tonight’s additions to the website:
• posted the VC’s next blog entry
• Sydney SIGGRAPH members can now have their bios posted on the site. So, join SIGGRAPH, register for this site, then put your bio in the “about yourself” box on your profile page
• added bios menu to the member’s page
Archive for April, 2007
Peter is the Head of the Digital Media Department at the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS) which runs Australia’s leading postgraduate and professional programs in Visual Effects, Interactive and Emerging Media and Computer Animation. The Department has produced a wide range of innovative projects that have won both Australian and international awards for artistic and technical excellence.
Peter has produced a wide range of projects for radio, television, film and interactive media and he has run innovative workshops in partnership with leading arts and media organisations. He is the past chair of the Sydney chapter of ACM SIGGRAPH.
A big thank you to Peter Giles (AFTRS), Nick Hore (Animal Logic), Jason Bath (Fuel) and Lara Hopkins (Rising Sun Pictures) for their excellent session on career paths and how to get into the industry.
Playing to a packed house, the panel described an industry where, although there are lots of people doing foundation level training, there is a chronic shortage of artists at the higher levels needed to achieve international feature film-level work. Peter Giles described how the AFTRS is providing more attachment-style schemes and shorter courses designed for people working in industry who want to add techniques and professional-level skills to their repertoire.
The questions that captured the audience interests were:
How do you know how to rate your own work?
Where can you find examples of good work (and bad work) so that you can make comparisons?
The panel recommended checking out the advice on their websites:
www.animallogic.com
www.fuelvfx.com
www.rsp.com.au
and the value of participating in the dlf:
All of the companies have job boards and general application advice on their websites and recommended that applicants approach them through those mechanisms. The consensus is that you take your application seriously and that what you provide should reflect that attitude. Jokey approaches were generally not recommended nor were applications full of spelling mistakes and similar errors.
The companies suggested that keeping in touch and sending in updated showreels on a six-monthly basis was the best tactic. They pointed out that an updated showreel should be significantly updated with more and better work each time. Applicants that send in the same reel time and time again generally did not make a good impression. Nor did those who pestered houses constantly. If you are not successful on a first or second application, it is wise not to take this personally. The houses are driven by the work they have on hand and recruit accordingly. If you are not hired straightaway, it will be a reflection of the level and kind of work they have on hand at the time you apply. This is why it is important to keep building your skill set and sending in updated reels.
What is the industry looking for in Australia?
“A generalist with a specialty.”
Ultimately the VFx houses are looking for talent - someone with an eye and the capacity to execute work that is visually impressive. Two well-rendered frames are much better than five minutes of mediocre work.
Entry-level:
- say what you can do - demonstrate your skill set and be willing to take on the basic tasks of a role rather than pitching yourself at the senior-level goal that you are pursuing (note: it’s ok to let people know what your goal is, just don’t overstate where you are on the path to that goal)
- list all of your skills, including administrative abilities
- do not let the software be what holds you back; flexibility about software is valued
- a good work ethic is crucial
Mid-level:
- the capacity to take on more responsibility for your own work and to teach juniors and start to lead up teams
- having a strong understanding of the process
- usually an average of three years experience/some on-set experience
- and a good work ethic is still crucial
Senior-level:
- very strong skill set in specialty and wide-ranging knowledge of process
- expected to be able to do high-level work very quickly
- usually more than five years experience
- this also is the point at which people tend to become higher-level specialists (particles, lighting, etc.) or generalists that have enough skills across the process to be a team leader
- not only do you have a good work ethic yourself, you have to inspire it in others.
Ultimately, getting a job will come down to your skills as an artist. Keeping it will depend upon how well you play with others. Most people get ahead and rise up the ranks by developing their own knowledge and skills and also by training others through knowledge sharing.
For those of you who want to build your knowledge of animation, our May event will feature David J. Smith, a character animator who has worked with Moving Picture Co., Lost in Space, Rhythm and Hues, Click3x, Blue Sky Studios, Animal Logic, and Fuel. His feature film credits include: Ice Age, Babe, The Nutty Professor, Rogue, Pinata, Kazaam, Speed2, Happy Feet.
For those of you who are filmmakers who want to learn more about the craft, we have Steve Murphy (former Head of Sound, AFTRS) presenting on that most powerful side of the art. Check out his bio – he’s even more fun in person!
Steve Murphy was given a book called What is Sound? in First Grade, and he is still asking that question. Soon after he won a reel-to-reel tape recorder in a competition, and used it to make his first sound recording: the theme to Green Acres, live from the family TV. His life in screen sound was just beginning.
In 1978 Steve entered the Australian Film and Television School and had the best education in sound anyone could have hoped for. After graduating, he worked on commercials, corporates, and short films, then moved on to the big time of telemovies, mini-series and feature films. He has worked on location and in post-production, enjoying the catering in the case of the former and the air-conditioning in the case of the latter. He has learned that films and celebrities come and go, while bacon and egg rolls pretty much stay the same, and one black hole of a sound studio is just like any other, no matter where it is in the world.
Thinking that others should learn the real truths behind film-sound, along the way he began teaching others how to work for more hours than is really healthy while complaining about how the sound department is, at best, taken for granted. From 1988 to 1994 he was Head of Sound at AFTRS, and is proud to say his best students didn’t listen to him and have gone on to be quite successful.
For 16 years Steve worked for Dolby Laboratories as a sound consultant, and, after his time at AFTRS, he continued to record, edit and mix sound for film and television productions of all formats and genres – a few were actually quite good.
Steve has returned to teaching, and now works for TAFE NSW, at North Sydney College. To ensure he is capable of completing a Sudoku puzzle in his retirement, he is keeping his mind in shape by undertaking doctoral studies at the University of Technology, Sydney.
Despite working in the industry for over a quarter of a century, Steve remains passionate about sound and film – so don’t get him started!
James holds a Bachelor of Science (Computer Science & Pure Mathematics) from University of Sydney and a Graduate Diploma in Internetworking from the University of Technology Sydney. He is currently acting as the IT Operations Manager and Network Security/Network Application Manager for the Australian Graduate School of Management (The University of New South Wales) and in his spare time consults for the online media industry.
He has 15 years experience in film, TV and online production having worked with Beyond Online, StreamWorks, and Yoram Gross - EMTV. He managed the encoding for News Interactive/Fox/Apple Computer joint venture in online broadcast for the Sydney Olympics in 2000. He was the author of a series of UNIX how-to columns for MacWorld Australia in 2003-2005. He also works as an video editor, compositor, and streaming media, website developer. He has been an active member of ACM SIGGRAPH (Sydney Professional Chapter) since 2001 and been a co-administrator of the Chapter website.
Born in Lausanne Switzerland, Maurice started his professional career in 1974 as a graphic designer and animator for a major Swiss television network.
In 1983 a Sydney-based film company invited him to come to Australia to train its animators on a series of one hour films for television.
After successfully working as a freelance animation director, Maurice established his own studio in Sydney, CATFLAP ANIMATION, in 1988.
At Catflap, Maurice has directed over 300 television commercials and several short animated films including “Gorgeous” which won the Australian Film Institute award for best animation in 1994. His most recent work has been 2 series of 30×5 minute episodes developed for the A.B.C Children’s Television Department entitled “Petals”.
Ryan was born and raised in the States, and through a regular exposure to comic books, animation and the traditional summer blockbuster movie season cultivated a love of art and visual storytelling. He went through grade school intending to become a graphic artist, however an industry downturn forced me to reconsider my options. He enjoyed the programming classes at his high school, and so decided to instead pursue a future in software programming and continue to self-teach traditional art skills in his spare time. Four years and a university degree in Computer Science later, Ryan began a career as a software engineer in the Telecommunications industry.
After two years of fixing software bugs and being on-call 24/7, Ryan transferred to a Research and Development facility in Wollongong, Australia.He was fortunate to work with a great bunch of talented individuals doing innovative work while remaining active in the underground music scene in his free time, contributing artwork and screenprinting skills (12 years and counting). However, as the R&D lab began being systematically disbanded through funding cuts and layoffs Ryan decided the time was right to combine his wealth of technical experience with my continued passion for visual art. Ryan left to pursue a career in visual effects, returning to school to acquire a Diploma of Screen in Computer Graphics & Animation.
Working in the software development pipeline of a challenging and exciting R&D environment was a great experience to hone my teamwork, problem solving, adaptability, communication and technical skills. Ryan is currently working diligently on showreel material that he can combine with those professional skills to find entry into the film industry as a visual effects artist.
Tracey is a Curriculum Project Coordinator at the TAFE NSW – Business, Arts and Information Technology Curriculum Centre. From 2002 to 2005 Tracey worked as a Business Development Consultant at TAFE NSW – Sydney Institute. From 1999 to 2002, she managed the TAFE NSW Silicon Graphics Centre, a centre of excellence in 3D Animation and Visual Effects training, based at the Design Centre - Enmore College. She holds a Masters in Art and Design Education and a Bachelor of Art Education from the College of Fine Arts (COFA), Sydney.
Tracey was the recipient of the Award for Excellent Service to Public Education and Training 2004; TAFEPLUS Training Consultant of the Year 2004/2005, and joint winner TAFEPLUS Best Strategic Business Approach 2004/2005. Tracey is one of two TAFE NSW nominated members of the Design Institute of Australia (DIA). She is a member of the Fashion Group of Sydney Inc, the TAFE NSW Manager’s Association, the International Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), and is currently the Treasurer and Membership Chair of the Sydney ACM Siggraph Professional Chapter.
Tracey has more than 18 years industry experience as a design and production manager in the fashion industry, seven years experience working in the field of digital media, and a total of 14 years experience as an educator in TAFE NSW. She is passionate about creating and maintaining excellence in training for the design and digital media industries in Australia.
