kleer001 Posted April 16, 2015 Share Posted April 16, 2015 I'm just curious as to the process, expectations, promises, impressions, reversals, etc... Has anyone here gone from shot work to pipeline? The other way around? Balanced the two? Never going back to shot work? Trying to get away from one shot work? or visa-versa? In a bigger studio it seems that responsibilities are more copartmentalized than with a small crew. That's more of the context I'm thinking of. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diego A Grimaldi Posted April 16, 2015 Share Posted April 16, 2015 Hey Kleer, This is based on my experience. I started my vfx career as an intern at a mid-size studio (Zoic studios in LA) where I mainly helped around the office but I was also able to work on a few shots. Zoic LA has a pipeline but because the LA studio mainly works on tv shows and commercials the work is highly fast paced (sometimes that causes the quality to be very poor though).After 5 monhts as an intern at Zoic I worked at Ember Lab (small vfx house in Orange County) where we worked on some short films and commercials. At Ember Lab there is no pipeline so it was all shot work. As the main/only FX/Houdini artist I was in charge of everything in fx from lookdev to render, from figuring out the best package to use to figure out how everything worked. Gladly Houdini has a great user group forum response so anything I couldnt figure out myself I would have people on Odforce or SESI help me out. That was probably the best work experience so far. Having to do so many different tasks taught me a great deal. After 1 year at Ember Lab I went to work at Ingenuity Engine in Hollywood. There as well, no pipeline. It's a small house making mostly commercials, indie films and short films.Here too I was basically the only FX artist even though my sup knew how to work in vops havig a ICE background so he could help me on things I lacked on. Yet I was still figuring most of the things out myself. Unfortunately I was at IEVFX for not too long. After that I moved to MPC montreal for my first big studio experience to work on a major feature (fantastic 4) and all my great expectations were sadly crashed. I have been here for about 5 months and I have been greatly disappointed. I feel like in all the time I have been here I have learned almost nothing. Granted, I have learned how feature films in Hollywood are made and how the big studios worked but at what cost? Nothing that I have been doing so far will ever be shown because clients keep on changing everything. Plus I feel like I have not been challenged at all during work because I have been handed fx rigs or have been told exactly how to execute my shots without leaving me any challenge or problem to overcome.I don't know if it's due to the studio size or just to the specific studio but since I started working here I have not been happy about going to work (which was not the case before MPC). I am lucky to say though that tomorrow is my last day and I will more forward to work at Dneg which everyone says is a much better studio than MPC. However for my next steps I would probably like to go back to smaller studios or perhaps move to CG animation studios. So, for what I am concerned, so far I prefer shot-work over pipeline. Sorry for the long rant. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tar Posted April 16, 2015 Share Posted April 16, 2015 (edited) tl;dr version: from Artist to Cog Edited April 16, 2015 by tar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pazuzu Posted April 17, 2015 Share Posted April 17, 2015 (edited) If you work in a pipeline, its all about like Kraftwerk says!! "We Are The Robots"..... Edited April 17, 2015 by Pazuzu Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diego A Grimaldi Posted April 17, 2015 Share Posted April 17, 2015 (edited) lol yea Marty, sorry for the long rant...the gist of it was SHOT WORK over Pipeline...from what I've seen so far..and I haven't seen much yet Edited April 17, 2015 by Diego A Grimaldi 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kleer001 Posted April 17, 2015 Author Share Posted April 17, 2015 Diego, Thank you for the story! I do hope your work experience expands to more than just grinding through FX. In my experience that's an essential part of cranking through shots, being a cog in the machine. But it has also been my experience that there are miscellaneous bits and bobs that require more finesse and creative thinking. That said the ratio of creativity to routine can vary a lot from show to show. I personally think you just got a boring show, not really that studio's fault. Well, unless they only take on repeatable "boring" work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diego A Grimaldi Posted April 17, 2015 Share Posted April 17, 2015 Thank Kleer, glad you actually read my entire story Actually only this last week (my final week of work) they gave me some fun Houdini stuff to do...Regardless..small-mid size studios are probably best..but much harder to get sponsorship to live abroad through them... Pros and cons I guess Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sebkaine Posted April 17, 2015 Share Posted April 17, 2015 Hey Kleer, This is based on my experience. I started my vfx career as an intern at a mid-size studio (Zoic studios in LA) where I mainly helped around the office but I was also able to work on a few shots. Zoic LA has a pipeline but because the LA studio mainly works on tv shows and commercials the work is highly fast paced (sometimes that causes the quality to be very poor though).After 5 monhts as an intern at Zoic I worked at Ember Lab (small vfx house in Orange County) where we worked on some short films and commercials. At Ember Lab there is no pipeline so it was all shot work. As the main/only FX/Houdini artist I was in charge of everything in fx from lookdev to render, from figuring out the best package to use to figure out how everything worked. Gladly Houdini has a great user group forum response so anything I couldnt figure out myself I would have people on Odforce or SESI help me out. That was probably the best work experience so far. Having to do so many different tasks taught me a great deal. After 1 year at Ember Lab I went to work at Ingenuity Engine in Hollywood. There as well, no pipeline. It's a small house making mostly commercials, indie films and short films.Here too I was basically the only FX artist even though my sup knew how to work in vops havig a ICE background so he could help me on things I lacked on. Yet I was still figuring most of the things out myself. Unfortunately I was at IEVFX for not too long. After that I moved to MPC montreal for my first big studio experience to work on a major feature (fantastic 4) and all my great expectations were sadly crashed. I have been here for about 5 months and I have been greatly disappointed. I feel like in all the time I have been here I have learned almost nothing. Granted, I have learned how feature films in Hollywood are made and how the big studios worked but at what cost? Nothing that I have been doing so far will ever be shown because clients keep on changing everything. Plus I feel like I have not been challenged at all during work because I have been handed fx rigs or have been told exactly how to execute my shots without leaving me any challenge or problem to overcome.I don't know if it's due to the studio size or just to the specific studio but since I started working here I have not been happy about going to work (which was not the case before MPC). I am lucky to say though that tomorrow is my last day and I will more forward to work at Dneg which everyone says is a much better studio than MPC. However for my next steps I would probably like to go back to smaller studios or perhaps move to CG animation studios. So, for what I am concerned, so far I prefer shot-work over pipeline. Sorry for the long rant. Well Diego my XP is quite the same as yours ... that's why i prefer to work in the tv commercial guerilla with funny guys , working in a giant mess against the clock, it's a far better XP than being a cog in the machine imo. at the end i find that more challenging for your brain ! I would be curious to have your pov about life in LA vs Canada ? I would love to work in the US one day ... shame that VISA are so hard to get ! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael Posted April 17, 2015 Share Posted April 17, 2015 Diego's reply really describes something that really only comes with experience...the difference in individual temperaments...some people like doing a bit of everything and being under the gun to solve some weird problems...others like more structure... personally I like structure, and a solid pipeline - this doesn't mean that a pipeline can't be flexible (it should be) but I'm not a fan of spending hours (days) getting something to work AND THEN working on the actual creative work...everywhere I've worked (and others have told me the same thing) there are so many cases of 'reinventing the wheel'...I was really spoiled at C.O.R.E. we had such a great pipeline but also lots of flexibility - new jobs and challenges were sometimes hard but with the solid foundation I never felt like I was hanging off a cliff....at least that how I remember it I think the best case is where everyone is a cog in a smoothly running machine - because if 80% of a task is routine then you can spend more of your time making better shots... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.