Career Paths
Career Paths is a way to help map out career development. It provides a simple framework for managers and mentors to tailor more specific individual plans to support ongoing evolution.
The topic of Career Paths is something that we don’t get a chance to unpack that often as a community. And rightfully so, as discussing this area can be awkward and time consuming. That and everybody thinks their way is the best way so we don’t get a lot of long term actionable advice all consolidated into one place. As a manager, part-time mentor and organizer of the Logik Hive-mind program, I’ve leaned on this information dozens of times over the years to help combat the challenges we all face at all levels in making our various Flame-related dreams come true. So it’s time it made it into a post. If there’s any interest, let me know and I can put together a slide deck or pdf for easier offline browsing.
A huge thanks to Framestore’s Simon Devereux for putting this together during our time together at The Mill over a decade ago. If you guys haven’t had a chance to meet Simon yet, you should. He’s been a passionate advocate for artists for years now, and has made a career out of putting thoughtful pen to thoughtful paper on these sorts of topics. He’s the Founder and Director of AccessVFX.
Runner or Intern to Assistant Flame Artist
The path below shows an example route for moving from a Runner or Intern to Assistant Flame Artist, showing some examples of what would be expected in the role.
Creativity and Craft
- Always striving for creative excellence and fighting for great ideas and bringing them to life
- You have built good relationships within 2D through training, seeking out experiences to develop your specific area of interests
- Good understanding and competent application of software and techniques such as matting and roto
- You regularly ask for, and put in to action, feedback on your given and independent work
Client Experience
- Prioritizing an outstanding client service, both internal and external
- You are solutions driven and deliver positive and timely responses to requests
- You demonstrate keen personal awareness and understand how you represent your brand
- You manage expectations on progress throughout tasks and projects
Communication
- Providing clarity and expectations to enable effective understanding and collaboration
- You have been positive and clear when engaging at all levels; you are keen, proactive and show initiative, “do you need me to…” etc.
- You have been vocal about your ambitions to join the 2D team and actively pursued training opportunities
- Positive feedback from the Client Services Manager, Talent Managers and Artists that supports your self awareness in how you are perceived enabling you to build a positive personal brand
Teams
- Encouraging an open environment of co-operation so the team can problem solve and grow
- You can identify new, and complete, given tasks in a collaborative and positive way whether taking pictures for a job, doing the washing up or clearing away unidentified objects
- You can show that you are supportive and look out for your peers
- You are requested by 2D and Production for ad-hoc tasks/projects
People
- Inspiring and motivating yourself and others to strive for excellence whilst demonstrating a level of expertise that continues to develop our talent to become the very best
- You have great working relationships with peers, Scheduling and Artists
- You demonstrate you’re able to think-through and come up with solutions to problems
- Shown you have the ability to take a brief, execute it, improve on it and manage status expectations
Assistant Flame Artist to Flame Artist
The path below shows an example route for moving from an Assistant Flame Artist to Flame Artist, showing some examples of what would be expected in the role.
Creativity and Craft
- Always striving for creative excellence and fighting for great ideas and bringing them to life
- The ability to communicate creative ideas
- You have a keen eye for detail and regularly ask for your work to be checked during development so itis accurate and usable
- You constantly explore opportunities to build your skills and further your professional development|
Client Experience
- Prioritizing an outstanding client service, both internal and external
- You are solutions driven and deliver positive and timely responses to requests
- You demonstrate keen personal awareness and understand how you represent your brand
- You manage expectations on progress throughout tasks and projects
Communication
- Providing clarity and expectations to enable effective understanding and collaboration
- You have been positive and clear when engaging at all levels
- The ability to receive and interpret instruction effectively and proactively ask for feedback and act on it
- Positive feedback on your performance and communication received from Artists, Scheduling and Production
Teams
- Encouraging an open environment of co-operation so the team can problem solve and grow
- You have demonstrated a strong team-working ethic with peers and Scheduling
- Possess a clear understanding of your position in the talent pipeline and collaborate effectively on jobswith other artists
- Guide and support the next generation of talent
People
- Inspiring and motivating yourself and others to strive for excellence whilst demonstrating a level of expertise that continues to develop our talent to become the very best
- You have a great reputation as an outstanding deliverer; you manage peoples expectations, get the job done accurately and in time and are frequently requested to work on jobs by senior artists and producers
- Excellent time management skills
- Familiarity and exposure to our clients; you have started building a client base
Flame Artist to Lead Flame Artist
Creativity and Craft
- Always striving for creative excellence and fighting for great ideas and bringing them to life
- You make quick decisions on your own with more difficult clients
- You are able to demonstrate a thorough understanding of all creative disciplines and their value to a project
- Ability to successfully QC your own work – you do not make mistakes
Client Experience
- Prioritizing an outstanding client service, both internal and external
- You are solutions driven and deliver positive and timely responses to requests
- You demonstrate keen personal awareness and understand how you represent your brand
- You manage expectations on progress throughout tasks and projects
Communication
- Providing clarity and expectations to enable effective understanding and collaboration
- You have strong relationships with Production and are regularly requested to work on their projects
- You are able to clearly communicate creative solutions to clients
- Know when to escalate client and job related issues
Teams
- Encouraging an open environment of co-operation so the team can problem solve and grow
- You are able to work completely self-sufficiently with the knowledge that the wider 2D team trusts you to succeed
- You have shown that you are approachable and can guide more junior members of the team to develop their experience and skills
- You understand the bigger picture in term of technical and creative resources and how your projects relate to other projects
People
- Inspiring and motivating yourself and others to strive for excellence whilst demonstrating a level of expertise that continues to develop our talent to become the very best
- Your client base is strong and continuing to widen and increase
- Understand and demonstrate how to consistently run projects to time
- Able to delegate and share work with peers
Lead Flame Artist to VFX Supervisor
The path below shows an example route for moving from a Senior or Lead VFX Artist to VFX Supervisor, showing some examples of what would be expected in the role.
Creativity and Craft
- Always striving for creative excellence and fighting for great ideas and bringing them to life
- You look for innovative and creative ways to run your job
- You possess a strong sense of quality control and are approached by other artists to advise ontechnique
- You are able to fully assess the quality and creative from other disciplines
Client Experience
- Prioritizing an outstanding client service, both internal and external
- You are solutions driven and deliver positive and timely responses to requests
- You demonstrate keen personal awareness and understand how you represent your brand
- You manage expectations on progress throughout tasks and projects
Communication
- Providing clarity and expectations to enable effective understanding and collaboration
- You have strong relationships with clients and are regularly requested on jobs and possess the ability to translate clients ideas and articulate their vision in an engaging way
- You have a profile in production and are requested for work by multiple producers
- Ability and desire to deliver talks and speak at industry events, universities, colleges and conventions
Teams
- Encouraging an open environment of co-operation so the team can problem solve and grow
- Starting to manage teams; you can pull resources together and ensure that a job is delivered
- Competent at providing positive and constructive feedback across all creative departments and external stakeholders
- You are beginning to mentor other artists in your team
People
- Inspiring and motivating yourself and others to strive for excellence whilst demonstrating a level of expertise that continues to develop our talent to become the very best|* You have led and continue to lead on complex projects and jobs and have the ability to successfully motivate and lead a team
- Involvement in recruitment and hiring decisions
- Ability to better understand client needs through close relationship with producers
