Відео

Mentorship isn't for everyone, and especially when it comes to Think Tank, do you know how much that course costs? Yes, you can learn top-tier industry secrets, access pre-built assets, and use pre-made settings, but at the end of the day, these academies and mentorship programs are just another business. The VFX industry itself is unstable, but because it looks cool, there are still plenty of people eager to get started. Back then, we had to work hard, break into the industry, and learn from coworkers, supervisors, and real production experience. Now, the academy and mentorship business is starting to feel bigger than the actual VFX industry itself. Capitalism is eating away at VFX, and it’s not fair. The idea that VFX is “fair” and that mentorship is the key to success is misleading. It’s just another way to sell a dream. And if you're giving advice, you shouldn't be promoting a specific academy or pushing people toward expensive mentorship programs. People deserve honest guidance, not marketing.

hii Andrew i wanted to know how to set proper scale to your models do you model them real life size ? if you do so does it affect topology ??

Great podcast! Waiting for more :)

02:48:42 Good old UV Layout! :D

so much good stuff in here, Thanks for sharing!

Thank you two for the insight you gave us with your chat and your realistic view. I just found you a few weeks ago and i really like your work and talks :) The work ethic to work hard to get a job in a competive or high paying industry at the start is the reality. My professor at university once told me: "If you want a god job in the automotive industry and want to work directly at a big car company you have to work harder then the rest. When you have achieved it you can slow down a little bit." It might be strange or hard to hear it, but it was true (except if some huge crisis come one after the other, which i had.) Nonetheless i havent given up and work for my dream. Lastly i wouldn`t say you work, but you found a place to earn money and most importantly follow your passion (hobby, dream). That is something very few people can say about their job and i would say someone can really be proud of. Wish you the best :)

goat！！！

These have been super great listens Thanks for posting these!

I am so greatful for your streams and every content you make , thankyou man.

Hi Andrew, do you think Houdini will replace Maya at somepoint in the industry

Thanks Andrew for these

At 1:24:45 the reason it didn’t fill in those faces is because you were on face selection mode. Mari has a weird behaviour with selecting faces, if you are too zoomed out and try to select small faces sometimes they won’t be selected. Hopefully this will be fixed at some point but who knows. In cases like this it is quicker to paint directly in the 2D view as when you do the fill operation it has to compute it for each face individually that you selected. However, if you have a whole UDIM you want to fill then if you go to UDIM select mode > fill then it will do it instantaneously.

Damn that a lot of udims

Not sure if you figured it already out, but you can change Maris navigation controls to the same as Maya in the settings

Mari is better than substance in texturing ? should i learn it ?

Yo! Nice model. If your geo is black in the Ambient occlusion pass it generally means the normals are flipped. ( Not sure if you resolved it later on in the stream)

1:31:08 +2000 aura

The constant Maya Blender discussion is unreal, I prefer Maya but I'll settle for Blender if the Studio doesn't have Maya. Simple as that.

very interesting talk again. I recently had a moment of pushing through on a project where I lost a lot of confidence and ignited some self doubt which was completely reversed through perseverance. I am an environment artist and decided to start modeling an NH-90 helicopter; something very different to what I usually do and I think I restarted modeling it about 7 times through different ways (edgemodeling vs box modeling, using Zbrush or using CAD), one of the problems i was facing was the blueprint reference I had found wasn't consistent, the different angles and linework didnt line up. I scoured the internet for an NH-90 3d model that I could download and used it to create my own references. Also being able to analyze the topology of this model of course helped but this can be approached in a number of ways depending on the use of the model, whereas I was aiming to create a gameready model with a polybudget in mind. I ended up settling on my first method through box modeling and using Zbrush to create some of the more complex and aerodynamic shapes like the windows etc which are quite tricky to get in your model without breaking topo too much when youre doing box/edge modeling. after zbrush cutting and editing I then retopologized the high poly in Blender to make sure I could get the best gametopo possible while retaining accuracy of the reference and keep clipping polys at minimum for UV space. It was a very satisfying feeling getting over that initial hurdle and being forced to approach the same issue in different ways, in the end I also felt better about myself knowing that it wasn't me being not good enough, but opting for a workflow that didn't fit what I was doing considering my regular work and having to think about using a wildly different approach, it opens new pathways to create things that you wouldn't have been able to tackle before.

watched the whole live and as a student it really helps me to understand how hard ppl r working to be in the industry bcz they just love it , just like john . His story is really inspiring man . The key points which were talked in this session were really important though . Hope that i would implement these points for my professional career . Thanks Andrew for this session ! hope to see more of these chats !

Why create extra polygons that don't give any shape? (2:12:50)

yes!! love your talks

Jon sounds like a great Supervisor to work with. He's very empathetic and treats his team as humans and not a cog in the wheel. Separating the artist from the artwork is also a fantastic tip. What a great talk, thanks for sharing this Andrew!

Keep the content coming, please!

Regarding claiming proper credit for your reel/ portfolio. As a 3d artist, how would you go about building your portfolio if you only polish/touch-up assets in substance painter prior to intake? For context my work is in a weapon shop for a FPS video game. 1-2 artists from outsourced vendors will handle block-out/ high poly/ low-poly/ texturing, and I will intake the asset into the game after final approval. Sometimes this requires minimal polish, sometimes quite a bit. But all else being equal, 99% of the labor is done by the vendors. I would like to grow professionally and show what I've contributed towards the game, but I don't want to cross any lines. I enjoy your videos, keep up the good work, cheers!

Hi, Andrew. Good to see a new upload from you. I've learned a lot from your videos. What are your thoughts on AI in the VFX industry? Do you think it will displace modelling jobs? Have a great 2025!

At this point, we are just a house painter 😭😭

More talks with guests please! This is incredible useful and entertaining to listen to

Today's junior is a yesterday's middle 😢 according to job vacancies

biggest take away is you gotta adapt to the "vision". do what is needed for the project. and be quick at it.

Lookin noice dude!

no way I want this conversation all day long lol I really want to be surronded by these kinda passionated people

Height/Bump: It's the same thing, whether you call it bump or height, and it works only where the light points. Normal: It's more detailed than a height/bump map, and it works if the light isn't pointing far enough. Displacement: It displaces the mesh, and works best above the other maps. It's best to use all of them together to get precise and accurate results.

How about using plasticity for this kind of work.

She looks great, but... shoulda been a VF-1 ;-) I know this has been a long project, and you've streamed and shared it in different places... is there a way to go back and see it worked up from the start?

Jon’s journey is incredibly inspiring. As someone who just starting out as an FX artist, this podcast has been eye-opening

Going to extreme is not doable for everyone. A consistent balance with openness towards adaptability works for me

Apologies if this is not an exhaustive overview. But you can copy and paste this in the description to timestamp the stream 00:00:00 Start of stream 00:57:36 Introduction to Jon Catapia 00:58:53 How did you get into the VFX Industry? 1:14:03 How did you make the transition from Runner to Junior? 1:18:33 What do you think students biggest mistakes are along with general advice for students now? 1:22:31 Creating a product, not art 1:25:25 Do you think this industry is not for everyone? 1:27:37 Do you have any other big mistakes students make? 1:33:57 The power of mentorship 1:35:35 What are a junior's biggest mistake entering the industry? 1:41:47 What are your thoughts on Juniors coming in with an ego? 1:44:52 Is it the exception or the norm that really high skilled people in VFX have almost no social media presence? 1:50:19 Thoughts on people who slightly exaggerate their work or title? 1:54:02 Back to Jon's introduction to the industry 2:02:20 How did you transition to Lead at DNEG? 2:06:31 What is the main differences between a lead and a supervisor? 2:10:58 Going to Scanline 2:12:55 Getting the band back together for Dune Pt 2 2:16:08 Career retrospective 2:21:30 What do you see as the core principles for creating high quality photo real characters and creatures? 2:24:38 As the 3d supervisor what are your best practices to keep artists aligned with a project's vision?/ How do you deal with difficult artists? 2:29:23 Does helping to provide context also lead into how to deal with difficult people? 2:32:01 What type of models would you recommend to put in a character artist portfolio for VFX? 2:36:05 Should students temper their expectations of being a creature artist? 2:37:40 What are your thoughts on the "optimal portfolio"; one thing from the real world, one thing from concept? 2:39:15 What are some of the biggest lessons you've learned from working production that can also be applied to personal projects? 2:45:50 Would it be a bad thing for hire-ability if someone with a triple A portfolio lacked experience because they didn't want to work in a production environment 2:49:00 What advice would you give to your 18 year old self? 2:53:37 How would you get a job in VFX right now? 3:00:29 What if you come up with a new demo reel every 2 weeks? 3:02:55 What do you mean by "big jump" is it 1 big project or 3 smaller projects? 3:06:03 Do you encourage students to reach out to professionals? 3:09:32 Do film studios have in house concept artists? 3:11:14 does your background make you less tolerable of excuses? 3:14:30 What are your thoughts that what we are pushing for is not work life balance? 3:21:14 what are your thoughts on blender in the VFX industry? 3:23:33 Bye Jon!

hello Andrew, I have just started my first job as a 3d artist 2 months ago, as you guys discussed that this industry is not for everyone, I agree with you guys what my issue is delaying in delivering the output at my job due to corrections and lack of speed, I am enjoying doing my job, 3d art and occasionally if I get the chance to do any other art form, I enjoy that too but, due to that delay I am feeling very demotivated as I am reaching the output but the delay is affecting my new job can you give me any advice or tips as, I want to continue my career in this industry seriously.

my dad's always said success arises when being prepared and opportunity meet. whereas being prepared is having put in the hours, and opportunity is definitely a big part of luck. there are multiple ways to increase that lucky chance, through networking for example. Great content Andrew.

Man, your work for Dune is magnificent. Harvasters are very cool. I'm from Europe. I'm transitioning right now from jewelry design to a classic 3d modelling. I would like to know how mush cost to model something like this ?

This was super informative, also very interesting to hear what Jon’s been through to get where he is now. Thanks for that!

Hi Andrew, it was an awesome session, its nice to have insights about what a senior expects from a junior and a student, as a student myself i also do some of the mistake that jon and you said in the stream, this stream made me realize whats the mistakes i have been doing in the first place, and im trying to improve it.and i have submitted the form for your mentorship i hope you will give rply

23:39 I've been using Inventor for 7yrs and 3DS max for 2 months. Autodesk has buggy af software. Had corrupt my 3ds files at least 3 times so far

I'm new to your channel, very interesting stream thank you!

hello Andrew, I really admire your work, I'm learning to model in Blender, have you already modeled in Blender?

you can snap to orthographic in Maya with almost as simple of a command as blender. Hold spacebar, then left click and hold (keep your cursor in the middle of the hotboxes), then flick the mouse in the direction of the ortho perspective you desire. Less elegant than blender but very useful! Very beautiful model, love the work :)

Can you share your Maya Custom Hotkeys with us? Also, could you please upload a video tutorial on how to use Maya Custom Hotkeys for efficient workflow?

does anyone know why it keeps so much interpenetration inside the cockpit? Is it okay not to clean up all that aspect? Like, when you look at the controller, it's full of interpenetration, is that okay with the studios?

I would love to see some earlier footage of you modelling this thing