Jan Rybar

July 18, 2023

Going out of our comfort zones and learning new skills feels excellent!

As a VFX artist, you must master at least one or more different software packages. Nowadays, any vfx work is so complex, either 2D or 3D, that we constantly need to go deeper and find more efficient ways to tackle a shot, an asset, or an effect. So there is no surprise that almost all artist positions benefit from having PYTHON programming skills. It is a vital tool that helps all the time.
As a CG/VFX Supervisor, I deal with a higher overview. While the Python knowledge is still valid, I always need to catch up on something - the visual representation of the data/information I need for my work. We track progress daily on many fronts; assets, animation, effects, shots, etc. As you may also use, we utilize Ftrack or Shotgrid in our pipelines. These are great systems, but I always wanted to go deeper and add more detailed or different overviews of my teams/studio data. Occasionally, I find myself in a corner as no Pipeline TD is currently available, and I need help moving forward with my ideas for specific dashboards or graphs. 
Plan any future work is better by understanding the past, and all the VFX studios that use pipelines with management systems such as Ftrack and Shotgrid have a treasure in these past projects' data. 
The easiest way nowadays how to visualize data is through your classic web browser, so I decided to master another knowledge - Front End Development (HTML, CSS, javascript, React) and wanted to share that I finished the course I started last year. I am keen to dive deep into data mining and visualize hidden gems of understanding where our VFX work can be more streamlined and efficient. 
The course was a great experience - I was back in the school again, and it felt amazing. It was so fun to be part of the class of students who want to learn because they want to, and they also know exactly how to use this new skill, including myself :)
I encourage anybody to learn new stuff, even if it is a bit away from our comfort zone and primary focus. 

About Jan Rybar

Hey! I'm Jan, an independent CG/VFX supervisor. Subscribe below to follow my thinking on the VFX industry, various themes outside of work, and ideas I might have about the future.