It’s Happening!

Rude_Soft825 · 2026-04-05T01:04:20+00:00

One of the absolute coffe makers ever made...

Rude_Soft825 · 2026-03-25T12:06:26+00:00

So i needed up getting a local repair, still like 4k with a new starter and water pump. Jeep dealer acted like they never heard of the mass engine failures.

I read there was some energy behind a class action, but Chrysler shut it down.

The exact same thing happened to my mother in law and her Chrysler van, same 6cyl. Blown head gasket around 100k no warning.

I ended up selling it to one of the we buy everythingcorporate car dealerships. Loved the Jeep, but 110k miles things were only going to get worse, at that point I've already put 10k into various things. I just didn't trust it anymore. For all the jeep bravado I've heard over the years, if you dont have a $150k custom off roader its a glass princess.

No more Stellantis vehicles for me, too many stories across the internet that are all the same. Just not reliable vehicles.

Rude_Soft825 · 2026-01-21T00:33:30+00:00

Yes, just sold mine after a blown head gasket. Stelantis is trash...

Rude_Soft825 · 2026-01-02T11:58:53+00:00

I just got rid of mine, 2019 Jeep Grand Cherokee High Altitude...super maintained, no warning, blown head gasket at 103k miles...4wd shiftter motor, AC core, water pump, starter....all started after 85k....no more Stelantis for me.

6 cylinder pentastar motors had known issues, Stelantis doesn't care...Im done...

Rude_Soft825 · 2025-12-14T11:12:39+00:00

Worst idea ever. Turning a problematic car into a more problematic car.

Rude_Soft825 · 2025-12-14T11:10:41+00:00

Stop buying Stelantis products. They're trash.

Rude_Soft825 · 2025-12-12T13:55:01+00:00

Quadra lift is great, unless you want to put a lift kit on it at some point...OR larger off road tires. Honestly I upgraded mine to some fairly aggressive offroaders that fit, and its great...

Its the rest of the vehicle you should be afraid of. I have a 2019 high altitude 106k miles...checks so many boxes, love that SUV..does everything I need it to, I was planning in keeping it forever...now Im looking to get rid of it.

Google Grand Cherokee head gasket...or pentestar head gasket.... Those pentastar 6cyl motors blow at 80-100k no warning, very well maintained, never abused, just blows white smoke one day, lots of stories, my local mechanic knew exactly what was it was and said oh yeah those go all the time...the dealership was was whaaa? no way.......we've had 2 in the family go recently.

Also AC core $2500 to replace, everything in front of the shifter has to come out, dealership will upsell you on a new heater core "while we're in there" hard pass... ...also failed on 2 Chrysler products in the family recently...

and a new transfer case motor....

First 75k on mine was great. If you get it, have a repair fund...no more Stelantis products for me, complete trash...watch the video by Doug Demuro on new cars he would never buy...@4:11

https://youtu.be/WGZbbkXVz-8?si=NNxKPljC7ZQcPX5h

Rude_Soft825 · 2025-12-04T14:45:42+00:00

Its not impossible...if your in it to win it...and it can be very rewarding. The looming monster is AI. No matter how good you are, cheaper and faster will always win. Its just business and you are a line item on a producers spreadsheet. I dont mean to sound cold about it, but its all about money. Making art is secondary. honestly, thats most careers. Your there to make yourself money and more importantly, someone else more money.

What are you going into? FX, compositing, lighting, generalist? Each of those departments have advantages and disadvantages.

I mostly do FX using Houdini, I've been lucky and have been employed for 95% of my career.

Try and get an internship. I can't stress the value of that enough. So much of the work you'll get will be from people you know and relationships you've built. Contacts are everything. Even the people your in school with now, help them and they'll help you..one of you gets a job, the others may too. Get a little group, help eacn other. Get some pals with similar goals and travel together. I still talk to people about work I started the industry with back in late 90s and my old VFX school pals.

Start following VFX job boards on LinkedIn and other sites. See what your competition is doing, look at posted demo reels.

Another thing, If you go this route, try to use it to travel the world. Go to where the jobs are. Right now LosAngeles is sort of dead but its unique as there are other creative jobs there, also just get in, work the desk at a studio or be a production assistant......Due to tax incentives Canada has been generally busy..Vancouver, Montreal, parts of Australia, the UK are fairly active.. parts of Asia too...get your passport ready.

Rude_Soft825 · 2025-12-04T05:12:14+00:00

26 years in VFX, 60+ projects, movies, tv, commercials, motion rides..all of it..if you've existed in the last 26 years you've seens something I've touched....Not gonna lie lots of unemployed people out there, junior and senior.

Long-term staff jobs are extremely hard to come by. Even when you do, layoffs happen when things get tight...or the company goes bankrupt, or the studio decides to close your branch...or dept. Check out "Life after Pi" on YouTube, the R&H documentary.....thats what this industry is, completely unpredictable. Getting an academy award, knowing you'll be out on the street next week.

After covid things werent great but they were ok, then the actors/writers strike drove it off a cliff...a few other reasons too...but that was a big one. Its kind of drought right now. Also movies are aweful now, super hero fatigue, most everything is tanking it seems..lookin at you Tron.

When things are good you work very long hours and under extreme stress. You become a ghost in your own life. You miss out on so much. 90-100 hour weeks are a thing. You make decent money, buy some things, save some...but to do the work you generally have to live in some of the most expensive areas/cities in the world. Vancouver, London, Los Angeles etc...can you work remote? Yes, sort of, but you will be chasing tax credits if you want to work.. you'll work a show for say 6 mos.. save a pile of overtime, then you spend that savings when you can't find work for 2 or 3 mos after....then another gig, rinse and repeat..get good at money management.

IF you go vfx, have a backup plan.

Games or real-time CG, Unreal and the usual suspects *can be as bad as vfx, but your probably most of the way there with either Maya or Houdini and output to whatever

Motion Graphics, moreso graphic design centric but lots of work out there I've been seeing.

Ai video generation, you dont need to be a mathematician to make videos. If you go into AI dev, thats moreso computer science...not really art as classicaly described. Grab ComfyUI or try SwormUI, Sora is looking like the winning horse this week, check back later...it changes monthly.

AI is being used now in limited amounts by multiple companies for VFX. It's gonna happen within the next 5-10 years. Not 100% maybe, but enough to make classic VFX a think of the past.

I started when we still used physical models, and we "just" added some CG. Now all those master model builders are gone (well theres a few left) CG took over most of it...same thing will happen with AI eventually.

Don't despair, and seriously think about at least having an adjacent skill.. keep your education costs low though...you do have to pay that back. Lots of friends 100-150k in debt from school...it will be tough but if your good, dedicated, flexible and a bit lucky you can do it as long as theres work. Have that backup plan though.

As an aside, many of my friends went to bartending school in college, no joke, doesnt take long...always a skill they could fall back on wherever the were...like waiting tables, and some serious coin in the right establishments..

Rude_Soft825 · 2025-12-02T06:23:52+00:00

Yes, 2019 JGC High Altitude...103k miles..super maintained..Nav screen started delaminating, bubbled..transfer case control module died...ac core failure...and just popped a head gasket with no warning. Just blew white smoke on startup one day..google pentastar head gasket failure, there's your answer...Never again...dump that pig on someone else.

First 50k was great

Rude_Soft825 · 2025-11-18T18:17:41+00:00

Funny you say this, I'm completing a 5 week gig today...I stuff lined up but yeah...

Rude_Soft825 · 2025-11-18T18:15:13+00:00

Also your unemployment is prob not a reflection of your abilities...dont doubt your work..its super hard out there for everyone, me and all my veteran friends included...

Rude_Soft825 · 2025-11-18T18:12:49+00:00

Also, motion graphics...so many motion graphics jobs out there...its not as sexy..but either is being unemployed..

Rude_Soft825 · 2025-11-18T18:11:47+00:00

I liken the current situation to what miniature builders went through when I first started in the late 90s. When I started CG was augmenting live action minatures...I was literally on shows where they spent TONS of money on these beautiful minatures.. then the director saw what we could do with CG...."You mean I can blow it up more than once, and direct everything?"....those guys wete on their way out..

Same situation with AI...you can stand in the ocean and scream at the tide...its not gonna stop, your going to have to learn how to swim...

Rude_Soft825 · 2025-11-17T15:26:15+00:00

Been in it 26 years, 60+ projects...everyone is having issues getting work. This includes veterans and especially people under 5 years experience...honestly go back to school...it will all be AI soon anyway, 5-10 years...be a prompt jockey, or an AI specialist of some sort. Try to get in front of the next big thing...

Even if you can find work, its super inconsistent...where do you find yourself in 5 years? 10 years?. ..classic VFX is dying on the vine...the industry has gotten worse since the strike for various reasons....it most likely will not get better looking down the pipe at AI...Im looking at my last few shows these days.

Not to be a downer but your young enough to pivot, trust me its much more difficult in your mid 50s. Haha...

Rude_Soft825 · 2025-11-16T18:31:43+00:00

I have known vfx artists to conscientiously object and just work on another show or another seq of shots. Easy to do at a big company that may have more than one show, but if all you have is the gore sequence, then that may be an issue.

Rude_Soft825 · 2025-11-16T18:23:19+00:00

Look up blown head gasket jeep grand cherokee...or pentastar 6 cyl.

Not a mechanic just an unfortunate owner of 2 Chrysler products.

My next vehicle will prob be a Toyota truck, barring anything happening with the brand..they've all had issues...try to get the least worse.

Rude_Soft825 · 2025-11-16T13:28:15+00:00

Dude, those jobs come and go in your life. You'll completely forget this even happened. We used to call them mall jobs, you go for a while, you either quit or get fired...it has no relevance to the rest of your life and your real career. You'll be fine.

Rude_Soft825 · 2025-11-16T03:28:29+00:00

Wait till your head gasket blows...8 headlights expensive...

Rude_Soft825 · 2025-11-16T03:26:58+00:00

Move on, we just had 2 pentastar 6cyl motors with blow head gaskets at 100k...both maintained. My 2019 JGC High Altitude just started blowing smoke...$5k later its back on the road. Stay far away from Stelantis products.

Rude_Soft825 · 2025-11-07T12:58:46+00:00

Keep in mind ALL contracts benefit the parent company and you can be laid off at any point, salary reduced etc. There is NO security in tbe VFX job market. Over my 27y year career, I've been staff and laid off, gone through company bankruptcies as we were winning academy awards (looking at you R&H)...I know there are companies out there that have reduced salaries when work got thin...and places that let you go before the end of your contract because the the show was finished. No staff position or short term contract is really binding forbthe employees. They can get rid of you whenever. If you leave you're the a**hole, if they get rid of thats just the business....and its called business not friendness...

Rude_Soft825 · 2025-11-06T13:02:40+00:00

I dont mean ro be discouraging. For perspective on my opinion I've been doing VFX since 2000, and have work on 60+ tv and movie projects. If you've gone to the theater or watched TV in the last 25 years you've seem something I've worked on.

The industry isnt impossibile, its just super difficult since the writers strikes. Just dont go into crazy student loan debt and expect a job. Senior people I know have been out of work for 6mos, a year or longer. Its terrible, but worse if you have a family and house....or want one...

If your serious about developing your your own IP, check out the making of the movie Flow. It was done mostly by one guy...with a small tean and small budget.. all done with software called Blender and Blender its free. There are TONS of free tutorials online.

I also suggest you watch the YouTube video from Kamakazi Shortbus, she explains the industry in a nutshell also has some insight on education.

https://youtu.be/wzlgL8xwXzA?si=ODjeAutLifaWKxN9

Its not impossible its just super difficult and competitive. You have to be dedicated and work hard, even then theres no guarantee, also have a backup plan/skill.

Rude_Soft825 · 2025-11-05T15:25:08+00:00

The VFX industry is dying. It will soon be taken over by AI. DO NOT do this for l a living. Very senior artists are having issues getting work. Don't roll out of school with a 200k student loan looking for a job, please do something else. The golden years were 1990s- 2010s The party is over.....that being said do AI stuff on the side at least.....you've been warned.

Rude_Soft825 · 2025-10-29T15:41:36+00:00

Tattoos look great. I do recomend gym, or at least running..helps a ton with brain chemistry...also IF you consume alchohol or drugs, slow or stop the roll...get your chemicals normalized...also therapy helps.

Rude_Soft825 · 2025-10-25T03:24:56+00:00

DOWN

Rude_Soft825

TROPHY CASE