London is home to some of the largest and most successful post-production houses in the world which has made the UK a world leader in the field of visual effects for feature films and advertising. Dominic Edwards is a Junior Artist at one of these award-winning studios in London's Soho district - The Moving Picture Company. Here he works with a little bit of everything, from blendshapes and modeling to lighting and pre-vis, and in this interview he speaks about some of the things he thinks is important to get a job in the VFX industry today and how he first got started at MPC as a runner.
I've always been interested in art and animation. I guess because when I was growing up, my mum was an artist and my dad was an architect. I loved Akira comics when I was younger and would draw things influenced by Manga and sci-fi.
After school I went to art college and studied fine art. It was a bit of a rubbish course, so I was a bit confused as to what to do afterwards. I ended up moving to Japan and teach English. When I moved back to London I was 25 and still hadn't heard of 3D or the VFX industry. I was watching Harry Potter - Prisoner of Azkaban and wondered how the Dementors were made. A few Googles later I was watching Maya tutorials.
I needed a job pretty fast, so I decided to apply for runner positions as well as junior artist positions. I was lucky enough to be offered a temp runner job at MPC on a one month contract. MPC is a pretty large company and the perfect place to start a career.
The work was really easy, you just lift boxes, take cups of coffee and carry tapes around Soho. I just worked as hard as I could for the first few weeks and thankfully MPC decided to extend my contract. It's actually a good way of starting off in the industry. I got to know who the right people were, and who I needed to talk to in order to get some experience in the 3D department.
Eventually I began asking if I could help in 3D after my shift. Finally a position opened up for a junior artist and I got it.
Fairly early on after discovering 3D and Maya, I made the decision to go to Escape Studios where I learned Maya, Boujou, pfTrack and Shake. This is a short course (about 12 weeks long). It was undoubtedly why I felt I had the knowledge and confidence to apply for
the types of jobs I wanted. It was a short course and so I left in no way an expert, but I did have enough knowledge to build on.
Pretty much as soon as I started at MPC, the focus switched from Shake to Nuke. I've always found that most people are so willing to help you that you learn very quickly on the job. I picked up Nuke from the guys at work and have also learned Renderman here. We have a lot of support and documentation on our internal network which helps a lot.
MPC sometimes train their juniors in all aspects of post production through a six month course at work. I did this every Tuesday on my lunch break and learned about everything from cameras on set, file compression, telecine, motion graphics, aspect ratios, loads of stuff.
I have more of an interest in lighting these days and I feel that my education in art is still really helpful. You kind of need a creative eye for lighting, more so than say... matchmove, which is pretty dull.
I would say, you just need to work pretty hard to get where you want to be. Just don't forget that once you get there you have to keep working hard, if you get a junior position don't take it for granted.
Some people slack off a little when they get their first job. I think you need to do the opposite.
I work in commercials and I would definitely say that being a generalist is the thing to be. Working as a junior is all about being a little bit good, at a lot of things. In my opinion, once you get more familiar with different disciplines, you will be in more of a position to decide in which to specialise. It's certainly the most rewarding working on a project the whole way through rather than only a little part of it, like just modelling or just animating.
If you ask me, (umm... I guess you just have) Maya is the best software to learn. It is perhaps the most popular among post houses in London. Another software I love is Nuke. The Foundry produce some really great software and Nuke is really fast and intuitive. I would definitely recommend it for people looking to improve their renders in comp. As for matchmove, well if you had to twist my arm I would say pfTrack is the least painful for tracking.
Pretty busy recently, I change projects every month or so. There can be new things to learn or just getting better at things I already know. I should start at work at 9:30 and finish at 18:30, but it depends on the project. On larger projects I normally work on three or four shots and I'll matchmove, light, render, sometimes I do some modeling and texturing. What ever is required I suppose. I also juggle every now and again while waiting for renders, its supposed to be good for RSI.
One of the first projects I worked on was Cadbury's - Spots versus Stripes. This was a pretty cool advert for the run up to the London 2012 Olympics. It ended up winning a VES award for outstanding animation. After this I worked on various projects some big some smaller. You can have a look at my reel, some of the bigger projects are in there.
I recently started learning how to light and render fur and hair in Renderman. This has been loads of fun, it means I get to work on the furry creature work that we get. We have just completed a couple of cats for a Cat's Pride advert. This was a lot of hard work, but I quite like the final commercial.
I've learned tons since starting at MPC. Working in the VFX industry means you have to continue to learn otherwise I guess you run the risk of being left behind. I started with the intention of trying it all and figuring out what I like the best. I have definitely found that I have been heading towards lighting and rendering. It's much more creative than I had first thought. It's at the end of the pipeline which is where I like to be, which also means I get to work closely with the 2D artists and learn more Nuke in the process.
Actually it is really hard work sometimes. If it is really busy then you often find yourself doing six day weeks and working 13-14 hours a day. Besides getting really tired, another downside is all the free restaurant food you end up eating. It isn't good for you and gets really boring.
To be honest, I don't necessarily have to work those hours I just choose to. I don't mind working hard on projects I enjoy and I'll always push harder if things need to get done. I guess when you see the finished result it all pays off in the end.
I recently got into Twitter, which is really good for finding out about local things or arts events in London. So I try to do stuff like that when I have free time. A friend of mine is learning Maya and Nuke, so I give him and hand from time to time.
Otherwise I just poke around on the forum annoying people. That's about all the CG I have time for really.
VFX is a world wide business which makes it ideal for me as I love travelling. I'd definitely like to move abroad in the future. I'd eventually like to be a VFX/CG supervisor.
I've met and worked with quite a few people who have been in the business for about 15-20 years, but never longer. It's kind of strange, I think there must be some secret cut off point, or they just end up burning out. So hopefully I can be the boss a little sooner than 10 years.