We are excited to announce the release of Shannon Moran’s first course at fxphd, Introduction to VFX Editorial. Shannon has worked in the VFX industry for over ten years and worked on numerous films including The Jungle Book, The Lion King, Dark Crystal: Rise of the Resistance, and most recently The Winter King and Dr Who 60th Anniversary.

It’s the kind of course we love offering at fxphd, providing insights from professionals in the field who share their knowledge gleaned on the job. The course focuses on the role of a facility-side VFX editor. It covers various aspects of editorial roles and responsibilities, with the hope of clearing up any misconceptions that often come with the role. The classes break down the core aspects of the job and take a deep dive to cover all the different facilities and disciplines that Shannon has worked in. Having a background in all three editorial aspects (advertising, feature, and episodic) Shannon shares various real-world experiences to de-mystify the job.

 

This and over 270 other courses are available as part of a monthly membership, starting at $79/month.

Here’s a class by class breakdown of the course:

Class 1: What is a VFX editor?

A general overview of what is covered in the course. Some aspects discussed are who can become and editor, the software used, roles and responsibilities and where editorial falls in the pipeline. Also discussed is the difference between client side and facility side vfx editorial.

Class 2: The beginning of the pipeline

The start of the editorial pipeline begins with downloading and IO practices. The role IO department as well as the protocols and workflows that come with the department are discussed. The class also covers file structure and naming conventions and goes into the various kinds of ways media and files come into and out of the facility

Class 3: Turnover

Turnover is the meat and potatoes of VFX editorial. This class covers a couple of different parts of the turn over process in both Adobe Premiere and Hiero. A breakdown of the steps involved in turnover and how to communicate with production and artists.

Class 4: Sends and more

This class begins covering a few aspects of the position which may or may not happen at your facility. Next, the concept of sends is covered and we go over things to look for, the ways production communicate, and then making sure how these files and deliveries are sent to the client.

Class 5: Review

Client and review sessions are covered in this class, with a breakdown of workflows both pre and post-covid, as the role of the vfx editor has changed since the pandemic. This class pulls from personal experiences and covers some code of conduct and rules gleaned on the job.

Class 6: End of show process

A breakdown of various ways to prepare shots for archive and also for any marketing uses. Also, ways to watermark and prep shots for artists to use in their own reels in such a way that they follow studio guidelines.