The Industry Panel at the VFX Festival - What Does the Future Hold?

Industry Panel discussion at the Escape Studios VFX Festival

The Industry Panel at the recent VFX Festival included panel members (from left) Hector MacLeod (Glassworks), Kevin McDowell (Creative Assembly), Anna Hollinrake (Climax Studios), Dave Throssell (fluid Pictures and Rob Holmes (The Mill) - all about the future of our industry.

So, where is the industry going, what skills are demand, and what does the future hold?

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Is VR the future?

The hot topic - of course - is Virtual Reality. What is it, and where is it going? The panel talked about the merits of VR - one suggesting that it might be best suited for a games platform.

Others suggested that VR still has many practical hurdles: it is "very cumbersome", and "not very flexible", especially for traditional film-makers who are used to "being able to change things easily".

Technology -vs- Creativity
Industry is "looking for artists". You can "teach technology", but "you can't teach an eye".  But, it helps to have good tech skills, especially in new areas like VR.  Other panel members suggested that "enthusiasm is key" to success in our industry, since the business is "a lot of hard work", and you've got to want it, and "be enthusiastic".

Does industry train its staff?
The "technical skillset" is changing all the time, but it's hard for industry to make time for their staff to train on new tools, because it's "hard to find the time", since training time "always seems to get lost in project work". Many stuff "do online tutorials", self-studying to learn new skills, sometimes on studio time, sometimes on their own time. But in the end, "we're all going to be re-skilling", because the tech is changing constantly.

What about working as a runner?
Running is still a well-tested route into the industry.  It's a win-win situation, as long as the runners do get promoted into the industry, and it is a real route to employment. Plus, industry have "demanding clients", who "need stuff" - so runners are needed more than ever.

What about Brexit?
It's always important to find staff with the right skills - and Bexit won't change this. There is always new talent rising, and industry hires from within the UK, outside the UK, - wherever the talent lies. Some companies think very broadly - even "hiring physicists" (instead of arts graduates) who can "run Houdini", which is very physics-based.  In the old days, companies used to "meet people in the pub in Soho", and "that's how we hired", said Dave Throssel of Fluid Pictures. But that's changing now.

Hector MacLeoud is "very worried" about Brexit, in part because there is "so much talent in Europe", especially coming from the schools "in France", and also "Germany". So industry is very concerned about this, because visas can be very bureaucratic and hard to organise. There is a real risk of jobs going overseas.

What about hiring recent graduates?
Fluid Pictures likes to "hire enthusiastic students", as lots of students "are very good now", and "will work hard", so they will be "employing more students in the future".

What skills are in demand?
Hector MacLeod said that certain areas are "always hard to fill", such as "technical animators". And this is often because schools and universities "aren't teaching this".

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