Endings and beginnings

I have been remiss in posting for the last few weeks.  This can be blamed entirely on the intensity of the course, which has now finished.

This is a sad time for us.  The eight of us who went through the full 12 weeks (originally nine, one of whom sadly had to drop out for personal reasons) have become quite close, particularly in the last week or two.  Though we will all continue to stay in touch and, hopefully, work together at some point in the future, the daily routine into which we had fallen will be missed.  To arrive every day and sit together in the room learning and working, helping each other out and offering advice, was a blessed thing.  I hope that these friendships become long lasting - some are already very special.

Not only is this a sad time, it is also a scary time.  I don't think any of us have jobs to go back to.  (Technically I do but I don't think that will be something to which I return.)  We are all effectively out of work.  The world of freelance VFX feels very big, very scary and very inaccessible.  The previous 12 weeks have been a lovely, cosseted, safe environment which have felt very unreal; it was as if we had stepped through the back of the wardrobe and have just been rudely expelled.

Of course we will all be fine.  We are all talented and capable, and have a solid qualification on which to rely.  But it is scary, and we are all scared.  It's all about networking which is something that seems to be the single most important part of finding work while also being singularly detested by all.  It's as if the system has specifically evolved to force upon people that which they most dislike.

I should mention that having finished the course I have of course finished building the bridge.  The short, eight second video, needs some refining which I hope to do this week.  Once it is done I will show it to my devoted fans and will write a post - probably long - going into some detail about it.  I am extremely proud of it and will admit that it is actually a bit excellent.  I can post a still image from the video:

My bridge.  It's not finished (which is obvious to me but probably isn't to anyone
who doesn't see things like a VFX nerd).

As may be startlingly obvious it's still a work in progress.  I will write much, much more about it when it's finished.  I think it will be a really interesting post.  (Briefly - the bridge has too much contrast above the glass building; it's not lit strongly enough over the river; the back of it should be behind the glass building; there are no windows in the hanging cars; the runners for the hanging cars are not textured; the glass building reflects where there is no glass; the glass building's reflections are undistorted; the shadows go mad later in the video.)

In a few days we are taking a trip to a VFX studio to have a look round and - horror of horrors - have our work critiqued by them.  Terrifying.