Industry Job Roles

Depending on the studio size, the length and the budget for the project, the team will either create a simple animated storyboard, a basic 3D layout of the entire film with basic animation

This is the last person to touch the shot. You’ll be expected to seamlessly integrate elements of a shot. Once the director approves a shot, that is exactly how the shot will look in the final film. Requires Nuke and / or After Effects (but most big places only use Nuke). You need to have a great understanding of cinematography: colours, lights, framing, camera angles, and everything in between. Most compositors are filmmakers themselves.

FX TD work on the most complex elements such as water, splashes, smoke, particles, explosions, all of these fall under some of the more popular software used for FX today are Houdini and/or RealFlow, so you’ll need extensive knowledge of these programs. Apart from major effects, FX TD also work closely on lighting, shadows and reflections.

For this role you’ll need to be good with meticulous work while maintaining a close eye for detail at all time. Roto Artists carefully cut out moving characters and objects from one moving picture so they can be inserted into another.

This is always the final person to touch the 3D files before the Render button is pressed. This role requires a great understanding of lighting, camera and rendering, but also a great understanding of the software used and the studio pipeline. The lighting person usually puts the scene together as well to illuminate 3D objects so they match live action backgrounds.

The Matte Painter digitally paints photo-realistic interior and exterior environments that could not have been otherwise created or visited.

A Runners entry level position is to absorb relevant skills from their VFX artists. Practising and learning how a VFX workflow operates throughout the whole journey will help you get along with other talented artists.

The 3D rigging TD (technical director) has to take a model (a character of some sort) and build the skeleton so it can be deformed when animated. This requires good creativity, precision and an eye for detail as it involves a series of bones. Also, a lot of maths is included so you're able to make any code accurate.

Using a load of editing and paintings softwares such as Adobe Photoshop, Blender, 3D SMax, Maya, Mudbox, ZBrush, Substance Painter, Substance Designer, Quixel and game engines like Unity and Unreal. 3D modelling artists use a whole range of 3D objects to create art 'assests' digitally. This meaning anything such as characters, vehicles, environments, etc.

A CG supervisor is in charge of everything 3D. This means that you should be an expert in whatever 3D software. You’ll lead a team (or teams) of artists from modeling through rendering as well as being the one ultimately held accountable for the quality of their work.

Similar to a CG Supervisor, a VFX supervisor is responsible for all things VFX in a project. Before any visual is presented to a director, everything has to be approved by the VFX supervisor.so it meets the directors vision.

A Line Producer is a key member of the production team. They are usually the one who break down the script and as such, are very close to knowing what is needed for each scene for the day's shoot. Also, they have a responsibility for anticipating problems and communicating them effectively to the Producer and Supervisors. Good management and communication skills would be a great advantage.

A film production coordinator typically works in an office, performing a variety of administrative tasks to support a film crew. Their duties often involve tracking schedules, ensuring projects are operating within a budget and making copies of scripts. It is recommended that aspiring film production coordinators have either a bachelor's degree or relevant industry experience.

Storyboard artists use drawings and computer software to plan the shots and images for commercials, films (animated and live-action), and television shows. These drawings allow for the other members of a production crew to visualize the scene, and understand both the movements of the actors and the camera. This career requires training in graphic design and/or animation, with a bachelor's degree preferred.

Once models have been created, your job as a texture artist is to apply shaders to the mesh. The number of textures animators work with is endless and may include things such as wrinkles, fur, scales, sweat, and mud. In some cases, the textures used in animation cannot be found in real life.

Anything that has to do with developing new tools and automated processes end up in the technical department. It requires programming skills, CG coding, an understanding of Linux, and of course Max / Maya / Nuke.

Matchmovers are essentially the bridge between 2D and 3D, so you’ll need a knowledge of both. You need to animate a character or digital double actor exactly as you see it in the original take. The 3D geometry can then be used in a variety of ways, such as for casting shadows onto digital objects in the scene.

Anything that has to do with characters, conveying emotions, delivering believable performances and narrative, is done by animators.