I’m far more interested in becoming a findable, understandable and relatable community than anything else. We have to remember we know Flame, but nobody else does. Put yourself in your own shoes the moment you first heard about Flame. And imagine what you would have wanted to be able to stumble upon back then. We have to make THAT.
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Flame Artist = Wizard
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Just before I hop in my Aston Martin to head into work….
Where do you get the impression that Nuke and AE artists “hate” flame artists? I know several of both and it has never been an issue. In fact, it is the opposite as we’re keen to discuss different approaches.
Using AE, Nuke & Flame freelancers for VFX work, I’d have to say that Nuke artists are often used to working within a VFX pipeline so don’t necessarily own the shots the same way a Flame artist does. Huge generalisation here but they don’t check their work as thoroughly as your general Flame artist does, probably because they have a VFX Supervisor to check their work and don’t have a client who is going to say “what the fuck is that and why are you showing me?” They usually want a bit more direction than a Flame artist does (who is used to having to solve it themselves). I have really grown to respect AE artists a lot more because some of them are super talented and tend to do a lot more of the CG design themselves. They also tend to own their shots more as they too aren’t per of a production pipeline. Shame the colour management is an issue for them due to their tools.
Anyway, you’re only going off your own experience of the “hate” but I certainly haven’t experienced it here.
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from 2015, still relevant and answers the question - what is a Flame Artist 
Perspective - Female Flame Artists - YouTube
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Sure, there are always exceptions.
I’m a constant lurker in forums and subreddits for other similar artists…nuke, after effects, colorists, etc. And typically you don’t have to work that hard to find animosity, confusion or outright distaste for people like us or people that do what we do.
Not Flame specific, but a great answer to why we love VFX:
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LOVE this!
I have mused on this. The conclusion I have come to is that Flame artists are kinda like the Kardashians of the post/vfx world… often polarizing, but undeniably smokin’ hot.
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I love that one of the things that lots of people have touched upon here are the “soft-skills” it takes to do our job. That’s a huge differentiator off the bat.
To facilitate a creative, technical, and resource heavy negotiation between all parties involved is what I think sets any flame artist from a compositor, designer, editor or a colorist. A flame artist is not just one of these silo’d things but all of them, and maybe a few others.
A mentor of mine once said “anyone can learn the software, but not everyone can run the room”. Sure, there are plenty of Nuke / AE artists who are fantastic compositors. But that only represents a slice of what a flame artist is ultimately responsible for. To earn a client’s trust and steer the conversation productively from both a creative and technical standpoint; to have the communication skills to disseminate and distribute information/direction to their team with a dash of good humor; negotiating the creative process; potentially “one man(woman) army’ing” an entire job soup to nuts; that’s a significant amount of responsibility, and should be compensated for accordingly.
To the flame-haters: are you willing to take on the responsibility of delivering an entire campaign worth several zeroes, people potentially watching/questioning your choices, and be ok with it? That responsibility is worth its respective compensation. When any non-flame artist witnesses those wheels in motion, most tend to appreciate what we do. I’d venture to guess the people moaning on subreddits have never actually been in a client session and are judging flame artists by their most common denominator: compositing.
As @GPM put it, “the clients know, or think they know, what we do.” As long as the important people who sign the big checks understand the value we provide and are provided exemplary experiences, they’ll keep coming back. And demand for flame will continue.
Re: grooming the next generation/becoming findable/understandable/relatable; That’s a tricky one. Like asking: “How do you become the conductor of an orchestra?”. Or if everyone else are line cooks serving up shots, flame artists might be the teppanyaki chefs that make a dining experience, an “experience”. Or maybe that sushi chef that asks what you like and serves you up Omakase that is unexpected, but perfectly up your alley… Knowing what you didn’t know you wanted… To @andy_dill 's point, I think there’s a good deal of value in being somewhat enigmatic, because it maintains the sense of being top-tier.
Not everyone owns or can afford a Porsche, but they know what a Porsche is; and the precision driving experience has a reputation that precedes it. What I wonder is: how to seed that aspirational sensibility in being a Flame artist with the younger generation?
To your point, @randy, that Wikipedia entry should be a BuzzFeed type show piece no longer than 8-10 minutes that has the most sexy-as-fuck cut of things done on flame intercut with a brief explainer of what we do, a super brief and dumbed down history, and look awesome af. Aspirational vs. Informational.
Let’s face it though: If the general sensibility out there is we cost boatloads of money and drive nice cars… Kids are gonna say, “I wanna be that person”, and not one of the poor compers getting abused on Marvel franchises…
(Disclaimer: I don’t own a Porsche)
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I was always on the 3D side of things (and still am), but didn’t take long to recognise what a Flame/Inferno artist was doing, compositing was part of the job, but the guidance, reassurance and creative interpretation were inspiring, so much so that I focused my 3D career from that point of view since then.
The biggest challenge Autodesk and the Flame community face is there is very little mentoring anymore, at least not at the level I saw in some companies, and without new blood, things end badly so if this thread was of any use, please Autodesk, train the right people FAST.
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