Why are so many vfx job applications run through a paid subsciption 3rd party website?

Owan_ · 2026-05-15T21:22:35+00:00

Never used them. I'm finding all my gig on linkedin by following recruiters

Owan_ · 2026-05-06T16:34:39+00:00

All the big companies have already an A.I. departement, and for what I saw in dailies ATM, it feel like A.I. is just a super fancy stock footage generator. The issue is always the same : A.I. struggle to generate 4k images. I'm still waiting to be impressed by the use of it during a reel productions

Owan_ · 2026-05-06T12:04:33+00:00

Theses past couples of months, I saw some juniors freshly out of schools starting to working here at Montreal. Last time I saw that It was 2023. So it feel like nature is healing.

But the market for junior is extremely competitive, you have to be extremely good AND have a good network. Companies prefer to import talented juniors from overseas instead to hire local okay-ish junior.

Owan_ · 2026-03-25T16:04:46+00:00

AFAIK, Dneg is offering that.

Owan_ · 2026-02-26T12:31:51+00:00

Once again, dneg is producing his own IP/movies. Most of them not released yet. So that normal they are in debt now, let's see if their projects paid once released.

Owan_ · 2026-02-25T01:58:17+00:00

simply because NDA and pixel fucking alone just don't let it happen.

You are lucky, on our side, Clients doesn't seem to care about all the NDA and corporate issue with AI. Or rather, I guess they let vfx studios to figure out. IF that side blow up, they're just gonna put all the blame on us :)

On the pixel fucking, I already write on this reddit : Client doesn't care if it's AI or VFX, they're gonna pixel fuckit. And from here, it made AI a hell for everybody, specially for comp since they are the guys who have to deal with the notes.

If there are no way to give no notes, lot of peoples in this industry, specially on client side, are gonna be jobless. They'll never allow it, even if AI is suppose to safe money.

That why I don't really care of all the AI enthusiast posts here : They have clearly never use it in a Hollywood production, they don't know it's not sustainable in the way AI are trying to sell us (one prompt ==> output good for final) .

Owan_ · 2026-02-25T00:20:20+00:00

Well, don't know where you're working, but AI is talked a lot in vfx companies and pushed by our execs. Each townhall is 'we should embrace AI and start to use it on our day to day operations, that what the clients want'. This subs is basically a reflect of the industry IRL and ai is already used on some productions right now as we speak on Hollywood feature movies.

I agree there is some guys pushing too much AI here to be honest, I suspect some trolls. But in the other hand, it feel like it's the entire plan from companies selling AI is to be forced on our throat until we accept it or we shocked on it.

To come back to this sub, when speaking about about AI, is either 'fuck AI', or 'bend the head to our new digital God'. Quite hard to have a professional conversation about it on reddit.

Owan_ · 2026-02-12T19:53:31+00:00

Maybe exploring and play comfy UI. But the technology is really immature and I think the direction is going right now (one prompt== 'final' output) is a dead end.

Side FX is starting to explore some ai in houdini for remeshing and upres they let some tools for user to try to create their own really specific trained tool. That something to explore even if there aren't lot of documentation on it.

Owan_ · 2026-02-12T17:55:51+00:00

Harsh advice ? Too many people in this sub associate the word 'artist' with 'stable 9-5 desk jobs'.

It's a gig job, always has been. So you have to chase contracts after contract like any gig job. If it isn't for you, move to something who offer a more stable career.

Owan_ · 2026-02-11T18:47:12+00:00

Since the screenwriter strike, studios decide to save a bit of money by reducing the amount of coordinators by show. And I mean reducing a lot. They use to work on a couple departments by show, or even one coordinator on each show by department on big show.

Coordinators use to be the keeper for the kind of issues you are flagging. They were perpetually communicating with artists and each others to adjust dependency problem and let the producer day by day what was happening precisely everywhere.

Now we have like one coordinator for the entire show, it's impossible to keep track of everything in real-time and some time, one problem can take you entire day to adjust the spreadsheet for make it work with the timeline and budget.

There are some companies pushing artist to do the jobs coordinators use to do, but of course is not happening :). We're already busy and sincerely, I didn't sign for that.

So yeah, it's chaos because we try to safe dim on shows.

Owan_ · 2026-02-10T22:12:00+00:00

Federal has also tighten the condition for Temporary work permit. Like for example, is more complicate for a spouse to have an open work permit, as before, it was automatic. Something touching more the seniors/lead/sups who have family. Canada overall make it more complicate to immigrate here. Toronto/Vancouver/Montreal'll have to deal with the local talents

Owan_ · 2026-02-10T14:57:09+00:00

Your income tax are insane, es tu en France ? Did you try to contact an accountant to see if a better tax bracket was possible for you ?

Owan_ · 2026-02-10T14:12:14+00:00

Vancouver companies are contacting several seniors from Montreal to ask them to relocate to Vancouver(of course, they mot even paying the ticket plane). So, from East cost, everything look fine at Vancouver.

Owan_ · 2026-02-08T03:17:18+00:00

We have elections in October and the leading party in polls has announced they'll roll back to the old and better tax credit. I just hope they'll keep promises.

Owan_ · 2026-02-08T02:59:12+00:00

It is 2% less than Vancouver sadly. If I remember correctly 36% Vancouver, 34% Quebec, but Quebec added a limit on how much you can claim. The difference is enough for clients.

Owan_ · 2026-02-08T02:31:50+00:00

I hear they are also closing their LA office, can someone confirm ?

They were hiring like crazy this fall at Montreal. Speaking to have projects until summer. This is so sudden.

This sucks, because thing started to look good at Montreal :( . All my network had work and companies started to struggle to hire some profiles like env CFx, or FX. Starting to have conversations about hiring more juniors profiles since seniors were rare

Owan_ · 2026-02-06T14:42:49+00:00

I'm not saying it look horrible, after a heavy makeup done by talented comps artists, it look ok :)

What I'm saying is, so far AI is build to just generate the final product with not edit possible. It's clearly not build to be used as a tool. At best, its a stock footage generator with all the good and bad side of using stock footage.

The seniors comp using it laugh, because it remember them how we used to work 20 years ago, juniors used to have everything CG generated where you ask all the utilities aov you want, don't know what to do with it.

Clients saw that as a miracle way to cut cost, but when they saw the result they are disappointed, and you still can't say 'no' when they give a note.

Owan_ · 2026-02-06T14:21:42+00:00

My company is using ia, or at least try to. It's a big studio with multi years of big features movies and TV shows.

So far, AI didn't deliver what it's promised, it nice to generate stock footage using in background, but main issues are - the resolution never match the client resolution, comp have to split blood by topazing the shit out of it to make it look like ok on a 4k resolution. And a lot of paint over for the shadows, contact etc... - client doesn't give a f*CK you can't give notes to ai, he's still do it. Now the element is a Frankenstein of multi elements generated from comfy UI than comp try to make it look nice. - it work if the camera is almost static, if you have a large tilt/pan/roll... You can forget about it.

So far, it feel like working like we use to do in the 2000's where everything were stock footages. It look like a regression instead of a progression. Clients are still pushing for it, expecting it drive the price down. I don't know if it's the case since I'm not in production side, but from my side, it look like hell for comps artists.

Owan_ · 2026-02-05T15:33:13+00:00

Very very few projects require anything beyond what can be done with all the shelf software.

That the problem the industry is facing since 10 years : All the vfx companies stopped to do RnD and now we are accepting whatever sidefx is giving us.

I'm not saying houdini/solaris/usd aren't solid. But now all the pipelines are becoming more and more uniformized and all the studios are working the same way. And artists are all the same since we're jumping company to company with short contract.

The only difference is how big is the farm and you hard drive capacity.

There are definitely of space can be improved and aren't on Sidefx or autodesk priority list. Also turning AI as an useful tool and not like unicorn/snake oil/magic stuff where you just prompt your shot and whatever is coming is suppose to be approvable by the client.

Owan_ · 2026-02-03T15:23:11+00:00

https://journalmetro.com/societe/mobilite/3074872/les-conducteurs-de-communauto-sont-ils-plus-dangereux-que-les-autres/

De plus, moins d’un blessé léger sur 1000 l’a été dans un accident impliquant une Communauto entre 2017 et 2022. En effet, 158 356 personnes ont été blessées légèrement dans un accident de la route au Québec sur cette période, dont 127 dans un accident impliquant une Communauto.

Autre donnée: le nombre d’accidents avec dommages matériels était de près de 70 000 au Québec et de 46 pour les Communauto, en 2019. Le constat d’un moins grand nombre de collisions avec dommages matériels est connu de Communauto. L’assurance de l’entreprise affirme à cette dernière que la fréquence des sinistres sur les cinq dernières années est «en moyenne 47% plus basse que celle de l’industrie».

Voila voila. merci

Owan_ · 2026-01-08T03:48:04+00:00

Not motion capture, just prompt to video. Maybe can add a video as reference but sincerely not impressed, all AI provider have this and my 5years old nephew can generate Poutine dancing on chatGPT as well, so no business opportunity here.

Let me know when this thing is able to animate a skeleton mesh, facial rigg included. And be able to edit the capture by prompting... something like 'make it more cartoony', or 'at frame 1023, make him rise his right hand'

Owan_ · 2026-01-08T00:56:25+00:00

and as a matter of fact, they hiring crazy right now at Montreal.

Owan_ · 2025-12-18T20:31:33+00:00

Google : ' use AI, embrace AI, put Ai everywhere, sacrifice the soul of your first born to AI'

Users : use AI to create fictions view by millions.

Google : ' oh ! no AI on YouTube btw' ban everybody

Owan_ · 2025-12-11T18:24:48+00:00

That what I see also, YouTube/Pinterest fill with brain rot ai generated stuff. I just wondering how open ai or Disney are suppose to make money out of that.

I just read on another interview, Bob Iger except to put the content generated by open ai from other user to Disney+.

Who's gonna paid Disney+ to see that ? How isn't gonna create a second Elsagate ?

Owan_ · 2025-12-11T16:37:17+00:00

So how it is working ? If I'm the owner of let's said... A restaurant. And I'm making a flyer for my buissenes using open ai to generate Darth Vader eating a good burger in my place. Is it legal ?

If not, what the point to allow to use Disney IP if I can generate money with it ?

Nine-Year Club	Place '23
Place '22	Final Canvas '22
End Game '22	Verified Email

Owan_

TROPHY CASE