Nathan walker vfx demo reel

 

Once upon a time..

I used to do "visual effects on the computer for commercials and movies and stuff." 

That is how I described my job.

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For about 20 years I worked as a freelance Flame Artist.  Flame is the name of the visual effects compositing and animation software I used.  It was, and in some ways still is, the premiere platform for creating cutting edge visual effects.  

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My job was to do the final polish on a project before sending it out to go on air.  It was a high pressure job, and the hard work of dozens, sometimes hundreds or even thousands of people would be in my hands to finish up and to make look great.

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Over the years I worked on all kind of projects; commercials, movies, music videos, tv show promos, fine art installations, etc.

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In the beginning I hated it to my core.  Although I recognized how lucky I was to have the opportunity to advance in my career quickly while young, my mentor was an absolute asshole, and he made most days a fuckin headache.  Here is a link to a song I wrote about the prick a long time ago. 

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Over time I learned to enjoy the great benefits of my job like money and freedom, and not get so upset about the bad parts, like long hours, stress, and dark rooms. 

 

But the truth is I never felt entirely at ease in my job, and I was always afraid I was going to fuck up somehow, not because I believe myself to be a fuck up, but because I simply had holes in my technical knowledge from my first day to my last which haunted me constantly.   Receiving materials from clients was a headache, getting final approval on jobs was often nearly impossible, and the constant re-do's drove me bananas.  The sheer inefficiency of the post production world blew my mind my entire career. 

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A few years ago, I retired from the visual effects business. 

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I don't miss it at all.  Not one bit.