2017 and Beyond

Firstly Happy New Year 2017!

2016 has been a major milestones in my career and personal achievements as I’ve survived several situations by sacrificing many of my favourite pastime like writing Nuke/After Effects/Vray/Maya/3dsmax/etc Tips!

Not to forget gaming and drawing…

As 2016 ends in several hours as I’m writing this post, I’ve completed 19 months of working full-time in the Japanese 3DCG industry as a FX artist at a subsidiary studio located in a backwater corrupted “peaceful” country in South East Asia region.

This post will reflect on what I’ve achieved in 2016 and also what I’m looking forward in 2017 and beyond as a FX artist in the high-end visual effects industry.

2016 – In a Nutshell

Many things happened because it already happened! Here’s what happened to me in 2016:

1. Survived the challenging FX works for Gantz: O! Ironically I’ve haven’t even got the chance to watch the final movie yet.
2. Mastered majority of Maya and Vray features especially FX, lighting and rendering!
3. Learned and wrote dozens of MEL Scripts for Maya and Javascript for After Effects to boost productivity.
4. Scratch a bit of Python to prepare for the inevitable Python scripting for Maya and Nuke.
5. Reached the summit of Mount Rinjani at Lombok, Indonesia! (and got sunburned super badly-)
6. Still wondering why the use of Nuke is still not a reality at the studio… After Effects is very clunky when dealing with multi-channel EXR files.
7. The increase of cost of living in my area = Being way too thrifty since what goes up in meals’ pricing in this country never goes down…
8. Neglected my gaming and drawing session since my work has been insane with the amount of overtime.

2017 and Beyond!

So the following will be my to-do list for 2017:

1. Must watch Gantz: O! Need to see my glorious FX works composited with various render layers with audio.
2. Practice Houdini as the holy Maya, 3dsmax, FumeFX, Realflow combo are not sufficient in the ever demanding VFX works.
3. Create a new demoreel featuring FX works done in Houdini!
4. Continue my coding practice especially Python and maybe for fun, C++ for Unreal Engine 4.
5. Slowly brush up my language skills in Cantonese and Mandarin. Yes, I’m still a banana but a slightly better banana from previous year-
6. Going on a journey to explore other countries beyond South-East Asia region for the very first time in my life!
7. Probably I might need to pickup rudimentary French to future proof my living skills.
8. Resume whatever gaming/drawing that I left in the backburner…

…So What’s Next?

I should hit the publish button and wrap this up–

Being a non-believer in religion and Gods, I don’t really care if something happens because it happens. I believe in creating and seizing the opportunity.

Also the desire to keep learning new stuff (and earning more money too-) is crucial for my personal growth and development since globalisation has exposed me to various stories of other humans who manage to push their limits in raising the bar especially in the realms of VFX and real-time graphics!

While my other tutorials articles still a work in progress since proof reading it takes time, hopefully I can up my guide to MEL Scripting to improve your quality of life when you’re working in a very small facility that lacks a dedicated artist/scripter by the middle of January.

Thanks for all the support and visits to my website!