We recently spoke with Senior Houdini VFX Artist, Michael Stark to get the scoop on all things VFX related. Michael comes to us with over 10 years of experience in Visual Effects. Working on such awesome shows such as Game of Thrones, and Star Trek Into the Darkness and also Next Gen. Michael was also the guy behind all of the Visuals for the YouTube Channel Film Riot. Michael’s work has also been nominated for an Annie Award for “Outstanding Achievement for Animated Effects in an Animated Feature Production” and today he is going to talk with us about his achievements, the path he took to get there and what his future will hold.
Q: Hi Michael, You have some amazing credits to your name! My personal favorite being Game of Thrones because well I’m a nerd that way. But you’ve done some really cool stuff with your Youtube channel and Film Riot.
FILM RIOT
“From the practical to the theory” a DIY channel where you not only created original content but you shared your knowledge along the way from Cinematography, to stunts, to Editing and Directing. How cool is that? Would you mind telling us a little bit about that part of your career and how it started and where it took you? And also, where there any cool stories along the way that you can share with us?
A: My initial schooling was in Digital Media and Design. I worked 2 years doing design work for an ad agency and incorporated a lot of 3d into my work. In fact, I was the youngest person at the company but because I had that skill in my toolset I was hired. I learned a lot about how things work in a creative environment – from creative to business. To make a long story short, when I was working with Film Riot it was fun because I got to try out a lot of “What if” ideas using the tools to just try things out. Where as, when I was working in advertising it was more of a repeating process. But, the way I got into visual effects was sort of in a trickling manner. I just kept wanting to do more and learn more, so I kept finding courses, books, webinars, anything to learn more. Because of that, I was overcompensating and when I got my first FX Job at Pixomondo, I thought I needed to know how to do every single thing possible. It was okay if I didn’t, but it helped a lot as I was never backed into a corner. As far as cool stories go, I don’t really have any. I would say the funniest was sitting next to a friend during some downtime after we wrapped on a movie after 6 months and I noticed him looking at me and looking back to his screen frantically. I gave him a weird look like “Are you okay?” He then kind of shouted at me “You’re on Film Riot?! Why didn’t you say anything?” I just responded by asking what I would possible say.
Q: Ok, so I have to ask Game of Thrones what was your role on this production and is there any insights you can share with a GOT fan? Did you use Houdini for GOT and if so, can you give us some background on your specific software skills, what software do you prefer, how long have you been an expert and do you create with the software outside of work as well? For personal use, I’m just curious.
A: On Game of Thrones, my role wasn’t too exciting. For a few reasons. One being that I hadn’t watched the show yet so I had no idea what was going on. But then I binged watched it up until the season I was working on (Season 3) and refused to look at anyone’s monitor because I didn’t want it ruined for me.
My role was as an FX Artist, I just remember doing lots of smoke/sand which I love doing. But if asked to pick it out of any of the shots, I couldn’t tell you where they were placed. At the time I was using 3d Studio Max – Thinking Particles, FumeFX, Krakatoa, Frost, Xmesh, Pflow(box 2 and box 3), Magma, and Vray. My CG Supervisor was an early Houdini user and after conversations with him that is when I started getting the bug to take a look at it. The thing that I found so tempting about Houdini was it was a complete solution in a single package.
When signing into my workstation in the morning, my machine would have to pull and verify all the licenses for the software I listed above. If one didn’t verify, I had to put in a helpdesk ticket to get the licenses working. It was the worst. As far as being an expert, there are so many great artists out there that I often feel like I have no idea what I’m doing. I think I felt like an actual seasoned professional once I spent 2 years at Pixomondo because I learned so many valuable skills under pressure. Which is part of the reason why I definitely create things outside of work. It’s too difficult not to. You can just have an idea pop in your head and then start figuring it out and apply it down the line.
Q: Who do you consider to be leaders in your industry (both colleagues you look up too and companies you would love to work for) and what are they doing differently that gives you that sense of admiration? For example, do you look to others in the industry for mentorship or do you yourself mentor or both? Is there a particular show, game or movie either now or in the past that you would love to have worked on or hope to work on?
A: This question is both super easy to answer but also difficult because there are just so many names. As far as colleagues go, pretty much anyone that creates something new. It doesn’t have to be extravagant, either. I just love seeing great work. Now as far as people that I truly admire, I would have to say John Knoll and Paul Franklin. John Knoll is behind so many great films and just ideas. He’s like if Steve Jobs sat down and did the physical work. Paul Franklin is the same, but he is so unassuming. I follow him on twitter and he’s always just posting very modest non-vfx related things. But when a film he is on comes out, you can tell he shows up to get things done. If there was a movie I could have worked on(although I was too young) it would have been Starship Troopers.
I love that movie to this day. With companies or movies that I’d want to work for, I couldn’t really say. One of the aspects of Visual Effects that I love is that it’s a team effort. I grew up playing hockey and that’s what it reminds me of. Once everyone is on the same wavelength you can rely on them for their strengths and it makes the entire show so much better.
A: I started out using 3ds Max because it’s what I used in school. My workflow changed when I started wanting to do more on a creative level. But I need access to the technical part to be able to push that creativity forward. It was analogous to having a speaker with with a single knob vs one that had eq sliders. Also, the cost was a huge factor. To maintain less functionality than Houdini per year it was like having a car payment. With Houdini you have everything – and what it doesn’t have you can make. If I had to make any predictions it would just be extrapolated from what changes I’ve made over the past few years. GPU rendering is one of them. If your renderer doesn’t do GPU rendering, it is falling behind. It’s incredibly fast. Which would roll into my next prediction that is semi-related and that is real-time rendering being utilized more. With Graphic Cards becoming insanely more powerful, video game engines are also becoming increasingly better at rendering great images in real-time. I think that mixed with our 3d applications is going to allow us faster iterations because we could see closer to a final result instead of waiting what would be hours in the past.
Q: Is there anything else you can tell us about yourself that we haven’t discussed to give our readers a sense of who you are on a more personal level or if not, how you tie your personal into your professional? Any cool hobbies, businesses, upcoming events, workshop’s you are doing (plug for CGCircuit workshop) or any upcoming personal or general/industry events that you find interesting and you would want to share…
A: Off the top of my head, the first thing that comes to mind is my dog. For people that have worked with me or even clients I’ve Skyped with. I have a giant Great Dane that moves with me. I’ve been on countless conference calls when this giant head just pops
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into the screen and decides to make my head or shoulder her pillow. Even on live-streams I’ve done I have prefaced it with “If you hear a terrifying roar, it’s just my dog and I am indeed okay.” I have too many hobbies to list so I’ll spare you that. But 100% Steven Knipping’s courses on CG Circuit are my favorite. When I record, I have notes everywhere and I instantly get nervous. He is so laid back and just really a great teacher. Also, Anselm von Seherr-Thoss, David Kahl, Rohan Dalvi, Johnny Farmfield, Matt Estela, Entagma, Allan Mckay, and Hugo Guerra. One day I will finally get myself to Siggraph. It seems like every year at that time I am in the throws of a project and end up just reading all the news coming out of there instead.
Q: Speaking of great teachers, you are one yourself correct? Tell me about your video tutorial CG Compositing in Adobe After Effects on CGCircuit and how and when you started doing tutorials and/or just sharing your professional knowledge. Do you enjoy teaching and what drives you to create tutorials for others?
I enjoy teaching when I think I have something useful to share. Sometimes I’ll be on a project and run into some technique and think “If I’m running into this situation that means someone else is.” So I like to share how I solved it. Hands down, the best teachers and artists I’ve met are those that throw their techniques to anyone that will listen. I think this is because they are not relying on something they figured out as a crutch.
They’re always moving forward. With that in mind, I urge anyone reading to Subscribe to my YouTube channel because I’m constantly adding new stuff about After Effects and Houdini, weekly.
Q: Any upcoming projects you are working on or hope to work on? Will you be creating more video tutorials for CGCircuit (we hope) and also is there any software that you would still like to learn or improve upon? Do you think an artist is ever done learning?
A: I do have a few projects coming up but I can’t talk about them – those NDAs!. But, I love working with Factory Fifteen and Tangent Animation. Both are awesome people to with! I for sure plan on making more tutorials! I tend to wait until I find something that is worth showing for a longform tutorial. The harder I try to think of an idea the farther I come from actually coming up with one. So as much as I hate it, I just wait for an idea to hit me that is considered valuable enough to dive into.
I’ve been using Houdini for a couple of years exclusively now, and there are so many areas I want to get more into heavily. I have never touched the crowd simulation stuff, or Python, and above all further my skill using the VEX language. Which leads me to believe that an artist is never done learning. I mean, if you are even remotely using your tools you are learning and improving whether you like it or not. Plus, I think every artist has a sort of fluid nature to path they are taking. When I was fresh out of school, I was designing branding and it somehow led me to being an FX Artist that is coding and enjoying Trigonometry.
Q: Last but certainly not least, is there any advice you can give to students and those just starting out, that are looking to follow your path into VFX? Any resources that you find helpful, which software should they be learning, which forums should they be on (if any) i.e. workshops, networking events (both local and national) etc.?
A: Right off the bat I would say for students to seek out the answers and try to solve them themselves. This is sort of newish common thing I hear pop up a lot in conversations with peers. There has never been as much access to information as there is right now – but we will get asked if we can just do a tutorial to show them how to do it. Or give them our file. A person gets better by practicing. Failing is just as important because you learn from it. The software to learn would depend on their interest. As a general rule I would say to understand the methodology behind what you are doing because it is software agnostic. If you are interested in Visual Effects in General – fxguide is a great site as it has a ton of information and articles with behind the scenes stuff.
SOCIAL MEDIA SITES:
Twitter: @mstarktv
Website: www.mstark.tv
Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/michaelstark
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/michaelstarktv
Email: michael@mstark.tv
Apparel: Shirt Designs
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Trudy – my Great Dane that pops in on Skype calls.
Link to Woolmark Internation FX Reel I did for Factory Fifteen
Link to my Houdini Destriction Series live-stream
Link to my ongoing Like A Pro After Effects Tutorials
We hope you enjoyed our interview with Michael Stark as much as we did, to learn more about Michael please check out his tutorial CG Compositing in Adobe After Effects on the CGCircuit website as well as check out his links above.
If you have any questions or feedback on this blog, we’d love to hear it in the comment section below or email me at lori@cgcircuit.com
About the Author:
Lori Hammond, CG Circuit
Author & Content Producer
Experienced multi-talented Artist/Designer/Blogger with an extensive background in the Arts & Entertainment Industry(Animation, VFX, Game & Product Design)
