Kofi Opoku-Ansah and Daniel Mark Miller have both found interesting routes to becoming successful VFX artists. Kofi was inspired by Final Fantasy to pursue a career in gaming, but working at The Mill ignited his passion for VFX. Daniel, meanwhile, toyed with becoming an editor before getting into compositing via the advertising industry.
Together, Kofi and Daniel host The VFX Artists Podcast, which uses their wide range of industry contacts to record engaging, funny, and advice-packed podcasts. In this conversation with Chris, they give lots of valuable ideas about starting in VFX and how the industry works. Kofi also reveals how his three-year-old inspired him to set up the podcast, while Daniel details “Broken Toy,” his Black Mirror-esque short film.
work.
Links:
The VFX Artists Podcast on Spotify >
The VFX Artists Podcast on Apple Podcasts >
The VFX Artists Podcast on Twitter >
Chapters:
5:14 Introducing Kofi
11:47 Kofi’s specialization
15:04 How Daniel got involved
18:01 Daniel’s origin story
24:59 Working for an ad agency
34:09 The podcast’s mission
41:03 Mentorship
47:57 Daniel’s short film
57:04 Machine learning and VFX
01:02:26 Efficient artists and hitting deadlines
Chris is a CG industry veteran and Director of Chaos Labs. He can also be heard regularly as the host of the CG Garage podcast which attracts 20,000 weekly listeners. With a background in both VFX and Design, Chris has worked for Gensler, Digital Domain, Imageworks and Method Studios. His credits include Maleficent, Oblivion and Tron: Legacy.