Marius Pantea’s Post

To all my fellow Indie VFX, Virtual Production studios and Virtual Creators… I will be the first to admit that, YES, our world is on fire. Not just a little fire, but a full on Armageddon “not many may survive” type fire. I will also tell you this though. I have lived through many Armageddons. In my 19 years on YouTube, there has been an apocalypse once every 2 1/2 years or so. We were always afraid that the rug was going to be pulled, and that we’d all lose our ability to make money and that other terrible things would happen. Some of us did quit and never looked back while others stayed focus and learned to adapt to the changes. A lot of what I’ve experienced as a content creator is remarkably what I’m seeing now in this new creative space. There are many who will fail, but not because the tech wasn’t there but because they just had a hard time adjusting to the constant changes that needed to be made to truly succeed. Being on a team is especially hard. There are so many really great talented people on teams who are having a hard time making these pivot because the bigger a team is, the harder it is to change. Not to mention the fact that investors are typically a part of the picture as well and expect certain things. In hindsight, I’m so glad I wasn’t able to secure funding because I think I would find myself in the same situation as many others who’ve fallen recently. There’s a lot of pressure and commitment when it comes to outside funding. If you want my advice fiends, embrace the changes! Know that for every person or team that drops off, just increases your value. Still, what is value? Is value the money that you make? Is value the experience you have in this one life we live? Is value being able to touch more lives to make this world a little better than you left it? Find what value means to you and focus on THAT value. Change is hard but change is what makes us great. Learn to change, love to learn and don’t let failure take you down! Let failure show you the opportunities you have to learn! What we do is NOT easy and if it was, everyone would do it. So be proud of yourselves for knowing that you can do such amazing things! We are so early in this game that walking away now would just be silly unless you don’t actually love it. So even if you run out of money, don’t give up! Do it on the side! Find the time and do it because you love it. Don’t give it up completely! Your time will come so long as you continue to press forward with your heart rather than your desire for financial wealth. Money is magic, my friend. I have learned this time and time again. If you got into this because it sounded like something amazing that you would love to do then don’t forget that and make that your prime focus! How much money would you spend to do what you do now if you worked a regular job? Think about that for a minute. Don’t give up! Lean in.

VFX Pipelines and innovation. I'm talking to more than a dozen studios and seeing two very different strategies playing out right now. Half of them have scaled back their teams, cut costs, and have deferred as many decisions and spends as possible to weather the post writer's strike storm. And the other half are begrudgingly embracing the lull, going deep on retooling and optimization, and using this as an opportunity to focus on the foundation of their workflows - and invest in their futures. Fully appreciate the drivers of both models - and it is easy to say that a company should do A or B in this moment. What's the point in optimizing your workflows and systems if your studio goes cash flow belly up by Q3 waiting for the work to return? But how often do you get a chance to implement all of the changes and new technology into your studio and have the entire team engaged? We've all had to wait for new tech and systems to roll out because Project A or Episode B was deep in production and fragile as f*ck. Thoughts? Build back better? Batten down the hatches? #vfx #innovation

🔴Netflix’s AAA-vision studio, “Team Blue,” is shutting down. The past 24 hours have been dreadful. After Netflix, Popreach Games shuttered its Vancouver studio, and Inflexion Games closed its UK subsidiary. The most alarming part is that this impacts leading devs from hits like God of War, Halo, and Overwatch. We have compiled a list of 900+ devs who got laid off recently: https://bit.ly/4dSgl2B Please share this post with founders, recruiters, and hiring managers of game studios! Here are the devs we are celebrating today with a request to reshare and help the devs reach profiles of recruiters currently hiring. Jon Newman — A veteran dev and Audio Director who has worked for studios like Inflexion Games, Improbable, Creative Assembly, Crytek, and Codemasters. Jon has contributed to sound design and audio for titles like Nightingale, Total War: Warhammer 2, Robinson: The Journey, Hunt: Showdown, Guitar Hero Live, GRID, F1, and DiRT series. Rebecca Parnell — A Principal Audio Designer at Inflexion Games who founded and directed Magicbrew Ltd for over 11 years, providing audio services across the gaming industry. Rebecca has worked on sound for over 50 titles, collaborated with developers like Microsoft, Hello Games, and Space Ape, and is a BAFTA Award-winning sound designer. Omar Parada — An industry veteran with over two decades of experience specializing in VFX for games. One of Omar's most notable roles was at Ninja Theory, where he worked as a Senior VFX Artist for five years, contributing to the visual effects for DmC Devil May Cry, including DLC content. Most recently, he led the VFX work for Nightingale as a Principal VFX Artist at Inflexion Games. Tom Avis — As Senior Audio Designer, he played a key role in shaping the audio landscape for Nightingale, contributing to sound design for weapons, creatures, and environments. Before this, he worked at Improbable, developing the audio style for Project Stavka. He previously shipped games like The House of the Dead: Overkill and Rabbids Rumble during his time at Headstrong Games. Paul Scargill — An OG Audio Programmer, having started his career at DMA Design before it became Rockstar Games. With over two decades of experience, he has worked at Team17 on the Worms series and later at Sony Computer Ent. EU, where he contributed for 12 years. *** #layoffsupport #netflix #inflexiongames

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🚨 Kaedim3d.com is HIRING 🚨 Send resumes to recruiting3d@kaedim.com [Interactivity] is a way to increase player engagement in story moments, which in turn maximizes immersion." ⭐ The world's best game studios ship 7x faster with Kaedim3d.com - try it today to turn sketches into game assets in minutes

🚨 Kaedim3d.com is HIRING 🚨 Send resumes to recruiting3d@kaedim.com [Interactivity] is a way to increase player engagement in story moments, which in turn maximizes immersion." ⭐ The world's best game studios ship 7x faster with Kaedim3d.com - try it today to turn sketches into game assets in minutes

We’ve all heard the classic interview question: “Where do you see yourself in five years?” Well, for those of us in the VFX industry, this question feels like a cosmic joke right now. With the current wave of layoffs and closures hitting the industry, it’s more like, "Where do you see this studio in five years?" This image perfectly captures the sentiment. You're sitting across from some VFX studios, and instead of asking about your five-year plan, the thought on everyone's mind is: "Will this studio even survive for five more years?" In a rapidly changing industry where technology and trends shift faster than the color correction in post-production, stability feels like an illusion. We've seen some amazing studios deliver mind-blowing visual effects one day, only to shut down the next. It's like watching a beautifully rendered CGI scene disintegrate into pixels. And let's be real, no one wants to be caught mid-render when the servers go dark! But amidst all this uncertainty, there’s still a certain charm to the chaos. The VFX industry may be tough, but it’s also filled with some of the most passionate and resilient artists out there. While job security might be about as reliable as a render farm during crunch time, the dedication to the craft is unwavering. The question of survival isn’t just about the studios, it’s about the artists who keep pushing the boundaries of what’s visually possible, no matter how bumpy the road gets. So, when that interviewer asks, “Where do you see yourself in five years?” you might as well answer: “Hopefully, still doing what I love, wherever that may be.” Because in this industry, it’s not about where you’re sitting — it’s about what you’re creating. And hey, if you're lucky, maybe the studio will survive too. #VFX #VisualEffects #CareersInVFX #JobSecurityInVFX #CreativeIndustry #FutureOfVFX #IndustryTrends

🚨 Kaedim3d.com is HIRING 🚨 Send resumes to recruiting3d@kaedim.com [Interactivity] is a way to increase player engagement in story moments, which in turn maximizes immersion."⭐ The world's best game studios ship 7x faster with Kaedim3d.com - try it today to turn sketches into game assets in minutes

🚨 Kaedim3d.com is HIRING 🚨 Send resumes to recruiting3d@kaedim.com [Interactivity] is a way to increase player engagement in story moments, which in turn maximizes immersion." ⭐ The world's best game studios ship 7x faster with Kaedim3d.com - try it today to turn sketches into game assets in minutes