RFX Design: DESIGN • ENERGY • MOTION: Bradley William Reynolds: Master of Fine Arts in Animation & Visual Effects

6/4/12

Bradley William Reynolds: Master of Fine Arts in Animation & Visual Effects

In case you are wondering, yes, I finally graduated with my MFA from the Academy of Art University:

Apparently I graduated Cum Laude... who knew?

The fancy leather case

Of course, they're waiting for final grades before they make any conclusions...

On Thursday, May 24th, 2012, we had our commencement ceremonies at the Cow Palace in Daly City. I officially have my master's degree now, which seems a little strange. When I finished my BFA, I swore I'd never go to school again. I was an industrial designer and that's where I was going to say for all of my career... except for the little voice in the back of my head that told me I wanted to do animation/VFX stuff. Every other industrial design job I looked at made me say to myself, "Yeah I could do that, but I'd probably get bored after a year." That's when I had to do a lot of introspective thinking and figure out what it really was that I wanted to do. Nine months later, I was back in school.

Three years later I finally finished. I've had the question asked of me by others and by myself, "Now what?" The answer is that I don't really know for sure. Just like many other industries, the VFX industry isn't flourishing like it once was fifteen years ago. Things have shifted internationally as well where the quality of work coming from developing countries is getting a lot better. If you look at the page above with the red circle on it, you'll notice that 75% of the names are Asian. Like other industries that are really service-based, the U.S. usually loses out. The biggest key for me will be getting into the right job just to have my foot in the door... but I just don't know which door that will be.

I am both anxious and excited to use my new skills. I haven't had much positive response from companies that I have been inquiring at, but hopefully things will change. We shall see where I wind up next. I keep saying that I had my life planned up until the 25th of May. After that, my schedule opened right up.

I have some projects on hand to keep myself busy in the mean time. You'll be seeing some of the progress for some of those as I will keep updating this blog.

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What is this all about?

I was only nine years old when my brother brought the game Myst into our house. I remember vividly delving into it's surreal world and being mesmerized by the groundbreaking visuals that it held. It was at that moment that a seed of fascination had been planted inside me which continued to grow and grow and grow.

It has been many years since that day when I was introduced to the world of 3D computer animation, but I have had an increasingly strong desire to learn more and more about it. I remember the first computer animation I created as a teenager using Strata Studio Pro: a simple car driving around a corner and into a garage with the door closing behind it. The modeling was crude, there were no textures, the animation itself did not look realistic at all, the resulting movie took up a significant portion of our hard drive space, and the rendering time tied up the family computer for over a day. Despite all those things, I realized that there was something in my future involving this new developing medium.

My interest in 3D computer animation grew exponentially over the years and I have never been able to get enough of it. I am continually fascinated by the challenging visuals that are continually being achieved in the entertainment industry. I'm the type of person who will buy the special edition of the movie just so I can see all of the "Making Of" featurettes. I think I enjoy them more than the movie sometimes. Although I had this strong interest in 3D computer animation, I chose to do my undergraduate work in industrial design. I have no regrets about my decision to pursue that path, however, because I learned a great deal about proper proportions, composition, form, color theory, and how people's perception of things can be influenced by visual cues. I recognize that many of these principles translate very easily into visual entertainment.

I graduated from Brigham Young University in 2007 and was hired by Pride Mobility Products in Scranton, Pennsylvania. While there I was responsible for designing various mobility products such as powered wheelchairs, scooters, and other accessories. Oddly enough, however, I found my duties in the design team being focused more towards tasks that were closely related to what a technical director or render wrangler would do. I was often chosen to do the renderings for the products we designed because I understood how to program shaders and how to create HDR studio lighting setups. In addition, during our regular meetings, I found myself doodling little cartoon characters that I had dreamed up or dreaming up ways of how our products could transform into robots, etc. Eventually the itch returned and I realized that my ultimate goals and professional desired wouldn't be fully satisfied in my current career path.

In the spring of 2009 I decided that I wanted to pursue 3D computer modeling and animation as a profession and applied for the MFA program at Academy of Art University. I recently moved to Provo, Utah, and am currently taking classes online while I pursue some other personal goals. I am eager to collaborate on projects and am excited to get involved with the other graduate students. Feel free to check out my web site www.rfxdesign.com and give me any critiques on my work. I'm always looking for a chance to improve my knowledge and skills.

6/4/12

Bradley William Reynolds: Master of Fine Arts in Animation & Visual Effects

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What is this all about?

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