Sometime last week I had sent an email request to Escape Studios, a London based VFX school, asking for some advice regarding my options once I graduate this year, after some back and forth I managed to organise a Skype call with one of the tutors there. The call itself was about 30 minutes long and contained some useful information for my final output this semester.

I found out that when it comes to employability within the VFX industry, it’s typical for the graduates tend to start out in the runner role when applying for jobs in one of the big 5 VFX companies, with Escape graduates tending to be put towards the top of the ladder during the hiring process, which is especially beneficial as runner roles are highly competitive. Runners are split amongst different departments, depending on what they want to specialise in (FX runners, Modelling runners, Texture runners). When applying for smaller companies, new hires tend to be put into the matchmover role and once they’ve been trained enough, move up to a junior artist. While the runner role is highly sought after, it is seen more as an internship rather than a full time job, typically people tend to stay in a runner role for 3-6 months, depending on the department and training required. According to my contact at Escape Studios, the industry is looking for a lot of FX artists, especially those familiar with Houdini, and runners applying for that department tend to be trained very quickly due to this need.

After I felt like I had enough information regarding employability, I then asked what they would typically look for skills wise, when accepting students to study at the college, I was told that they specifically look for realistic models, as well as a camera track to show a baseline ability, he said that typically people will model a chair and then track that into some footage and that would suffice to gain entry into the school. Obviously this ramps up when applying for a career within the industry, upon graduating from Escape the teachers will continue to support you with your showreel.

Reflecting upon this call has definitely changed some of the ideas regarding my final output for this semester, instead of going with a Sci-Fi themed model I would now like to focus on real world environments and objects to showcase my ability.