Visual Effects Industry- For Beginners

Indian VFX Industry current scenario

2018-07-18T11:45:00.000-07:00

Hi Folks,
I would like to share a small insight about Indian Visual Effects from film making side.
The brutal truth is no Film Director, Cameraman, AD's etc have no knowledge about CG. They dont respect the VFX sups on set nor cooperate.This has happened to me also to many top VFX people in the Industry.

Basically, VFX should be planned and evolve from script.This is the part, most directors find difficult.They fail most of the time.This effects while filming , also it sucks every drop of blood from VFX Artists.

I believe VFX should be used to enhance the movie, bring imagination to reality. But most of the time it is used for FIXING up things where the filming went wrong.

I would say working in VFX is not going to reward you in anyway
If your CG is good, audience will never know that's done in VFX.
If CG is bad, the entire VFX company and Artist reputation goes down

With over a decade of experience I have seen many VFX Studios rise and fall. There are lot of reason's for that, I will share in some other upcoming post's.

Especially, for Indian cinema you will find many VFX companies. I find most of the companies lacks in creativity or doing creative jobs. 9 out of 10 mostly work on fixing stuff, that's really bad.

On this note I would like to appreciate (Phantom-fx), a VFX Studio based in Chennai, India for their
creative work. They have the balance between creative and technical fix ups. I know this because I was working for them for a couple of projects.

There might be some other Good VFX studios too.

This post is particularly about the sufferings of Visual Effects in Indian Cinema.

what I have written is a tip of ICE BERG many are hidden in ocean, which I will write in future.

Thanks

Life as 3D Artist in UAE( Dubai)

2017-09-30T02:11:00.002-07:00

Hiye Folks,
Greetings to you guys, nice to be back. This post is regarding my experience as 3D Artist in Dubai for the last couple of years, Hope this might be useful especially for Indians.

Ok, I will make it short as much as I can, One day I was offered a job as 3D generalist in Dubai, interview was cleared and I got my visa within a week and landed in dubai. Went straight to my office in Dubai then to my accommodation provided.

If you really need me to narrate the full story. I will be happy to do that in another blog "Travelling to Dubai".

Usually the first day of the week starts at Sunday and we used to have break fest and
meeting in the morning for that week schedule.

The main software used is 3dsMax Vray and After Effects. UAE is flooded with openings for 3Ds Max and AE. My job wad to model texture light render and composite. I was mainly converting 2d Engine drawings to 3D.

They dont really have separate departments, you have to do all by yourself and finish in deadlines.Working was fun. Nice pay, Good place to stay and had nice friends to hang around in weekends that is on Friday and Saturday.

There are lots of Pros and Cons being there. If you are very sentimental and family oriented that's not the place to be. You will literally become homesick , I have seen my colleagues breakdown for no reason.

If you like to explore , meet new people, mingle with different culture, then you can opt for it.
I was given a High class ticket in Emirates Airways for travelling etc.

This is my short post on my experience . I would be glad to help you out if you have any questions.

Regards,
Naveen

CG Generalist or Specialist

2014-10-20T01:24:00.001-07:00

Hiye Folks,

A great or tough question to answer whether to be generalist or specialist. Before answering that question I would like to say a difference between specialist vs generalist for those who don't know.An Artist who knows all things (Modelling, texturing, rigging, animation, compositing etc) are called generalist.They know everything to finish the given job but they are not highly skilled in certain area.A specialist try to master a specific field, solves complex issues and develop and invent new technology and workflows in that same field.

Ok now the truth behind the answer is based on your interest and skills.Yes, that's true.some have the interest and ability to learn everything and some focus on a particular field and they don't care about other things.Being generalist have both advantages as well as disadvantages too.

First some advantages of being a generalist

1.You will have a great knowledge of all the software's, workflows.It may save you lot of time and your self esteem while working in production.

2.You can be proud about the skills you have,your friends will have good respect on you.

3.You can create your own VFX portfolio, you need less help from others.

Disadvantages of being a generalist

1.You may be asked to do more than one job at your workplace since you know everything.

2.You cannot focus and update your skills on a specific area.

3.You will try to get into others job,that may create an ego problem with other artist.

and so on....

But if you wish to become a VFX Head or someday dreaming of having your own production house, you have to try to learn all the skills required from all aspects.By doing so you will gain a vast knowledge so that you can plan and budget your VFX project.

If you are looking for a job in top VFX studios, they hire specialist to do the job, usually they don't hire generalist.Because they have separate department to do the job.They want you to be highly skilled in a particular area.

In mid sized studios they require you to work on multiple fields.I have seen people doing multitasking for example I have seen a person who does modelling also does the rigging and animation.

So, finally both have pros and cons, and you have to decide what you wish for.

Hope this post might answer your questions and if you have any questions let me know and kindly leave your comments.Thanks for your time.Keep checking for new updates.

Which Software to learn and master!

2011-08-28T05:40:00.000-07:00

Hiye Folks,
As a beginner to this Visual Effects Industry you might think which software is best to learn.Personally. I had a great question about this.Then I started with After Effects which is a great software and ended up in Nuke.
After Effects is a layer based software which is pretty straight forward. The advantage is its supported by lot of third party plugins and its great for Motion Graphics as well as compositing.They good thing is that they have released 64bit version so it works lightning fast.

But if you go for big production Nuke or Fusion is the best.It's a node based high end application which is great for complex compositing for movies.It has special 3d compositing features.It's great for stereoscopic workflow.

The best thing to do is to familiarize with layer based as well as node based compositing application.

Hope this blog might have helped you,thanks for your comments and support.

Camera Projection

2011-04-14T10:41:00.000-07:00

Hiye Folks
First of all, thanks for spending your valuable time reading my blog and I hope you guys are doing great.It's nice to see you all back again, thanks for your support.
A few people were asking me about camera projection and I thought it might be a great idea to write it , so it might be useful.I am not going to elaborate, I will make sure to keep short and sweet

   So what is camera projection mean???. Its a illusion of creating a 3d environment form a 2d image.Its done with a unique procedure.I mainly use Nuke and Maya for camera projection and you can be able to achieve this in other compositing and 3d applications like Eyeon fusion, after effects, 3ds max, Cinema4d etc.

First the camera has to be tracked if the shot has a movement.Then the tracked camera is imported to 3d application.Now the geometry has to be modeled as per the requirement in the shot. Its not necessary to create a hi res model, make simple 3d models to match the scene.Then assign a material and connect it through a projection3d node and link the camera through it.Render the scene to check the final results.This is how the projection technique is done in 3d application.
   This topic is just to give you an overview about camera projection.Hope you enjoyed reading it.Kindly, leave your comments.

2D to 3D Conversion-Basic outlook for beginners

2011-03-26T22:58:00.000-07:00

Hi Folks
   Great to see you back guys.Thanks for all your comments and support which drives me to write out of my experience.
   So today's topic is all about 2d to 3d conversion.This is the current hot topic which is going all around the world.
   Converting movies form 2d to 3d is quite challenging.There are lots of unique methods to achieve the 3D effects.Every post production studios handle differently.Most common softwares used for converting movies are The foundry's Nuke, Adobe After effects, Eyeon Fusion and there are proprietary softwares for making the job a lot easier.

   There is lot of theory involved but the basic concept is to shift the channels (RGB) to get that stereoscopic effect.Your left eye sees the Red channel while your right eye sees the green and the blue channel (green+blue=cyan).
   The output images can be seen through 3d glasses or anaglyph glasses which is pretty cost effective.These glasses combines all the channels to see a single 3D image.

   Hmmmm so how its done in post production????.It involves lots of planning.Before that I would like to tell you about some of the conversion methods which are cardboard cutouts, rubber mapping and projection techniques.Rotoscopy, inpaint, matchmove, tracking, dynamic effects creators are the other major departments involved in post production .

   If you want to go beyond further please checkout the links below which are great for a good start

2d to 3d article
http://www.fxguide.com/featured/art-of-stereo-conversion-2d-to-3d

Tutorials
http://www.digitaltutors.com/09/training.php?search=stereoscopic&x=0&y=0

Thanks for the time you have taken to read the post will be back soon with other interesting topic. Kindly leave your comments and feedback

After Effects- Truly the Master in Effects Industry

2010-11-26T04:38:00.000-08:00

Hey Folks!!! Nice to see you all once again. Its my privilege to share good information to you all. So what for today, great you got it. Its "AFTER EFFECTS" the Master. Well I have been using this amazing software for a quite long time and I am proud of it. As usual I will keep my blog crisp and sweet no long posts don't worry.

Have you seen stunning graphics in Television,film titles, amazing gaming titles and ever wondered how did they do that.Even when I was a beginner I used to think like you guys.well, its all done by the master piece of software After Effects.This software is specially designed to do Motion Graphics and Compositing.

Motion Graphics means all the graphics design you see on Television.

Its a layer based program easy to learn and master. The best part is it has got timeline editing so its compatible with all Editing programs such as Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, Avid. There are huge number of plugins for After Effects which fires up the program and your creativity has no limits.

oh! you might be thinking where to checkout the plugins.Just check this link out and you will find what all you need to know "http://toolfarm.stores.yahoo.net/adobe-after-effects-plug-ins.html".

Now its the time for you guys to learn and practice. Guys trust me go check out the sites which I will be mentioning where you can master the program

http://www.videocopilot.net/
http://ae.tutsplus.com/
http://www.creativecow.net/
http://maltaannon.com/

Hope I have given you enough information and I am happy to post this blog.Thanks for spending your valuable time.I will be posting different topics very soon.

I am enjoying writing today because I am free today and its raining outside pleasant weather also having a hot cup of coffee. Hope you guys are enjoying toooooo.

Digital Compositing

2010-11-14T04:48:00.002-08:00

So,what is Compositing!!!.

This is the process where VFX Artist combines all the digital images into a scene.It's just creating an illusion.The artist who is doing this job is called as Compositor.

Compositing involves lot of technical work.Problem solving skills is highly required and its fun and challenging.There is lots work involved such as Rotoscopy, Paint Back, Keying, String removal,

Preparing Clean plates,Color Correction,2D tracking,3D tracking, Stabilizing. In my next blog I will clearly explain in detail folks.

So what is next!!!!.Well, I figured out what you are thinking..... It's all about the compositing softwares you would like to know.

Ok, Some of the popular softwares are Adobe After Effects, Eyeon Fusion, Autodesk Combustion , Foundry Nuke, Apple Shake, Autodesk Smoke, Autodesk Flame,Flint,Inferno and Autodesk Toxik.

In my coming post I will let you know all about these softwares, their own advantages. We will cover Layer Based and Node Based compositing etc.

Hope you enjoyed reading this blog and thank you for spending your valuable time

Crash Course in Visual Effects

2010-07-06T07:17:00.001-07:00

Doing a course in multimedia will also make a way for you in movie industry.So, what does a institute offer you. They give you practical and technical knowledge about the software programs at the end of the course you will develop a good demo reel in order to get your dream job.Before joining an institute you have to check in order to get the value for your money.

1.Check whether it is a reputed institute

2.Are they offering courses to industry standards

3.About the Faculty, the most important thing to know because they are the one who's going to train you.

4.Then the strength of the students, because if it gets overloaded you will not be given personal attention.

5.Infrastructure, make sure that you will get a separate system for practicing.

6.Whether they offer you placement assistance after the completing your course.

7.Check whether they have tie up with companies or they have their own production studio.

Some of the reputed Institutes in India

Image Infotainment Ltd

www.imageil.com

MAAC(Maya Academy of Advanced Cinematics)

www.maacindia.com

C.Y.S Multimedia

WWW.cysmultimedia.com

Arena

www.arena-multimedia.com

ICAT

www.icat.ac.in

Hope you have gained a good knowledge.Thanks for your time reading it.

Earn a Degree in Media

2010-07-05T06:52:00.000-07:00

Media has become organized and structured in recent years.Earning a degree in media would be an added advantage. You can prefer joining B.Sc(Vis.Com). This course is a three year degree program which is offered by reputed colleges in India. In this program you will get to know in and around of media such as Print Technology, Visual Effects, Editing, Photography, Cinematography, Web Design, Graphic Design, Concept Art, Communication and Direction.This career program will be a good start for beginners who have the passion for media.

In India (Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Hydrabad) are the hub for media .

Colleges Offering B.Sc (Vis.Com) in Chennai.India

1.Loyola College, Nungambakkam

2.The New College, Royapettah

3.M.O.P Vaishnav College for Women, Nungambakkam

4.Womens Christian College, Greams Road

5.Madras Christian College, Tambaram

Colleges Offering B.M.M(Bachelor of Mass Media) in Mumbai.India

1.Rizvi college of Arts, Bandra West

2.Guru Nanak College, Antop Hill

3.University of Mumbai, Mantralaya