VFX careers: do you have the skills the film industry is crying out for?

The UK film industry is riding high. In 2010, a record £1.1bn was spent on UK film production. With effects-heavy blockbusters like the Harry Potter and Pirates of the Caribbean series' driving this boom, it's hardly surprising that UK film's fastest growing component is visual effects. In fact, if the UK's visual effects (VFX) industry continues to grow at its current rate, its annual revenues will pass £600m in 2014.

However, there is a shortage of home grown talent to fuel this growth, meaning employers must rely on professionals from mainland Europe (and the rest of the world). If we are to create a lasting era of success in our industry, we need to develop local talent so that our world-leading VFX industry benefits British workers and produces truly British products.

The Next Gen Report, which was co–authored by Alex Hope from VFX giant Double Negative, looked at the skills challenges faced by the VFX industry.

At present, there are too few courses producing work-ready graduates. To this end, we have produced the Core Skills of VFX handbook. It's a guide to the key technical knowledge and 'softer' skills a new entrant should ideally possess that we developed in consultation with industry, and is freely available on the Creative Skillset website.

As outlined in the handbook, VFX is essentially a combination of cinematography and maths, and it is this combination of creative and technical skills that is increasingly sought by employers. While an animator/artist won't always need mathematics in their day to day role, it helps if they have an understanding of what their techie counterparts are talking about, and can adjust their work accordingly.

Most other people in VFX, such as match movers, compositors, programmers, and database developers will be using maths and science to bring a filmmaker's creative vision to life, so the ability to combine their technical knowledge with a creative instinct will set them apart and make them hugely valuable. Some of the key disciplines that are used in the field are trigonometry, applied mechanics, physics and basic algebra.

We recently produced a video to give people an idea of the kinds of subjects VFX professionals have done to get where they are. If you're just starting out, this could be a good place to start. Graduates should use their time at university to produce a portfolio of their best work. Making contact with the VFX companies that you would like to work for while still studying can be helpful as they can steer you in the right direction.

Employers will always look favourably on graduates who can demonstrate they have been proactive about self-directed learning, and made the most of any of the international festivals like FMX, which are great for exposing people to the best examples of VFX work. Employers also tell us that graduates also need to be able to demonstrate skills such as team work and the ability to work to a brief, because while most artists tend to be perfectionists, a busy VFX house needs people who can work with speed and efficiency.

The bigger VFX houses prefer people with a specialist set of skills, while the smaller houses like generalists. If you are specialising in a particular role, at least be aware of the other departments you will be working with and how they impact on the work you're doing and vice versa.

If you've already done a VFX course but you're still struggling to get a job, there are ways to improve your skills and employability. At a recent VFX day for tutors, employers talked about how much they value self-directed learning. You can download for free 30 day trials for most of the software used in the industry.

By working with students now, we hope to ensure that the industry will have job-ready recruits in the future so that when our industry does reach that £600m mark in 2014, it is British talent that's creating the magic.

Dan Simmons is head of film at Creative Skillset - the sector skills council for the creative and media industries

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