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Q & A with VFX Artist Alexis Hagger
Alexis Hagger is an independent Visual Effects Supervisor and
compositor currently setting up a new facility in central
London. Graduating as a director from the Bournemouth Film
School, Alexis elected to start out working in Special
Effects, "I learnt how to blow things up and make people
bleed. I learnt a lot about how things could be shot in
live-action and got a good grasp of the crossover between
physical and digital effects." Ultimately, Alexis ended up in
digital VFX, but he continues to consult and design effects
with both disciplines in mind.
The eyeon SWAT program
provides training for artists in Fusion, Generation, Rotation,
and Vision. Alexis Haggar recently completed a SWAT course in
Fusion with eyeon's Eric Westphal.
You've been a Shake artist for a
while. How do you like it?
Shake
supplies rudimentary tools that are the basis of every image
manipulation app today. If you understand Shake, your
knowledge will transfer across all 2D apps, and even into
3D.
Why
did you decide to switch to Fusion?
Before Shake, I used After Effects, but once I
got my head around nodal workflows, there was no going back!
Fusion seems to offer the best of both worlds, and more. I am
particularly excited by the 3D capabilities; the potential new
pipelines/workflows that these offer are very exciting. It's
all about gaining control over the image. Fusion could lead
the way and turn the compositor's job into something like a
modern fine artist.
What's it like for a Shake
artist looking at the Fusion interface for the first time?
Coming from Shake, I am used to using the nodal graph to
visually show how a comp is working. Fusion tackles it
differently and puts commands in palettes and menus. That
said, Fusion gives the user the ability to work in the
same way as Shake. It's just a case of knowing the tools, building macros, and understanding the jargon!
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How did you find the eyeon software training?
I really appreciated the wealth of examples
we were given. There was a very good ‘real life’ task for
every tool we learned. The tutor, Eric Westphal, was a very
knowledgeable guy, and was able to answer every one of my
tricky questions! He had many different solutions for every
operation, and he was a nice bloke.
Did anything about Fusion surprise
you?
I
was really impressed with the speed and the range of the
tools. I am used to the core manipulation tools in Shake but
Fusion has a more complete toolset, including the barebones
nodes that Shake has, but also the power of specific tools,
such as paint.
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What did you like best about the training?
I appreciated the thought behind the examples. We were
able to break out into ‘creative’ talk and ask questions as
they came to mind. That might have set us off on tangents but,
instead they got us into the real nitty-gritty parts of the
app that might have been forgotten if we just waited for the
usual ‘any questions?’.
What are the biggest
differences between Fusion and Shake?
With any new
software, you have to get used to simple things that you took
for granted - moving around a viewport, zooming, etc. Specific
things I found different in Fusion were the names of some of
the tools and the fact that the node inputs move. Of course,
as soon as you become comfortable with the new way of working,
new tools become toys.
Would
you recommend training like this for other artists in a
similar position?
Definitely! I have had lots of opportunities to learn
Fusion by myself but, when you are on your own, you can hit
walls very quickly and lose motivation, especially when you
can turn to the app you already know. Learning in a group,
with other artists, works two-fold - you get to see how other
people might tackle the same task, and the creative/technical
banter with others is great.
Now
that you know it better, what do you like best about Fusion?
I like
particles and 3D. Being able to camera map in your compositor is powerful. It's the one 3D trick that all compositors should
know. I also really like the way that the particle emissions work. Often, I would attempt to create a particle system in 3D
and not get what I want. It's like herding cats. Fusion simplifies
this.
Contact swat@eyeonline.com for more
information on eyeon's newest training iniative SWAT, Software
Artist Training.
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