Digital VFX artist wants to go practical

Olivier Couston

Hello, my name is Olivier, I'm from belgium. I have been working in the CG VFX and animation industry for about 10 years, mostly doing character/creature modeling for movies. I like my job, can't complain too much, but the old practical effects from when I grew up is probably what got me into this industry in the first place. I grew up dreaming about working on the next star wars or alien some day. Now I get to do that, but not in the way I imagined.

I have been watching videos on youtube from Stan Winston or studio ADI for a while, I really feel like I'd prefer doing practical effect instead. At first it was thinking "well that looks cool too" but now it's more like "Man I really want to do THIS instead". I know that's probably what most people think when they see those videos, but I'm really serious about it, to the point of taking some time off my work and focus on this full time.
I'm already familiar with some sculpting and painting technics, I have used super sculpey and clay in the past, I built some props for cosplayer friends, I own a 3d printed, an airbrush, I have done some electronic with adruino and raspberry pi, including servo controls (something simple to control a remote camera over the internet). I'm also familiar with character design and anatomy because that's part of what I do on a daily basis.

So, while I still have a whole lot to learn, I'm not a complete beginner who does not know where to start.
Well actually that's not entirely true and that's the reason I'm coming here: I'm already familiar with sculpting and painting, now I know I want to learn the secrets of molding, casting, animatronics, but that's about it. I don't know where to start from here. I want to take a subscription to the Stan Wiston school and watch those on-demand webcourse. Since I'm serious about it, I don't have any problem with paying to learn this kind of things, but there are just so many tutorials available that I don't know where to start, it's overwhelming! I don't even know if a yearly subscription would be enough to watch them all !

So that's my question to the more experienced of you out there: Which are the videos you'd recommand one MUST watch to get started? Now I know you'd say "just watch them all if you're serious about it". I get that, and ultimatly maybe that's what I'll do. But some look very specific (painting an eye), while others sound more generic (making a monster) , and many seem to cover  similar things. I probably want to get the basis first. I know advanced stuff like animatronics should be saved for last.

So yeah, for those of you who have watched it all or most of it, which videos are your go-to, the no-brainers, the must-watch to get started?

Thank you in advance,

Olivier

(the private live webcourse is another story, we'll see later for those)

Chris Ellerby

Hi Oliver,

As someone who worked in 3D for film/tv/games I can totally relate to what you are feeling.  As a kid I dreamed of building models and animatronics for films, but ended up going into the digital side of the industry because that's what my generation was doing.

Here are some good starting off points in a few categories.


Rick Lazzarini's lesson series on animatronics is a wealth of information.

• https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/tutorials/animatronic-character-creation-organic-mechanics-part-one
• https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/tutorials/animatronic-character-creation-organic-mechanics-part-two

As is Richard Landon's animatronics design basics:

• https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/tutorials/animatronics-basics-an-introduction-to-the-mechanical-skeleton#!prettyPhoto[gallery]/10/

For painting, I highly recommend all the lessons by Steve Wang, Casy Love, and Tim Gore.


Ted Haines' foam fabrication series is also a great starting place, as foam fabrication is widely used.

• https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/tutorials/make-a-dinosaur-t-rex-foam-fabrication-part-one
• https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/tutorials/make-a-dinosaur-t-rex-foam-fabrication-part-two
  
• https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/tutorials/make-a-dinosaur-t-rex-foam-fabrication-part-three
  

For mold making, I would start with Gary Yee's lesson on stone molds, and then work your way up to epoxy/fiberglass molds.

• https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/tutorials/character-creation-stone-mold-making-tutorial

David Monzingo's lesson on making a rod puppet has a lot of great information on mold making and casting silicone pieces.

• https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/tutorials/make-a-monster-puppet-rods-cables

Don Lanning's sculpture techniques video is a great primer, which you can follow with his character design lessons to dive a bit deeper:

• https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/tutorials/sculpture-techniques-how-to-sculpt-textures-and-forms

If you want to try making character makeups, Bruce Spaulding Fuller has an amazing series that covers that process from start to finish, including mold making and casting appliances.

• https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/tutorials/tag?artist_slug=special-effects-character-creator-bruce-spaulding-fuller

Those should all be good starting points, and as you want to dive deeper into a subject you'll find plenty of options here.  

And if you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask!

Best of luck!

/Chris

Olivier Couston

Wow, thank you so much Chris, that's exactly the kind of answer I was hoping for ! I'll definitely check those out. Rick Lazzarini's animatronic lessons had caught my attention but I wa affraid it would be too advanced for a beginner.

Now I'm excited, I'll start my subscription this week end

Ian Storm

Awesome, I actually posed that question to one of the girls at the SWS stand at 2015 MonsterPalooza. After oggling, staring, drooling online trying to sort out any type or rhyme or reason for where to start myself I was able to come up with something similar. I appreciate the detail you put into this it's a little easier to justify and sort out the direction i want for a project. Having a bit of a direction is one less stress to deal with and more time effort and energy for actual projects.
thanks again . This currently seems to be my goto for answers at the moment.