We were lucky to catch up with Christopher Holloway recently and have shared our conversation below.
Christopher, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
Life is all about taking risks to get ahead, right? That’s what you always hear. But, it’s not particularly easy to actually implement that kind of ideology into your own life. And why? Because it’s terrifying! In general, people are more willing to take risks when it’s not their own investments on the line, or — in even more extreme situations — their literal life.
But, it is true what they say. If you don’t ever take risks, you won’t ever get ahead. For me to be standing where I am in my career, I had to take numerous risks and I am not alone in my risk-taking. The choices I made affected me, my wife of 11 years, and my 3 daughters (aged 15, 11, and 7). So, when I took these risks, I had to assess how rewarding it would be to achieve the goal, and also how detrimental it would be to our family, should I fail.
The biggest risk we took as a family was the choice to leave my stable career as a Computer Repair agent in the Information Technology industry and to transition into the feature film industry as a 3D Artist (also known as a Visual Effects Artist or VFX Artist, for short). This was dangerous because the Film industry can be very volatile, ever-changing, and insurmountably demanding. It was even more dangerous because I had absolutely ZERO training in the field and I lived in a state in the United States that was not considered a hub for the Entertainment industry — Baltimore, Maryland.
However, I was dying on the inside remaining in IT. My job was stressful, thankless, and unsatisfying. I grew up as a creative person. Drawing, filmmaking, editing videos. Nearly my entire childhood was spent doing creative activities, yet, because of where I grew up, no one around me seemed to be an Artist, therefore I was told to “get a real job”. And so I did. But, it wasn’t enough to satiate my creative appetite. And so, regardless of the stability it gave me, I abandoned it. I wanted more.
Freshly resigned from my job without warning to my spouse, I informed my family of my internal plight and, believe it or not, they completely understood and supported my decision 100%. I was honestly baffled. I told them that I wanted to go to college in order to learn how to become a VFX Artist and from there, enter into a new career path! And I knew I wanted them to be on this journey with me.
The college I desired to go to was Full Sail University. The campus was located down in Orlando, Florida. We, of course, were all the way up north in Maryland. We had to figure out a way to get down there, but we didn’t have the money to go back and forth. We had to relocate there, indefinitely. This was a major, MAJOR decision for us to take, as we had never left the state before. And we only had enough money to get us a One-Way plane ticket for our family and 30 days in a hotel. Nothing else! If we moved down there, we’d have NO WAY BACK HOME and only 30 days to find a job to be able to get us our own apartment!
Talk about risky, life-changing moves!
I broke all of this risk down to my family to let them know the grim reality of the situation, and I did it thinking that there was absolutely no way in heck they’d agree to this level of risk. And guess what they all said unanimously?
“We trust you.”
I was moved to tears by my family’s support of my dream. My wife resigned from her stable career as a Nurse. My children said goodbye to their friends and family. And we all packed up to get ready to depart. My family sacrificed the things that made them happy and satisfied, in order to support me in my journey to finding my own true happiness.
“When it feels scary to jump, that is exactly when you jump. Otherwise, you end up staying in the same place your whole life” -Abel Morales, A Most Violent Year (2015)
And guess what? We took that scary jump.
We made it to Orlando safely. I ended up getting hired at Full Sail University as an Enrollment Guide and received my first paycheck on literally Day 30 of our hotel stay — our suitcases were being placed on the sidewalk as I showed up with my check! I finally was able to attend Full Sail University as a student. And I not only graduated with a degree in Computer Animation, but I ended up becoming the Valedictorian! The staff, faculty, and students I met at Full Sail touched my soul with their relentless kindness and support for what my family sacrificed to get me where I was, and they treated us like we were family ourselves. I absolutely adore Full Sail University for how we were loved and accepted.
And one year after graduating, I nailed my first job as a Lighting Artist at Moving Picture Company / Technicolor up in Montreal, Quebec, Canada! That was back in 2018. Nearly 4 years later, today, I am still in the feature film VFX industry and am loving every moment of it! Currently, I am a Lighting Technical Director at Framestore and my resume of films has grown to include blockbuster films such as Cats, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and a couple of (unannounced) titles!
My wife and I even started our own full-service Production company, named “Black Prism Studios, which specializes in filmmaking, animation, and creative storytelling for diverse, inclusive cultures!
When you take risks for the right reasons, it pays off. Always be sure to do some risk-evaluation and see if it’s truly worth it or not. There will NEVER be a time where you can safely make a decision because there’s just too much unknown that can veer off your desired path, and trust me, that happened to us countless times!
But, even when your pathway changes, the destination is still the same. Stick with it. Stay true to those who support you. And I promise you, the risk will be worth the reward.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
In my chosen field of work, I am a specialist in 3D Lighting and Compositing systems for both raytraced and real-time pipelines within the Film, Commercial, and Gaming industries.
What does that mean for the uninitiated?
I take any 3D (fake) elements, like for example, an alien creature or a backdrop of city buildings and make sure that the 3D lighting on the object(s) matches the real-life film footage of an actor or a film set. That way, you (the audience) cannot tell which parts of it are real and which parts aren’t. If I have done my job well, you would never even question if what you saw was real or not, and you don’t find out it wasn’t real until you see a breakdown on YouTube — or, unless you know, it’s blatantly unrealistic like a talking dragon or something,
Different VFX houses around the world specialize in different fields of 3D art; like, for example, DNEG (Double Negative) specializes in environments and FX like explosions or smoke. My current studio, Framestore, specializes in characters and creatures! So, most of my work has 3D characters in it who need to appear photorealistic for the movie!
What are the biggest problems you are facing in your industry?
The biggest problems most of us face during our day-to-day work are mainly technical issues like memory optimization to reduce lengthy render times or a rig (think of a rig as the skeleton of a character) breaking and a creature’s jaw and eyeballs go flying across the room by accident. Usually, you (the audience) would never see our day-to-day issues because we only include the renders that work properly…at least MOST of the time. Sometimes, due to time constraints, deadlines, budget cuts, etc. we are forced to use the not-so-great takes and they end up in a VFX Artists React to Bad CGI video on YouTube.
But, overall, even with the good and bad takes, all of us are super-passionate about our work and love doing it every day!
Outside of technical issues, the second biggest issue many artists face in the industry is simply being overworked. Stress kills. Literally. There have been artists who have actually died from work-related stress. Our passion can be a double-edged sword sometimes. Why? Our work can easily take 12-16 hours straight to complete, and we easily forget to do simple life activities like sleep, eat, and (unfortunately for others around us) bathe.
This is why we all rely on one another as support systems to forcefully remind us to step away from our work. At 6pm, clock out! At 1pm, go to Lunch and actually eat more than just a Pop-Tart! Wash your, you-know-what, gosh darn it! We have to constantly receive these reminders because, again, our passion takes over and we want to see a task through to the finish. But, we need to learn how to do it without finishing OURSELVES off…permanently.
I am constant and loud advocate for mental heath awareness in our industry. I speak about it when I volunteer at the university I graduated from or when I meet fresh graduates/aspiring artists who aren’t yet aware of how the industry can be. Declining mental health leads to depression, which leads to health problems, and even suicide. The more aware we are, the more we support one another, and the healthier we all become.
Eventually, as industry workers united under one, powerful voice, we can begin to oust the ruthless business practices, immigration contracts, and recruitment methods some studios employ which forces artists like us into nameless, faceless tool-like positions that go on for 12-16 hours a day!
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
It’s a common answer that the most rewarding aspect of my line of work is the final product that people see in the theaters or on their chosen streaming service.
However, the most rewarding part of my job, is collecting all the industry knowledge that has long been kept secret and away from independent artists or prospective creatives in elementary, middle, or high school…and educating them!
So many young artists out there are unaware of the fact that they can, whole-heartedly and easily, support themselves in a full-time career using their talents/skillsets! They believe that being an artist is just a pipe dream or something you do on the side of a “real job”. And this toxic mindset is instilled into them, especially in places that aren’t hubs for entertainment or creativity, like where I came from in Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
I had no idea that you could become an artist because I never, ever came across one or was told you could become one! I wish someone would’ve informed me when I was younger. I found out about becoming a 3D Artist because of my sister-in-law, Michelle Hunt, who is also a graduate of Full Sail University for Creative Writing. She informed me of the Computer Animation degree program and showed me what Full Sail could do for me, and I was BLOWN AWAY! I never knew there were even schools for this kind of thing! As crazy as that might sound to some people, this line of work might as well have never existed, because in my world, it didn’t!
I want to bring to the masses, the education you need to get into this industry, is so much more attainable than you think! It’s not rocket science! It’s not even talent! There’s only 2 elements to a successful artist: Learnable skills that anyone, even my 7-year-old, can learn! And passion. The passion to keep learning more, even after you graduated. To look for more problems to solve, even when you’ve solved all of your own, because you know it will benefit the TEAM and not just yourself. The passion to keep at it, even when you’re tired and stressed out, because you know that this movie or TV show will make even ONE SINGLE HUMAN BEING happy…and it’s worth it.
That’s what’s rewarding about my career as a creative professional. Passing on the knowledge.
Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
The most important piece of resource I wish I knew earlier is not necessarily a “physical” resource, but rather advice.
If one wants to be hired in the film, gaming, or commercial industry, do not focus on the skill requirements you see listed on the job descriptions…focus on your personality.
That, is what recruiters and/or Hiring Managers are looking for. You can have 30% of the skills “required” on the job and still get hired. Why? Because they love who you are as a person. Skills can be taught on the job. In fact, most of the tools you use in your day-to-day work life are proprietary to that company/studio anyway!
Personality, however, is something instilled into you over the years and not something any studio is going to “teach you”. If you aren’t a team player, willing to pleasantly interact with hundreds of other creatives, and able to communicate effectively to solve the myriad of problems you will inevitably face…then no one will want to hire you, even if you possessed every skill on the requirements list.
Be a great human being, and you are GUARANTEED to get the jobs you want!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.artstation.com/cholloway2392
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/redeyedholloway/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cholloway2392/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/RedEyedHolloway
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/Cholloway2392