Thomas is a Fusion artist based in Germany.
He performed many demonstrations of his work with the eyeon
team at IBC in September of 2009. We talked with him about his
work, his experience with our team, and where he plans on
being in 10 years.
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| Q: Can you tell me a little
about yourself and what made you decide to become a VFX
artist? | |
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I am a perfectionist with stronger technical than artistic
skills. I spend as much time as possible to improve the result
of a shot to the maximum. My ability to handle 3D and 2D
definitely enables me to do all aspects of a VFX shot by
myself.
I love to work in a free minded
environment where artists can learn from each other. I think,
especially for bigger projects, an efficient team of equal
artists with different specialties is essential.
Most of my spare time is for the family.
I think
that watching Lord of the Rings and playing Game Render Videos
(FMVs), like Resident Evil and Final Fantasy, inspired me to
go into this field. |
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| Q. What artist/event/person
inspires you? | |
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There is no great idol I worship. My wife
definitely kicks me in the right direction. I also was pushed
by Robert Zeltsch's work attitude.
For my life plan, I
think the guy from 'Pursuit of Happiness' is ideal. He wanted
something much better for himself and his
children. He got it thanks to his
persistence.
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Q: Where did you learn your compositing
skills and how did you first get started using
Fusion? | |
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I studied at The German Film School, I learned some
basic knowledge with Shake, After Effects, and Combustion.
After that, I started at Elektrofilm in 2007 and had to use
Fusion, so I evolved shot by shot.
The Steve Wright book, The Art of Compositing, gave me some
cool basic ideas and improved my work.
Today, I mostly solve problems by analyzing what has to be
achieved and what tools I have available.
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| Q: What is the VFX industry
like in Germany? | |
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There are mostly small projects and about 80% of them are
on 16mm with nice grain and frame jitter. Effects are not
considered as important so the clients are not willing to pay
much for a film.
Most films are fairy tales, most of the time the
budget does not represent the amount of work and time needed.
It ends up with either mediocre work or overtime (I choose the
2nd). The main problem for this is the general low budget
situation for film productions and the competition from
Eastern Europe.
There are some bigger projects with
better budget and realistic schedules, for example, The
Gustloff was quite good compared to the daily
stuff.
This is based on my experiences with the
companies I worked so far.
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| Q: Fusion has some amazing
tools, which ones are your
favorites? | |
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The Custom Tool (my favorite keying tool), Bitmap, Fast
Noise, Color Curves, and Grid Warp.
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| Q: How did you enjoy your
experience with the eyeon SWAT team at IBC in
Amsterdam? | |
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It was great fun! It was a nice and welcoming/comforting
atmosphere. I actually would have loved to stay for the whole
time. Steve definitely is not the stereotype 'Boss
Guy'.
It was also nice meeting Remi and Greg at
IBC.
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Q: What trends do you see emerging in Visual
Effects? How do you see the role of the VFX artist
changing, and where do you see yourself in 10
years? | |
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More and more, shots can easily be done in 2D/Comp. VFX
Artists have to adjust to solve more problems outside of the
3D applications, since it is more efficient in that
way.
If the GPU manufacturers manage to create a
standard that makes rendering on every GPU the same, so you do
not have to have exactly the same chip on every render
machine, this will be THE Feature.
Stereoscopic
features, Maybe James Cameron will be able to give a big push
to this field. Stereoscopic VFX can be fun, but will increase
costs for effects but it is just great seeing a Movie in 3D
?
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| Q: Where do you see yourself
in 10 years? | |
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| I see myself in San Francisco in ten years! My favorite
town. I am a Senior Artist doing nice feature projects. If not
Frisco, at least somewhere out of Europe. |
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