Alin Dumitru | Static VFX
First off, tell us a bit about you, how did you get into this industry and what are your personal career highlights?
Thank you a lot for the opportunity and congratulations for all the hard work with World VFX Day, we’re really looking forward to this year’s event. Regarding our start – Liviu (Dinu) and I have both been keen on computers and technology since we were little, playing games and wondering how all those graphics were made. This curiosity led us to dive deeper into software. Throughout primary and high school, we were involved in various cultural and educational projects where we took on the roles of creating websites, trailers, photos, and more.
It’s interesting that we have found a good mix together – Liviu has a Computer Science background, while I come from a Film Academy background. Inspired by movies like Lord of the Rings and Jurassic Park, our passion for filmmaking and visual effects grew. Bit by bit, we started doing small jobs here and there, even from the age of 16-17, until we eventually found ourselves working in the industry. It was a smooth and unnoticeable evolution for us.
Obviously, when we decided to start StaticVFX together, we had no idea about the challenges we would face, but I would say that it helped us gain a better overall picture. We know for sure we haven’t reached our full potential and there is plenty more to learn and do, as individuals but also a studio. We’ve been fortunate enough to be part of various exciting projects, and we’re also trying to do our own stuff whenever possible.
Name some of the projects you’ve worked on over the last few years
Liviu and I have worked on all kinds of projects together as StaticVFX or independently, as leads or supervisors. In the last 2-3 years, besides commercial work, we can mention The Swarm, BirdBox Barcelona, To Catch a Killer, Troll and the Spy/Master TV series.
PROJECTS INCLUDE:
Many people have been affected by the strikes and general unrest within the industry. How has it affected you?
It was quite rough. Before the strike, we were looking to add more people to our team to tackle all the projects lined up for the entire year. Suddenly, after canceling or postponing work, we found ourselves in the opposite situation, wondering how we could keep the team and survive. Yes, you try to get the most out of it, but at the end of the day, it was a struggle.
How do you feel about the industry right now?
I feel things are slowly coming back, but it’s much more important for all of us to learn something from this. The way things are right now is not sustainable, and we all know it. There is a need to change things from a business, artist, and consumer perspective. We all want to watch compelling stories, create great visual effects to support those stories, make a profit, and also have time to enjoy with family and friends. But when one sector is ineffective or greedy, the rest suffer.
You started a wonderful initiative in itsonlymagic.com which is a new website to share resources from VFX tutorials to events. What is your mission with this website?
Thanks for that, and I hope it can help as many people as possible who want to start in the industry or are already in it and want to learn more. At our studio, we had a list of different books, links to tutorials, podcasts, and channels to follow for people new to VFX—a small roadmap from “What is VFX?” to “What software do I use?” to very specific topics, advanced tips and tricks, conferences, and organizations you might want to join. So, we had the idea to expand this and make it available online. It’s perfect because it doesn’t compete with anyone out there—it promotes any endeavor, school, organization, channel, or tutorial that brings value and helps. There are plenty of conferences, podcasts, and other valuable content that you might not know about, and pointing you to as many as possible can be a valuable input.
Can people help you with adding new content and resources?
There are plenty of pages that need content, and we’re working on it inbetween projects. Itsonlymagic.com is a project started by us but made for everyone out there. Anyone who wants to get involved, recommend, or propose resources or help in any other way is very much appreciated as we cannot cover everything. Besides that, there are certain areas where people with more experience than us can have a better understanding or point in a certain direction much better than we can, so we’re pretty much open to everything.
We want to have the final website, with all the content, by the end of summer and see how we can take it from there and keep developing and collaborating.
Do you have any advice or words for anyone feeling deflated by the state of the industry right now?
This is difficult because telling people to be positive and try to adapt when you lose jobs, friends, or cannot pay the mortgage is not what they want or need to hear in those moments. On top of that, sometimes visual effects and animation artists don’t get the recognition they deserve, which makes things even worse. On the other hand, there isn’t much you can do. Sure, you need to adapt, try to get clients from other industries, and maybe cut down costs, as a company, but also as an individual. If you have an idea for a show, do some concept work or a script, and try to get in touch with people who might be interested in developing it after all this gets better.
It feels like things are slowly getting back, but the most important thing is how we look into matters from now on and what we learn from this period. Maybe we can start to look at a different way of thinking and working, a more sustainable way for artists and businesses.
What other positive initiatives have you seen out there so far that helps people, even a little?
I think all the organizations aiming at helping people, creating communities, events, speaking out, and trying to shine a light on the amazing industry we’re in are incredible endeavours. Not in a particular order, but Women in Animation, Access VFX, World VFX Day, the “NO CGI is just invisible CGI” (The Movie Rabbit Hole) videos, events like FMX, AVIJOZI, London ACM SIGGRAPH, and many more. And not just that, there are hangouts organized around the world where artists meet in pubs or different locations to get feedback, catch up, or find support. I know it sounds weird, but sometimes knowing you’re not the only one in a bad spot can be comforting—we’re all having difficult moments, and maybe we can find calm in this connection, in the awareness that we are not alone.
In Bucharest, we started organizing VFX Hangouts in the past two years, and we encourage anyone to do that. What began as a simple beer & pizza gathering has evolved into a full day of conferences, speakers, and yes, beer & pizza. In September, we’ll be holding the 6th edition, and we’re quite excited about it as it’s one of the things we could do to give back.
