The future of cg
Kerrie Hughes speaks to leading artists about the major challenges facing VFX studios in 2017, from Brexit to beating the competition
We discover the future of the CG industry at 2017’s VFX Festival
Most people would agree that 2016 was a pretty turbulent year; David Bowie, Prince, Alan Rickman and Harper Lee died (among many others), and Brexit and the election of Donald Trump were among the biggest news stories in a year that many have dubbed the worst for quite some time. But how did the events of 2016 affect the VFX industry? And where are we now? We recently attended Escape Studios’ annual VFX Festival and spoke to a number of leading designers about the major challenges they face in 2017.
Hidden talents
One of the biggest and most recurring subjects that came up was recruitment. Simply finding work-ready talent is an issue Blue Zoo co-founder and director Tom Box readily admits he’s all too familiar with.
“We’re very fortunate that the UK VFX scene is a booming industry at the moment, a lot of which is down to tax incentives that bring the work to this country,” says Tom. “This means that we’re now a hub that talent comes to. However, we’ve noticed that there is a talent shortage in the respect that when we recruit, it’s hard to find people who have skills of the right level. We get lots of people applying to the studio, but only a small percentage have the talent that we need for them to work straight away. So that’s one of the biggest challenges we face.”
And adding to this issue is Brexit. With the future still very much uncertain when it comes to Brexit and how it may affect visas and working restrictions for people
outside of the UK, many studios are wary that this will only make recruitment harder. As Blue Zoo is based in London, Tom is sure this will have an impact.
“About 30 to 40 per cent of our studio is from outside of the UK and it is very likely with Brexit that there will be limitations on who we can ask to come to work here,” he adds. “Our preference is always to recruit people without having to ask them to relocate but at the end of the day, it’s all about getting the talent – our company is made of our artists. Without them, it’s nothing, so we’ve also got to try and work around that.”
Joint head of 3D at London-based VFX studio MPC, Carsten Keller, agrees. “A lot of talent comes from mainland Europe and keeping that talent and continuing to bring it in is going to be a major challenge.” When asked if the UK has the talent pool to fill the gap, the answer was clear. “not at the moment,” says Carsten. “There’s no doubt about the UK getting there, but not at the moment. So we have to continue to bring the talent in, and we will continue to bring it in because we are dependent on it.”
the competition
But while UK studios are struggling to recruit talent, there’s no certainly no shortage of it around the globe, which in turn is presenting its own challenges.
“The VFX industry has always been extremely competitive when it comes to work, and there are a lot of challenges, what with software getting cheaper and so many talented artists out there who are technically able to set up their own studios,” says Carsten. “We often find ourselves up against smaller boutique-type studios for smaller commercials. However, if it’s a really big project, we’re pretty confident because if you are an agency or production company, you want to make sure the company you are using has the infrastructure to handle it when things go south.”
the vfx Industry has always been Competitive when It Comes to work, and there are a lot of Challenges, what with software GETTING Cheaper and many artists GOING solo Carsten Keller, joint head of 3D, MPC London
While competition within the VFX industry has been, and will probably always be, a challenge, the Blue Zoo studio team also finds that location can make a huge difference when it comes to securing work. “What always makes it very hard for us is that we compete internationally with animation studios in places like Canada and ireland, for example, where the living costs are much cheaper than in London. We have to compete with the same budgets in a location where the living costs are extremely high, which makes it really hard for us to try and find work within those restrictions. So we have to find ways to be efficient – working faster but without any reduction in quality.”
So is playing the numbers game the answer? Tom doesn’t think so. “We’ve got a very strong feeling that we want to make work that we’re proud of, we’re not going to just take on projects to churn them out for a quick buck,” he says. “Our ethos, for all our productions, is to have them made in our studio, with everyone in the same room. This makes for a great atmosphere and brings teams together, which, i think when you have that environment, makes better work. if people are enjoying the work they’re doing, they’re going to make a better product, which will therefore attract more work.” What’s next? So with all this uncertainty and competition, what’s the future for the VFX industry? is it about being bigger and better, changing recruitment practice or focusing on new emerging technology to lure in new clients?
“VR has to prove that it makes money,” says Carsten. “Everyone loves it and it is exciting, but at the moment it’s more like a PC from the ’80s, not like an iphone for 90 per cent of the population. We have people working with that technology at MPC, of course, but we’re not putting all our eggs into that basket,” he explains.
For Blue Zoo, owning ip across the industry is a focus to help drive the business. “A lot of the animation studios that were traditionally doing commercials are now making their own TV shows, just because it’s getting harder and harder to stay afloat when you’re just working on a project month by month and there’s no long-term contracts coming in,” Tom comments. “There definitely seems to be a general trend of people making their own shows now and we’re transitioning into making features as well. For years, there were no animated features being made in the UK and now there’s a few happening. it’s fantastic seeing the industry coming back to London.” Read Kerrie’s round up of advice from the Festival at www.bit.ly/220vfx