Week 10 was the final class of the first half of Unit 2. This week, the tutor mainly explained the tasks we needed to complete during the spring break. One important assignment was the Professional Artist Interview. This task required us to interview an artist who is currently working in the industry, so that we could learn about their career experience, daily workflow, industry expectations, and advice for students.
I chose to interview my senior, Harry. He is currently working at Framestore in Montreal, Canada, as a Senior Environment / VFX Artist, and he has more than ten years of experience in the VFX industry. I am very grateful that he agreed to accept my interview and answered my questions carefully. This interview helped me gain a more realistic understanding of the industry.
During the interview, Harry shared his experience of moving from 3D animation into VFX. He mentioned that these two areas use similar software and basic skills, but VFX focuses more on realism and detail. This made me realise that studying 3D animation does not mean my future direction has to be fixed. Different areas are connected in many ways. The key is to find the direction I am truly interested in and continue improving the related skills.
Harry also talked about the difference between university study and industry work. At university, we have more freedom to create our own ideas. However, in a real studio, artists need to work according to the director’s vision, client feedback, and the team pipeline. This made me understand that after entering the industry, technical skills are not the only important thing. Communication, teamwork, and the ability to adapt to feedback are also very important.
The most impressive part of the interview for me was his advice about portfolio. Harry said that students should not put all of their work into their portfolio. Instead, they should prepare more focused work based on the role they want to apply for. This advice was very helpful for me because it made me start thinking about the direction of my future portfolio, rather than only focusing on completing course assignments.
Overall, this was a useful experience. It helped me understand the industry more clearly and made me think about my future direction. I realised that I need to keep improving my basic skills, pay more attention to industry standards, and start planning my portfolio more carefully.