HI All

[C]

hi i am abhishek chaturvedi,i am a student right now,but will be a professional artist in couple of months,still working on my reel,
have really sucked in tits and bits about the vfx industry around the world
and would like to work on some serious kick ass work in 2-3 years from now.

i have often come across the india and outsourcing thing and cheap work rates and etc,
and for my first post here at fx guide i would like to share somethings,

i am not in the industry yet but i have my contacts and keep in track what is in or out and how things are going,

so here i go:

roto artist in india do get 500 $ a month that is true,freshers even get 100$ a month 500$ per months comes say after exp. of an year or so and kind of roto we are doing is at par with any other country anywhere,but the whole story isn’t as it seems,
the thing is that artist are getting low wages but the facility in which artist work charge way more than what an artist is paid,the exact figures are not known but the difference is huuge.

and talkking a bit of economics an indian gets 60 times less than what an american gets for same work in their respective countries

as far as living goes in such little wages
don’t think artist get paid less because its cheap living in india
in cities like mumbai where artist get 500$ or Rs 25k per month is just not enough to live a tension free financial life when it comes to the cost of living,a 1 bhk apartment cost Rs. 8-12k per month and on top of that other expenses

thngs are not too diiferent when compared to country like US one can get same standard of home at same cost be it usa or india,

but then in india roto is the short cut to enter the industry,and then if u have knowledge,u are a geek with vfx and compositing and have concepts of work arounds in vfx its cool enough,
mind you a geek with a software is not required but a geek in work is required,as far as software goes companies give training for different softwares
so the thing is u need to know is how to give a good roto mind you not a great or jitterless roto just a good roto and then the headache of quality and software knowledge is on the co. ,things change really fast here,
i have seen people going from rs. 8k (200$) per month to rs.40k approx (approx1000$) per month in 1-2 years and in 5 years time $ 10k(approx Rs. 500000) per month with super respect and blackberries and what not,
still not equivalent to what a compositor gets in US,its good enough
but u can expect a civic or nissan in 5-7 years
and the thing is if u are a good enough and talented artist u can work in companies like weta or DD or DN or ILM no matter what country u belong coz at the end everyone dreams to work in these companies

but for a guy like me who enjoys every aspect of vfx from roto to compositing to 3d to matchmoving 100$ per month isn’t a problem as far as i am in a good studio with awesome work stations and di machines and flames around me and my work gets recognized and appreciated and the appreciation is also shown financially:D ,
coz i know i can be at a good encome level in some time,

and thats what i love about our industry,u don’t have to be a MIT grad to get a great job,what you should know is how to work and constantly upgrade urself,

as far as salary goes you can’t expect $ 10k as a fresher

as far as outsourcing is concerned don’t worry u out of india artist its the artist that is suffering here ,remember that rant by lee stranhann about the vfx studio being high tech sweat shops , facilities are charging good enough amount for the work ,
its true that the cost is low but its not so low that u all will get jobless or anything,
and as far is business goes every facility wants to save a bit from here and there and thats where outsourcing comes,

and as far as my thinking goes,outsourcing is good as far as r&d does not suffers from it,
what i mean to say is avatar was a great r&d in terms of techno and other stuff,and james cameron didn’t outsourced work for low cost,i wonder if there was anykind of outsourcing for the film and this is great,
roto and paint dosen’t require that amount of r&d and hence things can be outsorced,

so lets not build a bridge of difference between artist on the issue of outsourcing,everything is alright;) .

this is my take on all the india outsorcing stuff

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