Category: Careers Research

The Look Development Artist, shortened to Look Devs, has an interesting role that comprises knowledge from the fields of lighting, texture and creature design. Unsurprisingly this role also works alongside these artists. After a concept artist creates a design for a creature it is a Look Dev’s role to take that work and think about how it would exist in 3D space. What are the texture of its skin? What does it look like when light bounces off it? Do different parts of the body reflect light differently? Like in the case of fur vs claw as those are composed of different materials they would then reflect differently. How about weather conditions? What does it look like when its wet, when its windy. All these considerations are the Look Dev’s field. I have retrieved this information from the initial introduction from ScreenSkills.

As the role is not an entry level position the skills and knowledge needed are much higher. They will work with a wide array of programs and require substantial knowledge on all of them. Just from ScreenSkills these programs include Arnold, Blender, Maya, Metal Ray, Photoshop, RenderMan, Substance Painter, V-Ray and Zbrush. Of course these are all listing external generic tools that are available in the market. Companies may have their own internal tools that these artists would need knowledge of. One such example is from Walt Disney Animation Studios, according to their website, Tonic. An in-house developed tool specialized in the generation of hair.

Though one responsibility that is highlighted on conceptartempire.com is that a Look Dev will work to maintain that the product, weather a game or movie, maintains a consistent appearance. As such they need an intimate understanding of the visual language that the product is utilizing as to keep all items as consistent with one another as possible and allow the vision of the clients to come forth.

They are also responsible for developing a material authoring pipeline, IE choosing what software needs to be used for what as various programs will have their strengths and weaknesses and it’s the Look Devs vast industry experience that will help in establishing this pipeline.

This is a kind of role I may find myself in the future depending on what I ultimately decide to pursue in my VFX career. It represents a culmination of years of work, study and experimentation requiring vast amounts of knowledge of not only a variety of programs but spheres of knowledge.

As I have delved further and further into the world of modelling one skill that I have continuously wanted to improve upon was texturing. To be able to not only create a model but bring it to life with colors, textures and imperfections that make models feel real. As such I have taken up interest in the Texture Artist entry level position.

Before delving into the specific role of the texture artist it should be first addressed that, as supported by ScreenSkills and my own friends in the VFX industry, that in smaller companies there is often no distinction between a Texture Artist and Modelling Artist. Due to their smaller sizes people often must work multiple roles and as such these roles are often combined into one. However for the sake of this article I will research it as much as a distinct job.

A Texture Artist’s primary role is to, either through creating it themselves or through stock assets, texture models provided to them by the Modelling Artist. This is assuming that these roles are distinct. The Texture Artist’s goal is making whatever object they are texturing is to be as realistic as possible in some cases, according to ScreenSkills, and in others to be stylized to function within the piece they are working on.

Primarily texture artists will work in Graphics Software such as Photoshop and Dreamweaver for creating textures from scratch. Often, they will have piles of stock images of objects with the textures they want to use as reference for any textures they create. They also make use of 3D modelling software such as Zbrush, Blender and Maya. They will use these software to edit the models provided to them to texture them, either via bump mapping, textures or directly onto the model like adding individuals scales on an alligator physically into the model.

Texture Artists need to be skilled in the fundamentals of art and photography to understand color, texture and lighting and how all these elements are affected by the lighting of a scene and the camera employed by the film.

Sally Wilson, the lead Texture Artist on STAR WARS: The Last Jedi, supports this as in the following video:

she peaks about how to properly texture any asset they are assigned. They must have a good understanding of the materials themselves, as a something metal will function with light far differently than flesh. The material itself will also have different kinds of imperfections than others, again referring to flesh this may be things like dimples where as metal will have scratches. All of these things will change how light interacts with the subject.

I want to learn how to texture and in pursuit of what, very likely, would end up as a generalist position it would important for me to learn and understand the skill sets required to texture properly. This research has helped me understand where I can begin to develop my skills as a Texture Artist and pursue it in my own work here at the university.

One role that interests me as a VFX student is the role of Runner. Having heard about it vaguely and in passing for a long time left me with a very confused understanding as to what a Runner is. When I asked people, some would jokingly say ‘They get coffee’ and leave it at that leaving me confused. Others would say that they have their hands in doing a little bit of everything inside of a studio and this would leave me no less confused as to ‘what’ a Runner’s role is and more importantly how this role functions as an entry role into the VFX industry.

From looking at Screen Skills website to gain an initial understanding of the role it seems much of what I heard before is accurate to what a Runner does. Their main role is to essentially be a jack of all trades within the studio or department that they are employed under so what a runner does exactly is dependent on that studio or department. The role either lines you up to work in production management or in a VFX artists role. The major commonality from studio to studio with the Runner, as supported by another VFX job resource website ‘My First Job in Film’, is functioning as the in-between. You are responsible for looking after the office, keeping it organized and tidy as well as ‘running’ different materials and messages between departments. The latter role being your biggest function within the studio hence the title of ‘Runner’. Of course, this does also mean you grab plenty of coffee, tea and other things for the studio as your co-workers are occupied with other work.

A blog post from Simon Deverux from Access VFX titled ‘Getting into VFX: Runners’ also outlines, in their own eyes, what a Runner and how it contributes to the a growing VFX’s artist’s career. It outlines that part of the Runner’s job is also to, through training shots and aiding other artists, learn the myriads of tools being used in the VFX trade. What those tools are is entirely dependent on the studio. A runner for a game studio may end up learning how to use Unity or an in-house engine. They will pick up further modelling and texture skills. A runner for a studio that focuses on body tracking software for character animation would likely pick up skills in using the technology, both in setting up and recording it then later in using that data and cleaning it up.

Something that I hadn’t considered about the role that is vital to learn, especially early on in your career, that the Runner is a great role for developing is organization, team-working and communication skill. With some much to do a Runner must learn to organize their time. By interacting with so many different people in the studio they will quickly learn how to communicate with different people. You must as a Runner work with many other people and in an industry reliant on team work developing that skill, which one will inevitably do, as a Runner is vital to future success in the VFX industry no matter which direction it leads you in, be it games, mixed media, television, film or commercials.

The role of a Runner is a lot clearer to me now thanks to the various resources I found online and while the jokes and jests about the role do reflect, to an extent, the reality of the role of a Runner this information has made the role much clearer to me. Not only the literal function of the role but how this role will contribute to my personal development as VFX artist and to my career in the industry.