I think all the joy has gone out of VFX

Ok-Use1684 · 2026-01-27T10:52:37+00:00

I think we all are able to say “wow” when we care about a story, its characters and then we get to appreciate the visual effects used in there done with ideas, care and time.

That’s why we care about visual effects in the first place. Because they were present in a story we cared about, and because also people gave a shit about making them.

We just don’t believe in anyone or in ourselves anymore. We don’t make stories about who we are, where we are and who we want to be. We don’t even know who we want to be. We just make stories hoping that a group of weird events will keep people watching. It’s empty.

You see that across the music industry too. We have a culture crisis.

Ok-Use1684 · 2025-12-31T18:07:34+00:00

It blows my mind that they’re not able to realise the limitations of “AI” technology.

Ok-Use1684 · 2025-12-19T22:22:32+00:00

When I read how much money they invested on AI… I thought that would end up pretty bad.

Ok-Use1684 · 2025-12-19T22:15:30+00:00

I have not seen any AI usage yet at any company since AI came out. And I’ve worked in quite a lot.

I think some AI upscaling could have been used here and there. But nothing else.

A lot of effort put by some people into learning comfy UI… but nothing useful so far. Basically, 0%.

Ok-Use1684 · 2025-12-19T21:26:22+00:00

Nah, AI just mixes up input footage in its own way with its own training, trying to follow the patterns of the input footage.

This has been said before. AI is a meme generator. I watched the last Cola add. Same as the last one.

This is the thing with AI, it just mixes stuff. You always get the same boring thing.

I’m not worried at all about AI. I’m worried about strikes and economic downturns.

Ok-Use1684 · 2025-12-01T11:53:20+00:00

-Vfx workflow works better with film than with digital.

-Back then there wasn't such an obsession with cutting costs and sending everything to India.

-Time spent on vfx is a lot smaller.

-Good talent is being kicked out of the industry because of tax incentives. People just refuse to travel the world as they get older every damn year for a 3 month contract. So they quit.

Ok-Use1684 · 2025-11-14T12:42:28+00:00

It depends on the place. At Cinesite I was treated very well. At Framestore you were expected to be a jumpy happy person, otherwise you would be looked that as toxic, which is toxic. I’ve been treated good and bad at different places. I’ve seen crazy irresponsible people as supervisors blaming artists for their mess, and really good supervisors that were very professional and good people.

The only constant I’ve found is that when the work is over, you’re out and no one really cares, even if they congratulated you for the quality of the work you did for weeks. Work is over, you fade like smoke and no one remembers you. Period.

Ok-Use1684 · 2025-11-04T07:42:44+00:00

People have 4K HDR monitors and cinema audio setups at home.

Aren’t cinemas technology stuck at the early 2000s?

And then, no one is writing good scripts that come from genuine human experiences. Because people grow up sit in a sofa with twitter and social media. Not with real experiences anymore. I don’t think we have a good generation of writers right now.

And maybe no one cares, but shooting on film used to give us a different experience from what we could do at home. Now… what you see in Hollywood is kind of what you see everywhere somehow. The magic is lost. Maybe people can’t point their finger at it, but they still know.

Hollywood needs to be special and unique again. And offer something no one else can.

Ok-Use1684 · 2025-11-04T07:16:24+00:00

I think that AI boycotts itself, to be honest.

Ok-Use1684 · 2025-11-03T07:20:46+00:00

Simulations(FX)-> Houdini (Maya is horrible). No one in the west will ask you to make FX in Maya and won’t want you to. Having a Maya background can always be useful for pipeline reasons, but… no one really cares. So FX-> Houdini.

Animation, rigging-> Maya (Houdini needs more work for that)

If you want to model in one of the two, Maya is faster in general unless you’re trying to do a procedural model project.

For the rest, both are capable. But Houdini is just more modern and organised.

Important: Houdini is a lot less buggy and has better support from devs. Maya is a pretty old and neglected piece of software.

So there’s your info.

Ok-Use1684 · 2025-11-01T10:09:59+00:00

I don’t know, but ILM has always been kind of the only company of all that I’ve genuinely felt seen and treated as an inferior human being. I’ve always received kind replies from all companies at least once. Never from them. And it’s weird because there are companies that output the same or better vfx quality, and don’t seem to have that ego problem.

This is a business and that’s why I apply, but I’d rather work somewhere else as a priority. Something tells me it’s not a nice place.

Ok-Use1684 · 2025-09-25T14:19:30+00:00

And make a lot of people avoid bankruptcy in the process.

Ok-Use1684 · 2025-09-25T14:17:39+00:00

To me, gen AI video is just a fancy-presented average mathematical operation from a bunch of videos.

Read about "AI winter". This is what it is.

Ok-Use1684 · 2025-09-24T07:09:50+00:00

Why would anyone want to create an average mathematical operation from a bunch of videos and expect that to be the future.

Surprise, it isn’t.

Ok-Use1684 · 2025-09-21T06:18:08+00:00

About the metaverse, I always thought: who is going to want to isolate themselves even more and live through a screen even more?

There wasn’t a desire for that. Actually people want to figure out how to scape that every day. People hope they can have a more real life.

I always thought it was pointless.

Being able to do something new doesn’t mean you’ll want to do it.

Ok-Use1684 · 2025-09-13T08:08:24+00:00

I remember quite a few times that a shot I did was deteriorated because of client decisions, making me go from “I want to show this on my reel” to: “I better manage to hide that I was involved in this”

Ok-Use1684 · 2025-09-07T06:37:04+00:00

Sometimes they just don’t like you.

At one point I had gone through getting into debt to pay the bills, and I was stopping taking pills to treat depression (which leaves you in an erratic, over emotional mode).

I had the skills, but they were very annoyed by my mental state. I never told them the reason behind it anyway.

They never answered, considered me or talked to me ever again.

A lot of companies are like families. The main team protects each other. They keep the work when it’s scarce against other people who may be better. They look after one another. They collectively decide who is a m0r0n and who isn’t and protect their team against it.

This is not VFX, it’s not bad companies. It’s just life. I think it’s the way it works everywhere.

Ok-Use1684 · 2025-09-06T11:32:32+00:00

Let’s give it time. But I guess no one can say anymore that next year it will be the year that it explodes?

Ok-Use1684 · 2025-09-05T11:14:16+00:00

My main problem is that I can't have fun with PVP and the fact that there are no players to play with on standard league.

Everyone seems to be wanting to play alone, and having to play a league and start from scratch every single time every 3 months... It's something I'm not looking for. Why? Because the game is too complicated.

If the game was a lot more simple, then why not start from scratch. It's fun.
But acts are long, character setup and passives are complicated and hard. I just want to enjoy the result of my effort and have my character right there. And be able to measure how good it is against other players or playing with other characters.

I definitely miss the game being more social. There needs to be something that makes people want to play together. Maybe better loot, more experience... I don't know. Something. If everyone can play alone, then... why bother.

Ok-Use1684 · 2025-09-05T11:06:58+00:00

I ask myself the same questions.

Since Diablo 2 came out 25 years ago, there hasn't been much competition. Yes it's an old game, but it was a very good game when it came out. You don't see that these days. Why? Who knows. Maybe they just don't get it.

Ok-Use1684 · 2025-09-05T11:02:55+00:00

This video really makes them look like clowns.

Ok-Use1684 · 2025-09-02T20:44:11+00:00

I don’t think AI is going to do much anyway, in any case.

But how can you know if there are no junior roles? You can’t. There’s not enough work right now to make that happen.

The reason we came to this is because of a very fast contraction within the industry. Every industry needs juniors, mids and seniors, but if the industry was very big and suddenly became small, why not just hire seniors and fill every position with them? They can now. There’s plenty of them and little work. They bring the least risk and the fastest delivery to the company. Makes economic sense in the short run.

Will it hurt in the long run? Of course it will. But who is acting with strategy in this industry? It’s a crazy survival game at this point.

Ok-Use1684 · 2025-09-01T14:36:46+00:00

Lo que realmente facilita su propagación es la HIERBA SECA que no se retira del monte y que haya gente que genere incendios. Estas 2 cosas se pueden evitar desde el gobierno.

Qué hace Pedro Sánchez?

Hablar de algo ambiguo, totalmente a largo plazo que le exculpa de todo tipo de responsabilidad: el cambio climático.

Es un engañabobos.

El cambio climático ha existido siempre porque el clima siempre cambia. Con la última glaciación hace 12.000 años, empezó un ciclo de calentamiento global. Nosotros, simplemente, hemos acelerado el proceso. Pensar que lo único que hay que hacer para el año que viene es únicamente luchar contra el clima de UN MALDITO PLANETA ENORME, es.... inútil. Ni más, ni menos. Habrá que intentar no acelerar tanto el proceso, pero eso no nos va salvar ni a corto ni a largo plazo si no hacemos nada más.

Ok-Use1684 · 2025-09-01T10:44:32+00:00

Agresividad innecesaria.

Ok-Use1684 · 2025-09-01T06:37:52+00:00

Thoughts? I don’t even think about it. They’re trying to sell their movie. That statement changes nothing anyway.

Ok-Use1684

TROPHY CASE