An abstract look at the life of a VFX artist in a big game studio

September 18, 2015 4:22 PM

"Hey Jerry, what's it like working in a video game studio?" (sl tumblr)
posted by buriednexttoyou (10 comments total)

Much like any other development field then.

/jumps into Friday tub of vodka.
posted by Artw at 4:32 PM on September 18, 2015 [4 favorites]

There are five different answers to “Hey Jerry, what’s it like working in a video game studio?” which either means that there’s some kind of transitive property of GIFs or that he needs a few more questions
posted by Going To Maine at 4:43 PM on September 18, 2015

While I don't fully endorse ALL of the gifs in OP I can 100% vouch for 100% of these gifs RE: qa at a game studio (or anywhere)
posted by Reyturner at 5:01 PM on September 18, 2015 [2 favorites]

As a sound guy (the VFX artist's best friend, they make the explosion, we make it hit hard and then double-team the engine programmer to try to explain how it should function, and then befriend that one person in the QA department who actually tests with headphones on and writes the GOOD audio bugs for us) I have lived all of this and feel these feels deeply
posted by jake at 5:52 PM on September 18, 2015 [1 favorite]

Well, everyone tests with headphones on... we're just not listening to the game.

It's QA's darkest secret.
posted by Reyturner at 5:59 PM on September 18, 2015

Yeah but sometimes you get that one guy on the autistic spectrum who is OBSESSED with game audio, writes totally fuckin AMAZING and technically precise sound bugs constantly despite having no formal training, and then gets hired on the sound team and his salary quadruples because he's a goddamn WIZARD

We got SOME friends in there, haha.
posted by jake at 6:04 PM on September 18, 2015 [1 favorite]

Yeah but sometimes you get that one guy... who is OBSESSED with game audio...

And then a programmer, having already decided "we" don't need to support any formats besides WAV, decides that the installer package is too big and 8kHz mono is good enough for everything.

(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
posted by Foosnark at 7:27 PM on September 18, 2015 [5 favorites]

HAHAHA someone's clearly been around the block.

For real though, I love VFX people. They're literally the visual component of my job, and I am completely fascinated by shaders, particles, lighting effects, explosions, fire, lasers, it's ALL of the cool visual things that make a game go from "Farming Sim" to "Call of Duty" graphics, and it's such an exquisitely specific, timing-sensitive, and bizarrely technical art form.

Anyone in that industry, please know the sound people have your backs and love making (sometimes literally) magic with you
posted by jake at 7:39 PM on September 18, 2015 [2 favorites]

As an (ex) audio programmer in the games industry, the feeling is mutual.
posted by inpHilltr8r at 8:32 PM on September 18, 2015

Don't jump into a tub of vodka, on Friday or any other day. It's murder on the mucous membranes.

don't ask
posted by Devonian at 9:57 AM on September 19, 2015 [1 favorite]