Introducing our corker of a compositor, Anthony Meschi. He talks about some of his favorite film projects, his foray into game development and how all of his hopes are pinned on the Houston Astros! Take it away, Anthony.Hi Anthony! Where are you from? What's your background?I've lived in California my whole life. I grew up in Fairfield and went to school at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. I've always been into movies, video games and sports (especially baseball and football).When did you first become aware that visual effects are a thing that exists?A few films that brought visual effects to my attention were Terminator 2, Jurassic Park and The Matrix.Can you talk about the start of your career and your favorite early projects?My first professional gig was working on The Spiderwick Chronicles in 2008. I was a rotoscope artist and I only got the chance to work on a single shot but I'll never forget it. After that, I continued to do rotoscoping for several months in the Bay Area before moving to Southern California for a couple of years to do compositing and stereo conversion. I moved back up to the Bay Area when I got a job at Dreamworks in 2010 and I've remained in Northern California ever since.One of my favorite early projects was Megamind. It was the first of many films I had the opportunity to work on at Dreamworks Animation and it was very exciting to be a part of such a large project. In my previous jobs, I was working on shots for just a sequence or two, this time around I was working on nearly every single sequence for the film. I was fortunate to meet a lot of great people there, as well as reconnect with several friends that I went to school with.Another project that stood out to me was Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. It was a cool feeling working at ILM, especially when you take into account my obsession with Star Wars!So, you were working at Dreamworks and with ILM, what drew you to working with VFX Legion?I've lived in the Bay Area for about 12 years and absolutely loved it – the weather is great, the food is great, but the cost of living can be overwhelming. When my wife and I decided we wanted to have kids, we came to the conclusion that it was going to be extremely difficult to raise a family in that environment. So, last summer we made the move to Rancho Cordova (just a few minutes outside of Sacramento) which gave us some financial breathing room and allowed us to start our family comfortably.The downside for us was that the majority of visual effects companies in California are concentrated in the LA area and the Bay Area. I haven't been able to locate any VFX companies nearby. My closest option would be commuting to San Francisco, which from my house would be around 2.5 hours each way. Hardly an ideal commute, especially considering our young son. When I heard about VFX Legion and read about their remote model, the quality of the projects they work on and the people that make up the team, I was immediately interested. Working remotely with Legion allows me to continue my career as a VFX artist and still spend time with my family.What is your primary role at VFX Legion and what does that entail?My primary role at Legion is a compositor. I combine several elements together to create one cohesive shot.What would you say are some of your strongest skills that you bring to the Legion team?I've been fortunate to work on a large variety of projects for companies both big and small. I've worked as a rotoscope artist, paint artist and compositor on live-action plates and CG, and I'm familiar with a large number of software packages. I hope that versatility can be an asset to the team.Tell me about some of the projects you've worked on at Legion, anything stand out?I'm relatively new to Legion so I've only worked on a couple projects so far. My first assignment was working on the TV show Gone which was exciting because in the nine years I've been in VFX, I'd never worked on a TV show before.So, Gone was your first experience doing VFX for a TV show. How did it compare to the other VFX work you've done?The actual work was pretty much the same, it was just fun to be able to work on another type of project. Another form of media that I've never worked on is a music video, I’ve always thought that would be pretty cool.Do you do any other work outside of Legion (feel free to self-promote here!)I am really into video games, and a couple of years ago my friend and I decided to go into game development ourselves. We created a game called Lil Tanks from the ground up and released it on Steam this April. In addition to that, I also do freelance Photoshop work and some patent drafting.What do you think 2018 holds for the VFX industry?I'm not really sure to be honest, but I'd hope that more companies would embrace having artists work remotely. There are a lot of talented artists that don't live close to VFX houses for one reason or another and it would be great to see more opportunities out there for them.Who, or what, inspires you?I'm inspired by the experiences I've had growing up as a viewer and player of movies and games. My hope is that the projects I help create can provide those same great moments for others! I've been able to work on a lot of projects aimed at families and I can't wait to experience some of those with my son in the coming years.What are your hobbies/passions outside of work?Outside of work I enjoy comics, video games, skiing/snowboarding and following sports – especially baseball and football. When it comes to comics, I like collecting them almost as much as I do actually reading them. With games, I'm a fan of new and old, console and PC, it doesn't matter! I still get together with friends on a regular basis to play games. In that respect I hope I never grow up. I'm a huge Houston Astros fan too, so it was a great moment getting to see them win the World Series this year!Thanks Anthony, and thank you for reading. Check back soon for another artist tête-à-tête, and why not take a look at this in the meantime.

We've got a year-round feature here at VFX Legion, telling the stories of the artists and producers pouring their souls into beautiful work (and asking them why they do it). Next up is the outstanding Nick Loy. So let's go!Who is Nick Loy?Nick Loy is so much more than words! But OK. I grew up in a small town in Oregon called Albany. I was born in 1979, so I guess that makes me a Xennial (finally our own generation!). I was always into technology and figuring out how things work. My grandpa subscribed to Popular Mechanics and Popular Science and I remember going to his house every week to look through all the articles to find out what new and cool tech was happening right now and what the future might hold.Driven by my interest in technology, I majored in Computer Science with a minor in Multimedia at Oregon State University. A college friend of mine went to LA in the early 2000s and interned at Digital Domain where he worked on the Matrix sequels. His exciting experience convinced me to take the leap and move to LA – no small feat for an Oregonian at heart!I went down there without a job and started reaching out to visual effects studios, eventually landed a job at Sony Imageworks as a Sr. Production Services Technician. Half a year later I was promoted to an ATD (Associate Technical Director) where I cut my teeth as a lighter/compositor on The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Spider-man 3. During my ten years at Sony I continued to find more opportunities as a lighting lead, and eventually team look development lead.What did you do after you left Sony?I left Sony two and a half years ago. I did a lot of soul searching - I didn’t want to work in a big company, grinding away most of my life on movies I didn’t care to watch. It didn’t feel right, I needed to do something that I was proud of, that allowed me to grow in ways I couldn’t within the ranks at Sony and also valued the elusive work/life balance.So, I decided to take a hiatus for 6 months and explored other industries, looking for something outside of visual effects that was still creative, but didn’t lead to burnout. I was interested in VR/AR, and also UX design. I want to create experiences for people, which was why I got into visual effects in the first place, using technology to create cool experiences for people to enjoy.So, what happened then?I moved back up to Portland. A colleague of mine had a lot of success as a freelance VFX Supervisor. He had more work than he could handle, so I joined him. I set up a workstation and render farm so I could render everything remotely, using Redshift and VRay too. Working freelance provided the work/life balance I was looking for while also allowing me time to pursue my own passion projects and business ideas.What were your standout projects?The Amazing Spider-Man. From an artist’s perspective, it was one of the smoothest running productions. We also had a solid group of artists - everyone felt like family. I was fortunate to be apart of a small team that did the test shots that eventually won the bulk of the VFX work. It was exciting because we were working closely with the director. I also had a lot of creative input with it being such a small team. What drew you to Legion?Dan Short and Andrew Turner. I had the opportunity to work with Andrew (by the way, a great guy Legion is lucky to have) on several projects back at Sony; a couple of Spider Man films, Oz the Great and Powerful, and others, but it had been a couple years since we last connected. I discovered Legion through Dan Short – who’s hilarious – up here in Portland. He put me in touch with James, and I had an interview, and Andrew was sitting there in the background! So I was like “hey, Andrew, what’s up!”. So it was great, and we reconnected. Dan, and then Andrew – that’s how I got in there.What have you worked on with Legion so far? Are you liking it?I’ve helped out on Scandal, and on a couple of other more secret projects so far, these past three months I’ve been working with Legion. It’s been fun. I really enjoy working on traditional film and television VFX. Those kind of projects aren’t as common up here in Portland, so it’s a welcome change. Also, the somewhat consistent amount of work coming in is super helpful for keeping me afloat whenever I have lulls with freelance work here in Portland. And I love working remotely.What’s your title, formally?I’m a look development and lighting artist – more of a generalist now, but I specialize in look development and lighting.If you were in a whole nother field, what would you be doing?Well, I’m exploring directing right now. I’ve got a crew and we’re actually shooting something tomorrow. It’s called the Portland Creature Project. We’re going to shoot a series of vignettes featuring creatures around Portland. It’s my first time directing anything and I’m pretty excited about it. I play guitar, and I think music, something in that realm would have been fun. Before I started working in VFX, I was creating songs almost daily, but work eventually took over and my time for creating music slowly faded away. So, that … or maybe a doctor. I like helping people. I know those paths all sound very different. Visual effects, or musician, or doctor … maybe I’d have been a musical doctor?I know you’ve only been with Legion for about three months so far. But what are you most proud of in that time? Have you been involved in anything particularly cool?The Gone airplane looks particularly nice, I think. And also the helicopter in Scandal. That one’s awesome.In today’s working climate in the visual effects industry, what main challenges do you and your colleagues face?Well, it’s the standard ones. We don’t really have a union and the tax subsidies are killing us. There’s burnout and a lack of appreciation, it seems. We’re so far down the chain that we don’t have a say in the sometimes terrible decisions people are making at the top. And you have to deal with all this shit, and you just get run over as a VFX artist, you know.What else do you do outside of VFX Legion?I have a company called Blanket Fort Studio. I do on-set visual effects supervision as well as work on the box. It’s basically just me but I can expand out as needed for projects with a pool of artists to tap when needed. It’s like VFX Legion in a way, though Legion is much more established and global. I choose to focus more locally here in Portland.Nice! Lots of agencies around those parts. Who do you work with?I work a lot with Wieden + Kennedy. There’s others around town, too, mid-sized, like Cinco, and some local production studios and VR places. I also work with smaller agencies who could benefit from visual effects elevate their services, but don’t have access to the resources or budget to support a full-time motion design/vfx staff.So, what’s your setup? Where do you work from?Mostly a co-working space, my office here. I need to be around people! I share this space with three childrens’ book illustrators and writers, and then there’s an SEO guy that works here and also an art director/graphic designer. An office full of freelance, independent contractors. We’re a small family of sorts.Who or what inspires you?Whoa. Who or what inspires me? Oh my gosh. Well, it’s an internal conflict that I deal with often. I want to make sure I’m helping people directly. It’s sometimes difficult to feel that connection when deep in a visual effects project. So I’ve been doing a lot of pro bono work around town. I just helped a friend out with the 48-hour film festival here in Portland – this competition where you have 48 hours to shoot a short film – and we won best visual effects! I’ve also done a music video up here and I helped shoot a short film last weekend. I want to contribute to the local community - it makes me feel good.I love a lot of the superstructure, macro/micro-type effects work that Man versus Machine does. Visually, I really enjoy their work. And a lot of artists on Instagram, motion design kind of stuff that’s based on physics simulation. I’ve been exploring that kind of work myself. I like to create as much as I can, really. But probably have a bit too much going on at the moment!Well, what do you do when you’re not working?Being in Portland is … I moved up here for a reason. The weather, the seasons, make me so much happier. To actually feel seasons rather than just flat sun all the time. You get numb to that. It’s like an antidepressant. You know? People say “sun all the time? That sounds amazing!”. I think it’s terrible.Portland is great at cultivating community. It’s still small enough for that. The people here are down to earth and more connected, I think, to what’s important in life. And I appreciate that, it helps me find balance. In LA I was more caught up in the money and material things. But here I have more of a life. I explore more. I go outdoors a lot. I hike, I go floating, I’ve been going to the river almost every single weekend, down the Clackamas River for like three or four hours, it was so much fun. And the coast, the forests, it’s incredible.On top of that, I love exercising. I’ve been getting really into boxing this last year. And I just joined a dragon boat team last spring here. We competed in the Portland Rose Festival Dragon Boat races which are tonnes of fun. I try to stay as active as possible. I bike everywhere now that it’s the summertime, since it’s such a bike-friendly city. And I’m just really enjoying my life, instead of slaving away at a computer 24/7. It’s great here. You’ve gotta come. The food here is insane. The people are really chill. There’s a creative energy and intimacy here that encourages people to pursue their dreams, in a way. Anyone can do anything and it’s a supportive environment – and it’s not as expensive as LA. I don’t know how much longer Portland’s gonna be like this. It feels like it’s the last city on the west coast that still has this kind of energy. Maybe in the whole of the US. Don’t tell anyone!Wow, thanks Nick! And thanks, you, for reading. Check back around this time next month for another artist tête-à-tête, and take a look at this in the meantime.

In-house good boy (or 'production manager', whichever you prefer) Brenton Murrell spills his lovely guts in the latest Artist Spotlight.Hello Brenton. What's up?Hi! Who are you? Can you tell us a bit about yourself? I'm a 5'10" 28-year-old good ol' Midwestern American boy. How long have you been working in the industry? I've been working in some form of multimedia production for about 7 years now. When I first moved to Los Angeles I worked primarily on set for music videos before ending up in post-production in advertising, then moving to short-form Youtube stuff, then into VFX. Was there anything that sparked an interest in this line of work? Growing up I always loved photography and making dumb videos with my family's videocamera. I also distinctly remember pirating Maya when I was 14, but I never learned how to use it. I hope they don't arrest me for saying that. What are some of the biggest/best/weirdest projects you’ve worked on throughout your whole career? Before coming to Legion I worked at the Skechers corporate HQ, where they had a huge video wall display made up of 21 40" monitors in a 7x3 configuration. It was my job to install new content to it any time it was made - which happened nearly constantly – using this crazy projection mapping software that I had to learn to operate from scratch. The display had a laser installed in the ceiling that detected motion, so you could "operate" the display using your hands as the input, so the thing had different modes – one continuous video loop, and another interactive mode where people could show clients specific product videos/advertisements. I ran that thing for nearly 2 years, and you wouldn't believe the amount of stress I was under to keep it going. I would have to come in on weekends just in case the CEO wanted to use the thing because he wasn't great with it and would often make it crash. What drew you towards working with VFX Legion? Our 3D lead, Rommel! We worked together at Skechers and he got me in for an interview. Once I learned about their model and general work environment I was sold. I can't thank Rommel enough – my life is seriously better since I started working here. What is your favorite thing about working with VFX Legion? Do I have to pick just one? Because picking between "fun coworkers," "legitimately pleasant environment," "bosses that genuinely care about you" and "tons of opportunities to learn new skills" is tough for me. What would you be if you weren't a production manager? Probably a go-go dancer. Gotta tighten up my abs first, though. What would you say are the core skills you bring to the VFX Legion team? I'm a Swiss-army knife. I guess that's actually the opposite of a core skill? But I'm using it anyway. I can typically be given any general task and find a way to do it. In a smaller company you have to learn to adapt a lot, as you're constantly asked to do things outside of your "official" job title. Personally, I love it – it keeps me engaged and I continually learn new skills. I prefer it over the traditional corporate model of "this is your task, do your one task, anything outside of that one task is someone else's job". What projects at Legion have been particularly challenging or exciting for you? My first project (The Purge: Election Day) was a doozy since I was hired right in the middle of it, so I was learning about all of the different aspects of visual effects while also learning everything that comes with being a new employee somewhere. I was a big, shapeless ball of clay. That project was also one of the most challenging things Legion took on as a company, too, making everything a bit more intense than usual. It got me into shape really quickly. What challenges do you or your peers face in today's work climate? I worry that the entertainment industry as a whole doesn't see the visual effects workforce as anything more than task robots. I think that if a cheap studio could effectively replace an artist with a computer they would do it in a heartbeat. Since so much of what artists do is from behind a computer screen I don't think they earn as much respect as they should - it's less tangible. A producer can see for themselves a grip carrying large lights to and from set, but since they're never sitting down next to an artist watching them work, they're disconnected from the whole thing. Do you do any work outside of work? Any side hustles? Feel free to plug yourself. Whenever I can I try to help friends with their personal projects, which these days typically involve art shows (we're growing up so fast!). Someday I would like to get back into recording music if/when I ever live somewhere with enough space to set up my equipment. You primarily work in the Legion HQ, right? What's it like managing a network of artists in different cities, countries and timezones? I like it. We essentially have a 24-hour workforce, so if I get an urgent client request at the end of the day I can likely have it handled by the morning. Plus, I find our artists to generally be pleasant people to work with, and they typically have more flexibility than someone working a 9-5 job which really helps us out as a company. Who or what inspires you? Steve Martin! The dude knew what he wanted to do as a child and worked super hard to become successful. Nowadays he gets to make tons of art his way and in general seems like a nice human being. What are your hobbies and passions outside of work? I generally spend any extra money I have on travelling. My fiancé and I also like camping, which we do a decent amount of. Other than that, I do some improv comedy and dabble in photography. That's all! You made it to the end! Thanks for reading, check back next month for another. In the meantime, why not look at something real cool?

South African compositing wildman Eugen Olsen takes us from rural kwaZulu Natal to the future of all work. Let's hear it, Eugen! Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? My name is basically “John Smith” in Norwegian, but I was born in rural kwaZulu Natal, spoke Zulu before English, was reprimanded in German and ended up marrying an Afrikaans girl. Which makes me a typical South African; a fruit-salad of culture and languages! We have two girls (4 and 2) who cannot abide the indoors - if there’s an animal to rescue, a place to explore, or a parental boundary to push, they’ll find it. Life has become a whole new adventure with them! Otherwise, I now live between Pretoria and Johannesburg in northern South Africa, and although we may sound technologically archaic (we call traffic lights “robots”. Really.) we actually have quite a competitive post-production industry. My start came by making short promotional and educational videos for a medical NGO (read: zero-budget productions) straight out of high school, which turned out to be my film school of hard knocks. I scoured the net for tutorials, read the software manuals (!) and made numerous blunders and discoveries in the wonderful world of video production. While I loved chasing doctors with a camera through refugee camps in Angola, I found my place in post-production. First in editing, then finally (15 years later), in compositing and finishing. Although I’ve done some 3D animation, I feel most comfortable pushing pixels in Nuke or After Effects. What films and television really got you interested in the industry? I grew up in a fairly conservative environment - so TV and movies were a rare treat. I distinctly remember a family holiday when I was about 13 when movies captured my imagination. My dad had a deliciously dark sense of humor, so the first night at our family cottage at the beach, he hired Jaws to “prepare us”. I’m not sure I got my toes wet that week - but my imagination had been captured. I had no idea a medium could so powerfully affect me. On the last night, we watched Jurassic Park - and I was blown away. There was a way to make the impossible happen. You could immerse other people into your own mind. To my surprise, this was no easy process. What are some of the biggest projects you’ve worked on during your career? Over the past couple years, I’ve managed the visual effects team for a number of projects - including the mini-series Madiba and a biopic called the Journey is the Destination, which involved a lot of set extension, crowd replication and cleanup. But perhaps a highlight was being part of the on-set VFX team for Avengers: Age of Ultron when they blew up a couple blocks of Johannesburg a couple years ago. That was great fun! What's good about the location in which you live/work? South Africa is an amazing and unique place – a fantastic mix of cultures, beautiful landscapes with wonderful variety. That makes it a very attractive destination for the film industry. The last decade has seen a lot of productions come here, which is what gave me opportunities to move from advertising to features and longform TV. But during that time, improved internet speeds and various technologies have started to allow anyone in post-production to work from almost anywhere in the world - so it’s made it possible for me to settle in the country I love, to have a life with my family, and still work on amazing shows from the other side of the world! What drew you towards working with VFX Legion? When I stumbled across VFX Legion on the interwebs, I had just watched a brutal short documentary called “Hollywood’s Greatest Trick” following up the ripples that went through the industry after Rhythm & Hue Studio’s collapse after winning the Oscar for their work on Life of Pi. I’ve been both an artist and managed a small postproduction company a few years ago, so I've seen how this industry can be both fulfilling and devastating. The very high costs of a large full-time staff, the infrastructure required, a central location – while nurturing and directing artists to produce better and more creative work is the Everest anyone running a VFX company needs to climb. But what I saw in VFX Legion was a company that minimized its overheads, investing its efforts and resources almost entirely on its artists. And my experience has showed that to be true. What is your favorite thing about working with VFX Legion? Although I have only been working with Legion part-time for the past few months, their process has stripped away all the distractions and disruptions to the task at hand, lubricated by great communication. I can sit down and tackle a shot without wasting hours commuting, waiting for resources or elements, and hoping to nail a vague brief. More than that, I’m excited to be working with senior artists eager to give advice or even help out in a bind. Although we may be thousands of miles apart, the collaboration is close. Of course, people may argue that working in the same office facilitates quick and effective communication – but I find it’s often like those who live near the beach: they hardly ever appreciate it, much less go out for a swim! The guys at VFX Legion don't take communication for granted - it’s the lifeblood of production. So they are deliberate, precise and quick in their communication. As my Shotgun Inbox fills with updates, I know I'm part of a fantastic team! What would you say are the core skills that you bring to the VFX Legion team? My career in postproduction has been full of variety – often learning on the job to solve the challenge in front of me. It has shoved me into pretty much every part of production, each with unique challenges and problems. It's made me a flexible artist and a robust problem-solver. I realize I have a lot of room for development and improvement, so while we’re still figuring out my niche, I am eager to develop as a compositor within the team. What projects have been particularly proud to work on at VFX Legion, and why? I’ve only been working with Legion for the past two and half months, so I’ve just jumped onto the tail-end of two projects: El Chapo, and the latest episode of Scandal. I've loved working on the shows which had some tough shots - and I'm sure future projects will certainly stretch me. El Chapo had some particularly challenging shots; one killer stabilization which you’ll hopefully not notice at all! Have you ever faced any challenges as an artist? I think one of the main challenges is finding an environment to flourish. Too often, uncertainty and savage competition puts the artist in a precarious position of sacrificing a normal life for the sake of keeping a job. I know of guys who uprooted their entire family for an 8-month stint at a company on the other side of the country. They were worked into the ground, and suddenly the company went bankrupt, leaving scores - sometimes hundreds - of artists high and dry. I think the whole industry needs to reconsider the role of VFX, which have become indispensable. A company shouldn't be sacrificed for a film, artists shouldn't be abused; demanding more for less will ultimately implode the industry. Is it possible to treat vendors (and the artists in them) fairly while maintaining healthy competition? Is it possible to create some kind of standard for a creative service? These are tough questions, but they have to be addressed. For artists, finding a company that is adapting to a fast-evolving world, and looks after its people is important. Most artists aren't looking to get rich - they just want to make pretty pictures and have a life! I'm sure that is possible in the right environment. Is remote working important for today's VFX industry? Why? It is the future of the industry! With the unveiling of services like Elara and other cloud-based solutions, there is no doubt remote working will soon play a crucial role in VFX over the next decade. If not sooner. I've seen large companies with massive, expensive infrastructure collapse within a few months - unable to sustain such high monthly expenses. Remote working is creating a framework for a company to avoid the traditional costs (a building, a network, large local storage, etc…) while making it easier for artists to work (cutting out the commute, artist time spent waiting on other artists, etc…) It’s a no-brainer! What are your hobbies/passions outside of work?I love spending time with my family - and because they love the outdoors, it means I have to be outdoors! It helps to have an African view. I also love reading, so give a loaded Kindle or leave me in a good library and I’m happy. Who knows, perhaps I may end up writing something too… Thanks for reading, check back next month for another! In the meantime, why not look at something cool?

Self-confessed movie obsessive Alex Keller made the move from Chicago to LA to pursue his childhood dream of working in VFX. He talks to us about working at Legion, life in Burbank, California, and an ambitious hiking goal. Take it away, Alex. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? I was born in Chicago and made the move out to Los Angeles about five years ago. I became really interested in VFX and CG from quite a young age. I had a general fascination with movies; I loved Star Wars, Toy Story and Lord of the Rings. I remember watching those movies when I was really young and knowing from that point that I wanted to do VFX and CG, and having that focus from such a young age has been nice. I got my start doing 2D animation first in documentaries and then for shows on Adult Swim, which was fun, but not really what I wanted to do. So, Legion came along and I was able to jump ship to CG which has been really rewarding. What films and television really got you interested in the industry? Definitely Star Wars. Return of the Jedi is my favourite, but I’d say Empire is probably the best. I was never a huge TV fan growing up, I feel it’s only recently started jumping to more complex CG stuff, which is great because now I get to work on it! I became a real movie buff in high school and started getting into a lot of older films. Now, I just watch everything I can get my hands on. I have a pretty ridiculous movie collection, I buy too many movies and never watch them again, so it might be a problem, but, hey, it looks cool. What are some of the biggest projects you’ve worked on during your career? The first big project I worked on, was actually one of the first things I did when I moved out to LA. I think I found the job on Craigslist and it was motion graphics and Photoshop work for this documentary on Dick Cheney for Showtime, that aired four or five years ago. The documentary actually ended up going to Sundance, which was pretty cool! After that I got an internship, which turned into a full-time job, working on a show called Mr Pickles on Adult Swim. It’s about a Lassie-type dog, who turns out to be a serial killer. It was pretty messed up and weird, but I worked on that for two series, mostly doing some 2D animation and clean-up. I also ended up doing a lot of odd jobs and one-off projects doing some flash animation. I finally got to do some CG animation for a show called The Greatest Party Story Ever for MTV, which was cool. What drew you towards working with VFX Legion? The thing I like about Legion is that it’s not just purely about animation, it’s also about general VFX, which is a big interest of mine. So, it’s been a great opportunity for me to just get in the trenches and learn everything I can, which is something I’ve always wanted to do. Not only am I still getting to do lots of animation work, but I’m also getting to do more realistic lighting and texture, and work with the Redshift engine and import dynamics, and generally get a good sense of how the entire pipeline works, which I think is just indispensable. So that’s been one of the biggest benefits for me. What is your favorite thing about working with VFX Legion?The thing I’m appreciating most at the minute, is the quality of the characters at Legion. I work mostly out of the Burbank office, I live just a mile way, which is another huge benefit of working here. I could walk to work if I wanted, but I’m just way to lazy. It’s nice to wake up in the morning, drive for a couple of minutes down the road and be at work. I also like being available on the weekends, so I can just pop into the office if I need to. What would you say are the core skills that you bring to the VFX Legion team? My official title at Legion is 3D Artist, but if I had to talk about my specific skills, I’d say I’m an animator. I tend to work on any animation work that comes in. Right now, I’ve been working on a lot of vehicles – planes and cars – which is really fun. There’s actually a lot of complexity to it, there’s lots of moving parts and physics that you have to think about. You can’t just have a car go from A to B, it has to bounce and roll. It’s a challenge to figure out the logistics of it without compromising on the physics of it. My big passion though, is character animation and creature animation, we haven’t got too much of that at the moment but, hopefully that will happen one day. What projects have been particularly challenging or exciting? The toughest thing we’ve worked on so far was probably a project we worked on for CES over the Christmas break, mostly because it was such a tight deadline. We had to make an entire future city in about two weeks. It was a cool challenge to design this future city from scratch, I made a lot of pipes and billboards. I think one of the hardest parts was that we had to design a fleet of background cars, and car design is kind of difficult, it has a lot of nuance to it. To take that, and modify it in the digital space, was a real challenge. We’ve got to work on lots of exciting stuff, one of my favourites was the burnt down house in How to Get Away with Murder, I’d say it’s the project I’m most proud to have worked on so far. We had to show the house post-burnt down, so I took the house model and basically destroyed it. I removed the roof, added a bunch of pillars, put a lot of holes in it, and retextured it from top to bottom. By the end it really did look like a charred down house, and I’m really happy with how I made it look like a fairly convincing carcass of a house. Have you ever faced any challenges as an artist? Luckily, I’ve never had that kind of crisis of faith many artists have, mainly because I’ve been wanting to do this since I was five! It was difficult to move out to LA without any safety net, or even any contacts. I had to slowly work my way into the business, between jobs I’d have two or three months of unemployment, just doing nothing. I’d be working on my own stuff, but between seasons it’d be pretty tough. Tell us about some of your other work? Well, in the first gap of work I had when I moved out here, I had all this creative energy that needed to be put to use, so I made this little horror movie. It was okay, I don’t think it’s the worst thing in the world, but I am a pretty harsh critic of myself. I’d like to have a go at remaking it at some point. I tried submitting to a few festivals, but horror’s kind of niche and it costs quite a lot of money submit things, so I didn’t pursue it. I remember once during my time at Adult Swim there was a nine month gap between the first and second seasons. I ended up doing a couple of shows for FX – Axe Cop was one of them. It’s always hard in the industry not knowing what you’re going to be doing next. I’m really thankful that Legion has a constant stream of work coming in, and I feel like such a part of the team. What are some of the benefits of working in the VFX Legion office? The biggest benefit is being able to bounce ideas of the others in the office, and get direct feedback on the work you’re producing instantly. I always get frustrated waiting for notes via email, I feel like I’m sitting on my hands. Being able to just talk to someone and be able to clarify things easily is really beneficial for the way I work. Also, I focus better in an office environment, I remember on a couple of projects I had the option of working from home, but instead I lugged my iMac into the office just so I could work around people. Which artists have inspired you? George Lucas is a big inspiration, it’s nice to people are starting to appreciate him again, I’ve always thought he was a great creative inventor and just a general cool guy. Another big inspiration art-wise is Mike Mignola, I really like his really hard graphic design, using heavy shadows. Also, I’d say Hideaki Anno his work was a big turning point for me, I remember watching Neon Genesis Evangelion in high school and it blew my mind. I was kind of anti-anime at the time, but it opened my eyes that you can do so much in the medium. What are your hobbies and passions outside of work? My biggest hobby is movies, I watch as many as I can. I set myself a goal each year, which is to see at least 100 movies I haven’t seen before. In addition to that, me and a friend host a podcast called Filmtastic Voyage, where we randomly generate a movie via IMBD and try and talk about it for as long as we can. Usually we get sidetracked, but it’s a lot of fun. I also do a lot of hiking around LA. My favourite place is Wildwood Canyon in Burbank, which is basically in my backyard. It’s a very steep hike, but it’s great for exercise. I’ve been trying to work my way up to Inspiration Point in Pasadena. I keep getting halfway and then just think, “okay, I’ll go home now”, it’s a tough one. My big dream is to climb Half Dome in Yosemite, that’s my marathon goal, but I need to really get the training in for that! Thanks for reading, check back soon for another! In the meantime, why not look at something cool?

Our Artist Spotlight allows us talk with the people that make up our global crack-team of visual effects specialists in an effort to understand their genius and to demystify our industry. Up next is our champion of compositing Daniel Short. Let's go, Dan! Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? I don't really know what to say, to me, I'm completely normal. I just go around assuming that everyone else on the planet was also raised on a farm by hippies, never matches their socks, and spends far too much of their time staring at a glowing screen. My life events up to this point have led me to believe that a good mix of whimsy and sarcasm can get you through almost anything. I am the poster child of faking it until I make it. What films and television really got you interested in the industry? I’d love to be able to jump in and join the crowd screaming “The Matrix!!!”, but the things that always stood out to me were films like Goodbye Lenin and Children of Men. These are films that used Visual Effects to tell a story instead of have a story that hides behind the effects. Don’t get me wrong, I love watching giant robots fighting each other on top of an erupting volcano while travelling through a black hole, but I’ve always figured that if you’re planning on spending $180 million dollars on a movie, you should spend some of that on the story. So I’ve always loved VFX as a storytelling tool more than a spectacle or gimmick. What are some of the biggest projects you’ve worked on during your career? It’s not the biggest thing I’ve ever worked on, but I am most proud of my work at the Museum Of Natural History in New York City. I was the sole compositor on their planetarium show and got to walk through the museum after hours each day, have daily reviews in the planetarium dome and be surrounded by people talking about space exploration all day. It was a dream to work there and it felt wonderful to know that I was spreading knowledge and teaching people as opposed to just selling popcorn and movie tickets.What drew you towards working with VFX Legion? I’ve been freelancing for the past 10 years and I’ve always maintained a half-decent workspace at home for personal projects and the occasional remote job, but after my daughter was born, the prospect of being home for every dinner got more and more appealing. It helped to have had experience on a variety of remote work in the past to know that I could also handle working at home for long stretches of time. It’s not for everyone, but it works pretty well for me! Where are you based in the world? I live in the tree lined streets and hipster dystopia of Portland, Oregon. I ride my unicycle every day to my ukulele classes under the corner coffee shop and interpretive dance studio.What is your favorite thing about working with VFX Legion? I was a little tentative at first to work with a company that is almost 100% remote, but my fears were laid to rest when I realized that the team at Legion are better at communicating than most companies I have been in the same office with. Of course, it's an essential skill to have when you are managing artists and projects spread out across the globe, but I have never felt out of the loop on any of the projects I've participated in. It's nice to know that most of the artists I'm working with are all incredibly senior and well experienced in their field, so any advice, assets, or renders that are shared are dependable. What do you like most about the location in which you live/work? I lived in New York City for seven years and although it wasn't the post-apocalyptic hellscape the movies that I grew up on that led me to believe, it was a bit much for me. There is great work and fantastic people around but very little time to live your life. I moved West get a little more time for living. I fell in love with Portland after a bicycle trip from Canada to Mexico and am so glad to be here. That being said, there isn’t much work here, so it makes me even more grateful for VFX Legion allowing me to stay here in a city I chose.What would you say are the core skills that you bring to the VFX Legion team? I like to think that my experience in commercials, television, and film gives me the experience to deliver for any market, and has taught me how to deliver high-quality work in a shortened timeframe. The way I figure it, if I can do a job under budget, then the company I work for can stick around for longer (or maybe give me a raise). Which projects have you been most proud to work on at VFX Legion, and why? I’ve been really impressed on the various things we’ve done on Scandal. When I first read about VFX Legion, I thought we’d only be working on monitor composites and beauty fixes. I never realized that they had an entire 3D pipeline that was working functionally in a remote environment. We’ve been doing a huge variety of work from CG set extensions, a variety of green and blue screen keying, and lots of bullet hits (I mean, have you seen the show? No one is safe!)What projects have been particularly challenging or exciting? The most exciting projects for me are ones where the whole team is involved. I can work on my key while I wait for updated CG renders and keep moving forward with my work, just as if I was at a traditional studio. We all communicate on each aspect of the shots and collaborate to find elegant solutions which leads to better and faster final versions. The most challenging shot I had was a green screen key... of a green tree. Blergh! But no VFX supervisor can be everywhere all the time. It worked out fine anyway after I threw 5 different keyers at it. What’s great about VFX Legion is that if I am having trouble on a shot and I need more help, the producers are always responsive in getting me what I need. It’s a great team. What are the challenges facing artists today, and how do you overcome them? Challenges today for artists are different in every industry. Film artists have to move often, or spend months and years away from their families, commercial artists need to live in dense cities and work incredibly long hours (often without overtime), and artists in television often don’t have the time to make something look really nice because the budgets aren’t there to put the extra work in. But every worker in the VFX industry feels at risk either by outsourcing, poor pay, moving tax-subsidies, unpaid overtime, or an extremely unhealthy work-life balance. It’s hard to find a place where you can live a good life and still make a decent living. I feel that I’ve been lucky and am glad to be able to work remotely now in the city I choose and still get to see my family.Why do you think remote working is so important for today’s VFX industry? Oh come on, we live in the future! Internet speeds are faster every few years and personal computers get faster all the time, so there’s no reason being remote can’t work now. VFX has actually been remote for years, but it’s been mainly focused in rotoscoping and rig removal in companies in India and China. Now that bandwidth speeds and more senior artists are more globally abundant, they are a resource that can work on and finish almost any aspect of VFX work. What are your hobbies and passions outside of work? I grew up as an outdoor kid in the wilds of Pennsylvania, so I always want more fresh air. I love hiking the mountains and valleys of the Pacific Northwest with my wife and daughter and I’ve got a little workshop in my basement where I practice transitioning from a lumberjack to a carpenter (I love any excuse to make sawdust). When we can get a sitter, my wife and I like to go swing dancing and on the occasional cross-country bicycle tour together. Time away from the computer is important. We should all have a little more of it. Thanks for reading, check back next month for another! In the meantime, why not look at something cool?

From tinkering with machines as a child to being the Lead Compositor on How to Get Away with Murder, we caught up with Kyle Spiker to learn about his life in Burbank, California. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? I’m the Lead Compositor at VFX Legion. I currently live in West Hollywood California in a cozy 1920s apartment with my partner Phil and our antisocial cat Minion. Like most Los Angeles residents I’m a transplant, but unlike most, I’m a lifelong California native. I was fortunate enough to grow up in a beautiful and quiet beach town Pacifica California, located south and within visible distance (if you climb high enough) of San Francisco. Due to its close proximity to Silicon Valley our school system made computers an integral part of their education program. I was a computer aid for most of my school years. I took computer electives whenever possible and always tinkered with the machines I had at home, but it took me a while to find a profession that matched my unfocused interest. My older cousin Jason Beckwith really helped with that. He was working as an electric image artists and whenever I visited he would show me a new animation he’d completed or some new gear he’d just purchased. He always encouraged me to pursue my creative interests in computers. When I finished high school Jason was working as the video department head for an advertising company in San Jose. After months of interviews I was hired as his Editor’s Assistant. My three years learning from him, and the talented crew, helped me build a reel and an understanding of the industry. Which films and television programs really got you interested in the industry? The most memorable influence is Jurassic Park. I found the dinosaurs convincing from the first reveal of the gigantic Brachiosaurus to the terrifying Velociraptors slamming into the cabinets in the kitchen. The blend of early CGI and masterful practical effects will keep that film from aging for a decades to come. The Matrix is another film that really stuck with me. Not only were the visual effect flawlessly executed but they were groundbreaking. I was obsessed with that movie. During my time at Design Reactor we actually got to make a short film for AMD that was matrix themed. It's cheesy, but fun to work on, and exciting at the time. It’s on youtube somewhere!What are some of the biggest projects you’ve worked on during your career? The biggest film I’ve worked on has to be James Cameron’s Avatar. I worked as a motion graphics artist and built a handful of tablet displays within the films established look. Unfortunately my best work, unique and dynamic heads up displays for each aircraft, never made it into the film. I’ve also worked on a lot of high profile television in my career. The most recognized effect is from the Emmy nominated series Hemlock Grove. I composited shots from a gruesome sequence where a girl transforms into a werewolf while staring at the camera. Her face rips apart, eyes split, and the wolf snout pushes through as the skin folds back. Within the same scene I composited CGI wolves and ripped off a guys face. It's gross, check it out. What is your favorite thing about your role at VFX Legion? I like being part of a team and working with artist with similar mentalities. Artists that have purchased and built their own systems to complete work they're passionate about.What do you like most about the location in which you live/work? I live near the office in Burbank in a densely populated area. Even though it’s not the beautiful nature filled environments a lot of our artists work from, I still enjoy working from my own space. I’m able to open my many windows, take breaks when I need them, chase the cat around the house, take a walk in the nearby park, play a game of Starcraft, and still complete the tasks I have efficiently. Having the freedom to break up the day is extremely beneficial to me and the work that I enjoy.What would you say are the core skills that you bring to the VFX Legion team? I specialize in Nuke compositing. I’ve completed hundreds of shots for Legion and helped build many of its tools that our artists use around the world. What projects have been particularly challenging or exciting? Television. It’s always exciting and challenging. With the short deadlines, compressing schedules, high expectations, and constantly changing needs you always feel challenged. I would like a little more time, especially on the bigger shots, but being able to complete them in such a short time and exceeding expectations is exciting. Which projects have you been most proud to work on at VFX Legion, and why? I had a lot of fun working on the early concepts for Jem and the Holograms. I built this nifty LED rig for her face, the early UI design for her POV, and worked on the first round of hologram development. I’m proud of the shots I’ve done for How to Get Away with Murder this season too. In the first episode I got to set a house on fire and make a car explode. What are the challenges facing artists today, and how do you overcome them? Tax subsidies seems to offset the balance of skill vs value. It doesn’t matter how good you are, if you live outside of a tax credit zone it can be difficult to find work. Legion is a big believer in an artist's talent. We give them to tools to live where they want while providing the management and direction to fulfill our client's needs. Why do you think remote working is so important for today’s VFX industry? Artists work better when they’re happy, comfortable, and less stressed. I think remote work helps make that easier to achieve than a traditional brick and mortar facility. Even if the hours and deadlines are just as demanding, working without commuting, how you like, and with your own equipment can make the same hours more enjoyable. Remote work also has many benefits for the facility and project. Happier artists produce better work. Utilizing different time zones allows Legion to produce work on a 24/7 schedule without overworking employees. Legion is able to manage pods of artists within tax credit areas without having to move artists. Without the constraints of location Legion is able to find the best talent and allow them to stay where they are. We firmly believe remote visual effects is the future. What are your hobbies and passions outside of work? Most of my hobbies are related to my job, so even if I’m not working, I’m still experimenting with techniques in Nuke. I really like music and tend to spend a ridiculous amount of money on headphones and audio gear to make that experience even better. I also love photography, a hobby I think is great for compositors and digital artists. Understanding of light, composition, lenses, and cameras can be extremely beneficial.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? As a husband and father of four fabulous kids, I describe myself as the guy who hates the queue but is too polite to jump it. I love illustration and story and would happily lock myself away with books and movies never to leave my neighbourhood again. In a previous life I worked as a manager of a band venue through the 90s and still love listening to grunge!What films and television really got you interested in the industry? I was always a fan of Pertwee/Baker Dr. Who and B-grade horror – bubble wrap monsters and all. It was the story that drew me in and it was the comic books that got me into the industry. I was running a comic book group for kids and a local studio thought I might make a good storyboard artist. I’d been working on a previs gig for Peter Pan in 2003 when my eyes were opened by a storyboard artist, Tani, who was helping out. All of a sudden composition concepts, motion and ideas in art clicked into cinematography; that was my wow moment. My favourite films change regularly, but right now it’s Get Shorty. Chilli Palmer is the very definition of a three dimensional character. Before that my favourite films were V for Vendetta, Watchmen and Miss Potter.What are some of the biggest projects you’ve worked on during your career? Some of my biggest projects are Scooby Doo, Ghostship, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, King Kong, Dawn Treader, Green Lantern, X-Men: Days of Future Past, The Great Gatsby, The Dressmaker and The Water Diviner. They were all great films to work on alongside fabulous crews. We all worked very long hours together to make them happen. I find the most satisfying films I’ve worked on have been the smaller character-driven projects – they tend to have smaller crews, where are larger films tend to lose you in the machine. What drew you towards working with the VFX Legion? The industry on the Gold Coast dried up after Photon VFX closed, so I began travelling a lot. I reached the point where I needed my family close by, so I started making the effort to work remotely. It’s turning out great! Legion provide interesting and steady work and the people are great to work with.Where are you based in the world? I live in the hinterland behind Queensland’s Gold Coast in Australia – it’s a brilliant spot. I’m based five minutes from Lamington National Park where we have rainforests, waterfalls and fabulous wildlife. Most mornings there are wallabies in the front yard. When summer comes around we drive down to the coast for a weekend with our extended family for the beaches and surfing spots.What is your favourite thing about working with VFX Legion? I like our Google, Zoom and Skype calls! It’s so interesting to see people in different time zones with a common cause. Legion also tend to work on horror films which I enjoy. The tasks also call on different skill sets, which is great for keeping you sharp. What do you like most about the location in which you live/work? Family is number one. Also the Queensland landscape is inspirational. Our weather changes are dramatic in the mountains, so I feel where we live is an ideal balance; the city is 40 minutes away for film and events but our street has no traffic lights – just fireflies and a big starry sky.What would you say are the core skills that you bring to the VFX Legion team? I’m a generalist and have been taking on projects from tracking to compositing, but my foundation is in camera work. Tracking is an aspect of that but I also do creative camera work and previs. Problem-solving with the camera plays a big part in my role, especially when stereo work comes up. Since King Kong I have also developed skills as a strong lighter.Which projects have you been most proud to work on at VFX Legion, and why? Jem and the Holograms! It was a fairly smooth process, Legion provided a fabulous model and rig. When I joined the project they needed a lighting solution and I was able to help out there too. What projects have been particularly challenging or exciting? The Gift. I only worked on one shot but it was a lot of fun. We needed to create dying fish in rippling water, reflections and refraction. It was hard work but the end result was absolutely fantastic!What are the challenges facing artists today, and how do you overcome them? I think the greatest challenge today is being able to effectively tell a story in virtual reality. I believe this is where the action is going to happen for visual effects. VR will be like rebirthing films and the people who are able to deliver this best will be writing the bible. An artist traditionally uses a bag of tricks to draw the eye and focus attention, contrast, motion, colour and so on. VR requires rethinking and redefining those foundation to create effective form following function and art. For example, in You’ve Got Mail Kathleen delivers the rebuke to Joe, “You are just a suit”. The next shot is from inside a wardrobe looking over a line of identical suits as Joe hangs another. It’s this fabulous storytelling giving people an emotional reaction – we see Joe considering his life and find empathy. Cinematography found its poetry a long time ago, now it’s VR’s turn. Why do you think remote working is so important for today’s VFX industry? Being less centralised enables Legion to draw on a greater pool of talent and discover resources outside of the local sphere of influence. From an artist’s point of view it enables us to create a work environment that suits our nature and makes us more effective. We are less distracted by personalities and politics, helping us to find the all-important ‘zone’.What are your hobbies and passions outside of work? I’ve been filming around the local area with the Blackmagic URSA mini – although finding the time lately has been tough! The local area is filled with dairy farms and rainforest. We have some fabulous weather events over our area and I try to get out and capture them around the golden hours. Some years ago I began building our house and am still adding to it. On my list right now I’m building a deck, finishing a media room and creating a man cave. To keep fit I’ve joined a gym and am working to get my surfing body back for the summer. On the tech side of things I’m also exploring a drone and a 3D scanner.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?It all began in a small cinema in the suburbs of Paris. Like many other people in this business, I saw The Empire Strikes Back when I was 10 years old, and all of a sudden I knew my career plans had to change. Until that night I was set on becoming an airline pilot, but after seeing this movie I realised flying an airliner would never be as fun as fighting the Empire in an X-wing fighter. It was going to be a very different path for me – out with pilot school and in with the mysterious world of sci-fi movies. My passion continued to grow. I would play with my dad’s 35mm still camera, rewinding the film to make double exposure effects and combining various locations to create photos of places that didn’t actually exist. I started reading every film magazine I could find and try to reverse engineer the effects of the big movies from reading the interviews. Eventually I got the ILM book and read it back to back several times to make sure I didn’t miss anything. Fast forward a few years and I graduated film school with a cinematography degree. Everything was done in camera or with multiple film exposure and hand drawn rotoscopy on paper. By the time I finally got out of school and finished my French military service, I was ready! Just in time for the burgeoning field of digital compositing. How did you get involved in the VFX industry? When I was ready to jump into the VFX world, the only available digital compositing machine was Qantel’s Harry/Henry. It costs hundreds of thousands of dollars and had around three minutes of video storage. You could composite as many as six layers of video! It was very popular! Which meant it was hard to get a trainee position in a post house that used it. After trying to months on end, I discovered a new machine that was new to the market called Flame. I started talks with Discreet Logic office in Paris and the Flame demo artist, Emmanuelle Jais, decided that maybe, I could try to learn Flame with her and see how it goes. That was all I needed, after a few months of constantly squatting in the office, I had learned to use Flame like a pro and I was doing demos when she was away. They even sent me to the clients who would buy Flame as the instructor for their employees. It was great. I was learning the trade from my students through their questions.After about a year of this, I felt confident enough to take on the world and that’s what I did. I jumped on a plane to the USA, stopped in San Francisco for an interview at ILM, popped over to LA where I had more interviews and then went to SIGGRAPH. I made some really good contacts which helped me land my first job at The Mill in London to work on 12 Monkeys. And that’s how it began. These were the golden years of commercials and Flame. The budgets were big and the clients difficult, but there was an intense creative energy. There’s nothing like a client sitting behind you to keep you on your toes! It was a great learning experience, and no matter the challenge I would say ‘okay, no problem’, and just work it out.After a year and a half in London, nothing could scare me. That’s when I got a job offer at Sony Pictures on a little movie called Contact. I had to check they were for real. A movie directed by Robert Zemeckis (my favourite director at the time) with Ken Ralston as the VFX supervisor (another idol of mine). It seemed too good to be true, so I quickly said yes before they realised I only had a couple of years work experience. Sony Pictures was followed by many other places, including CFC, Digital Domain, Asylum, Sea Level, Method and Radium. There was never a dull moment. What films/television shows/animations really got you interested in the industry?Star Wars of course! Ken Ralston (Forrest Gump, Star Wars) and Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future, Forrest Gump) were my absolute heroes when I started working in the industry.What are some of the biggest projects you have worked on during your career? King Kong (2005) is probably the highlight of my compositing career. It was very difficult, and it looked amazing at the end. It was the last movie I worked on at Weta using miniatures. Most of it was a mix of CG and miniature sets (they called them ‘gigantures’ because they were enormous) but there was still a lot of it that was good old compositing with multiple passes of motion control over a model. The shooting schedule was insane, the miniatures department was still shooting elements 2 weeks before we were delivering the movie. It was intense! There were lots of set extensions, combined with digi doubles, CG creatures matte paintings and green screen actors, frequently all of them in the same shot. Other big projects I have been involved with are Avatar (2009) and The Hobbit (2014). What drew you towards working with the VFX Legion? I was considering moving to remote workflow when a friend mentioned VFX Legion to me. I took a six month hiatus and travelled a little. While visiting a friend who was working on the Lord of the ring DVD at Weta, I ran into Executive Producer Eileen Moran. We had worked together at Digital Domain and she asked me if I would be interested in working for Weta. I was keen for a change and I knew nothing about New Zealand. It was a perfect fit! I took a 6 months contract and stayed there 10 years. I had never lasted more than 2 and a half years in a company before that. Weta had the perfect balance of lifestyle and challenging work. Wellington is a small city with a big VFX company. Best of both worlds for me. It has truly been 10 years of happiness. In December 2012, Eileen passed away and it was a bit of a turning point for me. I love my job but after nearly 20 years in the industry, I wanted to slow down and spend more time outside. I wanted to enjoy the fruits of my labour – that’s when the idea of working remotely materialised. I started to talk about the possibility of not working full time. I thought about taking on short-term contracts with Weta, but that only leaves you with one client. There was no guarantee there would be work at all, and you have to come to Wellington if you don’t live there already. There had to be another way. The more people I told, the more I heard about remote work. I learned a few people were already doing it, and more were wanting to do it. It was the answer! A friend of mine just mentioned Legion as a company his partner had been doing work for, so I emailed James and here we are … changing the world of VFX! What is your favourite thing about working with VFX Legion? My favourite thing about working with VFX Legion is definitely the opportunity to work from home. Where are you based in the world? I still live in the South Island of New Zealand. It’s a very peaceful and beautiful place.

We are excited to share another amazing journey from one of our talented artists living in New Zealand. From London to Spain, Turkey and New York, Amber Wilson talks about her inspirations, biggest challenges and why working remotely is so important for the VFX industry. Can you tell us about how you became apart of the VFX industry? After University I moved to London with the aim of finding a job in a creative industry where I could apprentice or train in a more specialized field. That was MPC for me and at that time I didn’t really know too much about this industry. In many ways I was very fortuitous to gain a job at MPC because they were one of the only companies that offered comprehensive training. That was where I learnt flame. It was a very exciting time, challenging for sure but also a lot of fun. I was an apprentice with two others. We worked night shifts and on some really great projects. It involved lots of music videos, prep work for major TVC’s and we took on roles for various film projects.From there I had a short period of freelancing in London, Spain and Turkey and was planning on heading back to New Zealand when I got offered a job in New York. This opportunity was both thrilling and terrifying at the same time because I was still comparatively new to this work, but it was far too good an opportunity to turn down. I resolved to go for one year but ended up staying for 11! I joined a leading New York editing company that wanted to build a VFX branch. This meant that I was initially their only VFX artist – well myself and Discreet Logic (Autodesk) help desk! This was an exceptionally busy time and it’s where I really got up to speed on both Inferno and Fire, which I was using interactively. It was a luxury to have both, but an amazing set of combined tools, very similar to what we now have with Nuke studio.We grew quite quickly and after I had been there for a few years I started being approached by other VFX houses. The timing was perfect for me as I wanted more experience working collaboratively with other artists and desired more shoot supervision experience. I ended up joined the Nice Shoes VFX company and stayed with them for the rest of my time in New York. I moved back to New Zealand and made the transition to long format work in film and tv. I found it better suited the stage my career had reached. The transition included learning Nuke, which I have come to really enjoy. Which films, television shows, and animations really got you interested in the industry? I was inspired by some of Vincent Ward’s earlier work, especially considering the obstacles he had to overcome to work as a film director in a country that didn’t really have a film industry at that stage. I also loved the early work of Pixar and was fascinated watching them master the realism of body and hair movement through their films. Although stylistically very different, Hayao Miyazaki is definitely one of my heroes. I’ve always been drawn to beautiful cinematography and seamless, invisible effects, so I also found Wong Kar Wai’s early work really interesting – and in that vein I also have to appreciate filmmakers like Andrei Tarkovsky and Satyajit Ray. It may not be big VFX, but they do create epic and stunningly beautiful film work. When I was working in London there were a lot of very cool music videos being produced, particularly for artists like Bjork. Again a lot of this VFX was seamless 2D that was very cleverly orchestrated. What are some of the biggest projects you have worked on during your career? It’s hard to say. Most of my career has been in tvc and there were certainly many big projects, but what working on tvc’s for so long has given me is a large amount of work – the experience of working with several A-list directors and the ability to problem solve. I’m really happy just compositing, no matter the challenge. What drew you towards working with the Legion team? I work remotely with Kim Fogelberg and Jean-Luc Azzis and the contact came through Jean-Luc. I was really excited to learn about the remote workflow VFX Legion were creating and it seemed my connection with them was very timely. I really like their working methodology and vision to reshape the industry with a new working model, and their artist-driven mindset. Not many others are thinking about the industry in this way. What is your favourite thing about working with VFX Legion? Our co-founder James Hattin and the opportunity to work remotely and with other artists based around the world. I enjoy having zoom chats with James when there’s time! His regular email updates bring us all into the fold so we feel a part of what they are building. Remote work is becoming much more viable and I think Legion have a good working model for this and also understand what is needed in order to make that a legitimate resource for the bigger VFX projects. These are interesting times for our industry and the changes within it has forced a different way of thinking about how to best make it workable, which I believe Legion has embraced. Where are you based in the world? I live in New Zealand, just by the beach. When I need to take a break from the computer I’m able to walk the dogs by the beach or take a dip in the sea. That’s a huge benefit, and one totally unique to Legion. I prefer managing my own time, I know my limits and best hours for productivity, and if I need to clear my head to solve a challenging problem I just head down to the beach. More often than not the solution comes while I’m walking! Working remotely is something I have been wanting to do since I was living in New York. I came close to making it a reality with the company I was working with there, but it wasn’t until I met my now colleague Kim Fogelberg that I was able to make it a reality. Working with both her and Jean-Luc Azzis is a wonderful experience all around. I couldn’t have asked for two better, more like-minded people to work with. I love that I can be living by the beach in NZ and working for an LA based company with artists from all around the world. What would you say are the core skills that you bring to the VFX Legion team? I really enjoy getting stuck into a composite and bringing it to life. I also have a good work ethic and a lot of experience working on a variety of different projects. Although I definitely lean more towards the creative side than technical, I won’t shy away from a challenge either! I think one of the most important things for remote workers in particular is reliability, and I certainly aim to foster that.Which projects have you been most proud to work on at VFX Legion? Probably Stephanie (in production), because the shots were more involved and challenging than other shots I’ve worked on for Legion to date. It was also an opportunity for us to advance on how we work best as a group. For this job Jean-Luc was the lead and main contact person for Legion, establishing the overall look of the shots and streamlining any redundancy, so it let to a more efficient way for us to work. What are the challenges facing compositors today? The work doesn’t seem to be valued as fairly as it used to be. Many in the industry are forced to travel for work and be away from home for months at a time, which really isn’t as glamorous as it may sound. But there are people carving out new ways of working in this industry and adapting to the changes we are experiencing – such as Legion. Adapting is the path of least resistance so this will always get my vote. Why do you think remote working is so important for today’s VFX industry? Technology has driven this trend, so why not embrace it. There are talented people the world over who are now accessible like never before contributing to an ever-growing shared knowledge base. How can this not be a good thing? VFX Legion is able to make sure they are working with the right people for the job, rather than restricted through tax incentives. The trust and relationships built through this remote working pipeline creates a smoother workflow and better results. A new working model like Legion’s is visionary to the future of this industry. Working remotely drives me to want to do better and sustain a lifestyle that fulfills me completely.

The time has come to share another Artist Spotlight story, this time from Spokane, Washington. From Software Developer to Dungeons and Dragons, VFX pro David Davies talks about his journey to becoming one of VFX Legion's remote artists. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? How did you get involved in the VFX industry? I was born in Bakersfield, California and spent a large part of my childhood in a small town in the Sierra Nevada mountains of central California. I’m a bit of a country boy at heart, but I was always fascinated by technology and computers. I went to college at Biola University in La Mirada, California and I ended up majoring in computer science. I quickly found that I was particularly interested in programming and computer graphics. At the time a career in visual effects wasn’t even on my radar as a possibility, but a few friends from school were working for a small VFX company in Santa Monica called VisionArt. As I was approaching graduation, I heard that they were looking for people. After interviewing with them I was hired as a software developer. This was at a time when almost all VFX work was done using Silicon Graphics computers and a lot of the necessary tools had to be developed in house. I was able to contribute to particle animation and rendering software, 3d tracking software, motion blur utilities and other tools. I enjoyed (and still enjoy) writing software, but I was drawn towards being more directly involved with the projects that were being worked on. I was asked to put together a flocking system for a Dungeons and Dragons movie. It was my first real experience using the software package Houdini and I ended up working directly on multiple shots for the movie. This was a turning point for me. When VisionArt closed down shortly thereafter, I set out to find work as an effects animator. I bounced around for a while working stints at places like Digital Domain and Cinesite Hollywood before landing at Sony Pictures Imageworks, where I stayed for almost 12 years. What films/television shows/animations really got you interested in the industry? What were your creative inspirations? There are a couple of movies that inspired me as my passion for computer graphics was unfolding. One was Jurassic Park. The computer generated dinosaurs that were brought to life made it clear the film industry was entering an era where limitations were disappearing. Another movie that made a huge impression on me was Toy Story. It showed that there was a world of possibility for storytelling using computer graphics and animation – literally the only limitiation is the creator’s imagination! What are some of the biggest projects you have worked on during your career? I’ve had the opportunity to work on many great projects over the course of my career, including X-Men 2, The Polar Express, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Alice in Wonderland, Oz the Great and Powerful and Edge of Tomorrow. What is your favourite thing about working with VFX Legion? Legion has such a friendly and talented group of people that come together to accomplish amazing work. It really feels like a collective of artists, contributing from all over the world. And it’s the art that’s the focus. Where are you based in the world? What do you like most about the location in which you live/work? I have lived in Spokane, Washington for the last year and a half. After many years in southern California, I was ready for a change. Spokane was a good match for many of the things my family were looking for. It has beautiful surroundings, affordable housing, and good schools. I love the scenic beauty of the area with mountains, forests, and numerous lakes and rivers. What would you say are the core skills that you bring to the VFX Legion team? I have broad experiences with different simulation, animation, and rendering techniques. In effects animation you are often given a task that is not quite like anything you have done before, so there is problem solving aspect to it that I feel I am well suited to. What are the challenges facing effects animators today, and how do you overcome them? Effects animation is a constantly evolving discipline with new tools and techniques emerging fairly regularly, so it is important to stay current. This means keeping an eye on industry trends and making sure to experiment with new software features as they become available. Change is not always fun, but a willingness to learn new things makes the difference between staying relevant and getting left behind. Why do you think remote working is so important for today’s VFX industry? As VFX has transitioned into a worldwide industry there has been an unfortunate trend where many people have to uproot their lives or leave their families for months at a time to chase the work. For me working remotely is great as it allows me to live how and where I want. I’m able to spend with my family and pursue other interests. What are your hobbies/passions outside of work? I have four kids ranging from age three to 14, so we are in that stage of life where a lot of things tend to revolve around school, sports, and other activities with the kids. I love spending time outdoors doing things like hiking, backpacking or camping. It really recharges me to get outside and I tend to get antsy if I am cooped up for too long. A couple of recent outdoor experiences that I really enjoyed were backpacking through the Yosemite backcountry with my oldest daughter and spending a week with two of my brothers rafting down the Salmon River in Idaho. My wife and I enjoy watching movies after the kids have gone to bed. I tend to like stuff that is a little quirky – anything by Wes Anderson or the Coen brothers is usually high on my list!

We are excited to share the journey of another one of our very talented artists! From Florida to California and back to his hometown in Northwestern Pennsylvania, H Hammond chats to us about his career through the VFX world, starting with his beginnings in computer animation. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? My first name is H and that’s it. My parents wanted my initials to be HHH – they thought Haden would be a good middle name but couldn’t think of any others, so they just went with H. I grew up in Northwestern Pennsylvania and have always loved films. As a kid, I used the family camcorder more than my parents. I taught them all the ins and outs! It was originally purchased to capture memories on vacations and whatnot, but I ended up making it part of my production equipment. I regularly created movies with kids in my neighbourhood – or by myself. Whoever was willing to contribute, really.I went to school at Full Sail University in Florida to earn a degree in computer animation before relocating to California to find a job. I didn’t have a position lined up, but I was committed. Each day I hand delivered my reel to VFX houses I’d seen in film credits. I then went online, I sent out emails with a resume attached to each company. Starting with the As and determined to get to the Zs. I got to the Ds and an A called me back because he liked my portfolio. I was hired by a producer at a small production company to make some websites for his business. Later, I discovered there was a visual effects company above his office – a very young Luma Pictures. I kept in touch with them over the following weeks and bugged them until they gave me a job. They told me to show up Tuesday and I came in Monday. I was so excited! I ended up working at Luma for more than 11 years. Which films and television really got you interested in the industry?As a kid my career aspirations constantly shifted. I wanted to be everything from a fireman to a toy designer and a cartoonist. But it was the summer of 1993 that changed my career destination. I was thirteen and at a theater to watch a blockbuster film. I had no idea what it was going to be about; it had something to do with dinosaurs so it sounded good to me. Jurassic Park had me hooked, and inspired me to be where I am now. It inspired us to believe dinosaurs looked the way they are portrayed today. It inspired us to believe what a velociraptor sounded like – accurate or not, it felt real. When I found out how they did it and that the dinosaurs were computer generated, I knew that’s what I wanted to do.What are some of the biggest projects you’ve worked on during your career? The Marvel movies were a lot of fun and contained a lot of creative eye candy to develop. Thor and Guardians of the Galaxy were a couple creative favorites, but when I saw my name in the credits for The Avengers, that was it: I knew I had made it. It was such a fun movie! My face is actually hidden in the film at one point (approved by Marvel of course). X-Men: First Class and Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince were a lot of fun as well. Before that I worked on some critically acclaimed movies such as Crash, No Country for Old Men and True Grit. What drew you towards working with the VFX Legion? The biggest draw was working from home. I wasn’t in LA anymore, as I moved back to the east coast from California. A friend I used to work with at Luma pointed me in James’ direction saying he had a company that allowed artists to work from home. I emailed him straight away. My experiences with Legion have been great. They’re really good at communicating and are always on the artist’s side. They want you to succeed at what you’ve been assigned and are really efficient at providing anything necessary to get the job done. They do a great job at keeping in touch too. They really make the artists feel like a part of a team, wherever they are in the world.Where are you based in the world?We live in Pennsylvania, about 30 miles north of Pittsburgh. What is your favourite thing about working with VFX Legion? That’s an easy one: being able to step out of my office to play with my kids at any point during the day. It’s honestly a dream come true. I love it almost as much as being able to work in my pajamas whenever I want.What do you like most about the location in which you live/work? The cost of living is much lower than LA, which is great. However, the main reasons we moved to Pennsylvania was to be closer to our extended family and for the great public school system available for our kids. We are able to have a great big yard here, which I’m able to walk through to the back of and into the woods. That would have been impossible in LA unless I was a millionaire. It’s very outdoorsy too. I do miss the beach, but it’s not uncommon to see all kinds of colorful birds, deer, and little bunnies cross through the backyard. It’s quite nice. What would you say are the core skills that you bring to the VFX Legion team? My primary skill is NUKE compositing. I’ve also done particle and fluid effects animation and rendering in Maya. I also enjoy design, keeping an eye out for continuity across sequences, character and effects animation, lighting, shading and rendering.Which projects have you been most proud to work on at VFX Legion, and why? Jem and the Holograms had a nice hologram sequence that was quite touching. When I watched the edit after it was assigned to me, I was surprised at how much it tugged at the ol’ heartstrings. It was nice to work on a sequence that I knew would move the audience, especially after all the blood, guts, creepy ghost kids and murders I had been looking at. A good horror film is always fun, but this hologram sequence didn’t give me any nightmares – so that was nice. Speaking of blood and guts, though, it was cool to work on Hardcore Henry as well. I always thought a POV film would be great, and I had the opportunity to work on the first of its kind. What projects have been particularly challenging or exciting? The hologram in Jem and the Holograms was a cool challenge. I was handed a good start for the look from other artists that had created the effect for a temporary, earlier version of the film. Finalising the look and making it consistent across all 40 of the shots was a fun challenge. I had to dial in exactly how much glitching and color it would have and how transparent it would be. As far as exciting, my wife, mom, and sister in-law were all pretty excited to hear I got assigned a few shots on Scandal and The Catch!What are the challenges facing compositors today, and how do you overcome them? Mustering up the motivation to get a new shot or project started is always really tough. I find the best way to combat this inner voice is to refrain from letting it speak to you in the first place. Another challenge will always be finding work. As long as you’re not afraid to take on new challenges you can find a way to make it happen. In this industry I’ve found it helps a ton to have a “Heck yes I can do that!” kind of attitude. Why do you think remote working is so important for today’s VFX industry?I’m very glad the option exists and that I’m able to take part in it: it’s great that we live in a day and age where it’s not uncommon to transfer huge files across the internet. It’s thanks to this kind of technological innovation that the VFX industry can hire the best artists no matter where they are in the world. On a more personal level, I can save the time, cost and hassle of making a commute to work. My commute is downstairs, which is fantastic. Of course, being in my jammies all day can be quite a nice perk as well.What are your hobbies/passions outside of work? I love music. Listening to it, making it, and collecting it. Spending time with my family is my main passion for sure. Nothing makes me feel more warm and fuzzy than having my kids yell “Daddy!” with a smile on their little faces as they run to me. Thanks to Legion I’m able to get that by simply stepping outside my office door. That’s some warm soul butter right there.

Tucked away in Wanaka, New Zealand, Kim talks video clips, coding and about escaping into the mountains of her remote office. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? How did you get involved in the VFX industry? I was in the industry at its absolute infancy. I was hired as a school leaver at Television New Zealand. I started during a time computers were just being introduced - it was a dream beginning for a young and keen teenager. Working in their graphics department, I drew everything by hand and placed it in front of a rostrum camera. I was then discovered by the start-up company who bought the first 3d animation computer into New Zealand. I learnt everything on the job, and every project was the first of its kind in New Zealand. I’m pretty sure I would have made New Zealand's first flying logo. Most New Zealanders eventually travel, and I followed this path with skills in my pocket.I struggled to get CG work in the UK as I was so young. I don't think anyone believed I had the experience. I ended up in front of a Quantel paintbox which lead me to build up skills in 2D departments. As Quantel developed its tools to Harry then Henry I just kept up with it. Eventually I began with Flame and stayed with them for 15 years, working in post-production houses across New Zealand and Australia. I've now found my niche as a compositor. I really enjoy being the last hand on a shot and seeing it through to its final state. What films/television shows/animations really got you interested in the industry? What were your creative inspirations? Without a doubt, the first three Star Wars movies had me hooked. After that it was the lure of video clips to the world. I felt they utilized CGI and experimental work more than film back in those days. The Dire Straits clip Money for Nothing had me very excited, I think it was the first fully CG video created and it was created on a Bosch, which was the competitor machine to the one I was running (Symbolics). I enjoyed the challenges of working out how to make computers work, the need for creative vision using such a mathematical tool was a very foreign mix back then. As you can imagine the machines weren't known for being user-friendly. There was a lot of coding required, which I struggled to grasp. Thankfully computer techs were a part of the mix!What are some of the biggest projects you have worked on during your career? I reached the top of my game working as a Flame artist in the TVC industry. Looking back, anything we did was groundbreakingly big, but I take pride in building my skill set to the point I could work anywhere in the world. I traveled the globe a lot throughout my career. One of my biggest challenges, and something I see as a highlight in my career, was when I worked in Beijing for three weeks. I was brought in specifically to give the project a western look. I worked with a Chinese CG department where no one spoke a word of English. I walked 30 minutes to the office each day to attempt to absorb some of my surroundings. I didn't see one westerner for the three weeks. We occasionally had a translator come in but communicated mainly with scribbles on paper. It was a surreal way to work - the only thing to speak my language was Flame. What drew you towards working with the Legion VFX team? I have been passionately chasing my dream to work remotely for years. Everything about Legion’s setup, ethics and goals is in line with my thinking.Where are you based in the world? What do you like most about the location in which you live/work? I am based in Wanaka, New Zealand. The location is very scenic with mountains and lakes. Many Lord of Rings scenes were shot in the area. I was drawn here for its beauty, but it has also led me to shoot more supervision work, which has been great to gain experience in. Which projects have you been most proud to work on at VFX Legion, and why? What projects have been particularly challenging or exciting? Stephanie was great fun. We were able to set up a really collaborative workflow between three of us kiwis, all living in different corners of the country. We had a decent scene to build using projections which Jean-Luc Azzis lead, we needed to share setups continuously to keep everything consistent. It was perfect example of remote workflow working between multiple artists.What are the challenges facing compositors today, and how do you overcome them? Long hours in dark rooms. It’s not a healthy lifestyle. Working remotely allows flexibility in working hours. Time isn’t wasted commuting and we don’t sit around waiting for elements and renders. Our team are able to avoid in-house politics and chitchat. I simply love getting on with my job and doing what I’m good at. I feel remote living and working has improved my mindset, ability to focus and creativity.Why do you think remote working is so important for today’s VFX industry, and how does overseeing such a remote workforce empower your day-to-day activities? A large in-house factory setup can numb the creative force. I think worldwide collaboration is very much possible thanks to today’s online tools. Legion is proving that.What are your hobbies/passions outside of work? I love being outside. From climbing mountains and sliding down them on planks to biking, walking, rivers, lakes and growing food. I also love all animals, particularly birds.

Meet the artists of VFX Legion! This time, we stopped for a chat with VFX supervisor Matthew Lynn, discussing sci-fi, Katy Perry, and food! How did you get involved in the VFX industry?I've always loved films that utilize VFX to tell extraordinary stories. As I kid I stared at the big screen in awe of movies like E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Star Wars and Indiana Jones. I was intrigued by the how and why, the ‘what’s under the hood?’ I would wonder how they created the sequences. When I was at college I joined a small film club called ‘Manufacturing Reality’. In a sense that’s what VFX is all about. Decades later I found myself working on the projects I had dreamed about as a kid. I love the challenge, the tech, and being able to see a shot come together to tell a story. What other films really inspired your creativity? I was inspired by so many films growing up. Other films that really grabbed my attention were Star Trek, The Terminator, The Abyss, Blade Runner, Legend, and Back to the Future. What are some of the biggest projects you have worked on during your career? I’ve worked on a variety of projects, including Katy Perry’s E.T. music video, This Is The End, Left Behind and television series such as CSI and Mad Men. While working at VFX Legion I have had the pleasure of working on projects such as Scandal, How to Get Away with Murder, Insidious 3, and The Purge 3. What drew you towards working with the Legion VFX team? VFX is a challenging business. The industry tends to lean heavily on the artist. Legion VFX is different though, as it truly is an artist-led company – one that focuses on a better quality of life for artists, while still maintaining feature film quality within the work. This is an idea I support and am excited to be a part of. What is your favorite thing about working with VFX Legion? Simply put, it’s the people. They’re what makes this company such a great place to work. Where are you based in the world? I’m based in Los Angeles. I really love the access it has to the best of the best in filmmaking. Also, you have to love the amazing weather! What are the core skills that you bring to the VFX Legion team? My experiences and passion within the industry have allowed me to bring strong leadership skills to the team. The broad range of filmmaking disciplines I’ve worked in have also been a real benefit to VFX Legion and the projects we work on. Which projects have you been most proud to work on at VFX Legion, and why? Insidious 3 was fun, although challenging to supervise on set. It had a very short shooting schedule and a lot of effects to coordinate with the production team. Stephanie was also a lot of fun to shoot. While it’s still in the post-production stage at the time of writing, the VFX have proven to be a big challenge, but one the Legion team has risen to with skill. Why do you think remote working is so important for today’s VFX industry? A remote pipeline allows people to work where they live, and live where they want. The need to chase tax credits and relocate every six months is gone. VFX artists are no longer pinned to the craziness of the big cities. Some of the bests artists in our team are enjoying their lives in places like Colorado, New Zealand, Brisbane and Taipei. It’s really important that we can enable that. What are your hobbies outside of work? My passions include hiking, cycling, basketball, photography, and, of course, food!

Meet the artists of VFX Legion! We sat down with CG lead Rommel S. Calderon, who works with Legion at our Burbank-based headquarters. How did you first become involved in the VFX industry? I was born in Manila, Philippines and moved to the US when I was six. I grew up just 30 minutes outside of Los Angeles in La Puenta, CA. My journey into the VFX industry began with my father’s passion for Star Trek – a passion he soon passed on to me. Another of his favourite hobbies also quickly became my favourite hobby: remote-controlled cars, planes, train sets, and plastic models. It was this, coupled with my life as a Trekkie and love of movies and television, that’s developed my desire to be a VFX artist. That was back in the 1980s. My curiosities naturally ventured into miniature work, as that was where the spotlight was at the time.When I was 13, though, Jurassic Park changed the game entirely, and redirected my career trajectory towards computer animation. Luckily I was into computers at this point, so it was the perfect combination of my two passions. I went to the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in Georgia and received my Bachelor's Degree in Computer Arts in 2000.Other than Star Trek, what other television shows and movies shaped your passion for the industry Star Trek was one of my main passions – to me, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is the pinnacle of the Star Trek universe. Next to Star Trek, one of the biggest influences was the Macross saga. Besides that, Joss Whedon, Bryan Fuller, Ronald D. Moore, Amy Sherman-Palladino, and JJ Abrams shaped my adult television life. I will pretty much watch anything they release! I’m also a big fan of all of Steven Spielberg’s work; James Cameron’s filmography (yes, even Piranha II); and Shane Black movies – Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is one of my all-time favourites. In terms of animators/creators/designers, Hayao Miyazaki and Shoji Kawamori are two of my favourites.What are some of the biggest projects you have worked on during your career? Perhaps the biggest project I had the pleasure of working on was The Golden Compass. It won four awards for Best Visual Effects, so it's a nice jewel in my resume. I’m really proud to say I also worked on Pushing Daisies, Pan Am, Falling Skies, and, the HD remaster of Star Trek: The Next Generation. I could easily write a whole essay on just one Star Trek episode I worked on! Other films I’ve had the opportunity to work on include Alvin and the Chipmunks, Premium Rush, Captain America, The Muppets, and Jem and the Holograms. What drew you towards working with the VFX Legion team? I was drawn to VFX Legion because I was fortunate to have worked with most of the founders. We had been through the trenches together on many a television project over the years. I would say that working with the founders and other artists is my favorite aspect of working at Legion. I started my journey with VFX Legion as a remote artist, but I now live in Los Angeles, working out of the company’s headquarters in Burbank as CG lead.Which projects have you been most proud to work on at VFX Legion? I really enjoyed working on Jem and the Holograms. It was a challenging project, but it’s that kind of creative challenge that I really enjoy. I was one of the senior lighters on the project and I had to re-work my usual methods of lighting to accommodate the needs of the show. It was difficult, but it's good to change up and refresh abilities!What are the core skills that you bring to the VFX Legion team? I’m a 3D artist. I work mainly as a generalist and I feel I bring a lot to the table. I can model, texture, light, animate a bit, and even do some FX work. If I specialize in anything, it's shading and lighting.Why do you think remote working is so important for today’s VFX industry? I feel that the biggest and most important aspect of VFX Legion's remote model is our ability to hire the best artists, no matter where in the world they are. They could be in Canada, New Zealand, Australia, the UK, Colorado, New York, or Germany – remote working allows us to access the best of the best. There are challenges, but overall I feel that the 24-hour schedule gives us a distinct advantage as a company.What are your hobbies/passions outside of work? I'm an avid cyclist, and completed my first half Ironman race back in October. I fundraise for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and I am a volunteer coach for Team In Training every now and again. I still have a passion for plastic models, albeit I collect kits, not necessarily build them. I'm an avid TV watcher as well, and spend a lot of time with my family and friends. I've been married for just over a year now too, so spend a lot of my time just enjoying being a newlywed.