Callum Austin

Kill command was the first big commercial project that I worked on. And it's still one of my favourite jobs and something I'm very proud of. Working with the guys and Bandito VFX was fantastic. It was an huge learning experience. Not just from an artistic and technical point of view, but also in terms of demontrating how much can be achieved with little means when there is passion and drive to make something great. Steve Gomez, the director trusted me with so much and it gave me a tremendous amount of confidence and motivation. It's something I'll always be grateful for. 

Creatively I started out rotoscoping what seemed like an endless amount of roto to get through. With a small team of fellow roto-artists, we learnt on the job and slowly but surely learnt that roto isn't just a boring tasks that can be easily done with little thought. Creating great roto, as Steve liked to say, is the backbone of the VFX industry and making sure it is done well can hugely lift the quality of the final shot. When I now see bad roto, like using shapes that are too big or follow multiple edges, it makes my skin crawl.

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After ploughing through many many roto shots in Nuke, Steve one day came up to me and asked me if I was willing to do some motion graphics for some of the displays in the movie. I barely knew what motion graphics was, and I only had a basic understanding of After Effects. Never the less, Steve showed me some references of things he was after and trusted me to create something. He told me if it didn't work out, it wasn't a problem. It boosted my motivation while at the same time lifting the pressure off my shoulders. I created some stuff, closely following the references and I was lucky enough that it was included into the movie.

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After completing more graphics, towards the end of the post-production process, I started compositing in Nuke, putting some of the robots into the plates and matte-paintings. It was a great learning experience. It gave me an understanding of how to create really high-end results. Because of time, budget and me only barely knowing my way around a compositing program, I look back and think things could be improved. However, I'm still very proud of what was created and keep including it on my show reel. 

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A big shout-out to everyone and Bandito who helped and taught me so much!