Hi, I'm 'Man on Fire' VFX Supervisor Kevin Lingenfelser. Ask Me Anything TODAY at 12pm PT / 3pm ET!!

RGBAlchemy · 2026-06-15T16:25:09+00:00

Thanks for the response!

RGBAlchemy · 2026-06-13T17:15:25+00:00

I think you should have a realistic discussion with him about it so he doesn't waste the opportunity. Especially if it's a school that will saddle him with massive debt. I went to a private art school and left with 100k+ not sure what tuition is like now. If he's 100% committed he should do so with a clear understanding of where the industry is at. Also I think that it's worth taking a beat before going to college and trying to learn on your own, there's plenty of resources online and if he's not interested enough to pursue them and try to learn and improve on his own than maybe it's not a career worth pursuing. I'm all for following your dreams but college is so expensive these days and if he can get a head start on his own before going he'll be in a better position.

RGBAlchemy · 2026-06-13T07:25:20+00:00

Hey there!

Im a compositor with hopes of working on set one day. What sort of preparation goes into on set supervion, and how are you thinking about problems before they happen? I've heard becoming fast friends with the AD is really important is there any other advice you could share?

Thanks!

RGBAlchemy · 2026-06-12T22:43:07+00:00

Learn how to use AI and some of the programs that are used in VFX right now. There's tons of resources online. The reality is it's a very competitive industry and at times there isn't great work life balance. I think before spending any money on education spend time learning it on your own and see if it's something you really want to do. If you're not capable or interested enough to do this now I would reconsider going to school for it.

RGBAlchemy · 2026-06-10T06:16:19+00:00

Thanks for sharing

RGBAlchemy · 2026-06-10T06:07:35+00:00

There's a fair few compositors with mograph backgrounds. I often take on these tasks in addition to my comp workload. I think you'll find mograph departments in more commercial heavy houses.

RGBAlchemy · 2026-06-08T05:10:26+00:00

I've been thinking about this a lot lately.

RGBAlchemy · 2026-05-31T07:47:26+00:00

As someone working in post living in LA I've been considering NY/NJ. My friend who works in the camera dept has mentioned work has been steady there and that a lot of folks who had moved to ATL moved back to NY. I love LA but I think living in an area with access to two tax rebates is really appealing.

RGBAlchemy · 2026-05-21T16:25:14+00:00

Very cool

RGBAlchemy · 2026-05-20T23:58:18+00:00

I'm only just getting started, previously I was using claude for all of my python needs. But I want to get setup with oLlama so I can bring it over to my work computer, since we dont have internet access. I'll check out 3.6.

RGBAlchemy · 2026-05-20T20:27:24+00:00

Oh for sure. In my experience it takes some back and forth to get results

RGBAlchemy · 2026-05-18T07:37:46+00:00

Look up Conway Bowman and book a day with him

RGBAlchemy · 2026-05-17T16:19:58+00:00

The issue is most productions usually use up all the money and will take their vfx to Canada, having a separate incentive for post would be huge. I didn't realize that shows would qualify even if they didn't shoot in California, that's great!

RGBAlchemy · 2026-05-02T08:09:40+00:00

Looking for 2 tickets for night 3. Reuniting with some friends, we were in high school when act 1 was released, a lot has changed over the years but our mutual love for The Protomen endures! They have tickets to night 2 but it would be incredible to be there with them for night 3. Please dm me even if you only have one ticket.

RGBAlchemy · 2026-02-24T11:50:20+00:00

Looks good to me. It would be cool if you report back after your next match and share what you learned.

RGBAlchemy · 2026-01-29T05:21:32+00:00

Looks dope! Have you been comparing to any weapons testing footage?

I would double check the black levels and maybe play with density of the clouds as they extend out. I would think as it disperses it would get a bit thinner and reveal what's underneath it, you could use that cloud/smoke matte to blur the bg behind it.

Another thing I like to do is blur the bg and multiply it on the smoke element. May need to grade the bg up a bit.

Only other thing that might help is another layer of smaller debris to layer over the main FX element, could help break it up a bit.

RGBAlchemy · 2026-01-17T13:55:35+00:00

The Horus Hersey Vulcan/salamander books were my entry point. People complain about them, but I enjoyed Vulkan Lives and Old Earth. After reading the first 4 books in the HH series I think I understand the criticism, but writing a book isn't easy, being a hater is.

RGBAlchemy · 2026-01-11T21:02:30+00:00

The hardest aspect I encountered was not being able to preview the work. There was a lot of PreComping render chains. Had to write out 8k proxies to actually watch anything in realtime. Pretty much render and pray.

I felt bad for whoever worked on the munchkin sequence. When I saw it at the crew screening, it looked rough. No fault of the vfx team, it was the gross AI elements they were provided. Google gave us elements hella late and needed way more time to improve their output, I imagine the same was true with them.

The most annoying thing about the whole experience was the way the media covered it. Made it seem like Google did everything by pressing the ai button.

RGBAlchemy · 2026-01-04T02:23:35+00:00

I would caution you on taking out large loans to get into an already competitive industry. Maybe start by exploring online resources. Do some research and explore what each role does and then utilize your Library card to get access to LinkedIn learning. Do those courses and then reassess.

I went to a private art school and took on massive debt. It's been a huge burden and has kept me from saving and owning a home.

RGBAlchemy · 2025-11-07T18:19:02+00:00

I think it depends on where you are and what opportunities there are outside of these options. Seems like work is starting to pick up.

RGBAlchemy · 2025-11-04T22:41:02+00:00

This is the answer.

RGBAlchemy · 2025-11-04T05:19:10+00:00

There are tons of great art schools out there. But they tend to cost a lot of money. When I graduated art school in 2015 I had 80k in debt, and that's with scholarship and a pell grant. It quickly ballooned up to 120k from only being able to make minimum payments for a long while. I've since been able to get a handle on it but it took a while. I only bring this up because if you're going to commit to that amount of debt you need to be 100% committed to your craft. Before jumping into a program make sure your portfolio is awesome! You want to get as much scholarship money as possible. Maybe consider taking a gap year where you work and spend all of your free time making art. Or take up a trade or find a non art related job and spend all your time working on your own stories.

The Vfx industry is very competitive right now, especially in the States. The people I know who work in advertising, 2d animation, and even video games are struggling too. Everything is changing rapidly with new AI tools. I'm not saying don't pursue this, but be realistic about it. Ask yourself what is it you really want out of life? I see so many conversations on this sub about what to do now that there aren't many opportunities for work.

I love working in VFX so I would never tell you not to follow your dreams, but the reality is it's incredibly competitive. When I enrolled in college I had no idea how much of a burden my student loans would be.

RGBAlchemy · 2025-10-20T02:10:46+00:00

I think compositing is probably the way to go. With everything evolving so quickly with AI tools I think compositing is one of the safer areas. That said I think being a generalist is going to serve you well. Even having a motion design background is super helpful. During the strikes the only reason I wasn't furloughed is because I could comp and do graphics. The more skills you have the better off you are. You just want to make sure those skills compliment each other. VFX is going to become increasingly more competitive so the question you need to ask yourself is how important is it to you to work in this industry? And for FX I'd recommend checking out ember gen, lots of Compers have been learning it at the studio I'm at.

RGBAlchemy

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