My Experience in DNEG Internship
Hey, have you ever thought of how this VFX in major films are developed? How the VFX team enjoys the work to deliver such a great output?
So, I will be sharing my experience as an intern in one of the best VFX companies called Double Negative (DNEG) in this blog.
DNEG is a leading visual effects and animation company with offices in London, Vancouver, Mumbai, Los Angeles, and Montréal. DNEG has won several Oscars for its work, including Best Visual Effects for Ex Machina (2015), Blade Runner 2049 (2017), and First Man (2018)and won several BAFTA Awards for its work.
I received my offer letter as intern after qualifying the basic python test and interview. 2nd January 2023 is my first working day in this company. I started my journey with no clue and no prior experience of industry work in this field. But after commencing my internship and worked for almost four months now, I had the opportunity to get trained and work with talented professionals and learn about the inner workings of the VFX industry.
Initially my training programme started with identifying the VFX processes involved in the existing films, VFX breakdowns And searched for new tools and technologies introduced by the film VFX team. Later my mentor has trained us right from basics of VFX process involved like Rotoscope, Clean up, Chroma Keying and Compositing etc.
After getting an idea on the VFX processes and artistic work, we were introduced to Nuke software which is used to achieve this 2D VFX processes. Experimented various tasks and tried implementing animations by not only using node graph but also by coding in python, implemented UIs for tools and added functionalities using Nuke python API in script editor. Further built customized UIs with PySide and PyQT.
Explained usage of Jira and Bitbucket/ Stash by the studio and trained us to work on these company frameworks to get familiar and comfortable. Our codes/ work used to review by the mentor in Bitbucket.
Later we started working on the 3D feature animation, the software used is MAYA. Used to create 3D characters and effects used in films. Acquired knowledge in 3D pipeline involves different departments like modelling, texturing, rigging, animation, FX, Character FX. Implemented these processes in Maya and built tools in maya using Maya python API and PySide.
So, after getting comfortable with the process and softwares used. We started pitching internship project ideas to create a new tool for the company, for that we must select the department we are interested in. As I’m fascinated in working with 2D VFX processes, my Mentor advised to work with 2D VFX process and understand departments in detail. I have presented my learnings and shared the knowledge I gained in the learning process. Finally, I’m comfortable 2D VFX process, pipeline, and workflow.
Also, we had guest lecturers from DNEG professional Developers to share their experiences, Overview of the Department.
To summarise over this internship period of four months, i have learned the importance of collaborative work in corporates, improved my technical and communication skills, professional development, ability to handle and solve the tasks with ease. These qualities help me to succeed and achieve higher goals aiming for in this firm.