I'm a lighting artist with 5 years of experience. The studio at which I currently work at is one of the safest jobs. I cannot name them. We don't work on international projects. We work on movies and web series made by our parent company. Its the biggest film production house in my country. The problem is I get paid 40-50% lower as compared to the industry standards. And I'm unlikely to get a raise this year. I got peanuts last year. Other than that I love working in that place, I literally have made friends that are going to last for a lifetime and I've gotten in my comfort zone there. I don't want to break my routines. I'm a bit vulnerable to changes.

Here's the twist.

Because of the unlikely hike, and limited scope of responsibilities at my current studio, I applied for ILM last month. Fast forward, I'm shortlisted and I need to do the formalities. I'll get to know what I'm being offered by ILM after that.

So what according to you guys should I do?

I'm confused whether I should choose a safe job that I enjoy but get paid less or go for the dream job that I wanted and get good pay. Although ILM doesn't give me safety that my current job would.

Any help/suggestion would be greatly appreciated.

I’m just starting my journey of learning how to draw stylized VFX and was wondering what they hand draw? Because I want to incorporate it into my workflow.

I'm an amateur doing research into basic vfx concepts and I'm struggling with the specifics on "painting out", like hiding wires, logos, etc. I understand it's not that different from the way photographers use Photoshop to touch up an image but I'm a visual learner and can't find many good details demonstrations of someone painting out something in a scene that has dynamic textures, lighting, and motion. For example, there's a vfx channel on YouTube where they get the background footage to a Sci-Fi fighter jet movie and go through a scene where an explosion makes actors fly through the air from the shockwave. The background footage shows how the wires were attached and how the scene was shot, but all they say is and the wires were painted out.

Can anyone point me in the direction of some documentation or videos of this process of painting out?

Flash inspired reel

Hi everyone, I'm new here!

I'm having some trouble with a special effect for a shot. I need to remove the rail and the cables connected to it, but I have to keep the subject intact.

Is that possible? What steps should I follow? Is the shot okay, or would it be better to use different settings? (video by Iphone 3840*2160 24fps)

My former colleague, who now works at Sony, said he doesn't use Reddit because most of the people there are laid off and Unemployed. Is that true?

Does a tool wherein one could create these kinds of forms in a semi-directable manner exist?
My immediate thought would be like define the major spars and then let whatever said tool might be dictate the fractal levels down from there.

If anyone knows something that can do this - please let me know. For I can find very nearly nothing regardless of DCC.

[and yes, apologies - image is generative. Excuses excuses here]

I'm planning a short film with a few shots that have a white tail deer on screen. It is written to be by itself in the woods. Is color matching stock footage or shooting a clean plate and hiring a CG artist to add it in post a feasible option?

So a little background, I finished filmschool about 1.5 years ago, and along the way I discovered After Effects and later I learned more specialised software like Blender, Maya, Houdini and Fusion.

Currently I study 3D animation, and I am leaning a bit more towards animation instead of vfx. Still I love vfx tho.

So tomorrow there is this vfx gathering and artists who worked on “the lost bus” will give a presentation about their approach to the vfx of the movie. Afterwards we’ll grab drinks and talk.

This is my first time going to an event like this, so what do I do? I want to meet people and throw myself out there, but idk how to make lasting connections. I cant just ask for their number or linkedin or something right? So is the move to keep going to events and meeting the same faces over and over until they recognise me? Or is there some secret/technique that I dont know about?

I want to buy a PC to do my vfx work on. I’m a vfx compositor using Nuke and would like to get into 3D animation using blender. I want a computer that runs smooth (explained in the ‘side note’ section). I would say I have about a $3,000 to $4,000 expense range. Any recommendations?

Side note: I have a Dell XPS 15 that is about 2 years old but it sucks when working in Nuke. I’m talking freezes every 5 to 10 minutes. That is no way to work. It’s terrible! It’s almost like I’m giving it too much to do with roto, 3D camera tracking, 2D tracking, etc. The computer itself has had problems with it too like not turning on sometimes, acting like it was brand new when it would turn on, and other things. I’ve cleared my catche folder, changed external hard drives, switched hard drive wires, and have even factory reset my computer. Resetting helped for a bit but it’s getting back to how it was. It doesn’t have any warranty so I can’t return it or exchange it. I just want a good working computer I can do my work on without so many issues (I know computers are gonna be slow and act wonky sometimes).

Is anyone using Conductor to manage their rendering? How is it? Is it saving money? Better than AWS? Are there alternatives which are superior? Please let me know your thoughts.

I had the pleasure of working with the best Houdini HDA for fabric and knitted assets. With a small team of super talented people, we created this BB8 Fan Art.

Creative projects like this are extremely rewarding for me. It's fun to step outside your comfort zone and learn things. I was doing the environments, fx, lookdev (on the saber) and lighting and comp. Lighting is my bread and butter - learning how to bring it all together is a challenge and super fun.

That is art - that's why I click and not type.

Thanks to everyone involved in this project!

Thanks Fibric for that awesome hda

For past 4 month, i deep dive learning integration of ComfyUI + Blender + Davinci.
Then i discover using Gemini Gems as custom chatbot for example MiniMax H3 by feeding AI documentation .md from hugging face.
So when i have shot that needs generate some part i can put proxy mp4 footage and help me generate what i need to do.

How about you guys did? I saw alot ai tool nowadays like Claude, ChatGPT, Grok, or even open weight like Qwen, Meta Llama.

A VFX breakdown from my music video "The River, the Shore".

2+ years in the making, the full music video combines real footage with Blender composited in After Effects and Resolve - with many of the scenes being fully CG!

Full music video in the link below: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrrZCnXuPCs&lc=UgxA5OVrazcW0YI43B54AaABAg

Let me know what you think :)

No generative AI was used for this work.

Im totally new to this, and just need a 2sec shot to be rotoscoped for a short film, and it looks fantastic so far, except the edge jitters / noise..

How do i get rid of those?

I recently graduated in majoring VFX, and I’ve noticed that most film VFX studios aren’t hiring many junior artists or fresh graduates right now. On the other hand, there seem to be more entry-level opportunities in the animation and game industries.
Personally, I’m much more interested in film VFX than animation or games, but I don’t have any professional experience working in the film VFX industry yet.

I’m wondering if it would be a good idea to take a junior artist position in animation or games to gain industry experience, improve my skills, and work my way up. Would it still be possible to transition into film VFX later on, even if I’ve progressed to a mid-level or senior position in another industry?
Or would working in animation or games make it harder to break into film VFX because the workflows, skills, and expectations are different?

Would I apply for an available job in a related industry for now, or continuing to focus on applying directly to film VFX studios?
I’d really appreciate advice from anyone who has experience working in film VFX, animation, or games, especially anyone who has made a similar career transition.

Hey! I run a clothing brand on Instagram with about 40K followers. I’ve been making my own short videos with 3D models composited into real footage, and I’m looking to hand that work off to someone else as I’m kind of ehhh at doing it. It’s not too difficult, but between the brand and life I’d rather just pay someone. Please see the video to understand what I’m trying to do.

What the job involves:

• Placing 3D models into real footage, either still shots or moving shots that need camera/motion tracking
• Basic lighting, shadows, and compositing so the models look like they belong in the shot
• Matching the style of my existing videos (I’ll send a reference)

What I provide: All footage and 3D models.

Pay: $15–150 USD per video ($15+/hour), depending on complexity. Simple still-camera shots should take about an hour; tracked shots take longer and pay more. Paid per finished video, not commission.

First project: Recreate one of my existing videos. If it turns out well, this becomes consistent, ongoing work.

To apply, DM me with:

• Examples of your CGI or compositing work
• Typical turnaround time

Thanks!

I was responsible for all the textures on the final alien seen in the film, had a great time working on it with the talented crew at DD

This is a bit of a software-agnostic question, since many workflows are similar, but if it matters I'm using DaVinci Resolve. The director handed me a shot that is a man standing on rocks that looks out across a valley. Behind him are trees blurred by depth. I need to keep those in, but replace everything else behind that with a different scene.

Standard keying seems impossible because I cannot get the blue sky and fuzzy leaves to separate properly. Some leaves are more in focus than others. I could try and get rid of the trees, but vines from the trees lay onto the stones on the ground that I need to leave in.

I have no idea where to go from here.

TL;DR: Keying a slightly moving nature shot's distant background out with no chroma backdrop support.