Keeping It on Course: An Introduction to the World of VFX Supervisors

Growing up with a love of all things gaming and fantasy films, after a university course presentation while at college, I was very keen to pursue a degree in computer animation. The idea of getting to work on a computer all day to create the media I loved seemed like a match made in heaven!

Since then, having fallen into the short form side of post production, I love the personability about the role, the inclusion in the project from conception, the relationships you build with the production company and agency, and the fast-paced nature of the work. Working in advertising, you get to experience a great variety of projects, and hearing client comments in real time and collaborating to achieve the finished picture is what makes all the time and effort worth it.

I find most enjoyment and satisfaction working on projects when I'm acquiring new knowledge, whether it's new techniques on set, using new software, working with new artists or creating new relationships with directors and creatives. Every new job is an opportunity to grow professionally and personally.

To this end, recently I've had the pleasure to work on the full CG cinematic for EA's 'Wild Hearts'. We were tasked with taking assets from the game and working with game developer Koei Tecmo, the publisher, EA, director Morten Vinther, and The Mill's internal creative team to stay faithful to the game whilst pushing the narrative to create a cinematic extravaganza in composing five different worlds and seasons.

My love for animation started when I was five and ‘The Lion King’ was released for the VHS (in the early ‘90s). I fell head over heels for the animated lions and I would rewatch the film and draw the characters for hours on end. I continued drawing through my school years, and I realised my career should involve art in some shape or from.

After years of exploring fine art at school, I found myself on a BA computer animation course. At first, I really doubted if CG animation would be for me. But looking back at it now, it’s actually quite amusing how much I struggled. Nevertheless, the struggles and uncertainty led me to the realisation that all those hours of watching ‘The Lion King’ and analysing the animations had subconsciously led me to computer animation, which would allow me to create similar animations and become part of the animation industry. After graduating in 2014, I got my foot in the door as a trainee animator for a children’s TV series. It was the start of my journey into VFX films, and animation in episodic and advertising.

As a lead animator, I love that I get to both animate but also help my team, and work closely with the other department leads to make sure things run smoothly. I love seeing the whole team's work and enjoy guiding them with constructive feedback to bring their work to the next level. Whilst giving feedback, I’m also learning a lot about animation, and I feel very grateful for that. In short, I love that each and every day in my role comes with different challenges, and hence, I feel like I’m constantly learning and developing as an animator and a leader.

Projects that I find most satisfying are projects that really use animation for what it was invented for – to bring life to the inanimate or the fantastic; scenarios that otherwise wouldn’t be possible. The latest released project I was part of is quite a good example of this (a goat gliding through a canyon on a hang glider!). It wouldn’t have been possible to film this for real, so that’s where we step in as animators. We thoroughly research and gather references which we then mix and match and adapt to the characters, in order to ground the animations in real life and make it all believable!

 

I moved to London to be a sound designer. However, in the end, I couldn’t afford to be on a runner’s salary at De Lane Lea. So, I managed to inveigle myself into a job at The Mill in the dubs department. I had never heard of flame before, but it intrigued me. It was like a moviola mixed with a darkroom… At least, that’s how I understood it. After lots of late nights and weekends reading the manual and playing with flame, I booked in my own job - a live concert - and never looked back. 

The job is a challenge. It doesn’t come easy. You have to use a lot of thinking and concentration. But, this is the attraction - the challenge. It’s also scary, which makes it a nice feeling once you solve it. And then you need another one. 

After a few years painting in flame, I discovered the brushes app on iPhone, then the Slade School of Art, which led to creating portraits in my spare time. I’ve actually had work published! It’s a nice way to unwind; exploring colours and subtext in juxtaposition. 

Sometimes we work on projects that crossover into portraiture, like the commercial for Prada where we took a real model and turned her into an AI avatar. It would probably have been easier to make her in CG, but we wanted to keep the conceit of real versus cyber.  

It never gets easier. And if it did, we would probably get bored. 

I was drawn to the world of VFX during my second year at college, when a friend showed me a VFX breakdown of the movie ‘Prometheus’. I was mesmerised by the craft, and have pursued the path ever since. The fact that we can use visual effects to elevate creativity by making the impossible possible is what I love about my role. 

I am a huge fan of cars, which is why I carved out a niche VFX role specifically serving the automotive sector, not only building advertising content, but working with car designers to visualise new models and cars of the future. One of my recent works, which I’m particularly proud of, is Porsche’s new video configurator. As a team that specialises in building configurators for the world’s top car brands, we wanted to elevate the usual configuration experience beyond that of simply image-based, and add a narrative flare to the experience. As such, by blending traditional narrative advertising with the concept of car configuration, we enabled users to apply their bespoke configurations to cars in a narrative setting using real-time rendering. 

As a car enthusiast, automotive launch films are my favourite pieces to work on. These films give me the ability to sit with car designers, learn about their process and inspiration, and use this to develop a narrative that represents the origin story of the car. Through tools like Unreal Engine, we are able to show our clients and designers real-time interaction of their creations in a virtual environment, and it's always satisfying to see them react to their creations in action.

Throughout the years, I have had titles like CG generalist, CG supervisor, 3D lead and VFX supervisor. But, I began my career at Danish ad agency Cadpeople, doing everything from concept art and motion graphics to compositing, modelling and rigging. After seven years, I went back to school at Denmark’s prestigious The Animation Workshop. I grew my holistic understanding of VFX and filmmaking, and learned the value of working with like-minded people who are passionate and collaborative. It’s a philosophy I use everyday while building our team at Preymaker. I also enjoy going back to The Animation Workshop occasionally to teach classes.

My uncle gave me my first computer at eight years old. I kept breaking them, figuring out what did what - what was RAM, what was an operating system, what was programming - I liked the technology. I also liked to draw, and wanted to do something that had both art and tech. Now I am!

I make decisions regarding our team at Preymaker based on talent and being a team player, instead of old protocols. I also create pipelines. A lot of pipelines I’ve worked in in the past had a lot of legacy holding them back from reaching full potential. Using a pipeline should be intuitive and fast - it should enable the artist to have fun creating and not continuously trip them up or hold them back. Ideally, a good pipeline should help reduce stress and give time back to artists for a better work-life balance. 

Building on this, I love seeing young talent have that ‘light bulb moment’, where something clicks for them. Young artists are often told to execute without explaining why. When I explain why things are done a certain way instead of just how, they suddenly see other things they were trying to understand make sense too.  

Preymaker’s original animated short film, ‘BLUE’, was one of my favourite projects. It won a bunch of awards at film festivals, and is unique because it’s real-time, created in the cloud using Epic Games’ Unreal Engine. There was a new frontier mentality to making it happen. 

This was also the case with FanDuel’s ‘Think Like A Player’, where we used the latest AI tools to create ‘Young Chuck’ (Charles Barkley in his prime). That campaign led us to figure out a configuration for working in the cloud using AI. 

I grew up in the '90s and '00s, when video rental stores still thrived. Many of the VHS tapes and DVDs from that era came with extras showcasing behind-the-scenes footage, and a glimpse into the efforts to create the final cinematography. This was my initial exposure to the world of VFX.

I've always had a profound passion for both computers and films, and in visual effects, I discovered the perfect fusion of these two interests. However, what I truly cherish about this line of work is its collaborative nature. Interacting with numerous talented artists and being able to work together with them is undeniably one of the most rewarding aspects.

My favourite kind of projects are when directors are a bit uncertain about how to bring their visions to life. Finding a way to transform their ideas into reality feels like solving a puzzle, where we must identify the pieces that will translate thoughts into nice visuals.

I was a teenager when ‘Jurassic Park’ and ‘Terminator 2’ came out, and they were the first movies that I saw and thought, ‘I don't know how they've done that, but I want to find out!’. I always wanted to be in the creative industries, and so I moved to London with not much of a plan, got a day running at Smoke and Mirrors, and the rest is history.

I've never clock-watched a single day working in post, which I think is an amazing thing. My favourite part of the role is when the team are all working together, coming up with great solutions to really tricky shots, asking ‘How are we going to do this?’ versus, ‘We did it!’. 

I also love liaising with directors and agencies, on how to bring their vision to life. There's an artistic side to it, but there's also a very technical side to it, which suits me really well.

I lead the VFX on over 170 shots for ‘Peaky Blinders’, including the iconic Arrow House destruction scene. That was a very different way of working than my usual commercial work - there’s more time, but the volume of shots is exponentially greater. I really enjoyed it!

Prior to joining Assembly, I began my career as a designer, before growing frustrated with the world of pure design because I wanted to tell stories. I decided to go back to school and began working as a live-action director. This time, I found myself growing frustrated with realism, because I had come from a world without visual limits. Over time, I gravitated to projects that combined my love of telling stories and working with actors and performers with a love of design, which eventually led me to visual effects. It’s the one area that has proven to satisfy both halves of my brain.

As a result, I sometimes think of myself as a guide and translator between two worlds: one, a world of visual poetry and drama that rests on the work of hundreds of skilled craftspeople, and the other, a world of math in search of beauty and emotion. Because I’ve worked in both worlds, I love the process of translating an idea back and forth between them.

I’m format agnostic. I love working in film, television, advertising, and experiential. It’s not the box that matters, but the message. The projects I’m drawn to have something to say, and a unique visual point of view. I enjoy collaborating with a director who can convey a strong idea, image, or emotion.

To this end, in my experience, it isn’t or hasn’t been the directors with the most experience with visual effects who are best to work with. It’s the directors who are able to convey the visceral impact of an effect and are then open to experimentation, in order to find the best way to capture that feeling. It’s one of the reasons I always start by asking, ‘How should this make us feel?’, rather than ‘What should this look like?’.

On the other hand, I love working with a team of artists and technicians to experiment on how best to conjure up those ideas. You end up discovering that sometimes, the experiments about how best to execute an idea offer up new avenues that we never thought of when we started.

Like all stages of production, the most magical moments are the ones where the end result feels greater than the sum of its parts.