Please share tips by marking the dialogues as a reference point based on the below video script. So that I can insert brolls as per your cool suggestion and make the video engaging. Please keep the dialogues unchanged and note that I am starting at point whre the dialogue says 'So I think for me it was not this typical story where I was already aware of VFX as a career when I was a little for me I always played games'. And here is the whole script.

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Pakua

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Hi my name is alexanderista

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I'm a technical director and coach and Visual Effects Animation and games

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And I work at Wetter Effects on Avatar The Way of Water Shangshi and the 10 Rings Monsters at work and The Amazing World Gumball

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And especially at the moment I'm focusing how to bring people into the technical environment as a technical director especially from artistic roles because I believe it's one of the most important roles that we can have

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And I teach them how to solve problems especially with Python in Maya Max Houdini and nuke and including advanced and recently with AI and pipeline

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Because I strongly believe that the important part of our work is to solve technical problems to be better in our job to be better for our team and to progress

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Because we live in our complex environment and making movies and games is inherently technical

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So that's one of the focus that I have because I believe being a technical director is one of the most interesting exciting and rewarding positions out there

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Why did you choose VFX as a career

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So I think for me it was not this typical story where I was already aware of VFX as a career when I was a little for me I always played games

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I always watched movies

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I watched probably everything under the sun

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I played age of Empire Starcraft Counter Strike and everything that was popular at my time

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And I love strategy games

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I love puzzle games and so on

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And for me it was never something I wanted to aspire to

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One of my friends who was picked into Freedius Max he always loved to do it

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He had this huge book of videos Max where I was like whoa

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And for me it was more to be someone who creates things

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So I always wanted to make a project with him

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When he's doing all the art for the art I was someone who's planning the game or the movie or something like that

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And then over time I started to study law and I wanted to go into media law but then I noticed it's not for me

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It was not as interesting

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It was not as much media as I was hoped for

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And so I transitioned to Media Computer Signs which obviously had much more but it also had a lot of these programming and so on where we actually did project like a small film

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We did a video game but it was mostly focused on some random sea and signals and physics and math elements

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And then by accident I went to the FMX and saw this booth for the film academy where they also talked about the role of a technical director and was the first time I've ever heard about it

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So I was like intrigued and then I applied

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I did the whole test in the interview and then I became a technical director at the film academy

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And that what really steamrolled my interest in visual effects animation in games

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At the end of the day I don't think I'm the most typical visual effect animation in games artist technical director

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Because for me the most interesting thing about this whole role is on a to express myself to create things and be to solve interesting problems

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So the end of today is for me it's more important to have a project that I love to have things and challenges in there that I love

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If it goes into one direction or another direction for me that's not as important because there's different ways how to express your ideas where challenges lies

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What something interesting is

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So I think that is the thing that kind of inspired me to continue this role to grow to also change and pivot in between times from becoming a technical director and shading and lighting to pipeline and now even training other technical directors and technical artists Jean Python and recently in pipeline and AI because I believe it is a big part of what we do and how we can help ourselves and our team

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What are some of your favorite projects you have worked on

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My favorite project and I think I mentioned it every time I get asked about it is any man with Mihi and Nicolas

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We did this my bridge thing where mybridge is this famous photographer who created one of the first moving pictures especially with the horse from the side kind of like science environment

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And they wanted to do this human who moves like an animal in the inside this blocky science environment

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And for me that was the first big exposure to technical directing and partially as an artist lighting and shading as well

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And it was so interesting because these two directors were also technical directors themselves and they approached everything with this eye of research

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Okay we need to try it before we can validated and use it

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So it was very interesting to see how they kind of break all the limits inside this project

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So everything you would think of all it's maybe too difficult or impossible

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They just okay let's try it

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Let's go out and scan environments before we scan a person for this

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Let's do some motion capture test before we actually bring cats and dogs and poserts into our environment and do that

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And it was really interesting how fast you can create things how fast you can make sure that things will probably work

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And at the end of the day even for the short film of 1 minute for the ITFS International Trick from festival was not the best movie I've ever made or ever watched

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But I kind of loved the project because first for me the big movie at the end is the actual making off which I highly recommend you to watch

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But especially on the experience of you can do everything

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You can create everything

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Yes maybe the result will not always be the best but that's because maybe you didn't spend enough time and effort to make it stick

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And that was one of the problems in this project

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We didn't have enough time to really you know screw everything correctly so it looks as much as we wanted but it was so exciting to constantly challenge your beliefs and to experience new things

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And it was just an overall amazing experience that kind of followed me around into every part that I did afterwards

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From working at Wetar Effects from working on different projects from even education where things that I thought will may be hard or impossible or needed a lot of time are actually much simpler if you just did a small test and then just move into it and say hey okay let me try this out and then let me prove that this is possible and then I can do a whole course or a whole event life by myself

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Can you share any memorable moments from your career

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I think one of my main memorable moments was when I did the Launchpad internship at Frame Store in London

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It was such an interesting situation because I was also trying to negotiate with the film academy to do that because on one site we did have a good relationship with Frame Store

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But at the same time it was kind of in the curriculum and it was a little bit complicated

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So there was a lot of stress involved

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But at the same time it was such an interesting experience to be in this environment

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And Eugenia was fantastic

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She kind of met me at the FMX and then later kind of brought me in and she was my supervisor

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And it was really interesting to go into a professional environment

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And they had this amazing thing where they introduced different department from fulfird floor to all the other elements that we as we are maybe not familiar with at least for me personally I was mostly familiar with all the department but it was interesting to see how they worked on Dr

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Strange and so on

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So like more the inside of the actual professional practical

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And I remember there was this one situation in the beginning when I sit down and I did my first elements and I was a little bit shaky because I wasn't sure how this will translate

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But besides a few things where I was felt not hundred percent comfortable and not hundred percent there overall I was kind of surprised

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It's like oh yeah this is something I did before

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This is not something super surprising

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So for me that was one of the kind of interesting experience where you're like oh yeah everyone cooking with water

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Obviously sometimes the water is hotter in this kind of companies but at the end of the day if you kind of are prepared to some degree and you're willing to look around ask people questions and just kind of do the work over time you get integrate yourself into every position at the end of the day especially if you come with a decent base you don't have to know everything

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But it was kind of an interesting experience also to live in London for two months and they also paid you

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And overall I thought it was just interesting to see where my education could be going

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And really thankful to Frame Store for doing this

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I think it's a great program and I hope they continue including also other visual effects studios

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Which software do you use most in your day to day work

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For me it's a little bit hard to say because I do lighting and shading but also do a lot of pipeline

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So as a pipeline TD you basically touch every software

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It doesn't really matter

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Everything blends together

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Also when I started to do my piping courses one of the things that I wanted to achieve is that everyone understands that when you learn Python it doesn't matter if it's for Maya Magsudini New Katana whatever

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Because at the end of the day Python is Python is Python

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It's like speaking English and speaking English in London or in America or Spain or France or Thailand it's still English maybe sometimes it has an accent but it is still English

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And that is a big thing

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So if you are working especially in technical directing pipeline technical directing everything blends

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So for me obviously the biggest software packages are Maya Nuke and Tudini

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And then depending on the environment can be Freedius Max or Katana and so on

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I kind of grew up with Maya and Fudia smacks especially with Max Gripped and Python on that side

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And that was my beginning

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And but I see the transition going into more and more Houdini also not only as an effects tool but also for general for lighting and everything else

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So for me it's always a little bit to see what is the need in current project and to look at that software look at the plugins like USD understand them because that is something that could be important and that could be asked to modify to integrate

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And so for me that is the most important thing at the end of the day

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I don't think it's really important which software you use if you do good work but it can be important when you apply for a job that your software best case Alliance Hundred percent but is even close because it allows them to hire you and to bring you back up to speed very fast so you can start working as as possible on the project

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What do you think the future holds for your department in the VFX industry

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I think technical directing is one of the kind of unsang unseen elements and departments in most projects and most kind of companies and studios

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Because I think a lot of people don't know what technical directing exact is if it even exists in the studio

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And if it exists a lot of people not sure something with programming something with technical elements and so on

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And I think at the end of the day that's one of the things that I try to do is to educate what technical directing exactly is

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It has a lot of varieties from rigging technical director modeling pipeline effects technical director

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There's a lot of raw suits

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It has a lot of variety

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But simply said my department is about connecting the technical software development site with the artistic site and make a bridge between the two by providing understanding support and scripts and solving problems basically

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And I think there is a lot of potential for technique ring

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I think it's one of the most and strongest position in the future because it kind of integrates both sides

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A technical director who's really good at her job there are artists and they are soft the developer and they can actually do both

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I can do lighting

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I can do shading but I can also look into how to write a shader how to write tools for lighting lighting linking and so on

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And so for me this is something where I feel like there's a lot of future in there

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And by solving problems learning things like Python you can really establish yourself as a technical artist as a technical director and have a really interesting career

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Solve problems support other people and have at the same time a big variety of what you can do

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Some technical directors are more artistic they help with the art part they do complex art elements

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Some technical director are more technical they more into scriptwriting problem solving and so on

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So there is a big gray zone of what a technical director actually is which is really cool because it allows you depending on your specialities and the environment that you are to pivot to different environments and have a lot of variation in your work

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So I believe it's one of the big roles of the future and I recommend everyone to look at it

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Maybe not become a technical director but at least have a certain technical artist element because it's very valuable in environment where everything is relatively technical and complex especially with the rise of machine learning and AI

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Could you please share five tips for upcoming VFX artists

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Yes

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So I talked on my 21 Artist Show podcast and find on my YouTube channel with a bunch of people and talked about the career

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And I think one of the big misconception of how a VFX career work is a very straight line

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And most of the time it's not like that

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They're most of the time especially in our industry where there is no particular path

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Slowly schools come into play but it's not the most typical way

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It's often this you know squarely line and back and forth in every direction

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So just be aware that your career is not a straight line

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It's often just kind of it can go into a different direction you can go back you can go forward

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And that is something I think that if you encourage that if you understand that that really helps you

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And I think the most important thing that I noticed with a lot of people that are successful and I remember the occasion bomb who said I want to make Godzilla

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That is my goal

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That is what I'm training

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So what did he do

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He looked at NPC who did Godzilla

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They looked at his style and then they just copied that until he became really good in this Pacific style

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And then later he got hired to do Gorzila

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And I think being laser focused on what you want to do and practically how to get there I think it's one of the most important elements of any career but especially in this career

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And you just need to know what do you want to do at the end of the day and where maybe you will not end up at this Neo Pixar

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But if you have basically the same role the same task just at a different company but it's as exciting as interesting I think that is already an achievement and that is something that all strive for

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So I think being laser focus is super super helpful

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And at the same time you should take opportunities that may be sound weird or ridiculous or outside of the of the environment that you are in

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As long as you try to make them work inside your house

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Because a lot of times you can find opportunities that are maybe lower paid or not as you know exactly what you do

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But then there's a lot of wiggle room to form them into something that are actually either create new interest or can enhance the elements that you are ready to do

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So take opportunities but also say no to think that are too far away where you don't see a connection

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And just make sure that you still follow the plan at the end of the day

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And one of the most important things that I noticed is also is the connecting with other people through from education

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So if you are in for example one of the things that we do at our Python master classes I encourage people to connect

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We have cohort bodies so they work together and learn together

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But I also encourage each other to connect chair to help each other

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Because it is such an important part not only for learning but also later in life when you go into a company or you're looking for a job and someone says hey love to work with you on this master class or you help me in this forum and we had a good relationship so I will recommend you to come into our studio or I'm building a team and I thought of you of joining

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So connecting with other people is maybe even 50 percent of the whole thing like skills and then connection

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So it's not only about you know vitamin V and getting recommended and so on

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It's also to have people to help you if you struggle to

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Okay how do I this how do I get into this studio

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How do I get into this role

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How do I solve this problem

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It's just an important part of our industry to be part of a community of a group of kind of connected to certain people because we rely on yeah teamwork not only to make the project but also teamwork to get to certain positions

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For example I would never achieve wet effects and work there if it wasn't for all the people who recommended me from Eugenie and my other supervisors a Christopher and they recommended me

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And that pushed over the edge of actually being working at what I fix

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And that's something I also try to coach people in my kind of interview and job application and contract negotiation and mentoring coaching because I believe often we are the one who standing in our own way and we have this kind of thing that we think oh if we want to work there we have to be this mega wizard or something like that

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But often it's not that true

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So for us it's also important to not stand in our own way take our chances but at the same time be prepared

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So yeah maybe we don't we are not hundred percent prepared but we are prepared as good as we can and just try and see what will happen at the end of the day

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Independent as whatever role you have artists software developer technical Direct Technical Artist is to become a problem solver and to learn Python

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Even a pure artist can benefit from solving their own problems if something is not working

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Maya Max Houdini is crashing or slow

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Being someone who's like okay let me look at the facts let me look at the software and figure it out

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And learning Python just allows you to solve problems in a different way to speed up process you know create a button to combine 10 steps so you don't have to do it again and again

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So I think that is our essential skills and I highly recommend everyone to at least aspire to go something into the realm of technical artist technical director because I believe this are the roles of the future

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And even if you love art and you love that just can help you to be more independent to help even other people your project and yourself by kind of understanding how to solve problems and speed up your own workful

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That's it for me

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If you interested to know more just visit my website alexanderichtattd

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Com

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There you can find Python courses and coaching opportunities to get into the industry to flourish in the industry

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And you can also find a lot on my block and YouTube channel

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We have a monthly TD meet up where we talk about different topics that are relevant for visual effect animation and games

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And I also have a podcast 21 artist show where you can look into different careers of different people and maybe find something that resonates with you and can help you to move on

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Thank you very much for having me and I will see you in the next video