Production manager
A production manager oversees the front end of the production and makes sure it is running smooth. Their responsibilities involve hiring professionals, providing and managing equipment, managing teams schedules, taking care of deadlines, and solving problems that can appear on set.
On a daily basis, they will be on set before production starts filming in order to make sure there aren’t any problems stopping the scene to be shot; a common issue is the need for extra equipment, which the production manager will have to look for and arrange the set. A production manager is always in contact with multiple departments and works closely with the director and producer in order to keep the production pipeline up to date and to ensure things are going to be delivered in the deadline. They also constantly work with runners since runners take equipment from one department to another.
To exceed this role is important to be organized, since one will be responsible for planning and managing schedules for a whole team as well as keeping track of which equipment is being used in each set and managing it when needed. Also, it’s essential to have a sense of leadership, once one will oversee the production coordinators work and will also train and hire new coordinators when requested. One will also have to prevent problems that might occur during a project and anticipate technical issues. And of course, a production manager needs to know and understand the vfx pipeline and know which professionals work in which area.
Producer
Producers manage the whole VFX project and have to make sure that the visual effects studio achieves the creative brief sent by the client, which can be a director or a producer of a movie. They have a high level of responsibility since they will define all the visual effects look that will be done by the studio and will work in all production parts, including pre-production, on set and post production. They will talk to the director and figure out the amount of work that will be done by the effects team and understand what is the visual concept they are looking for. Then, they will assign the parts to each team to work on and oversee the work along with it being done. Also, they need to break down the script and see how all the scenes will be developed, what will be visual effects, done in post production, and what will be special effects, done on set, and then, adjust the schedule and the budget.
Once the pre production work is settled, the producer will be in charge of following the project from beginning to end, making sure the work is coming out as it was planned and on schedule. Along production is going on, they will be oftely in contact with the director and producer of the movie, and also with vfx supervisors and artists, working as a communication channel. One will have to be organised, have leadership skills, know all the steps in the vfx pipeline and communicate well with all the team members.
Animator
Animators bring CGI assets or characters to life starting their job after the 3d model has been modeled, rigged, and textured. They move and position the object in ways that will simulate the motion done in real life and create keyframes, which is a mark that holds the information of the position chosen. When many keyframes are put together in a sequence creates the illusion of the object moving. Usually, for one second of an animated movie, there are 24 keyframes done; in some cases there can be even more keyframes. The number of keyframes done in one second of animation is called frames per second. A good animator will have the ability to create this motion as smoothly and realistic as possible, sometimes even animating each muscle in the character.
In some productions, there’s a process of motion capture, which is the technology of recording a real person using a special suit and translating the movement captured in that footage to a CGI character. In that case, the animator will have the job of making corrections to the generated animation, and sometimes adding more motion to it.
Animators get their references from physical objects, animals, and people. In that way, they oftenly record themselves doing a specific movement that they will have to study and reproduce in a digital character. To excel in this job, one has to be a good observer and analyze people around, communicate well in order to understand the characters emotions and visual look, and know the principles and mechanics of animation.
FX TD
Effects technical directors create visual effects based on physical principles, such as explosions, smoke, water, fire and clouds. These effects need to look believable and consistent with the visual look the movie has proposed, and need to blend in with other assets. These effects are created through a computer language script and incorporated to the software by plug-in tools.
FX technical directors are expected to be able to innovate technical solutions and be good at problem solving. One will also have a leadership role mentoring and advising FX artists in some shots, and supporting and giving guidance to junior compositors. Sometimes they will have to be on set assisting the director and setting the parameters to capture a scene that will be more effective for the FX team to work in post production.
To excel in this job one has to know coding and computer language and know how to integrate custom tools to diverse software, have an artistic look integrated with a high technical ability and have knowledge in 3D software such as Maya and Houdini. FX TD needs to know how to work with computer generated particles and fluid in a way that will look realistic, since they will be dealing with these aspects on a daily basis. It’s also required to be familiar with cameras and lightning equipment, and with all the jobs within the vfx pipeline as well as being able to share the director’s vision to each part of the production. An FX TD can come from different backgrounds such as computer science, arts and design, or visual effects.