CGTalk - Where to start?

Jaycee77

07-24-2006, 01:29 AM

Question for the pros out here in the VFX area. I am quickly becoming an avid VFX fan after watching behind the scenes breakdowns for movies such as "Day After Tomorrow", "I-Robot", "LOTR", etc to name a few. My question is this, knowing that the afforementioned movies are a result of highly skilled professionals, where does a person who has the passion to learn but not the real direction to get there start?

I am pretty much in a situation where I am not able to devote all of my time to going to a fancy VFX school full time (nor do I have the budget for it) so I would like to try and learn as best I can via the "poor man's" route. I have checked out many of the threads here on CGTalk as well as numerous tutorials, but I am trying to figure out a very basic chronology of what to look at in sequence so it actually makes sense and builds on itself. Basically what fundamentals, techniques and such...

With all that being said, this is more of a hobby passion right now with only hopes of it actually turning into my dream come true to do big time VFX for a career. As it stands now I feel I may be fairly limited in my arsenal as my software disposal (VFX related) is pretty much limited to Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects Pro 6.5 (PS as well but that is not really as VFX oriented as the others).

Any suggestions for a clueless learner?

Thanks all!

matteline

07-24-2006, 10:07 AM

Just a shot in the dark, but if you are limited to only Premiere and AfterEffects then you may want to ask yourself what if any assets will you have at your disposal to practice your passion? If editing, how much footage can you put your hands on? Have a DV cam?, still cam, DVD's etc. etc. Same goes for compositing. Have clean plates or can you get them? Have a buddy or friend here that has 3d elements that can be used to composite, etc. etc.

I think I would start there. If you are not limited to just those two packages then you will obviously have more choices.

Hope this helps...

Cheers,
Scott

Jaycee77

07-24-2006, 01:22 PM

Thanks matteline for the response here. A DV cam is actually on my list of things to get in the very near future so I can shoot some of my own footage to play around with. As for some of the elements you suggested here I am pretty much a "deer in the headlights" when it comes to understanding how it all works really so that is why I am trying to get a little bit of direction as to what to look at to hope to make it all make a little more sense to me.

When you mention clean plates for composting, what does that mean exactly? Sorry if that is a dumb question, but as I said I am just in the very early stages of trying to wrap my head around all of this so I can hopefully learn something from it.

Thanks again!

scrimski

07-24-2006, 02:40 PM

A clean( or an empty) plate is footage or a still with no actors in it.Basically it is a background for camera matching and/or composing 3d elements, keyed or roto'ed footage into.

beaker

07-24-2006, 04:27 PM

buy some books, training videos. Then go volunteer to help do the vfx on some low/no budget local film that needs people to do vfx on the show for free. Maybe go talk to students at a local film school.

Jaycee77

07-24-2006, 10:56 PM

@scrimski: That makes sense now, thank you for th eexplination :).

@beaker: That seems to be the most logical course to take I am thinking, thanks for the suggestion :thumbsup:.

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