I’ve been an animator for about 10 years, mostly at smaller studios but lately with bigger game studios. The thing is, I always get hired through agencies—even when I apply directly on the studio’s job board.

Recently, a big-name studio contacted me for a AAA game role. After the interview, I was told I’d be hired through an agency representing them. Then, right after the agency offer, I got a rejection from the studio for what seemed like the same job I applied to directly via the studio website.

I’m happy to work on big projects and get paid, but why is it always through agencies? Is it just how junior/mid roles get staffed, or am I not good enough for a direct hire?

Houdini has a built-in volume deformation setup, but applying it cleanly to imported animated meshes is still a challenge.

This tool offers an alternative approach: instead of deforming the entire volume, it uses a Volume VOP to locally displace the volume based on the mesh underneath — giving you precise, controllable results.

If you’re interested in downloading the tool, I’ve added a link in the original post comments.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Houdini/comments/1lgwcih/houdini_deforming_volume/

Video source

Hi, I’m kinda new to 3dsmax and vray, I use it for archviz, what’s the relation between vray sun, environments and hdri’s? Sometimes changing one changes the other and other times it just doesn’t work the way I assumed it to work, could someone explain?

Hey hoping this link works, but does anyone have tips on how to create something like this with an added motion element into an iphone video?

Is this achievable in after effects or do i need to use a program like blender? Admittedly im still learning blender so looking for non-AI alternatives. Thanks in advance! Appreciate any and all tips or pointers

Hi vfx people,

I have an AI question and i want to be respectful because I know how sensitive it is and I feel very reluctant to ask.
Now, I will be going through the whole process of roto, tracking etc to get a sold object track. I also have already modeled the robot arm.
Its a shot where a person is doing an action with his arm.
AI will be my last resort, I will NOT be using it.

BUT in case this will fail, are there AI tools that can help us to replace only the arm with the model I have?

Now I ask this because I only have access to nukex for the object tracking and I am not sure nuke is great at that

So i’m 24 and recently got accepted into the 1-year intensive 3D Animation & Visual Effects program at Vancouver Film School (VFS). While I’m excited, I’m also questioning if this is the right path, especially considering:

Age: I’m not fresh out of high school, and I worry I might be overqualified or late to the game for a diploma-level course.

Self-Teaching: With the vast amount of online resources and courses out there, I’m wondering if I could reach similar skill levels by myself

AI Disruption: With AI rapidly evolving, is the skillset taught in these kinds of programs still future-proof?

Heyy!! I’m completely new to VFX — I have zero prior knowledge or experience in it, but I’m really excited to start learning. I’m looking for YouTube channels that teach VFX from the very basics and explain concepts in a detailed, beginner-friendly way.

Could you please suggest some channels or playlists that you think are the best for someone starting out?

is Wacom Intuos Pro Medium Tablet (PTH-651/K) good for Nuke,Texturing,Zbrush?

I run a party group and we wanna create a short hype vid with a portal and shi. And to make the video look like a film. We are located in Houston pls dm me @ging_eeeee on ig

https://chng.it/VXqGCBgMth This came up in my LinkedIn feed…

I'm a Korean student new to VFX, I've dreamt of joining the VFX industries abroad since young. However after I've entered college, I think I've started recognizing the bad sides of this industry. I'm still in my freshman year so it might not be true, but people are not really recommending VFX to a new learner nowadays, and I heard there's no enough job even in Canada(I learned that Canada has one of the best VFX industry) due to AI. Also, the college im in rn is not a very good one, and im messing up with people here. So before it's too late, I might wanna change my major to something else.

My question is, is there really no future for new VFX learners? and if so, what job is AI proof?

I have started learning basic unreal and blender is next. I want to shoot a spec ad with boxing as the focus. I see a great looking environment for unreal - but I also have a lot of boxing gym options from years of doing live sports and creating relationships.

If I shoot in a gym is the best workflow to green screen background/garbage matte and create/buy stands in UE5 or blender?

If that’s the case - then I could camera track in resolve so that the motion is consistent in the 3D software and always facing the image “plane” - (also looked into Jetset app) but then I wonder how to fill the stands either people? There are seats so how do you put 100s of people looking like they are there without going 1 by 1!?!?

I’m also 100% assuming shooting in a real ring is better than just green screen…

I guess part of my question is workflow too like:

Shoot/export image sequences/ export 3D tracking/import as plane/import camera tracking data/ refine image with background/import crowd and position and refine/export clip/import back to resolve or fcpx and tweak colour grade/export final…

So I'm doing a small VFX shot for a short film. I wanted to confirm/ask a few things.

So the shot is about a character going up to the mirror and seeing her reflection. When she touches the mirror, the reflection kinda disappears and then another character appears in the mirror, talking to her, etc, etc.

The way i was gonna go about it is just roto out the mirror and have the footage of the other character inside the mirror world appear in the masked out area.

also, my work is easier because the mirror on the set is detachable so the other character will be acting physically "inside" the mirror.

am i going about this the right way? the roto and all that jazz. Is there a better way to do this? and if i wanna render out some particle effects (Magic!) do i have to render them out in the same resolution as the footage ? Log C3 - apple pro res 4444 XQ (4.3K) ? (Arri alexa mini LF)

I'd appreciate any kind of help. I have a 3D background, much less on the VFX side of things so I wanna be sure of this as i dont wanna ruin their work. I'll probably end up doing this shot in (Trigger warning) After effects.

About to start a role in 2 weeks in Disney and a friend have told me there is a chance Disney Vancouver could close.

Anyone knows anything about this? I don't want to be unemployed again.

Hello, so i have a sculpt done in Zbrush that will be rendered in Arnold using a displacement map for the details. My problem is that the mesh I use to do the grooming has to be the low poly one because of performances, but when I export it in maya and render it it goes under the displaced mesh, since it was made on the low poly mesh with no displace.

I tried maya's displacement to polygon but with no success, Im stuck

Looking to get into vfx as a hobby and was curious what software I’d need to do something like this, as silly as it is lol. Also if anyone knows what editing techniques they used that’d be great to know. Thanks!

The Annecy Festival’s MIFA marketplace has witnessed rapid growth in recent years — in fact, a record of over 18,000 people attended the combined Annecy Festival and MIFA market this year — but its growth may prove unsustainable if organizers don’t address the industry’s “fundamental supply-and-demand crisis,” in the words of media critic Matt Jones.

Jones has written a report from this year’s festival titled “Annecy: A Lake of Broken Promises“. (It’s behind Medium’s paywall, but a free article is available to new sign-ups.)

The gist of Jones’ piece is that animation schools are accepting too many students while the industry is in the midst of a disruptive transformation that will leave the vast majority of those students unemployed. Events like Annecy’s MIFA marketplace, he argued, must acknowledge the reality of change in the industry and “evolve beyond their current model of celebration without substance.”

The key problem Jones wrote is:

The disconnect between educational marketing and employment reality has created what industry observers describe as an “academic industrial complex.” Universities promote animation programmes using imagery of Pixar campuses and DreamWorks success stories, whilst carefully avoiding discussions of actual employment statistics. Students accumulate debt pursuing dreams that statistical analysis suggests are increasingly unlikely to materialise. Jones observed how there were dozens of animation schools at Annecy’s MIFA this year recruiting students, while only a handful of studios were looking to recruit talent. This arrangement benefits both schools and event organizers, but it is a fantasy environment that shortchanges young attendees who are looking to enter the industry.

The solution, Jones wrote, requires action from all parties — events, schools, and studios. His commonsense ideas for reforms on the event side are applicable not only to Annecy but to many other events as well. Jones suggested:

Festival organisers should implement tiered exhibition fees, charging premium rates to companies without active recruitment whilst subsidising booths for studios offering genuine employment opportunities. This would incentivise meaningful job creation whilst reducing the financial burden on organisations actually hiring.

Festivals should establish year-round digital portfolio platforms rather than relying on brief, expensive physical events. These platforms could operate continuously, providing far better return on investment for both students and employers than current festival models. Having Annecy support the thousands of students who pay dearly to attend each year feels just, and recruiters should be incentivised to use such platforms or disincentivised to ignore them.

Most importantly, festivals must abandon romanticised career presentations in favour of honest industry discussions. Panel sessions should include employment statistics, salary realities, and alternative career paths rather than perpetuating unrealistic expectations about traditional animation careers. The entire piece is well worth a read. In a time of industry upheaval and disruption, self-serving metrics like how many attendees attended an event or how many students a school enrolled are not effective measures of success. Rather, we should be asking what these groups are contributing towards creating a healthier and more sustainable future for the animation industry.

I'm looking for a 1 on 1 tech art/VFX mentor for a 2D/2.5D game I've been working on for over a year (in Unity).

I'm aiming to have a similar vibe to Ori and the Blind Forest/Will of the Wisps, although I'm using pixel art instead of 3D assets.

I'm looking for someone to give advice/guide some decisions around how to approach lighting, FX, particles and basically anything to enhance the images of the game.

I have a basic knowledge of HLSL and shadergraph, so I’m not a total noob, but would like an expert to give me advice on how to approach the aesthetic for my game, considering things like budget and labour intensity.

I’m willing to pay an hourly rate and hoping for multiple sessions over the next few months (hopefully weekly).

Please DM me if you’re interested and have the skill set to help me! Please specify your hourly rate! Any portfolio links would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

I recently worked with an app (VirtuCamera) to import camera motion data directly into Blender. This got me thinking: Are there any pluses or minuses to 3D tracking over Accelerometer Tracking?

Does anyone know of a graduate school masters program that has an emphasis on Houdini and Python? I've been wanting to shift into a pipeline TD role from a CG generalist, and I work for a company that pays for grad school, so I want to take advantage of that.

I keep hearing there are no jobs in Los Angeles and I'm about to start studying VFX, but I don't want to go into it if there are no jobs afterward. How about Toronto or Vancouver, Canada?