Feds Sues Lucasfilm for Undermining VFX Artists

[abelenkpe]

Feds Sues Lucasfilm for Undermining VFX Artists

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lee-stranahan/lucasfilm-and-pixar-consp_b_801432.html?ref=fb&src=sp

Earlier this year, I wrote about the poor working conditions for the animation and visual effects artists who have helped create some of most incredible (and profitable) films and TV shows of all time in an open letter to director James Cameron. In that piece, I discussed the open secret of the only major production craft that is still largely non-unionized and the subsequent dearth of benefits, security and even proper credits when the end titles roll.

That article created a stir in the visual effects industry and led to events like the VFX Town Hall meeting that brought together perspectives from the studios, facilities and VFX workers. Some of the major unions like IATSE also noticed and during the past few months, they stepped up their efforts to organize visual effects artists and animators. Such efforts stumbled a bit as the union's lack of technological savvy (they didn't even have a web site that VFX artists could look at) smacked up against the independent spirit that caused many artists to be suspicious of unions.

But the unions may have just gotten a Christmas present from two of the biggest, most well-known names in the worlds of animation and VFX. Now playing at a federal court near you, it's US vs. Lucasfilm!

That's an antitrust case that shows how Pixar and Lucasfilm conspired against their own employees. Our story begins in January 2005, when, according to court papers....

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I'm sure this isn't the only industry that conspires to keep employee wages down but, yeah....there you go. :(

[gratuitous]

1. Fickle finger

I inadvertently unrecommended this thread. Sorry.

[abelenkpe]

3. :) that's OK. nt

[gratuitous]

5. Thanks; some folks get bent out of shape about it

And I'd rather recommend a thread that talks about working folks getting screwed because they're not union. So I'll give it a little kick instead by posting again.

[fascisthunter]

2. Game Designing is just as bad

[Posteritatis]

4. I do game graphics as a hobby, but blanch at the idea of it being a career really

Not just because, well, I'm Not Worthy(tm) looking at some other stuff out there, but just about everyone I know who works in game development is pretty much a twitching ruin of a person. A friend and I are tossing around the idea of doing a couple small commercial projects on our own, but anything to do with a known studio? God no.

[fascisthunter]

6. I Went to School for 3d animation and game graphic design

by the time I was 3/4 done with the program, I realized I had made a big mistake hearing how the industry treats workers. But like everything else I do, I finish what I start and got an Associates degree. I also have a close friend working full time for WB... after all those years and hours he still isn't paid adequately...

Good luck though with contracts... it's a tough field.

[Posteritatis]

9. I sort of want to take a crack at such a program myself

Or at least a couple of courses at the local school along those lines. Not even for professional purposes, as my interests there are in history, but I'd definitely be up for improving a set of skills I already enjoy. I'd probably tell my friends to hit me with blunt objects if I ever considered working in the field though.

[fascisthunter]

10. I learned a lot in a very short period of time

it's worth it if you just love doing it... don't want to discourage.

[Occulus]

12. Have the two of you thought about self-publishing or publishing on Steam?

Valve seems to be pretty friendly to indie companies, and I've purchased several games on Steam from indie developers that I would never have even heard of otherwise. I've bought World of Goo, The Undergarden, Guardians of Graxia, Shatter, Puzzle Dimension, and others, and would never have even heard of them but for Steam.

I'm trying to educate myself with Blender 2.5x, but it's so much more advanced from 2.49 that I really need to structure my time with it a lot better than I did with the earlier versions. Still, I'm more comfortable with Blender than I ever was with 3DS, Maya, or Lighwave.... maybe because Blender is free :D

[fascisthunter]

14. It's been years since I even dabbled with Maya....

but who knows, the talent is there and relearning is never a problem for me. To be honest, I'd rather paint and draw for the rest of my life and if some of that talent gets to be part of the gaming industry, I'd be grateful. We'll see...

Blender... I have never worked with it. Do they have a OS X version? Also, are you familiar with Mudbox and if so, what do you think about it?

[Occulus]

15. Yeah, Blender has an OSX version

as well as versions for other OSes, including Windows, linux, Solaris, Irix, OpenBSD, and others. Yay for open source!

http://www.blender.org/download/get-blender/

You'll want one of the 2.5x builds. 2.49 has a different interface and isn't as streamlined as 2.5x, and even though the 2.5x branch is considered "testing", it's what they made the "Sintel" short film with. 2.5 is just a better, more professional representation of the software, and is quickly replacing 2.49.

You may or may not also want Python installed, depending on if you'll be messing around with custom Blender scripts; the Python API is tightly integrated into Blender, and is the language used for all Blender scripts. Python is optional out of the box, though.

Blender's feature set includes a suite of tools similar to those found in other commercial packages, including rigid and soft body dynamics, a built-in fluid solver, a built-in game engine, an IPO curve editor for animation, a node-based texturing tool (kind of like what Maya uses), modifier-based modeling tools, and support for external renderers such as LuxRender. It also provides a mudbox-like sculpting tool, and although that still needs some improvement, it's definitely useful enough for beginners or those on a budget. Blender is capable of providing a solution for each point in the pipeline, from rough cut visualizations to the finished, fully-textured and animated end result, and also has tools for compositing the final product into film. Just be aware that Blender's interface takes a little getting used to and, as you may expect, hotkeys are king.

Three animated short films have been made to help show off Blender's capabilities, as well as to help the people at the Blender Foundation further develop the software. These are titled "An Elephant's Dream", "Big Buck Bunny", and "Sintel", and can all be found on YouTube.

A truly excellent resource for learning Blender are the video tutorials provided at Blender Cookie (www.blendercookie.com), in particular the tutorials done by Jonathan Williamson (sp?). He almost always says which hotkeys to use for whatever operation, and usually goes into detail regarding the "why" of what he's doing.

I've dabbled with Mudbox a bit and watched some timelapses on YouTube, and I must say I'm impressed. I'm not a character modeler (yet), so Mudbox doesn't have a lot of use for me at the moment, but it's certainly versatile enough to be on my shelf should I ever get that far.

[fascisthunter]

16. thanks man!

[ProgressiveProfessor]

8. Those are high tech sweat shops in the ugliest sense of the word

[DirkGently]

7. The "gentleman's agreement" depicted definitely sounds like dirty pool. nt

[Starry Messenger]

11. k&r

[walldude]

13. The people at Pixar and Lucas are underpaid?

Wow. You do realize why they aren't unionized right? Because they don't need to be. They are paid well and treated well. I don't see a single employee complaint here. What I see is spin. Yes they have an agreement to not steal each others employees. Big fucking woop. They were once all the same company. Looks to me like they are just trying to avoid bad blood.

Or are we saying that Lucas has a deal with KNB, Weta, Synapse, FX, and all the other effects houses too :eyes:


Shitting on these guys for not being unionized is like shitting on Costco for the same reason. They have no reason to unionize they are treated very well. Only 10% of Costco employees are unionized.


Of course if you can offer up some links showing me how miserable all these employees are I'd love to see them.