Industry Guest Talk - Katya Rasskazova

actually started actually let me take my notes hello everybody welcome to our next uh industry guest talk um our guest speaker for this week is katya so ketchia um just graduated last year she has been one of our most successful students and she's working at weta now she works as junior virtual artist so she's going to talk about what that means for us um she she has a lot to share with us as a recently graduated student about she's going to give us insights on how to find a new position and how has has the experience of working at a large company like weta uh we remember katya from her amazing artworks at school at year two um she collaborated with three other students it was um alice who who else was on board for bobo um paul and laura and alex albora how's albora by the way alboro's real good she's um in kosovo with her family uh say hello to her um so four of them made a a beautiful artwork called bobo you might have seen it everywhere that's the radish with like you know it's a cute radish so um katia was a key artist in that project their project entered to the uh new zealand best design awards her final project uh faded that you have seen the photos everywhere the chameleon one also this year has been nominated as the finalist in the new zealand best design award uh what made uh katya um distinctive and and interesting was both she's she's good at both art and technology so she is a very good artist who has a passion to learn the technology and masters as well so i hand it to you katya um thanks for the introduction hussein um i'm gonna share my screen just let me know if it works it does okay um awesome okay hold on present yes you guys see my slides yes we do see your slides awesome um i was just going to give like a really quick overview of my my uni projects um hussain kind of already talked about it but um like overall i really kind of made sure i i got to try everything like over the course of the three years like even the things i didn't like like i really don't like filming but i really made sure like i gave it my best shot so um and in my third year i did a solo project because i really wanted to make sure i go through the entire pipeline like from the like the design stage to like the final like polishing and just try to make the most out of like my uni experience and this is definitely something i would recommend for like two for you guys because like first of all um like make the most out of the student licenses like after uni they're actually like really expensive and especially like if you don't know what you're doing with it like if you're not sure like if you need it or not um it's kind of like a big deal because you have to pay for it so you really have to kind of like choose wisely make sure you're only buying what you need so but also um you get so much um you get so much support and like your lecturers will help you with like all the installation um it was like it's just like so much easier to learn all these programs while you're at uni so i would say um try to make the most out of it and also like the equipment um like london central is like so awesome you get like all these cameras so like make sure you try them out so i was just gonna talk about my like work experience journey um in general um i think that um just getting work experience in uni is one of the most important things like it is possible to get jobs like without a lot of experience but like most entry positions they always ask for at least a year of experience and you do need to have something to talk about like in the interview and stuff like that um it's just like it's so much harder like if you don't get any work experience so um for me i kind of like the first thing i worked on was um hussein's project that was that was like year one i kind of like tried to get some experience straight away in year one and i think that benefited me so much um that's year one right um yes you were a passionate year one student and and you just um so at that time i i was working in a group format on my phd project stella project you might have heard of it still not finished i'm not as as good as katie i'm finishing the stuff so it's twice the end i'll get there so um so she you she she jumped in and you were um concept design artist at it right um i was doing uh like mocap tracking cleaning and you did concept design and over there i re i i saw katya like kind of she's thirsty to learn and just to just um to just work on different skills like always excited which was very interesting sorry for interruption [Laughter] that's a good comment um so um yeah what i was saying is that um like not all your like first work experience are going to be like best experiences so like hussein's project was really awesome but like um the stuff i did afterwards like a lot of it i did face a lot of challenges and i think that the the faster you can get over that like the better because um it's like it'll be an opportunity for you to identify your weaknesses and kind of work through it before you actually apply for any big positions because and also like interviews like one of the common questions will be like identifying your weaknesses and like what you do about it and it's gonna be a lot easier for you to answer that if you actually like you've actually done some work um you've actually actually have experience and you actually know like what your strengths and weaknesses are and i would say like don't expect to get paid just treat um create a part of it treat it as part of your learning because um i found that getting work experience after you graduate is really hard like um while you're still a student there will be quite a lot of internship opportunities that turn up so i would say make sure you take them and yeah it's just like really good to have projects to talk about because it makes you sound like dedicated and passionate which i'm sure you guys are but like um people interviewing you like need to you kind of need to prove it to them so um i was gonna say it's also good to have a range of skills like for example um i did mocap because like i just didn't want to miss out but i don't i don't really like it um but yeah i don't really like mocap but for me it works um like it was really useful because it kind of got me into it got me some jobs like for example i was working part-time for like a game startup company um like after my first year it was like the summer at the full time and then for a few months i did kind of like on and off part-time work um so that was like a great experience for me i was doing concept art um then i was doing like modeling texturing i was like the only artist because it was like really small startup so it was like really fun i was doing like um i was doing pretty much everything art related so that was really cool but um how i got that position um they needed a mocap someone who knows mocap you got it through mocap but then they realize oh you know you can't do other stuff and then then you started to do the stuff you enjoy most yeah pretty much so they just needed someone to clean the data for them and i was like oh yeah i can do that but then i was like well you know i can also do this and that do you guys need someone to like do your like 3d stuff do you need someone to do the concept and that was pretty cool so um that was really important so you work for the game startup for the whole summer and then after that part-time right yeah pretty much oh that's a good good summer uh yeah it was it was quite a lot of work like i was just like really um and it was a paid position right yeah it was it was actually paid which was good um it was like a low pay but honestly like for a student that's was already so good um and then after i i did like a bunch of freelance projects that i got through connections like some of it was my parents friends some of it was people from uni um those are like really useful as well because like when you just first start out it's really hard to like estimate how long things are gonna take and it's really hard to tell whether the pay is fair or not because um like people literally approach you and be like well can you like can you make this for like let's say like hundred dollars and you literally have no idea like is this gonna be worth it or like not really so um like i'll say when you start out just just do it anyways um just you know try to hit the deadlines but the pay like doesn't necessarily matter as much because it's just like part of your learning experience like later on you can um you can like um bargain and ask for better better rates and stuff but first doesn't really matter in my opinion um so after uni um like i found i got a contract as like a texture artist slash generalist in i think it was like may or something so it did take a few months um i'll talk more about my like experience with finding a job but i worked there for literally two weeks and then i got my like weather contract so i kind of had to leave that project which is really unfortunate because i absolutely loved it i loved the team it was like super fun role it was like a small team where you know you get like enough creative freedom but yeah still get it yeah in oakland right yeah it was actually you know it was like a wellington company but i was um i was doing like work work remotely working for them yeah so that was that was cool uh and now i work at wanna as a virtual art department junior artist that's a long name yeah but that is easy like you know when i said oh it's that makes do you do they call call the team and the people from their bad as well you that person [Laughter] yeah we just say bad like we don't okay okay say virtual apartment every time i'm so bad that's cool cool cool abbreviation sorry sorry yeah that's pretty cool um so basically what we do is we make um like we get the hero assets and then we downres them for to make sure it can run in real time so um make like low poly hard surface stuff and like fairly low rest textures it's like it's used for the mocap stage it's used for the animation puppets as well like for the rigs so it's just like um yeah it's the assets we take like the assets are already done and we downgrade them so um it's really just like a generalist slash modeling slash texturing position it's like really a range of different tasks different pipelines um yeah pretty much um interesting um sorry for pausing you can you go to the previous slide so so i was thinking that it's a dedicated um department for real-time content but it seems that you are feeding or like contributing to the overall visual effects production is that a new department or it's it's been there because that position i saw for the first time and you are you are the first student of mine that get into the virtual art department i think it's fairly new like used to be part of layout now we have a dedicated department now with the emergence of um you know more real-time solutions uh we see more and more of it in you know embedded within the rest of the vfx production yeah definitely um and it's also cool that you can you can be like a game artist and still work for a vfx company um i've that pretty interesting because i didn't know that was that was possible very interesting yeah um by the way feel free to like interrupt me anytime and ask questions yes yes drop your um so while i'm i'm i'm enjoying the talk so i'm sure you guys as well so as katya uh goes forward and and and talks through feel free um to drop your questions in the chat list i will read it while she's talking so uh let's make it interactive and and you know live yeah guys just ask you know ask questions um right so i was just gonna talk about working in a big production studio in general um so i just think it's a really great opportunity it's um it's a lot of um it's a lot of learning you keep learning all the time like you have to learn all the in-house tools it's just like the pipelines always change you just constantly have to like keep learning and it's not just about the technical stuff i i think like the things that are also super important are the soft skills and just how how to be professional how to talk to people um all of those things are super important and like in uni you don't necessarily focus on um and then you get really helpful feedback and clear instructions as as compared to small studios or when you do freelance it's like you get told to go and just figure something out and sometimes you can get stuck like you don't know how like how to do it you don't know who to ask but here like um there's always gonna be like there are always gonna be people who will know how to do it and it'll help you straight away so i thought that was really cool [Music] and there are a lot of really really talented people so it's just like really inspiring to meet people from other departments um we do have like social events where you can network so i thought that was like a really really good thing you get like you make great connections and just like in general in the big production studios and you get more opportunities for career growth as opposed to like small studio when like let's say you're the only artist and you'll just stay in that position like forever until the studio grows like here you can actually like yeah you can actually like grow and get promoted move to different departments and stuff like that so pretty good opportunity um we also get a lot of like talks and screenings and presentations so oh deal okay yeah it's really it's really cool like the company um like big companies make sure that like all the like everyone is kind of like up to date with the like vfx industry and like what's new and stuff like that well that's interesting so you guys have a like a site educational kind of programs um yeah pretty much um we do get training and when new stuff comes out we get screenings nice so so when you said like opportunities for carrier growth so if if you want to move to another department what was what would it be like what's the the next interesting department for you over there um like models and textures um are pretty interesting because like just 3d in general like props characters has been like the most interesting thing for me so like in the in the industry in general um like entry-level positions um you are a lot more likely to get a generalist role so even if you're aiming let's say for um like long term if your passion is textures um it's really hard to get like specifically a texturing job because most of them require experience quite a lot of experience and a very like specific portfolio and then in uni you just focus on so many things at once um it's really yeah it's really hard to get like a specifically you know like dedicated portfolio to like yeah um yeah it's it's really cool that like here as well like you get um in big companies you get insights into upcoming shows and like for me it's definitely a perk it's like you're you're the spoiler friend yeah and stuff like that it feels cool it's like you know some secrets someone said okay you know what i'm gonna spoil the next year nah i want to keep my job [Laughter] okay just kidding so um finding a job i'm just going to share my my experience this is the important part for for our students who are very close to graduates so pay attention to what catio says yeah hopefully you guys will find something useful um like some of it so like i mentioned before like if you're interested in 3d like regardless of whether it's texturing modeling stuff like that um like uh most entry-level positions for 3d are generalists so i think it's good to prepare a portfolio like specifically for that um so it's really important to have like show variety like for example if you like if you're hired into like a games company or something like that you they will expect you to be able to make a range of assets like really quickly um they'll just be like whole bunch of random things so um think it's really it's really important to like rather than just showing like one asset it's like really important to show them that you can make you can make a whole bunch of things like anything they want and it's also really important to show like good topology so i'll really be looking for that um so just do like do the turntables and make sure you show the topology um another thing um that i felt like um was an important point is making sure that you treat your showreel as a priority yeah yeah like for me i really kind of like focused on my film like for me that was like the outcome from like the outcome um of my whole like university experience but then i i mean of course it's really good to make a good film and like ideally if you make something really amazing and everyone sees it and then you get like a letter from disney and they'll be like hey we want you to work for us but then i think i'm more realistic scenario is where you actually have to like email studios and send them your your portfolio and apply for like specific jobs and that are like more technical so when if it comes down to like if you have to choose between like finishing your film or just like focusing on a couple of shots and making them really good um just to do those like two shots and make them really really good because in a show reel like most of the time they're not gonna care about your actual film like no one's gonna go watch it they'll just see the shots that you give them and like let's say if you're applying for a generalist role like they won't necessarily care if you're like a good storyteller um because like they're hiring you for something really specific um so i think a really good way to make sure you have that like variety is like doing doing like little side projects let's say if you make like a little prop every month or so like it's it's totally realistic and then if you make sure that you plan like let's say your capstone like when you plan your capstone you kind of take that into account you just like spend like a little bit of time on your like um little side projects i think that'll really add to show real but i mean like this is just my opinion so like i'm saying feel free to comment no no that that makes a lot of sense actually this is my strategy with third year students actually few of them are here as well so when i see someone um is struggling to finish the entirety of of the project i ask them okay you know what it's important that you do few things but do it very well so instead of like focusing to get the movie done focus to just get um these specific shots done so that's that that's the alternative plan yeah makes makes a lot of sense because the idea is you know have something in your showreel have something good in your tutorial um yeah definitely i think like this alternative plan is still you know just as good when it comes to applying for jobs will still get you the job um so when you are applying for jobs make sure you set up notifications on like every social media platform make sure you go like follow all the like facebook groups set up your like linkedin like email notifications properly and just like keep checking it um so make sure you actually go and check your social media because i had like a really stupid situation where like on linkedin when someone messages you um you get a connection notification you don't get like message requests like in facebook for example and like for me that's what i was kind of expecting so i i know like i always checked my messages and i never looked at the like the connection requests and someone actually messaged me it was also like through connections but someone messaged me like pretty much like asking me if i want a job and then i completely missed that and then i missed that and when when i like saw it because i didn't even see the message i clicked like connects first like i accepted the request and then the message popped up and like on the message um it doesn't say that the message was sent a week ago like the time kind of reset so i was like oh this person just messaged me like right after i added them and i was like okay i messaged them back and i was really stupid because this person was like um well this was a week ago we already hired someone uh dumb linkedin [Laughter] so what what social uh social network platform you you you you know you recommend to be more engaged or you saw more useful for you in finding jobs i think linkedin is the most useful one you can set up like email notifications for like for the jobs that you want yes super useful um the next one is facebook like there are there are like um art groups like 3d groups on facebook where people just post stuff people from toy box and just like all the other companies um so that's pretty good too and then i also subscribe to like seek and indeed or something um yeah actually that's that's how i found my um job at toybox as a city supervisor i i was um i submitted um actually i subscribed to seek uh like so when you search in seek.com you just like search for like and i don't know animation or visual effects or whatever position it asks you do you want to save your search and subscribe for receiving similar positions weekly or daily or or or whatever in in the interval that you want so then as cathy said you get the notification and you apply the faster you apply the better that's one of her words yeah because the faster and better because a lot of people will be looking for someone urgently like um like someone is working on a project and then one of the artists just leaves and then they need a replacement asap um yeah that's kind of how i got my texturing contract because they just needed someone asap and then as soon as the notification popped up on my linkedin i applied like straight away they're like okay we need to just we need you to literally start like tomorrow i was like oh yeah start tomorrow that's that's that's very very fast yeah almost like straight away i was like wow amazing okay um then what else did i do i made a list of all companies like game vfx animation all companies in auckland and wellington i made a list i emailed every single one of them and it was really sad because i like let's say i spent a week like writing these custom emails like you actually looked into the companies like you write emails like you know for every single one and then you just don't get replies so that was like super frustrating um but i think it's still really important to do that because like i got maybe like two or three replies like five months later you just have to be patient yeah you just have to be patient because a lot of um a lot of companies are not going to reply but they do keep your details just in case um so as you get some replies they're like oh you know like you sent us this email like in april like well we have we have some opportunities now um and also that like that texturing job i applied to um like during my interview um um the person the person i was talking to he was like oh i recognized you because you sent us your portfolio a week ago so i was looking for it and then i just couldn't find that email so it's kind of it's kind of good to send your stuff through being touched anyways yeah yeah it's it's good to be in touch with uh different companies and and as katya said like um it's good to reapply like every i don't know six months or a year to the same companies because like maybe last year they didn't need anyone but this year they just lost a couple of artists and they are in in demand so you know when you just apply you know you you just apply on the right time so and then when once you graduate you know this is this is actually cathy as well and every other graduate so you graduate and you start apply for all the positions and email every company and you did you don't get reply back right away just don't get upset wait wait few more i'm not so upset [Laughter] yeah i remember that like no i i emailed him i just okay it was just yesterday not yesterday but it was just very recent so you just have to be patient especially like um students who work hard like katya herself um who are talented and uh so i remember when i got uh contacted by shareel at weta asking about katya and i wrote yes you know just just hire her she's the best so once once the time comes you know you'll get the position but it needs about a bit of you know being in the scene being visible being patient and just like try to find your way through and the best position that you might find okay go ahead katy yeah um be patient and make sure you use that time to to prepare for example for interviews there is only there's quite a long list of questions that they could potentially ask but it's a list they can't really they're not going to ask you random things so you have you have so much time to prepare and answer prepare like answers for all these questions you have time to actually look into these companies so when an interview comes up um you know you'll be ready and just in general i think it's a really good strategy to actually like memorize things like actually think about what you're gonna say like in the interview um rather than just trying to wing it um it really helps because like for me i get really stressed out in interviews and then um it's like if you if you already know what you're going to say you can focus more on your body language and just how you present yourself and you just have like less things to stress about and you guys have so much time like it's totally doable um yeah so read the job description as she says at the last one read the job description yeah it's really important because um like in the job description they say all those things for a reason like um whatever like make sure you actually address all those points like obviously if you have something to say about it um just kind of like for example if they're asking like if they want someone who is like a good leader um you need to like mention that um say that you have like good leadership skills and like provide examples be like well i directed a film i was a student rep i did this and that i am a good leader so give examples yeah yeah give examples it's really important um also like don't expect to get a job straight away um and i would say don't put too much pressure on yourself because like for me i got like i got really i was getting like real upset i was putting so much pressure on myself and then um i was getting taught like my parents would say this and i would just hear this from different people that you know like if you don't get a job straight away um there will be like new graduates and they'll be like more skilled and more up to date than you are um you know like if you just take a break you're gonna like lose your skills you're gonna get out of touch and like in my opinion like it's not necessarily true like you just need to like see how you feel and make sure you prioritize your mental health like mental and physical health just in general so very good point very good point yeah just see what's right for you and it's totally okay to take a break if you feel like you need one um like here a lot of people i work with and a lot of people who are like really successful and they have like awesome jobs um like they worked they did like a random job for a few years or they went traveling or they just took like two years or like just like a gap year or like two years of um just like break time so it's totally okay just like make sure you don't like you prioritize your mental health [Music] um so this is just like a reflection on my my uni experience and what i would have done differently very good so um hopefully you guys find this useful i'm just laughing at your first comments keep your files safe and organized it's so important it's super important they don't listen they just don't listen first of all um like i have i have some projects that um they're like good projects but there was just like something about them that didn't finish and then like for example like my first year project is like overall i really like it but then like i don't know how to rig and like my animation was like really bad and then now i know how to do it with an ik i could literally like redo it in in a half an hour but then i can't i don't know where any of my files are so it would be it would be so easy to just update it but i can't go back to it now because i don't know where anything is everything is named weirdly um just like all over in like my hard drive like in different folders so make sure you don't do that and also it's just really good practice for um for when you're working in a team um like clean projects naming conventions like good folder structure is super important especially if you're working in a company because you will have to share files and you just don't want to be that annoying person so it's really good to practice it now when there is like no pressure on you it's like you're just doing it for yourself so um also like in my opinion like from my experience um like simpler projects like um simpler but polish and well-presented projects are better than like trying to do something ambitious and just like failing like yes it's a good learning experience but um like at the end of the day you kind of do need an outcome so like you will have to show something um you will have to yeah that's a that's a very golden um you know recommendation golden advice casia so like many um students they are ambitious and they want to just like make a blockbuster in their student time but like you know you just do like like very contained project but you know in a well presented way as kentia says and then you're you're a winner you don't need to just be so glamorous or just so sophisticated in in the project that you deliver yeah um yeah so that's what i was trying to do as well i was like yes i can make something amazing and super complicated but then um you just end up like feeling really frustrated with your work because you can't get it to like the standard like you can't get it to you can't finish it sometimes like you can't make it look polished and then like you don't want to show that work to anyone so it just goes to waste so i think it's only we have a question here b asks uh you mentioned looking after your mental health so i just wanted to ask do you know how interviewers take a history of mental health issues that might come to light in the conversation i've had job interviews where they ask you why you've taken a break or if you have those kind of issues so her point is like taking break for mental issues would do you think would that might work against you at some point if someone wants to like um address it in a weird way well i think that if you have to take a break then there's no way around it like you just have to take it it's like at the interview you don't need to you don't have to say that you know you had a mental issue it's just like you you took a break to you know focus on yourself or just just anything like that like it's totally understandable like people take breaks all the time like you felt burned out like we're all human it's okay um like the reason why they ask these questions is to make sure that you know like nothing crazy happened like i don't know you didn't go to jail or something uh that's a weird question by the way yeah i've never seen um that in a job interview showing up they might ask you so what you've been doing so you say you've been busy up to 2015 but then everything starts at 2017. what you were working on yeah 16 you can say i was working on myself so i was i was taking care of myself my family yeah um yeah because people have like really different situations and it's all like really understandable um i don't think at the interview they'll ever like specifically ask they'll be like well you took a break is there something wrong with your mental health like no one's gonna ask that yeah okay um i hope that answered the question um yeah so um i was gonna say that in my opinion grades do matter because this is something i hear like so much people say like oh your grades don't matter because no one's gonna look at it and like it's true like no one is gonna look at your transcript but then your grades are a really important indication of how well you can like address a brief so you get a brief and like how well you can actually like match that criteria and like when you get a job that is exactly what you'll be doing like you'll you'll get like a list of things that you have to like you have to make sure you you get right like for example you get like a formatting thing it'll be like your project has to be in this format has to be this long it has to be it has to include like these five things so um it'll be it'll be really important like when you get a job um it'll be really important that you can um you can like take a brief and make sure like you meet all the requirements so i think grades are a good way to practice that interesting very interesting point and then um also like keeping an eye on time um it's like really it's super difficult and it takes um it takes some practice but when you do freelance projects and you guys probably will have um it's like like that's the easiest way to get work experience is doing just like little freelance projects for people you know um you like oftentimes you will be asked to estimate how long things take or you'll be asked to estimate um like you'll be asked how much you want to get paid for this or they'll give you like a sum of money and you'll have to decide whether you want to take that project or not so um if you just roughly know how long it takes you to do things like you sit down you actually like focus on your work and then you can you can you know that you spend like four hours on this and you got this much done um rather than you know just procrastinating then getting your teeth and doing something else and just completely losing track of time and you're like well i've been doing this for three days but how long did it actually work for um so i think it's really good to keep that in mind just for like future projects then i'm just generally being organized and punctual um definitely a big problem for me so um i think it's really good to start practicing that while you're uni like don't be late to lectures actually submit stuff in time because like when you get a job that will actually like become a problem for you if you're not used to it it'll just be really hard so i think again like you're not really under a lot of pressure so i think it's it's good to start practicing that like as early as you can and then another thing um is kind of like setting a time limit on creative or technical exploration because with projects like for example the capstone project um it's really i found it really easy to get carried away with just trying to you know like invent something it's like um i was i was trying to do the simulation that never worked and then i spent ages just trying to get it to work and then like i didn't have time to like finish the things that were actually like essential for the task so i think setting a limit is really important even though like all your investigations are super important it's a great like it's a great way to learn and just like expand your skill set like just make sure that you focus on like getting an outcome like actually like making something um i think that planning a simple project and then like if you have time left just like adding um extra complexity to it is better than just planning something super ambitious and just getting frustrated because you can't get it done like you can always add some stuff to your project if if it's too simple for you um right what else um like i said before just making sure you get involved in everything just really like take all these opportunities um i think taking team projects seriously is super important as well um like every year there is always like some kind of a drama evolving around like all these team projects it's just like but that's how we learn you know that yeah yeah definitely um but i think it's it's just good to like not to be remembered as that one person who started up like this drama um because it just it's not really it's not a really good thing um also i think it's important to just like separate work from like your personal life as in like if you're working with your friends just um whoever's in charge of the projects or just like if you guys are working together i think it's really good to like have a chat and set like expectations for everyone like for example like if someone is um like doing a part-time job as well or have like has other commitments like they won't like they they won't necessarily want to like spend as much time on those projects as like other team members who are like not doing anything like else on the side so like for example if like the person who is in charge of the animation is also like working on two other jobs like make sure you plan the project like accordingly make the um make sure the animation is like simple and stuff like that so you're not putting pressure because i'm sorry it's like echoing not on my side oh yeah okay i turn up my mic uh maybe it's just me um so yeah uh meetups and networking is also i found that really useful like i didn't go to that many and like it's really um i wish i wanted to more um like some of the people i met like now i ended up working with them so that was kind of really cool like you meet someone at a company and you already like you know them you'll be like hey like i saw you this and this like meta like um at this meet up and it's really useful like you won't necessarily get a job from it but it's really good to get those connections um yeah just make the most out of your uni opportunities try to be proactive and try to ask as much as you can just make sure you're always seeking feedback and like when you get feedback take the critique well because it's um it's an opportunity for you to improve like don't take any feedback personally um like when you'll be working like regardless what kind of company is for or it's for a client you always get like notes and people will ask you to redo stuff so um just make sure you are prepared for that like don't get too attached to your work and stuff um yeah i think i sort of covered all my points so if you guys have any questions saying we can't hear you you're still muted okay awesome talk so far i also like um read that sentence that you skipped and is i think is very important put less pressure on yourself and understand that everyone is on a different journey that is a very very very well thought well written sentence so it's what we see like students try to compare like to each other but like you are all on different journeys so um take it easy miriam says thank you katya really interesting and very wise uh and and helpful okay so it's uh we're moving to q a uh please feel free to open your mic and ask at your questions or type your question in the in in the chat room um so so i read it for cats here you can like come out of um screen sharing cats here so we see you in full screen there we are okay any questions so i i have one um here so you you said in in in your target you mentioned soft skills and you said you mentioned that it's it's it's very important and so what are them and what do you suggest to to the students how to develop their soft skills can you hear me yes yes um so like for example it would be like communication um like for me personally it was kind of like a big challenge to um like bring up some issues for example like if i felt like i can't get something done i would be like well i'm just gonna instead of like flagging it i'm just gonna try extra hard to get it done and then once you like what's the difference yeah it's just like i'm just overestimating myself um just thinking like maybe i can stay up maybe i can do some extra time i can totally do this and then um once you like pass the deadline you have to be like well you know i haven't done this and then you'll be asked like why why didn't you bring it up and it's just like all these little things like um knowing how to communicate um how to like work in a team uh what else is there yeah those two are actually the most important ones alicia alicia asks uh in your opinion what is the toughest most unexpected part of working for a large company um the most unexpected thing for me was actually all the things that are happening outside of work because like all of a sudden i moved to a different city i'm away from my parents this is the first time i moved out and then that was the most unexpected thing because i didn't really take that into account but then um i kind of like wish that throughout uni i was a bit more independent i actually like cooked my own food you know just like you know um had a job and like did like all the adulting things i guess because all of a sudden it's just like you have a new job and then you have to actually look after yourself you're like in a different city a different place and it's just all really overwhelming so yeah so that so that the the living experience of a new environment was the the toughest part for you yeah for me like it's still pretty tough i'm still like getting used to it interesting so daniela asked how much support and learning opportunities do new artists receive from water um you get quite a lot of support like i mentioned before you can literally ask anyone um like anyone in the team can answer your questions you get a buddy like a person that you can um you can talk to like any time like whatever issues you're having you can just like talk to them and they'll come over and like show you stuff and help you um overall it's like really supportive um you get a super supportive hr team if you're having any issues you can talk to them they're super nice um we have a lot of like networking and team building activities so i overall feel pretty supported and also um yeah you get the opportunity to you know like train they they do train you because a lot of the software is like what are specific so you get a lot so you get both a body that's great so yeah so you have someone to ask your questions and also training supports super ask after having worked in both a small and a big company which one do you prefer and why um they both have their own benefits in a smaller company you like sometimes you'll find yourself just you know stuck and not knowing how to solve a problem in a big company um you can oh you can just ask someone you don't like ever have to google anything um um in a bigger company your role is a bit um like because you are just like a small part of a really big pipeline your job will be kind of like really focused so like if you're a model you only do modeling um textures will only do textures they don't really but like in a smaller company you can get like a range of different tasks it will change between projects and um yeah so i think that's the biggest difference for me like in small company you can get like a little more creative freedom but in a bigger company i think like you learn a lot faster nice uh miriam have uh has a good question here and do you aut folks hang out together and support each other i know there are many of our students there um do you guys hang out and support each other um yeah we do like we have like our own chat we got lunches like wednesday so it's really awesome that there are so many people here like um i haven't yeah we haven't been in touch with like the a lot of the new like atd's but yeah um yeah we're definitely like we're kind of okay keeping keeping in touch with everyone trying to hang out so it's lovely to to hear that so if new people gonna come down to valley we just misses you cats here yeah you guys will have friends here the little birds coming take care of them and like all the people i knew like that were working at weather they just happened to be in the same building oh so that was that was a really like cool surprise for me i just like you know ran into people and like i knew in my valley yes small city okay zach asks what uh what's some of the better freelance website apps for vfx artists um to be honest i have no idea because i never like i never did anything like that like all the i only got like maybe three freelance projects and they're all through like connections so like literally like my parents friends would just ask for something they'll be like can you make us a video and be like yeah okay um so i've never like tried out any like freelance platforms and it's definitely something i'm keen to look into but i can actually comment on that actually and you saw it through uh katya's um slides as well linkedin and uploading your works if you are in active in linkedin linkedin is a social network but not for sharing cat videos and and what you have eaten for the lunch but for showing uh showcasing your works and connecting with the people who do the same job or as you so if you expand your connections over there and you keep posting the projects that you're working on and the professional carriers there's a high chance of getting like being contacted by the people actually i found many many people i work for for or i they work on the projects that i have been doing through linkedin um yeah that's actually a really good point um like a lot of people i know get um like projects through like instagram and stuff because they have like a proper like art accounts and they actually like stuff something i've never done but um yeah i'll do it sometime i'll get to it um yeah so like that's another reason why it's important to you know make sure that everything like you make is polished and like presentable so you can just keep uploading stuff i think it would be actually like i wish that i like created like like social media profiles like art stuff like our dedicated profiles and then like i wish i just uploaded stuff like from uni as a like as i went that would have been really useful and it would have encouraged me to actually like finish stuff rather than forget about it [Music] good point and good question zach so we're coming at six so very uh well planned and very um on time um we are uh coming to the end of this uh talk i just wanted to show everybody uh what katya gave me before heading to wellington do you remember that yeah so she she kind of made the frog from her movie uh faded and it's on my desk so i i so um it was a very precious gift by you um uh we all wish you the best katia over there we are very proud of you and this talk has been very informative for uh our students that will graduate soon i'm glad that not just third year student i see many even first-year students here first and second-year students from all different of different pathways that are listening to your talk um thanks everybody for joining us and thanks katya for being our guest for this week oh thanks um thanks for having me it was really cool to talk to you guys um oh all the best cats here yeah good luck to all of you as well hi katya come say hello whenever you head to auckland yep lockdown yeah after lockdown see you bye you

Channel: Hossein Najafi

Views: 102

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: z_s1MNIR70s

Length: 64min 18sec (3858 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 15 2021