Compositing for Visual FX

By Hamish Millar

I recently got the chance to sit down with Chris Van Dyck, a freelance compositor working out of Vancouver. Chris is one of two speakers presenting for Vancouver ACM SIGGRAPH on May 16 2007. Before the big event, I thought I'd pick his brain to understand a little more about who he is, what he does, and where he's going.

BIO

Chris van Dyck is a local Vancouver VFX artist in the commercial, film and television industry. Specializing in digital compositing, he has worked on staff for Spin West VFX and Rainmaker Entertainment and has Freelanced at Zoic, Frantic Films, and in Australia at Animal Logic. Throughout his career, Chris has developed his strengths in Discreet's Flame, Digital Fusion, and Shake. Over the last 4 years, he has worked on the following projects: World Trade Center, Superman: Returns, Night at the Museum, Blades of Glory, and most recently Frank Miller's: 300. He is currently working at Frantic Films using Fusion 5.

www.chrisvandyck.com
IMDb Profile

H.		What attracted you to compositing?
C.		I was always artistic as a child. Around grade 9 or 10 I discovered Photoshop and got into a bit of web design. I later did some 3D work with Animation Master and Bryce. I enjoyed working in 2D though and wanted to apply that kind of work to video.
H.		Do you have a favourite project that you've worked on?
C.		Project-wise, that would have to be working on 300 as a compositor. While not all of the FX were technically brilliant, incredible results were achieved through style. It was the overall style and much of the camera work that were the greatest achievements on that project. On a more personal level though I loved working on Garfield 2. I was a lead compositor on a junior team. I had to manage 25 people to complete around 200 shots in about 5 months. Suddenly I had to not only use my technical skills, but also teach and supervise a team. That really sparked my interest in leadership. Shot-wise, that would have to be working on 300 as a compositor. While not all of my shots were the most challenging, technically, they were by far the most stimulating and interesting, visually. It was the overall style and much of the camera work that were the greatest achievements on that project. On a more personal level though I loved working on Garfield 2. I was a lead compositor on a fairly junior team, its safe to say I was a junior lead. I had to manage 20-25 people to complete around 200 shots in about 6 months. Suddenly I had to not only use my technical skills, but also teach and supervise a team. That really sparked my interest in leadership.
H.		Have you spent much time in other managerial positions?
C.		I was lead compositor on Blades of Glory for Rainmaker but my role was a little different. I was leading pipelines and strategy more than I was leading people. I was a much more project-focused manager in that case, which I enjoyed too.
H.		I like to think that everyone should have a 5 year plan. Do you have one?
C.		[Laughs] my original plan was to get as much exposure in the industry and to learn as much as possible. In many ways I feel like I've accomplished that. I've freelanced in many places and learnt to use many processes and software applications. Another goal was to become a lead artist and I've accomplished that too.
H.		Ok, but what about going forward?
C.		I'm now leaning towards consulting and production. I want to expand my horizons, globally. That means traveling to work in other places. In the next 5 years it's likely that those goals will take me LA. Within the next 5 years, its likely my goals will have taken me to California or London. However, setting up a local VFX studio is definitely something I am interesting in doing.
H.		Do you think we're going to see a drain of our talent heading down to the States?
C.		In many ways the opposite is happening. A huge amount of work originally started in Canada Ð Maya, XSI, Discreet Logic, Inferno and Flame are examples of Canadian products and companies. At some point I think a lot of work got sucked down to the States because that's where the money was. However, now we are seeing Canadian studios, particularly some local ones, building a great rapport with the larger companies. The Rainmaker-Fox relationship is a good example. Did you know 300 was entirely shot in Montreal? That's a good example too.
H.		What's the biggest challenge of working freelance?
C.		Definitely keeping clients happy. Often you've got to try to keep many people happy at once. The most challenging was an anti-smoking commercial I worked on. When I showed it to the clients, there were Federal and Provincial representatives present, plus their directors and their clients. It was difficult pleasing all those people at once. We couldn't even fit them all into the same room at once! Using Flame was a great help in that situation. It's really powerful and can allow you to change things in real time on the fly for people. It is easier to please people on the spot if you can make those tweaks in front of them. That was possibly the most technically challenging project I've done due to all the warping involved.
H.		What about the most challenging work generally?
C.		Episodic work. Sometimes you'll get the plates (new footage), have one week to create the temp (a rough copy of the work) and then have one week to final. That's a two week turnaround. With 4 guys to do about 50 shots, you'd have to be working about 100 hours a week.
H.		You spent some time in Australia when you were working with Animal Logic on 300. How different is the scene in Australia to what you've experienced here?
C.		Well, film is film. Australians have some different terminology...
H.		[Laughs] Yeah we certainly do!
C.		...but everything else, work-wise, is pretty much the same. Companies can feel different no matter where they are. Animal Logic is a very well structured company. It was great to work there. It comes down to having a great work environment too. I have seen some of the best results achieved by having a sense of community at work. Keep your artists happy. I'd even say pamper them and they will perform their best. Keep coordination out of your artistic realm as much as possible too. Getting artists to produce their own progress reports, etc, can be counterproductive. Things work much better if you have a good coordinator and a good producer monitoring the artists and taking care of that side of things.
H.		We've got a sold out show for you already on May 16th. Can you tell me a bit about your side of the presentation?
C.		Sure. I'll be showing at least 6 detailed breakdowns of shots from my reel. I'll also talk a little about the different companies I've worked for and be lecturing in more detail on exactly what I do and why.
H.		Cool, thanks for your time Chris.
C.		Thank you.