Making the Grade - Making the Transition to CG Professional

I enjoy when somebody is professionally persistent because I don't feel there's anything wrong with coming to visit us at job fairs regularly we try and go to job fairs regardless of what our hiring situation is so we can connect with people so it's not just about hi we're hiring but it's hi how are you so that they again going back to relationships so that's really nice I encourage people because there's so many times when we've actually seen students you might have come by the booth and introduced us or and I see somebody five years later and I remember them you remember the real because it was so good or we can hire you or I've seen you at every job fair and those relationships work out because eventually and I know it a patience if I can add patience to the maturity and professionalism takes patience to build relationships and to to make sure that our paths cross at the right time because it's all about timing [Music] each individual artists really is a brand and and they need to be able to get their brand out there and make themselves known and whether that's just being at these events and networking with with the recruiters whether it's just getting their stuff on like art station and just making sure that that it there they're findable I think that's really the key is is that people can find them and then you know one of my jobs as a as a recruiter is to build those databases of people that that we can think okay if we were to have a role like this or who would we we think about or who would come to mind and we start tagging people with certain qualities at that point the standard of quality of film and TV or you know streaming services are meeting to a certain degree so I think it's it's always going to be you know just reaching for the highest standard and being as efficient and quick as possible the shot counts grown but the quality you know has has to say the same so I guess it would be speed speed you know like maintain maintaining quality and being as being as quick as we can do we have a list of talent that we'd like to keep in mind for future absolutely that's what the database is for at least for zoic when you apply you do get into our database system so you're easy to look up we encourage artists that perhaps don't have something for them now we say send me your updated real send me your updated resume and update that database so absolutely I always encourage again that's me because that's the way I prefer to encourage relationships is to have people email me once in a while where are you you know do you have a contract how are you doing I done this model especially for the younger the more junior artists is some keeping in touch that way it really is just about building relationships with those recruiters because it is very much a cyclical industry that we we work in and while we may not be able to hire that individual now if they're if they've got a great portfolio and a great personality we're gonna do our best to try and get them at a later time when we have more flexibility with what the immigration laws we're not trying to keep talent for ourselves so again I think that's true of most recruiters and certainly for Francesca and I here at zoic is if you find a talent that you know has something and you can't have them you're like let's keep them in the local pool if possible and at heart we all want to just see people succeed and so absolutely if and we all all the recruiters are in touch with one another so it's so easy to say I don't have a job for this guy but if somebody does here's the real and he or she is great so yeah it's a it's a good point we do all work together and that's kind of nice what I'm looking for mostly is a brightness and a level of engagement an interest and a maturity so you know knowing your knowing your modelers knowing your designers knowing your artists knowing a little bit of art history you know being able to reference movies or design you know you'll notice that the really senior artists they can say oh that's just like so-and-so's work they did on such-and-such a film and they'll know the artist name and they'll know the film and they'll know the directors and who the production was either was it just kind of stuff it's about that next level of research so being but if if you don't have that level of experience it because it takes a while to accumulate then just being engaged and interested and it's funny because people get nervous or people get because they kind of they received because they want to did I want to make a mistake or they don't want to put themselves out there to fart but you know I've hired people who probably had know from their demonstratable skills probably had no business getting a job but they were so passionate so excited and they wanted the job so badly that I thought this person can be molded right this person is gonna really work hard and dig deep and that's that goes a long way - it's that passion and it's hard to find you know it really is true with all the the supervisors I sit down with is they want to see that there's interest and passion we just had an interview yesterday for a TD and one when they we talked about some of the development you could see her facial expression perk up and she started talking about the excitement that really got the guys interested and so it's it's that passion and interest in what we're doing that really goes a long way it depends if it's more of an artistic role or a technical role but say it was for an artistic role it would you know start with having a good artistic eye and then secondary being easy to work with being motivated and not having you know too much of an ego people are very ambitious you know and that's extremely important but you know being being easy to work with is extremely important especially when you're dealing with you know a lot of people and big teams it's it's that's you know a key factor as well do your homework on the company any good interviewer is going to ask the question why do you want to work here and you you do need to have a good answer and it can be anything from you know I saw your work on this last feature and I love that sequence that's the kind of work I want to do or you know I know somebody that works here and they all they have is good things to say about what it's like here the culture is great I even had an artist who was very honest and said actually you weren't my first choice I wanted to work at EA but you know this this is my second choice and I appreciated the honesty so think about that answer doing the homework on the company and know what you're walking into it's it's as much for you to find out about the company you're looking to work for as it is for them to find out about you so make sure you ask those questions ask about the culture ask about advancement within the company what's the policy about overtime you want to try and get a sense for his this is a good place to work because if you're gonna be there 40 50 60 hours a week you want to be with good people who respect your skill and you want to fit into that same culture so that's that's really the point it is work and you know that factor will will come into everyday life especially as you know through the years you know everything ends up being work when you're having to go to work every day but it's it's still an amazing industry to be in you know when when a new project comes along and you get you know a new set of things that you have to do especially when you're having to do something that's very difficult and hasn't quite been figured out before that's you know it's always exciting so you know even after that if you know I've been in the industry in 15 years and it's still still an exciting thing to to be able to do for sure well recruiting is part of a larger group so we communicate regularly with production and production will when they get a show we'll schedule it will understand what talent we need first we'll look internally and schedule that way and see who's going to be leading etc and then the gaps are filled in so then recruiting steps in so somebody will say we need 10 compositors 10 lighters modelers whatever and from the time that we receive that information we could meet them by tomorrow or we can need them a month from now we begin with job descriptions job postings we have a database system that we use we post the jobs we post them to sites and we also really really utilize social media so for us LinkedIn and Facebook are a big way to get her our job posts out there people apply we go through applications all the time the other thing is when somebody says mod ler I'm like aha I just met somebody at a job fair or I just talked to a school and I think they're a great fit so it's also about relationship building and that's the one thing that I I think out of everything it's the most important is the relationships and the ability to touch us to know artists to know where they're at you know keep in touch that goes both ways and to know other recruiters and Studios what are some of the things like classic mistakes you see on demo reels and portfolios in general it's really basic answer I guess but avoid putting stuff that doesn't demonstrate your best work because ultimately it I find it just distracts and I see that a lot because we've been looking for senior modeler at the moment and they'll have some really great models but on their portfolio they'll also for some reason keep some not so great models and it just takes away from it so quickly so in just having stuff that you're really proud of on its now that's not to say that every model needs to be a finished model and but then it's being honest about what you're posting it's a work in progress and just say that or this was a sculpt so add a sculpt and so at least you're you're trying to communicate what you understand that is so when producing a material to no to prospective employers it's really important to be brief make things shorter you want to leave them wanting more I've seen reels where people have just an exhaustive number of images and long demo reels and the worst thing it can happen if somebody stops looking at it because there's so much stuff be brutal about trimming your material and just the four or five best images or the 30 seconds or 40 seconds the best demo reel and leave them wanting more leave them wanting to call you to learn more about it if we're hiring for a cartoony film and everything we get is you know hyper detailed or super realistic it's that person might be the perfect hire but there's nothing in the reel that validates that all they've really shown us is that they have patience and and they know the tool but what we need to know is a different skill set so for me it's about targeting that's the second biggest mistake I think people make and then I get a third one I think is that is the editorial component it's the it's you know a fairly high consistency of quality and then they'll almost like they feel pressured to Pat it so they'll add some stuff that they know it's not as strong and I think they people should just be ruthless if it's not something that gets your friends excited if you if you ask your friend should you put this on your reel and they're like if they're look if they're not like absolutely yes that's amazing then you should take it out that does remind me sometimes I think students can be a little bit too ambitious and you know I there are some programs that are four-year programs and people are putting out short films and that's great you've got the time to do that but when you're got a limited amount of time I mean ultimately we're not interested in a short film it's it is the the quality over over the quantity and we want to see that that attention to detail I mean Phil did mentioned that you know having some varieties is good and you need to get there but for sure it's always the the quality that of the work that's that's going to land you or get that attention at least we talked about things like bottle rotations even though you're not maybe going for a job as a camera person instead of just doing a model rotation you know look at doing a little cinematic camera move on it just to show that your visual sensibilities expand beyond your chosen field I think those little things will make people pay attention also watch out for little errors little render errors lighting plops it's amazing how a really good demo reel if it's got a couple of small errors that will detract and I'll see those and pay attention to them and you'll wonder why didn't you fix them is it because you were too rushed or you didn't even notice them make sure you fix those things that's really critical you know you can really tell the difference between that somebody's gonna do really well in the business versus somebody's gonna struggle because when you give them revisions or you give them notes they're excited about them because it's going to make their model better so it's they're actually happy to it's it's more than happy they're like oh yeah that would be cool I could fix that up and this would be great as opposed to people who even if it the notes are well-received you can tell they're not internalizing them so I always talk about like a you know receiving the notes and internalizing them and owning them and you if you don't own your revisions and you don't understand where the the revision is coming from you'll never be able to address it properly so you know taking ownership of those changes and that feedback it's really important as if it's your own opinion it's really about being level-headed you know we want people that can bounce back or maybe there's a technical difficulty or there was some feedback that they got that wasn't exactly what they're expecting but they're able to bounce back and get right back into it someone that can handle stress when the deadlines are in place someone who you know they're they're given an assignment and when they finish they're not just sitting there waiting for another assignment they're going active and being proactive in in they're in sort of their own development and learning it's sometimes really hard to get opinions out of people who work for you but it's really important because nobody sees their own work perfectly I actually really pursue that critique because I feel like it makes the models better and at the end of the day all I'm interested is I don't really care how I got there I used to think there was like a pure way to get to an awesome model but now it's like if ten people worked on it and and we laser scanned half of it and you know we had to do revisions for three weeks on part of it then but as long as you get it there and it looks awesome at the end of the day then it's mission accomplished you know there's no cheating as far as [Music]

Channel: Think Tank Training Centre

Views: 1,382

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: vfx, recruitment, modeling, professional, CG

Id: vFzmU3e-20g

Length: 15min 32sec (932 seconds)

Published: Wed May 22 2019