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Careers in the arts: Cary Smith, visual effects supervisor, Stargate Studios

My job is to go through the script of a television show, movie or commercial and work with directors and producers to plan out how they’re going to pull off visual effects. 

All our effects are computer-generated. We just finished Heroes Reborn and the A&E series Damien, and we recently worked on Grey’s Anatomy.

After high school, I went to Durham College for a one-year fine arts prep course and then did the three-year advanced diploma in animation. But I didn’t have a knack for animation, so I decided to go to Seneca for a post-graduate course in visual effects for film and television. It’s a one-year program.

The program is geared toward people with an artistic background. You have to have an eye for colour, balance, composition and aesthetics. You build on that skill set when learning the software and tools used in the VFX industry to become a compositor or 3D artist.

What I liked about Seneca is that the professors all work in the field. That means what you are learning is relevant. We’re a tech-oriented industry, so every few months a new piece of software bumps up our quality of work. 

Sometimes you’ll be working with clients who don’t have an artistic eye and can’t articulate exactly what they want. Ultimately you want to blow their minds, but you need to show them something aesthetically appealing to start, and that’s where the arts background comes in.

Animation or VFX school seems glamorous – we all watch cartoons and the new superhero movies – but it’s a lot of work and a lot of hours. You have to dedicate yourself to it. For Heroes Reborn, we worked 10- and 12-hour days for six months, sometimes six days a week.

Seneca brought the right people in to show us every aspect of the industry. There are a dozen different types of jobs within the VFX field, so school actually changed my mind. I thought I wanted to be an effects artist creating computer-generated explosions. But I realized the explosion side of things wasn’t for me – it was too tedious – so I became a compositor.

I really enjoy problem-solving. A client doesn’t come to you with all the answers. You’re tasked with figuring out how things work, both as an artist and as a supervisor.

I also realized I’m more inclined to be out in the field working than I am to sit in an office. It’s more rewarding in that you work directly with clients and you go from the script stage to the final product. My favourite part of the job is the look on their faces when they see their idea unfold in front of them.

Toronto has a very strong film and television presence thanks to Ontario’s tax credit system. We’ve been in a boom for a while now. I wouldn’t be opposed to leaving the city, but you follow the work, and there’s work here right now. At this point we have trouble finding artists because every studio in Toronto is busy.

When I was in high school, visual effects wasn’t at the forefront the way it is nowadays thanks to the prevalence of big-budget tent-pole films. Even major TV shows are fullof effects. I wouldn’t be surprised if new people coming into the industry realized from an early age that this is what they want to do.

Find out where to study for careers in the arts here.

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