Jenna Helm, an Architectural Animation student, practices using her VR headset for a class project. Photo by Cloud Argue.
CGI artists are fighting for their rights with poor industry practices, while aspiring artists’ find themselves losing interest in working for film companies.
In recent months, several articles have come out criticizing Marvel’s practices when working with VFX artists. They have been criticized for many things, but the main trend that continues is that the artists are overworked and underpaid.
According to an article by Jennifer Bisset titled Marvel’s VFX Artists Are Suffering — and Starting to Speak Out on cnet.com on Aug. 5, these issues go as far back as 2012. This is around the time The Avengers came out and right before the MCU’s Phase Two began. Phase Two encompasses all MCU films from Iron Man 3 in 2013 to Ant-Man in 2015.
In the same article, one anonymous VFX artist describes how Marvel has three main issues. They said Marvel expects completed work far earlier than other studios, the environment is very high-pressure and the low budgets drive away more experienced artists. Marvel has become an infamous client within the effects artist community as a result.
In the past, Marvel was seemingly able to get away with this easier. The visual effects in early MCU movies like Iron Man was praised. However, around the time Black Panther was released in 2018, audiences noticed a decline in the quality of the visual effects.
In an article called ‘Black Panther’ is amazing. Why are its CG models so terrible? by Devindra Hardawar at Engadget written on Feb. 28, 2018, he said two CGI scenes were disappointing in a movie that was otherwise refreshing in the superhero genre.
Hardawar also explains that as movies have an increasing number of VFX shots, more firms get contracted to work on a single movie. This could possibly contribute to inconsistent quality even within one movie.
With the many problems in this sector coming to light, people looking to go into the industry have been rethinking their decision.
Jenna Helm, a first-year Architectural Animation student at Lethbridge College, says it has impacted where she wants to go after graduation.
“I would have loved to have gone into the film industry, but now I definitely have to be careful with where I chose to work,” Helm explains.
Helm plans to pursue architectural animation but isn’t fully set on anything yet.
The visual effects industry itself has many issues. The way firms get to be on projects is by having the lowest bid for their work on the number of sequences. This often means the artists work for free for some portion of the film.
According to Bisset’s article, VFX firms don’t push as hard against Marvel for better pay because they risk losing them as a client. When they provide multiple blockbusters a year, it can be difficult to fight for better working conditions.
Unionizing VFX artists has become a major concern. It would make it more difficult for firms to undercut their workers and make it harder for them to set lower bids on projects where they can’t pay their artists. One option for visual effects artists is the Animation Guild. However, there is still work they must do to organize their workplace, as protection is not automatic, as explained in Bisset’s article. Everyone has to agree in order to have the union’s protection.
