The year 2023 was a bit like dealing with tough times all over again kind of similar to the 2020 Pandemic, especially for VFX artists. From facing unexpected Strikes to finding new ways to make things better, the VFX world had its fair share of challenges and surprises.
Oscar Speeches:
Avatar: The Way of Water VFX Oscar winners were cut off during Mid-speech, They cut off their speeches after it went for more than 45 seconds.
Open Source VFX:
The Open Source Beta version of xSTUDIO—a playback and review app. Also, Autodesk released Open RV
Boris FX acquires SynthEyes
Boris FX slowly becoming as a dominant player in Roto,Paint and Matchmove area. They already have Silhouette and Mocha as their flagship products
The End of Isotropix Clarisse:
Isotropix Clarisse stopped getting updates this year.
The Writers’ Strike:
The Writers Strike literally Rattled the entire Vfx industry, It was started in May 2023. It is the largest interruption to American television and film production since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 by causing a major interruption in making TV shows and movies. Company closures, Layoffs and Paycuts happened in most of the Vfx studios. The writers got Some Ai regulation but kind of vague though.
VFX Studio Unionization:
This year VFX studios started working towards forming a union with IATSE, aiming for fair treatment of workers as the momentum for VFX union grows steadily.
VFX Studios on the Stock Market:
In 2023, We’ve witnessed a notable trend in this year the emergence of VFX studios on the stock market. Vfx studio got bids of around Rs 14,000 crore for its Rs 66-crore IPO.
Machine Learning:
This year brought some cool updates in machine learning Chat gpt, Nuke Copycat, Wonder studio, Nerf, SwitchLight and many more tools that could change how VFX works.
CGSociety to Shutdown
Online Forum CGSociety to Shutdown, the rise of the Artstation and people started to written posts to videos was the major reason though
Foundry’s Subscription Model Shift and Autograph’s Emergence:
Foundry announced their products by moving to a subscription model. Another new player, Autograph, introduced a compositing software that looks like After Effects but is designed specifically for compositing.
World VFX Day:
In the middle of VFX challenges, the first ‘World VFX Day’ happened on December 8th, bringing the community together.
Introduction of Wonder Studio:
Wonder Studio, an online tool with 27 machine learning models, came into the scene, allowing people to animate and create CG characters for live-action scenes.
Recent Hate on VFX in Movies:
There has been a noticeable trend of movie studios downplaying the role of VFX in their PR strategies to promoting practical effects
2024 and Beyond:
The VFX world faced a bunch of challenges and changes in 2023. Lets hope There will be steep rise of projects after second quarters which will keep majority of us will be busy this year.
2023: A Year to Forget for VFX Artists?
