to propose stuff. And everyone on the team really took that to heart. Among the things that were almost baffling to see in the modern VFX industry: - Not a single change of brief came from the client! - All steps were validated by a single individual. The Art Director of the game validated the rendering/compositing, the animation director validated the animation, the director of comm validated the content shown... - Meetings where the clients argued between themselves *against* asking for retakes. To go back to Tippet's quote, they were very concerned by improving shots, not just making it different. - Because the validations were coming so quick, the team started to offer to do some extra work to further improve the project beyond the original scope. In the end we over-delivered, on time and on budget. Funny how that goes when there is some trust involved between a client and a vendor. And the fact that this was such a unique occurrence I find worth sharing says something... [edit] For those curious, it was a trailer for the game Meet your Maker: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pYizfn2eiJx4d8ksi=fnBCqwJNK8EBJesj

[@Halsu]

Here in Finland, this is still pretty common, in my experience. I've worked on feature films and TV shows, where almost every shot I delivered was accepted as-is, client version one. There's a trust that i will make the shot as good as it needs to be without constant micromanagement. Which makes me work pretty hard to to actually make them good enough ;-) Being a small country, a small market with small budgets is a big factor in this, i think. It's the only viable way to get things done. But it also makes the work enjoyable, instead of being just grind.

[@sajans12]

Yes u are ryt ..every creative sup or head wants to give crrction just to let PPL know I am the boss .pixel to pixel crr

[@Halsu]

@@sajans12 I've worked on those roles. Here the crews (and circles overall) are tiny, and consist of what could more reasonably called friends than mere coworkers. No room for ego trips, really, in a team of two or three.

[@DrButthugger]

@@funnyberries4017Colin?

[@brandoncyoung]

Classic vfx supe. ​@edyl7393

[@LFPAnimations]

You hit the nail on the freaking head. The amount of creative despair I felt while working at a studio, under people who had no creative ideas left, and in an environment where everyone was a technician instead of an artist. I work freelance now and even the most corporate of corporate clients give me more creative fulfillment than working on TV shows. It is ass backwards.

[@rameshdevasi6720]

where and how to get client?

[@dndx5]

Lets be real, if there is a place where thr word 'artist' has been profanned and removed from the little value it still had thats the vfx industry. Where anyone becomes magically an "artist" because your contract says so...BS

[@Halsu]

There's also music videos. Less money perhaps (sometimes a lot less), but often pretty cool projects with near 100% creative freedom, with clients that appreciate the work. Usually you work with the director, not through a series of middlemen. On the latest one, out of dozens of VFX shots, I got fix notes back for perhaps three shots, and all those were warranted. For the rest, my feedback was usually in the line of "This shot rocks man, move on!". No pixelf***ing whatsoever. Doing stuff like this from time to time is a good reminder why I got in this industry in the first place.

[@sligit]

​@@HalsuIt's funny, in the late 90s I was into 3D and seriously considering going into it as a career, but a friend of mine who was a few years older was already in the business and did some work on the Lost In Space movie. Even then, I could see how much of a cog in a machine you were when working on VFX in movies and it put me off, especially for such a creative discipline. At the time I thought that music videos would probably provide more creative freedom but the idea of trying to find that work consistently didn't seem realistic. Glad to hear you're making that work.

[@Halsu]

@@sligit The bulk of the work i do is corporate and commercials, plus some VFX work for TV and film. The music videos are a rare but usually welcome distraction, not something i do all the time, or even every year.

[@CallMeMrX]

My advice for aspiring VFX artists - if you plan on one day having a family, I would highly recommend choosing a different career, VFX is not for families.

[@blknmild]

Facts.

[@cryptoivn8990]

True

[@raghuware2469]

You scare me

[@CallMeMrX]

@@raghuware2469 Having a family and working in VFX is certainly do-able, a ton of us do it, there's just an added level of stress with the lack of stability. There's the mythical permanent staff roles but they seem to be few and far between, as are long contracts. A trend I am seeing and am experiencing first hand is a partner who is upskilling, or going back to school to further education for higher wage potential to balance out the VFX instability.

[@Slugcat-qu8kb]

so am i fuked by taking vfx as career

[@reimagineuniverse]

Man, I worked at Cats...compers were still comping 2 days before release. We OT'ed 8months unppaid until 2-3 am for that thing. Still hurts me seeing

[@ju3Dit]

That was my first job in the industry... such a nice and warm welcome, I still have nightmares about it.

[@gifzilla1818]

Paint in bholes now paint them out

[@capital1st439]

Why you did OT's unpaid ? Are you sirious ?

[@reimagineuniverse]

@@capital1st439 vfx industry is very predatory. 80 percent of time you wont get paid. Same in USA, England, Canada, Australia, India.

[@being47]

​@@capital1st439 in india 99% vfx studios don't pay OT. its considered standard. companies like Dneg MPC are the worst here. Dneg Head takes company wide meetings on 2 3 weeks and curses of artist , says they should be saying thankyou for the work they provide , even says I will fire anyone on the spot if you think this work is overworked or you ask for OT because its your work you didn't finished on time its your fault.

[@arhamsulman4704]

woah "i will know it when i see it " is such a true line with clients

[@bbrother92]

But how should I as client tell that I need more iterations?

[@chevon5707]

@@bbrother92you need to be able to articulate specifically what you want with your changes. If you can’t do that, then frankly, you’re not qualified to do your job.

[@bbrother92]

@@chevon5707 how you expect for Spilberg to know what magic vfx should look like? Directors usually want you to drop them some variants to choose from

[@Illusionaire1]

​@@bbrother92 You should be able to offer guidance on what's wrong, you should have a vision in your head. It's different to say "Hey, this jacket should be Mad Max style, not pirate style" than to say "Nah, not feeling it... can you do some more?". You also should be able to be able to offer instructions as detailed as possible to your vision, and if you don't have this vision clearly on your head, no problem, but then you should hire someone to help you with this.

[@1zymn1]

And it is about as useless of a line meant to sound meaningful and intelligent as it was when it was originally used to describe pornography.

[@ReneAllegre]

When I clicked I thought this was a video essay from a vfx enthusiast, but you are a vfx artist and you really know your stuff. This is a really great video about the current vfx state. Good job man

[@johnjohn6302]

Creative mismanagement, was never better explained: “you end up with artists who just stand around asking "OK lady, where do you want this sofa? You want it over there? No? Fine. You want it over there? I don't give a fuck. I'll put it wherever you want it.”

[@reasonsreasonably]

That isn't new.

[@Silpheedx]

First off. AMAZINGLY put together video that properly encapsulates it all. Second I've been in VFX for about 12 years. What I hate most is that more than 50% of what we see on screen on average is CGI. And yet the CGI artist got screwed over by these strikes harder than anyone else. When I look up at the Hollywood hills and see the A list actors that went on television and bragged about how they needed to go on strike and how humanitarian they are while the rest of us in the valley are going homeless and starving. A list actors suck up like 30-50% of a films budget leaving the other 20,000 people on a project to fight over the rest. When I watch A list Actors, Writers and Directors visibly avoid eye contact with the recently jobless picketing Rythm and Hues workers outside of the Oscars and then THEY TURNED UP THE MUSIC so they could ignore the companies owner talking about it at the awards. Yeah, I got a chip on my shoulder and for good reason.

[@ZZWWYZ]

Sounds like VFX artists need a stronger union

[@Silpheedx]

@@ZZWWYZ We don't have a union at all. Also, the second we unionize they will send ALL of our work to other countries where they can pay people a dollar an hour. They already did that to tracking, match moving, roto and paint departments. So its kind of a rock and a hard place.

[@jjstarrprod]

@@Silpheedx Well, given the conditions you guys have been for over the past 2 decades, I still believe it's worth a shot. After all, there's that saying that goes you get what you pay for, so when all the work has been sent to India or Thailand, and nobody in the world wants to watch such crappy CGI, thus none of their big tentpole movies like star Wars or Avengers make any box-office for a couple of years... if you guys are still alive by then, they'll come back crawling to your door asking you with the most polite tone with Bambi eyes if you would so ever reconsider working for them. And of course, by then, you'll already have setup a freshly minted shiny union that will force them to pay you 5 times the rate they used to pay you before, 10 times for overwork, all benefits offered, as per all the rules that your freshly minted union has set. So I'd say go for it ! Shoot the first shot. In the end, it's a 50/50 possibility you might end up with the better end of the stick. Coz with the current direction it's been taking for the past 30 years, you guys are 100% keeping going downhill.

[@Silpheedx]

@@jjstarrprod Thanks for understanding. I do appreciate it. Maybe down the line. Hopefully. But right now the majority of studios have already let like 50-80% of there staff go already because of the fall out from the strikes. The company I work for let a full 80% of its staff go. In our field its "let go" because they only give us 3 month contracts normally. People are are loosing there homes or going homeless because of the strikes fallout coupled with everything else. Everyone else in the industry got theres but the VFX workers get left out because they never have to look any of us in the face. If anyone complains they cut you faster than you can blink because of the mountain of desperate unemployed workers ready to do anything to keep there homes or stay off the streets. Personally, I'm looking at smaller studios that still treat there workers with respect that can rise from the ashes of this broken industry.

[@CrispBaker]

You're the only ones who aren't unionized, so you get screwed by management. Solution isn't to complain, it's to organize. The others used to get screwed too, then they stopped, and that's why

[@MichaelHalsell]

As a consumer, I have eliminated several of my streaming subscription. I have not purchased any new game titles. I dont attend movies at my local theatre. All of this directly connected to my budget. I just don't have the income to keep up. I was surprised about the Pixar layoffs. No one is untouchable.

[@MichaelHalsell]

Unionizing never got good footing and support for a number of reasons. Fragmented industries operating in different countries and regions, freelance contract work, lack of legal framework with a deep understanding of the labor issues, and hostile employer opposition. We are back to the old age question 'is art sustainable as a lifestyle'?

[@Double_Vision]

Disney Pixar has become a bomb factory since Lasseter was pushed out.

[@billyj.causeyvideoguy7361]

Most people have that issue. The solution should be to find ways to make cheaper media that can make up cost in bulk, but no… they keep sucking the market dry assuming they have to keep end user price high.

[@nomercyinc6783]

you cant even spend 20$ on a movie? work harder

[@MichaelHalsell]

@@nomercyinc6783 x4 with family + eats+ travel, etc. Wake up, you are drowsy!

[@JalexRosa]

Thank you for including me in the end! this was an amazing video, and very important topic on this transition period we are living. I hope in a few years art is more democratize to a point individual artists or small teams have the power of big studios and can monetize their creation directly with their audience.

[@crafthive]

Thank you Jalex! Glad you liked it, we've been following your work for a bit, you're doing really inspiring work! And of course I fully agree. Best case scenario to me would be that more creators could find an audience doing bigger work with smaller teams.

[@mad_mockups]

Honestly, as a graphic designer i can relate to parts of the pixel fking as well. Seeing the people in charge break their heads trying to find something wrong with your design, then very nonchalant brief you what they want in a couple words and come back angry that you didn’t do it exactly like they had in mind. It’s demoralising to say the least. I really hope there’s change coming, but with ai getting better, i think it’ll only get worse because people will think they can have even more controll because changes are made so easily.

[@Ravuun]

Oh yeah, we graphic designers are getting replaced right now; the work we've done for our employers is getting templated by AI so that they can let us go. I've been doing this for over 20 years and it's devastating.

[@syrup3438]

Phenomenal video! As a vfx student who just graduated, the current state of the industry feels bleak but I truly hope it'll recover. Until then just gotta keep learning and getting better.

[@simongravel7407]

Best of luck, dude!

[@btn237]

Your outlook is the right one, definitely don’t let doomers get you down. Before AI came along people were moaning about how shit their jobs are, when the jobs are under threat suddenly they’re saying how much they love their job and don’t want a robot to do it. Some people need something to be negative about. Not saying there aren’t problems, the distinction is in how people respond.

[@MrSofazocker]

​@@btn237they were dreading the "work" not the job itself, like uvs, retopo, rotoscoping, which easily could be ai tools if people would put effort into it instead of stochastic parrots.... not getting replaced entirely... if is a total fallacy.

[@LynxWatcher]

In what ways do you try to learn? Recently graduated as well, let's get better together! :)

[@syrup3438]

@@LynxWatcher hey dude! I was thinking, because I enjoy games alongside film, I decided to learn VFX in games using unreal. This way my skills in creating sims in Houdini would develop alongside my understanding of the unreal game engine. This could allow me to additionally develop skills for potential game dev and virtual production roles in the future... I hope. And I'd definitely be down to learn together, how'd that work best for you?

[@mx472000]

Nothing has changed since "Rhythm & Hues" were "jawsed" when they got an Oscar for "Life of Pie". Not only that noting has changed, it actually got worse.

[@raphaelprotti5536]

I was in a bar on Hollywood blvd when the R&H guys got hushed off stage at the Oscars by the music. That bar was filled with R&H employees who had been picketing during the Oscars ceremony. You could feel the hearts sinking as we witnessed the dismissal. I'll never forget it. The Academy's disrespect for our work was forever embodied right there.

[@ytubeanon]

R&H made VFX that still looks better than most of today's... I think the Marvel related VFX studios unionized, which is a step in the right direction... perhaps A.I. will help clients to preview what they want more easily and then do a final studio render

[@Silpheedx]

​@@ytubeanon Thats why there are entire companies with thousands of workers for making pre-vis. NOT AI. Honestly, how heartless are you to suggest AI when this entire THING is about people loosing there jobs and homes.

[@ytubeanon]

@@Silpheedx lol calm down dumbo, if R&H allowed clients to pre-vis with A.I. they'd still be in business

[@jjutt87]

Just like the whole world 🗺 smh 🤦🏽 #neverforget the music playing over the pleas of a dying winning team. Forever grateful to have visited R&H before it disappeared. "We stand on the shoulders of giants" being tripped by some small executives with no $oul

[@NihilQuest]

That Tippet quote about moving furniture hits the spot. I'm not in VFX but it applies to everything. At some point the idea of being an artist with a vision, gets beaten out of you with constant revisions.

[@raphaelprotti5536]

It's the middle management curse. The natural need for reinforcing relevance and necessity, but when executed with mediocrity. I recently had to work my ass off on a CG asset for a show. The client side VFX sup pixel fucked the shit out of it for a YEAR. We went through half a dozen artists and over 100 versions before it was handed over to me. The amount of notes we handled for something that ended up in 3 shots was INSANE. Any layman who watched that show would have caught maybe 3% of the notes through scrutinizing. It got to the point where the VFX sup, who has a look dev background, was requesting AOV's as part of our dailies submissions so he could pixel fuck the specular roughness and shadow occlusion of the asset. He also requested a turntable and finished shot for approving the asset to go into shots. I know all industry vets have horror stories like this to share.

[@daveweinstock]

I literally just got off a job where I'm moving furniture back and forth...in CG.

[@bijikedelai]

Holyshit everything you mentioned in this video is so relatable. Also it happens in other creative fields! i work as art director in ad agency for 8 years now, and we have had the same issues with VFX artist as well.

[@CraftyF0X]

We can call this the bullshittification of VFX work. While the job itself is far from being a bullshit job and it requires talent and experience, the way how the suits want to micro manage the whole thing just transforms it tot a bullshit job, where you change around things only to revert them back next week. I see everywhere the middlemanagement's eagerness to prove self importance keep getting in the way of better things.

[@sp123]

They'll do anything to prevent labor from gaining leverage

[@patrickholt8782]

Why would changing things around look good on middle management?

[@TruongHoangHaiNam]

@@patrickholt8782 Parkinson's Law of Triviality or the bicycle shed effect

[@Frontigenics]

@@patrickholt8782 middle management needs to just be entirely done away with. It's never anything other than friend/quota/nepo hires. No underlaying skillset or experience whatsoever in 99% of the cases.

[@AtomickPixel]

@@Frontigenics My old workplace, middle-management was made 90% of DEI's and we might start working on completely new things, ditch the days or weeks worth of work or bring back the things we removed a few weeks ago.. .all depending one someone's mood that day.

[@kellymoses8566]

VFX artists are the only part of major movies that are not unionized and they are the only people who are constantly fucked over. This is NOT a coincidence.

[@DrButthugger]

☝️☝️☝️

[@countchoculitis1528]

And we put the most asses in seats. Take a look at the top 50 highest grossing films of all time, every one on that list is VFX driven. People go to see Iron Man, not Robert Downey Jr.

[@richmanfilms]

I was at Sony when the union came inn and tried to organize. The artists did not vote it in at the time because we did not really know what it was all about. People had opinions for and against. The people for it would make people stand out and if it did not pass, they would be singled out. So, the unions were voted down. My grammar its horrible above - read it carefully. lol

[@sleepdeep305]

@@countchoculitis1528 Sherlock Holmes and Oppenheimer beg to differ, but I respect your point

[@countchoculitis1528]

@@sleepdeep305 Yeah, so neither of those two cracks the top 50.

[@gerwaeld]

An old compositing colleague of yours from the time at Atomic Fiction here. Thanks for this very well documented summary of what we're going through. Happy to see your youtube channel is banging! You made me nostalgic with some shots :')

[@crafthive]

Hey, that's awesome! I'm not sure who you are exactly, but I'm very glad to hear you liked it!

[@TKD_Link]

It's the lack of motivation that hits the hardest for me. Can anyone explain to me exactly where I'm supposed to find the motivation to keep trying when clients shit on every version of a shot, have me tweak a million things that have zero impact on the story, and then go on to insist that I never did anything to begin with in the current "No CGI (not a real term)" lie. I don't understand this motivation tactic whatsoever! And don't get me started on how all the overpaid puppets get to have contracts that mean that myself and my colleagues have to make their wrinkly/pimple-filled faces look perfect, but can never show that work because they get to lie to the public about beauty work. I'm sorry, but exactly when did that arrangement get made, and why have all of us just laid down and let the hypocrites of this industry screw us AND the public over with their disgusting lies? If you're interested in getting into this industry, give your head a damn shake and wise up fast. No one should be considering this industry in 2024. Our careers are at the whim of insecure, artistically incompetent clients who give notes only to justify their positions. It's a disgustingly difficult, thankless job that 99% of us are desperately seeking a path out of.

[@Ravuun]

Graphic design is a dying industry right now; AI is taking it over. All commercial art creatives are watching their industries die because AI is fast and cheap, and it's horrible. Every time I open Adobe it's bragging about its latest generative AI feature. I got an email today saying they're raising their subscription prices by $50/month this July; guess who's not renewing

[@manecoone]

@@RavuunIf you cancel they’ll cut it in half for a year or give you two months free. I laughed. canceled last week and bought affinity suite for $80 and my brushes, luts and plugins all work fine with photo so far. I will not pay them to train my replacement, insanity.

[@karimoh3154]

It hurts to hear that this industry seems to be so rough. I learned houdini for the last year and am trying to get into vfx. I will still keep pursuing my dream of creating vfx and simulations in houdini.

[@phyofox]

Thanks for making this video. I couldn't agree more. As a VFX artist and small studio owner, I have been on both sides of the coin. The work that we create is no longer appreciated like it used to be. On top of that, the expectation to complete projects quicker and cheaper but with higher quality is unsustainable in the long run. As cool as it sounds to be part of pop culture, it doesn't really pay the bills. Something's got to change, or we will see a lot of artists transitioning to platforms like KZbin to do their own things instead of working for studios or clients.

[@donnyd9268]

just downloaded blender. I'm going to learn VFX, cant wait to begin

[@DaddyDaughterMovieNight]

This sounds so familiar, great video. I worked at Tippett for over 20 years, and when I arrived the artists were still treated like gold. Over the years I saw so many young families uprooted with the migration of work, chasing those subsidies around the globe, that artists were starting to work round the clock, often "unofficially" just to get the latest changes done. Being good and fast (and compliant) meant standing a better chance of getting assigned to the next show instead of looking for a gig. Almost all hires are show hires with no guarantees at wrap. I was lucky enough to be in infrastructure, but that didn't save me from constant lay-offs, late paychecks, no raises and even major salary reductions, with zero mobility...who spends money on employee development when young recruits fresh out of school are plentiful and desperate? I guess it's the same everywhere.

[@amritfactorrrrrrr]

OMG I've never related to so many points in my life. Especially the loss of freedom to create when a director keeps asking for changes. I find I perform so much worse when I'm no longer being seen as an artist, but moreso as a tool, just like a furniture mover as you've mentioned. My best works have come from clients having trust in my abilities.

[@cristir3463]

As a VFX student, most posts or sub reddits are very discouraging but this video truly helped me put things into perspective, thank you for the assertive point of view and info on the state of the industry. This video gave me hope and made me excited for my future industry, thank you for this, i mean it.

[@jjstarrprod]

Goddamn ! As a career neighbour working in animation, I knew things were grim for the VFX industry at large, but your detailed breakdown made me learn so many things I didn't even suspect (awesome explanation for the tax rebates/credits/shelters system, I've always heard about it, but could never fully quite grasp its concept. Now it's crystal clear). Thanks for the explanation of ... well, everything ! It sure doesn't look good, and it's pretty damn sure it's gonna get worse before it gets better. As I mentioned, I've been working in the animation industry (or at least was, it's been 3 years I've been jobless), and things are looking pretty grim as well, chief among the reason being the advent of AI and the upcoming replacement (or at least perceived) of pretty much 90% of the workforce all over the world. Everybody in my profession is depressed, and we're all trying to survive at all costs (for example, I'm teaching photography and animation in weekly classes at my local international school). If you want a fairly similar video of yours but talking about the current state of the animation industry, I can recommend "The Animation industry is collapsing" by No the Robot. Highly informative as well (and equally depressing). However, I see things a bit further in the distance, and I believe AI will go the way of CG in animation. Shiny new tech at first, seemingly limitless, but it didn't take long for people to get used to it and cry foul over the single little poorly managed green keying, or subpar character animation, or slightly failed rendering that's then deemed the infamous "uncanny valley" effect. Also, when Pixar came out with Toy Story in 95, everybody (Disney chief among them) screamed that this was the end of 2D animation, the future is CG, let's get rid of all our 2D studios all over the world (which was admittedly the darkest time of the industry). And then for the next decade, all the smartasses who thought, "awesome ! I don't know how to draw, but I can now be an animator" ... Well, spoiler alert : They all discovered at their expense that even in CG, animation goes by a plethora of rules that nobody can escape unless they want their "animation" to look like ass. And after over a decade of CG shows which really looked like ass, and another decade where the new medium finally has found its mark under Pixar and Dreamworks, 2D animation, which was supposedly dead, is still alive and kicking, thanks to our friends the Japanese and Europeans (especially France and Ireland), and is now making a grand comeback with Spiderverse in 2018, and all of a sudden, every CG animators discovers that "hey, we could do that with CG ?" and everybody and their mothers now want to bring back the 2D "vintage" look. The Spiderverse movies, Arcane, Puss in Boots 2, TMNT Mutant Mayhem, The First Slam Dunk are all magnificent examples of how CG can be pushed to look like hand drawn. It's all a new paradigm shift all over again, and people realize they're craving actual art instead of just accurate light rendering and particles effects. And since I'm also a photographer, I could go one step even further back in history in saying that when cameras were invented, artists all over the world threw their hands in the air claiming "these untalented hacks think they can paint without years of craft and experience, and with just a click of a button ??" (sounds familiar ?) Fast forward a century later, spoiler alert : Painting still exists, and in fact has freed itself from the constraints of realism, by embracing abstract arts, liberating the imagination of countless artists for over a century (now, looking at what emerged and telling if it's a good thing or not, that's another debate). But case in point, people still paint ! Again, new paradigm shift : Painting went to painting + photography, and animation went to 2D + CG animation. History keeps repeating itself and I have no doubt we're on the verge of a new paradigm shift, that will become more or less art >> human art + AI art. Another point worth mentioning is that since AI seems to be lowering the bar of entry to just about anybody who knows how to type on a keyboard or a smartphone (which means virtually everybody nowadays), we'll see a tsunami of new "content", most of it inexperienced, the vast majority of it unwatchable (remember the decade of CG animations shows looking like ass ?). Now picture this : How many times have you wanted to watch something on Netflix, log in, get on the homepage, doomscroll on it for a minute, 2 minutes, 10 minutes, without knowing what the f%ck of a show you wanna watch... and before you know it, you've wasted 30 minutes on it without any decision, so in a fit of rage or consternation, you just turn the damn thing off ? Now with everybody thinking they can be the next Scorsese or Miyazaki with AI, imagine that doomscroll on your Netflix/KZbin page, but times A MILLION !!! How long do you think it's gonna be sustainable ? Because no matter the creative output, at the end of the day, as every Streaming platforms have realized these past 2 years, there are only so many families in the world, and there are only 24 hours in a day. And with 8 spent sleeping and 8 spent working, + 4 to 6 spent for families chores for those who have a family, people's time and attention span is limited. So between the work of someone who's been honing his filmmaking craft for decades, or a hack who just got started on his shiny new tool, without any knowledge of the filmmaking language, cinematography, editing, and overall audiovisual storytelling as a whole... who do you think people will chose to watch tonight ? Basically, everybody will want to create an AI show and nobody will want to watch it. Again, how long do you think it will be sustainable ? Not just for your eyes, but for the servers, both to produce said AI content (I've recently read it's extremely energivore, with expectations of it taking up 20+% of the power grid at some point in the close future) which can't be good for climate change, AND to store on either KZbin or Netflix's servers, which will also bring its lot of environmental and financial issues. So, with AI being the new CG, I'm confident in the fact that in some time in the future, when people will get tired of the onslaught of the countless soulless 8-fingers AI art style without much action going on (and I believe people will tire of it much faster than the advent of CG, since everybody now has been training their eyes on bad CG for decades, now), AND with all the more concerning energy issues that it entails that will undoubtfully eat up on people's direct livelihood, AI "art" will just quietly fade in the background, like its cousins Cryptos, VR, NFTs, and all the new shiny techs snake oils that tech bros have been trying to sell us for the past 2 decades as "the next big thing", and tech bros will jump at the next hype train, leaving gen AI in the dust. Now how long will it take, that is the question. We "only" have to survive until then.

[@why.do.I.even.try.]

I don't think ai will fade into the bg and be forgotten, but it'll merge into our tools. Someone mentioned in 3d that ai could help with retopos, uv unwrapping etc. When people realise AI can't magically make you great, then we'll see its more realistic integration. I hope. As a 2d artist I personally would love an ai trained in the fundamentals that gives you feedback and corrects your mistakes. I don't want it to do everything for me, but if it acted like a teacher who gives you a paintover, I would love that shit. It would never replace teachers for me, but I don't have enough money to pay them anyways, I'm not their target audience 😂

[@jjstarrprod]

@@why.do.I.even.try. So it'd be more like your animation or line supervisor ? Not a bad idea, actually. Now wouldn't it still kinda compromise the integrity of your style ?

[@why.do.I.even.try.]

@@jjstarrprod I don't animate so I'm not sure about how it would go about critiquing that, I do concepts and backgrounds. I was thinking of it working the same as when a teacher does it, the corrections fall out of your style but you use those corrections as a guide, with notes on where and what to improve. Ai giving me a final image based on what I made (like with img2img in sd) without an explanation is not useful, but if I had feedback, that'd be great.

[@varvarvarvarvarvar]

I mean, surely AI in arts will be the least of our concerns once something like gene editing makes major strides. Future people will be another species entirely, who knows what hell will break lose.

[@asierlizaso7348]

As a 3D rigger myself, also working in the animation industry, I really appreciate reading a non catastrophic take on the future of the industry. It is so tiring to only hear depressing news every single day. I have recently been laid off, but I am convinced that this industry is my true passion. Hopefully you are right and even if the pipeline and the way we work changes, we can survive this wave of depression and new technologies to finally get to a more stable point in the industry and keep making art. I can only hope this wave and the strikes don't take too long to fade out, we must stay strong until then.

[@cordellbriggs4984]

Tremendously well thought out, and well researched video. You've perfectly encapsulated the current state of our industry. Thank you for shedding light on this!

[@MysteryPancake]

Great video! This got shared in a couple of ILM chats today, quite a few people agreed. I just started in the industry and this video is very accurate to what I've seen so far. Too much unnecessary revision pushing projects months later than they need to be

[@brandoncyoung]

the ones that didnt like it were probably supes that had notes on the edit or something lol

[@joeykorenman]

This video is a friggin' masterpiece... well done, my dude.

[@karachaffee3343]

The problem in Hollywood is that the top execs are generic managment types who could be working for Kraft , Walmart, or Olive Garden. They treat the product like Velveeta, but people do not go to the movies for Velveeta. They get that at home already.

[@raphaelprotti5536]

You nailed it 100% with this video. I've been working in vfx for 20 years now, wondering if it's time to get out.

[@ASKVFX]

I've been trying to articulate all this to people for months. Thank you so much for doing such a wonderful job putting all this together. It's 100% needed and hopefully it'll help more people understand what we're dealing with.

[@erichippen710]

Almost 30 years in the VFX industry and this vid is a pretty accurate description of the history and current state. (And yes, the 90's was an incredibly exciting and creative time to be in VFX!)

[@punchtalestudio]

It all started there. Deep impact, Starship troopers…

[@Ravuun]

I was in school for computer animation from 1997-2000; it seemed like such an amazing career. I ended up getting into graphic design, but man o man, watching movies and knowing how 3DSMax and SoftImage worked was so much fun.

[@Sammysapphira]

Wow, it's almost like you got to experience a new technology as a young man that was eager to learn new tools. How do you think all the boomers of your industry felt when pizza-faced teenagers were replacing them by clicking a few buttons on a computer? They either adapted, or they got left behind. Just because there's a new technology to help artists elevate their craft, and you don't understand it, doesn't make it bad. It makes you an out of touch boomer.

[@Ravuun]

@@Sammysapphira There's a difference between a technology you can learn to use, and a technology that replaces you entirely 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

[@erichippen710]

@@Sammysapphira Sounds like I'm being accused of something here but I can't tell what, since I didn't say that any particular new technology is bad, nor am I a boomer. It also sounds like you didn't even watch this video.

[@Jakob.Hamburg]

Strong analysis, good overview, thank you for showing. : ) Some questions related to all of this: Where is the love? Where is the friendliness at work? Where is the social respect? Where is the trust? I feel and experience, that these points are in a deficit in the capitalist system. Especially around spots where too much money and power accumulate. We can see these deficits also in the brutality, coldness and hecticness in a lot (by far not all) of the media that is produced in the US. The technical quality is on a high level but the social values are a bit flat and often malicious. We also see it in the politics and also how we treat the environment and other living beings aside from humans. I see similarities in other nations, like Japan, China, or here in Germany. Burn out/depression is far spread. We produce too much stress while we are ultra wealthy at the same time. But then the wealth is distributed in an unhealthy and unfair way. I generalized too much, because my English isn't good enough. I don't want to say that the United States are bad, but its system, that spread all over the world for good reasons in the past is improvable. Have a good day and a bright future, everyone! : )

[@IamMrkay]

This video deserves 1 million views plus, this is a seriously underrated channel

[@HiccupDWilt]

Imagine working 12hrs a day, basically 7 days a week in a dark, cold studio in Toronto and after finally getting all your shots done, and approved by client...The client sends them all back a few days later because they want want Tom Hiddleston's hairline to be artificially lowered ad his body bulked up because he looks too small next to Chris Hemsworth. I will NEVER stop being bitter about that and it has been 8 years🥲

[@mmmuck]

Imagine doing that in slave labor and sweat shop labor conditions in India😢

[@9AFilms]

I am VFX artist, it's been my life changing passion, As kid i was the first one in my family to peruse this it took alot of requesting to my parents to send me to Mumbai to learn more about this, after 10-12 years of experimenting and learning several software, I finally worked hard to learn Houdini Fx which is a industry software once respected as the toughest software but these strike have affected Indian studios, All the outside studios based here have either shut down or lay off high number which resulted in artists to migrate to Bollywood studios which eventually resulted in No jobs at all as all the studios are filled with experts or artist with so much experience hence no one wants to hire freshers like me. It breaks my heart as alot of people and studios reach out for jobs but then ghost me when they get to know i'm a fresher with no studio expert.

[@sovanima]

you do not know how many of those experts are blood related cousins, nephews of even friends from other places. With good knowledge of houdini you can have wide range of possible career development in both game and vfx. The video here however speaks about the merits and the industry changes worldwide so that is what affects you and most of us. It does not mean you ain't good enought or too unexperienced. It's just the need of human labour to rapidly decline alongside many other political aspects. If you can and burn for the craft keep learning and try to find your own voice so you would be ready for when better days are to come.

[@shulmanator]

I'm the former animation supervisor from The Flash tv series, and I remember early in the industry, experienced artists were afraid of being replaced by younger, less expensive artists. It all depends on the business model of a studio. If the person in charge believes a lower rate is more important than experience, that's your entrance. Now, western artists are afraid of their work going to India.

[@9AFilms]

@@shulmanator sir i came into this field because of the flash tv series, I became a fan of vfx and the flash at the same time, its a pleasure to get reply from you, I wanted to learn and one day possibly work on Films or series like the flash.

[@shulmanator]

@@9AFilms It's good to meet a fan. :) Right now, I'm looking for work like you are, so we're in the same boat.

[@MadiMisaki]

Maybe try Technicolor academy. It accepts freshers, you either go into MPC Films or The Mill after the training.

[@weeliano]

I experienced all of this at ILM Singapore. I left in 2015, much happier now. Disney shut down ILM Singapore last year, a huge blow to the local talent here. The subsidies dried up a long time ago, Dneg used to be here and left when they got bought over by Prime Focus. Singapore just cannot sustain a VFX industry here without the government pouring subsidies into it.

[@connla]

one aspect I've experienced first hand in one of the off shoots of VFX is the breakdown of Previs into its parts. I only worked for a year for a previs company where when I initially joined they were being handed whole films and they did the previs for every action scene, by the time I was leaving one film from a major company would have its action scenes handed out to multiple companies, the amount of work for one studio dropped dramatically which had a knock on effect to the sort of roles that where there to manage juggling multiple shots across multiple shots (the previs editor) the company went from needing multiple previs editors to needing just one because they'd rarely get more then one project at a time that they were not just sending the shots back individually.

[@CallousCoder]

I worked both in practical effects and visual effects. And luckily I fell into it later in life (32) and I have a background in EE and CS, so that made it trivial to become a compositor and TD in about 6 months. As I coded many of the nodes we use in compositing in the early 90s in C and assembly for my work on solar telescope and medical imaging systems. But since COVID hit I stopped the rent of my studio and no longer bid on jobs anymore. First and foremost compositing is done mainly in India and China now and there’s no way you can compete with their rates when living in an expensive tax heavy developed country. So I did mainly do the TD roles where I could automate stuff. Like Masters of the Skies all the cities seen from the air are created with software I wrote that takes in staff maps of German cities from that era and it wound generate roads, water, buildings with stock textures, street lights (which were off btw). I could do a rough generation of all the cities in 6 weeks. Then those 3D maps were refined here and there by hand for some added detail. I must have been cheapest because I won the bid. That sort of work you can make a difference. But I realized working on that way back in 2017, that I earned more an hour just doing my IT consulting. So I decided to just do IT consulting. Earning more per hour on average, have no stress, and have very normal working hours.

[@mixolydianmel]

This has massive parallels in the games industry, especially with overtime, burnout, and crunch.

[@lukasbieri]

This is gold, thank you so much for this great summary on the state of things!

[@fredcastro4252]

I´ve never heard anyone be so on point about this subject like the quote from Phill tippet. That´s exactly how it goes! I thought it only happened to me. Great video, earned yourself a new subscriber!

[@CharlesVanNoland]

It's a race to the bottom where VFX studios must undercut the competition while still providing a good product for the client. The only way to compete is to come up with novel automated ways to pull off various effects - which isn't exactly feasible if the raw footage didn't do a good job of taking VFX into account in the first place, forcing VFX artists to spend a lot of hours manually dealing with rotoscoping and painting out stuff from a shot. Maybe AI tools will help these manual processes more and cut down on the man hours required to pull certain things off. It's still going to be a race to the bottom though.

[@Paper_and_Light]

This was extremely informative and well done. I know some VFX artists here in Vancouver, and it seems like the hours and conditions have been rough for a while, and really depend on the experience of the director at the helm.

[@christiandebney1989]

I think there will be a strong move to vfx studios creating their own content. Directors that understand the process of vfx using companies they learnt it all in so lowering the 'change order' ratio and unnecessary expense. If you're an animator or a studio start making your own proof of concepts and short films and get writing good scripts or purchase IP.

[@hazonku]

100% agree. We need more Love Death & Robots and less big IP franchise crap. More awesome little anthology shows where individual artists and small studios can get some financing form a larger studio & streaming service to produce interesting and actually new content instead of the umpteenth iteration of the same tired franchises we've suffered through for the last couple decades.

[@christiandebney1989]

@@hazonku yep totally, having just been over in LA winning an award at the Beverly hills film festival for an animated film. and then talking to studios and agencies, its what they're wanting and are excited about... lets get moving...

[@RobertLesac]

​@@hazonkutotally down for more Love, death and robots!

[@raphaelprotti5536]

That's what I'm doing. Technology is enabling three things right now: Removing the use for a distributor middle man between the creator and consumer, allowing remote collaboration and decreasing the cost of added production value. Musicians are already self promoting and building careers without record labels, film-making will take more time, but organizing that way will lead to indie projects. In a few years, big studios will probably face dramatic pressure from this.

[@ericluna_]

I think the reality is that content creation has become more accessible, there are more forms of entertainment other than high quality films and with platforms like KZbin, the film industry is losing the young viewership audience. Maybe the real solution is that the barrier to entry is lowering and now vfx artist can collaborate with smaller teams to make great films and get recognition through vitality. Just look at the film “everything except nothing”

[@samuraibeluga3749]

"nothing, except everything"

[@SlapstickGenius23]

Did you mean Everything all at once?

[@ericluna_]

@@SlapstickGenius23 no but that’s also a great example of the direction that filmmaking is heading. It’s just easier to make great films. All studios have to do is give great directors a chance and dissolve the nepotistic system they’ve built.

[@smileyp4535]

So why don't we have a vfx union??? WHY DON'T WE HAVE VFX UNION???

[@AMITAWAGHADE]

Damn. This is the first video I have seen that talked about so called "managers, leads and seniors" who want to feel power trip than get to the deadline and overwork the artists, it is a real problem. These kind of people sit on their asses for years without any knowledge of new things. I appreciate this very much.

[@KevRyanCG]

I moved to Montreal, it was grand for a year and a bit and I got hit with the strikes, been out of work since and now finally I'm moving back home. I tried to wait it out and spent a bunch of money. Fun was had but now I'm really thinking about another career because my motivation has been shot to shit after a few months of no work and just the general vibe out there, and I don't know if I can see myself in this exact odd spot again in another 10 years. Hoping a hard reset will give me some answers but I don't know man.

[@AndyTanguay]

This is one of the most depressing things I've ever watched. The only thing I've ever wanted to do/be since I was 7 was a VFX artist for movies. I saw Star Wars in the theater in 1977 and that was it. When other kids wanted to be sports stars, firemen, musicians, business leaders - all I wanted was this. To see this amazing artform that looked like pure magic to me as a kid ground into dust by big business, exploitation, and greed just literally breaks my heart.

[@TheRubberStudiosASMR]

Grass roots projects will always be pure

[@mastas7]

@@TheRubberStudiosASMR what do u mean by that?

[@lockhrt6961]

This is true ,even here in India i have been jobless for over an year now , studios are asking us to do unpaid internship they are even cutting down salaries for senior artists and even firing most of the roto and paint department new comers can't even get a job. Frankly I would say it's not just because of AI it may also be because of generational gap.

[@valerieroussin-potvin2476]

Wow, the best video I've seen so far to illustrate the situation. I would love a version with French subtitles to show the video to my family, but it's a big project.

[@NoTheRobot]

This is so spot on. The Animation industry is feeling similar effects right now, particularly from the streaming bubble bursting to the fallout from the SAG/WGA strikes & upcoming negotiations. Right now animation is pretty much at the point where the VFX industry was 10 years ago with the artists running on self-motivation to work on Spider-Verse 2 & 3 leads to artists at Sony Pictures Imageworks burning out and leaving the film in droves (over 100 artists left). It's concerning because there is an increase in the demand for animation quality like Spider-Verse, but this process takes much longer than a regular CG animated film, and I'm worried that studios are going to expect the same timelines to apply to future animated films. If it follows the same trajectory as the VFX industry, it's not looking too good.

[@crafthive]

We have a long road ahead of us! and Thanks, I watched your video on the animation industry not long ago... Seems like we are absolutely getting slammed by the same wave

[@arnaldandujar8781]

I couldn't agree more with this video. Had clients in the pass where production was a never ending game of "what wrong with this shot" to the point it was very temping to just send the client the same shot with no changes. If they took and approve said 'changes' then it really solidify the fact that they were pixel fucking every aspect of the shots. Hope the best comes to the industry that I love, its unsustainable in the long run.

[@michaelwalsh5191]

Wow! This video really sums up what life is like for a VFX artist. You did a wonderful job with this.

[@josephsy]

When I worked production at ILM, it felt like the production companies were actually internalising their VFX, cutting out the need for an external studio.

[@rrafon]

I am in VFX industry and you really hit the right spots there. Very well said and explained!

[@AnimationDunk]

9:42 Waw this one is so real, I used to be completely in love with the craft and telling story through my images and as years went by now I'm just doing what is asked and have trouble to input anything artistic in the shots Thank you! A very thorough video on the topic and well produced visually !

[@CaptainChromaKey]

100% Hit the nail on the head. Thank you sir for this amazing summary! hopefully not just artist will watch it in the end...

[@pdjinne65]

VFX artists don't unionize because 1/ they've be trained to compete against each other, 2/ they don't have time for it, 3/ They have the artist mentality that tends to shut down anything not directly VFX-related. At this point, if it didn't happen after the Life of Pi debacle, it'll never happen.

[@makaheng]

Thank you sir, you have spoken the truth about the creative industry. Keep it up, kudos !

[@ZoranPerisic-bj8po]

Excellent analysis! Congratulations. I wholeheartedly agree with Phil Tippet's comments in particular... There was a time when VFX supervisors lead from the front, with their sleeves rolled up, instead of acting as "negotiators" between the studios and the "vendors".

[@benmcreynolds8581]

We drastically need to see a over hall of the vfx industry and how the media industry works with them. It shouldn't be this messed up

[@AllesLatte]

i just entered the industry as a lighting artist (in AAA games though, which many consider to be in a somewhat comparable awful state management-wise) and had an art director who was just like that. provided concepts that didnt tell us anything, could only tell us what he didnt want instead of what he actually wants. it was an awful experience and heavily discouraged me in my choice of profession. i left the company by now and am on the lookout for a new job at a smaller studio, but the direction the industry is currently heading makes me doubt my future in this field (+a lack of junior positions in VFX overall at the moment)

[@PhO3NiX96]

That dude spitting out facts, come guys, we can do it, we can survive til the resurgence!

[@johnrobichaud1983]

The best way to put it is we live in a world of business and in that world the talented and smart are taken advantage of and are often punished and rarely celebrated.

[@EtheRenard]

"We never thought about what was wrong with a shot. We just thought about how to make it better" is a great line to encourage creativity!

[@alexanderrichtertd]

Great video to break down the issues! I've had a student asking the same question recently and I think this is a fantastic video to explain the situation and what will happen next.

[@marcel_chavez]

Dang I normally do not get invested that much in videos from small creators on the platform, I’m a bit biased due to many don’t bring too much to the table and really show why they are “small creators” because the videos seem a bit unpolished and some work yet to do. However I was really surprised by your content, you landed the theme perfectly was very helpful and insightful as a vfx artist myself and “wanna be” content creator due to problems with the industry your video was pure gold, keep it up, hopefully this problem gets a better resolution overtime

[@naninano8813]

very good essay. glorious. but for me, if the entire movie industry goes belly up tomorrow, i won't even notice. stopped watching movies twenty years ago just lost interest

[@miriades]

Same for me. Stopped watching movies like 5 years ago. Unsubscribed all my streaming services, no more Netflix, Apple or Disney+ as I was mot using them anymore. Like you I just lost interest, I just don’t care about all that anymore.

[@ArcanePath360]

This is so insightful, thanks for the in depth analysis of the problems in the industry.

[@BlazeNexusDelta]

PERFECT Summary! This is an educational masterpiece. Good job! I wish media-schools would equip students better for this new reality.

[@SnoopThePunk]

This was much needed to hear.Thought i was losing my mind . Nailed it buddy

[@rbus]

Dunno what happened to the VFX industry but it's been exploding for a long while. Discovered an old Amiga nerd friend started a wildly successful studio called Cafe FX , exploded to own a full city block featuring several in-house theaters and hundreds of employees and then imploded in a fairly short couple of years. The collapsed happened long before AI and the crazy thing is maybe AI will do the same to the studios that cheated, undercut, and outsourced the US VFX studios out of business. Especially when someday the tools will allow a kid alone in his bedroom with a massive GPU to produce, animate, storyboard, VFX, script write, and make their own AAA-budget looking movie. Not that this is really new, independent animators & VFX artists have been massively successful at creating viral material over many decades (Remember 405?), and it'll still require massive amounts of technical skill to achieve it. I don't know, I'm excited because we're all going to die from global warming or nuclear war or cancer anyway, so I choose to look on the happy side.

[@mash3d67]

I remember CafeFx and 405. Foundation imaging etc. Santa maria style barbecue was great.

[@rbus]

@@mash3d67 LOL, lived in the area for decades and never tried Santa Maria style BBQ.

[@danim8]

Good video. However I do want to add that at Every studio I worked for during the fixed price bidding is based on a documented "scope of work" if a change is asked for that exceeds the scope of work the client must pay for additional work. This included working on some Marvel Disney+ shows and several feature films. I have worked for over 30 years and have never been not payed for work that wasn't originally agreed upon. In your video it felt like this was over generalized and the Defacto way teh entire industry operates. This isn't true. Yes there are some shops that do this and I have been in meetings where we would look at the scope of what they ask for and see if there is room to "let it slide" but if we allow a few shots when they come back asking for more, we do push back and say we gave you these at no cost, this is a bigger ask, and its going to cost more. Then we either get more for those shots or occasionally they decide to omit the shot.

[@bedeekin6274]

Your chair analogy is actually accurate for the prop making department of which it’s a practical make and change.... I work in Prop making. We’re all going through it.

[@AberrantArt]

Excellent summary and overview of the entire industry. Well done!!! 👏 I'm a Compositor who's been in the VFX industry since 2014 and you nailed it! 🎯

[@k.v.2049]

thank you! as someone who's just dipping their toes in this industry it feels hard to gain any actual overview - this definetly helped

[@Forcommentingpurposes]

9:40 this is the very heart of all modern art “critics” on the internet; nothing is good enough for them, everything needs to be changed to suit their tastes, the artist is just a vehicle for a poorly thought out idea

[@davidschaefer83]

Thank you SO MUCH for this video!! I hope everyone will see this, and I hope everyone even slightly responsible will realize what they are doing. But I have always been a dreamer...

[@ronskiuk]

'Show me something I'll like' was an actual client comment I heard, everyone in the room side eyeing each other with wtf.

[@Ravuun]

The worst one for me was "make it pop more" LOL like, what??

[@EDLOPEZ1]

SPOT ON! 😁 However The current state of affairs in the industry is significantly driven by the greed of many studios. While downtime between shows has always existed, it is now more pronounced, partly due to previous strikes. Unfortunately, many studios have seized this opportunity to reduce staff while continuing to open new facilities and maintain superfluous luxury assets, leaving artists to bear the brunt of these cuts. Additionally, several studios have found various other ways to cut budgets while retaining the talent responsible for the magical shots they proudly showcase during awards and nominations. Anyway topics maybe for another or several other videos in your channel.

[@Fengtos]

I'm only in VFX for about 5 years and I'm thinking of exiting the industry. I invested time to start a new study when I was 31. Studied game architecture and design with the focus on art. I deviated into compositing at some point but it's terrible. I am Dutch and work in the Netherlands. Most of those companies don't offer any pension plan. Almost no outlook on permanent contract, as you will be let go after a few short term contracts. Freelance is a possibility but you are very unsure of work. I could go abroad but I don't want that, I want to build a life in my own country. Work environments are pretty toxic. There is no future in it in terms of building a life and safety when you're old. The industry needs a complete crash. Then build up from the ground up with unions and good labor laws.

[@pholine]

Only in China in EU this never gonna happen

[@baxterwilson368]

I did a speech about all this in my speech class back in 2013 and I mentioned a lot of this stuff (outsourcing, tax incentives). Sad to see not much has changed in the past decade.

[@Ablumz]

thank you for this, it's been exhausting

[@robertYoutub]

Perfect, fits to all related 3d industry. My guess is, that less young people will get into the industry or drop out earlier. We had this in 2002, suddenly nearly half of artists dropped the job, took years to get enough good people together again.

[@sun_beams]

Listening to this while i work overtime on a major TV show. Hoo-ray.

[@flippert0]

Thanks for the breakdowns (finance, location, work), makes things clearer.

[@Mightydoggo]

I´m just working with some self thaught CAD skills in basic manufacturing and product design, so feel free to correct me if I´m wrong, but I don´t see AI replacing fuck anything 3D anytime soon. All the tools we got to play around with were either a complete waste of time or flatout broken. Now maybe the big suits hold the holy grail of reducing workforce-costs behind closed doors, but I heavily doubt it.

[@okankyoto]

The boss's face when told that "Actually we can't just do minor changes, we need to re-generate the entire thing, we thought you'd approve it as-is!"

[@JM-zp9ik]

this is amazing, and therapeutic, thank you.

[@Dr.W.Krueger]

In the industry since 1980 and doing this for another 10 years at best. Thank god.

[@pinglyadya]

My biggest hope is that there is a major boost in revenue for online content creation or content creation has some streamlining in how monetization works. Right now, my only work is through other higher following content creators who wants to have an edge compared to their competition. Having animations, effects and other arts is an easy way of doing it.

[@Ravuun]

8:09 Yea gods, the frustrations of being a creative and having everything you do critiqued to death for no good reason! This was one of my biggest frustrations as a graphic designer in corporate America; design by committee

[@nadiazimov9911]

your animations are incredible! And I like your sense of humor

[@teddyarcher3957]

Excellent, very well researched and well produced. Good work. One of the most coherent and accurate videos covering the plight of our the vfx industry online.

[@11herbsandspices]

I left VFX years ago after seeing our director and VFX producer take down an entire vendor due to constant changes, pixel f-ing, the works. I morally couldn't handle being a part of something that was taking advantage of so many people (vendor AND production side), and ultimately, I could not get behind working under above-the-line cowards who didn't have the guts to tell a director or producer "no, that's not in the budget". I get why that is an issue and that vendors don't want to lose out on work. However, it's an unhealthy toxic and oppressive culture. On a personal note, what aggravated me most was new directors who hadn't a vision or clue of what they wanted--just "fix it in post". You can't fix what was sh*t in the first place, bud.

[@leandromamute03]

what a perfect vent about VFX, thank you!

[@HeyItsTheWykydtron]

I work in the video game industry as a 3D Artist and this whole scenario plays out pretty similarly, specially if you're part of an outsourcing studio. Most of the time upper management will grab more work for lesser pay and then just dump the over scoped workload to production and let them sort out how many weeks or months they'll need to work unpaid overtime to deliver everything. It also doesn't help that a lot the clients, mostly creative directors and art directors are so anal when it comes to details that half the stuff gets sent back for endless rounds of feedback.

[@thidios]

I am a 3D artist here in Brazil. We take jobs from ubisoft. We are suffering too, cause the constant flops, as our income is based on their sales and scores. The truth is, its shit out there. Particularly when you are forced to make the ugliest most annoying looking woman ever as the main character. No wonder why the games flop.

[@timonsku]

VFX desperately needs a strong Union to not be thrown around by Studios so much

[@TheMovieRabbitHole]

Another bullseye. You're shining light in the dark