"For as long as I can remember, I wanted to get into film making," says 20-year-old Alfie Vaughan, an apprentice 2D artist at VFX company, The Mill. "I grew up with Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and Harry Potter. The fantasy worlds they created really inspired me to go into VFX."
We sat down with Alfie to learn about his role and find out about some of the projects he's been working on, from the Harry Potter: Wizards Unite trailers to The Chemical Brothers' dancing robots.
You can train on the job
"I decided to do an apprenticeship with The Mill rather than going to university," Alfie explains. "I’m earning while I learn and I’m surrounded by very talented people. The people here have got 20+ years’ experience and they’ve worked on some of the biggest projects in the industry.
"When I started, they were working on the John Lewis Man on the Moon Christmas ad. And, obviously, I knew about the legacy film business and their work on films like Gladiator (which they won an Oscar for) and Harry Potter. Seeing all the VR equipment around and venturing into that world was really exciting."
It's all about the details
"My role involves taking on any task that's required in the production of a shot needing visual effects work. This could be cleanup - removing tracking markers or painting out wires if someone’s been on a rig - set extension, rotoscoping, compositing, keying etc.
"I'm like a VFX puzzle-maker. I take everything that everyone else has made and then I put it together, make it look cool and then send it out."
They bring magic to life
"I worked on several shots for the Wizards Unite trailers," explains Alfie of the augmented reality mobile game from the people behind Pokemon Go. "The coolest VFX are definitely all the spells. That’s always what drew me to the films - all the particles and things exploding when characters cast the spells.
"I worked on one shot where some Death Eaters come down with lots of smoke trails and start having a spell battle. I had to put all the spells in with the light interaction and shadows. I also had to do a close up shot of someone casting a spell, with all the light interactions on their face."
They can make robots dance
"In terms of spectacle, the Free Yourself video for The Chemical Brothers was one of the coolest things I’ve worked on, just because it’s six minutes of dancing robots," says Alfie. "It’s every VFX artist’s dream." (The team used new motion capture technology to capture dance moves on set and in the studio.)
"Of course, it starts off fun and then you realise you have six minutes of dancing robots! There was lots to cover. But, that tends to get the coolest reaction."
Battle scenes are a VFX artist's dream
"I worked on the Call of Duty trailers. I was given two shots in a four shot sequence to do from start to finish. I got to do all the compositing of CG helicopters and soldiers running around. I was also doing volumetric lights streaming in, with god rays coming through the gaps in the walls, and I was adding extra people on quad bikes. One of the dream things you want to work on is a war scenario, because there's just so much going on."
In the future, Game of Thrones-level VFX will be much simpler
"There’s a lot of automated rotoscoping and software that's being trialled at the moment. I think it will be really interesting to see where that goes, because that’s essentially going to eliminate some of the tedious parts of VFX.
"Real-time rendering would mean that instead of having to spend maybe two weeks rendering one of those battle scenes - like the Battle of the Bastards in Game of Thrones - it would take half an hour. It’s really exciting because then we’ll be able to focus on the creative parts.
"Who knows, maybe I'll get to work on the next Game of Thrones one day? The thing I feel most fortunate about with this apprenticeship is looking back at where I was before I started - I knew I wanted to be a VFX artist, but didn't have a clue how to get into the industry. Now I've been a part of some incredible projects."
To find out more about the apprenticeships available, including those in filmmaking and VFX, head to www.apprenticeships.gov.uk - and learn more about the world of VFX below:
Alison is head of content for the Good Housekeeping Institute, responsible for product reviews across homes, beauty, wellness, family and food & drink. She lives by the William Morris quote that you should “have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”
Alison has over 15 years' experience as a lifestyle editor and has written features on everything from misophonia to how to dress like Claudia on The Traitors. She has also interviewed everyone from Dame Joanna Lumley to the Kardashians.
In her spare time, you'll find her hanging out with Monty the cocker spaniel and refreshing the Sezane website every five seconds.
