Is working with Flame a stressful job as people says??

[pipopi]

Hi, I’m wondering if you people that work with Flame consider it a stressful job as some people has telled to me.

I will be more specific.

From what I understand and others said, Flame is geared to client driven compositing and the major market is advertising, wich need to be done really fast due to time constraints. I’m wrong?

So I suppose a Flame artist would be always working with someone at his side looking how he works and… maybe loosing patience when the artist needs some time to advance… and the client must be expecting him to do the job really fast cause he is paying like 600$ per hour (depending of the site, of course). Dont you think it is a stressful situation??? How you guys can held this every day for hours?

I do compositing with After Effects for low budget projects and I know I really hate having the client at the side sometimes when they are there. I think is much better working alone cause you dont have to calm the patience of the others at your side talking about his dog while you wait for the render to be done…

I only see the benefit that working with directors/producers at your side makes you much better professional with high profile jobs. It seems like a great oportunity to learn from his experience.

Also I see that almost all Flame artists are freelancers, so always from a place to the other(more stress). I’ve seen very few full time jobs on Flame announced on the Internet.

What do you guys think about what I’m saying? Maybe my vision about working with Flame is not real?

Wouldn’t be a Shake/Nuke job better to have a life?

Thanks.

[Yanuar Prabowo]

Your assumptions are correct. It is indeed stressful and typically supervised. Though the stress eases with time and experience, Flame instability has always been a constant. And half of the toolset should be left to antiquity. I think other flame/smoke artists will agree that it forces you to work on your acting skills as you cleverly distract the client during multiple reboots. I know people who love it and swear by it. I do not, and I tend to share the opinion of this brilliant Prolost article: http://prolost.blogspot.com/2008/10/what-should-adobe-do-with-premiere-pro.html

[Isaac]

i think your observations are more or less accurate, however i believe your conclusion to be flawed. the Job of crafting electronic visual effects is inherently a collaborative, process art. Although working in a supervised session may seem annoying, difficult and sometimes frustrating, ultimately it makes you a better artist. You will learn to manage difficult situations with many complex factors and personalities. You will be forced to learn how to work faster and more efficiently. More importantly, if you develop the skills to negotiate these client situations while managing the technical and artistic aspects of the job, you will ultimately be more able to guide the jobs you work on to a more satisfactory conclusion, instead of sitting in a closet just taking orders from someone who does not understand the art or the process.

my 2 cents.

tim

[tscholton]

If you have a flame that is rebooting constantly you need to find a new sysadmin. This has not been my experience or one that I hear about (and I have a lot of flame artist friends). In the last year alone I have worked freelance in many different places and on a range of versions of the software and can count on one hand the number of times the software has exited.

To answer the original post I think there is stress in a lot of areas of the business. Flame tends to be the box people are looking to for finishing the job… bringing together all the elements and polishing the final product. Sometimes the job can be the number of shots you need to complete in a day, sometimes it can be to work in a room full of people expecting miracles. It is the higher price box so expectations are higher, so yes that can lead to stress. I don’t think I could say that it is more stress than someone working on a complex Nuke comp with a deadline looming.

I think the important thing for anyone in this business is balance. Having a healthy life outside of work is as important as the work and this is often forgotten.

Jeff

[Brown Bichon]

I find it can be stressful to have a room full of clients looking over your shoulder but it can also be very rewarding. The speed of the Flame allows you to make changes quickly, which makes it feel more like a collaboration between artist and client. It makes the client feel much more involved in the session.
If I have a group of clients in the room and they’re discussing changes among themselves, I’ll follow along making changes on the Flame so when they come to a decision, I am almost finished with those changes. Then I say, “Do you guys mean something like this?” That usually impresses them. So it’s kind of an instant gratification thing as well.

Butch Seibert
composite director
Turner Studios – Effects

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I have watched a lot of flame artists over the past 12 years and have noted that the stressed artists are the ones that have poor workflow or are not organized.

As a Flame artist your normally the last person to touch the job before it’s released. Your probably also the person that is briefing other 2d & 3d artists.

With this in mind you need to be a person that has very good communication & listening skills.

All this can be learned, but if this doesn’t sound like you then I would suggest sticking with your current job. You will probably enjoy your work more.

The only other thing to note is a flame artist will often get paid 3 to 4 times more than a shake/nuke compositor.

Goodluck
Jeff

[pixelmonk]

“Is working with Flame a stressful job”
Yes!
But isn’t that why we love it!!

[Saran Sirikasamsap]

absolutely ! 🙂

[Martin Furness]

I’m full time with a company and have been operating Flame in a staff position for many years. I believe the stress is based on your knowledge of the software. The more comfortable you are with the software the less stress you tend to emit. Also being staff for many years, I would say that maybe 30 percent of the jobs I do have clients constantly behind my back. Yes the clients are around but if you have a good support team and they understand the process then the clients are usually detoured until your in a good place to show them your progress. Have I had the annoying client sit behind me all day? Absolutely! Somewhere around 1000 times, but with the comfort level of knowing the box, client skills developed throughout the years, and the confidence to execute the final product it doesn’t bother me. In fact a good artist will alter their work, while working and listening to the clients interaction amongst themselves. If your able to make changes on the fly without the client actually telling you, is a part of being a good artist. Being able to operate the box should become second nature while all your other senses are still active and not distorted. Your focused, but not fully engulfed in the box. With all this said the client will sense that you are confident, you know the box, your fast, and your a good bullsheit artist. To me its not the box that is stressful, its the support team, deadlines, attitudes and lack of communication.

[Dan Marbrook]

Well,

You have to take it with a bit of philosophy. Meaning, what stress means for one person, it’s a peace of cake for another. Therefore i’d say this:

I mostly agree with the other guys, that stress is somehow relative to your knowledge of the software…But also how much pressure is put on you in terms of time of execution and complexity of the composite you are doing.

Now, personally i find it to be a very challenging job. Everyday different situation and everyday problems to solve. In the end, it’s creative work (most of the time), but it can also
be very boring (being as a service). So it really depends on which project you work on,
and many other factors.

Yes, there is also the thing that you have to deal with people (and sometimes really not very smart people), ops, i mean, people who don’t really understand the problem, people who know
zero about film-making (directors included), people whos creative mind equals -100. Etc etc etc. But eventually, you have to deal with this kind of people every day in different situations (Bus stop, supermarket, porn-shop, etc). So….In the end it’s not really difficult isn’t it ?

Keep strong, follow your ambitions, fear noone and mostly, be humble and try to make a
good job.

Take Care,
Sebastjan Rijavec
Inferno artist.

[Saran Sirikasamsap]

and read thru all 6 pages of this thread > http://fxguide.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4537&page=6

[Jaron]

Absolutely right, But I can say It depends on your performance and ability handling client.

[Saran Sirikasamsap]

exactly…and i think that goes with every job/profession.

@peter 27254 wrote:

Absolutely right, But I can say It depends on your performance and ability handling client.

[Martin Furness]

Rohit,

LMAO, I think you said it just right!

[Isaac]

that’s right damit. rub that stylus on your boo boos and keep going.

great quote!

[Author]

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