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Joined 9 months ago
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Cake day: September 23rd, 2023

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  • A big problem in Aus is the industry culture. They don’t care about using technology to improve results. They only care about cutting costs, even if the final product doesn’t meet the previous standard.

    And we’ve seen that with VFX across the globe, the overall quality dropped drastically. Because studios play silly buggers to weasel out of paying VFX companies what they are due.

    From what I hear, even DNEG is in trouble, and were even before the strike.

    It’s a race to the bottom it seems.

    My honest hope for the film industry is likely the same as yours. That we have smaller productions with access to better post due to improvements in AI-driven compositing software and so on.

    But it’s likely that a role that was earning $$$ before is devalued significantly. And while I’m an unabashed anti-capitalist, I think a lot of folks misunderstand what this sudden downward pressure on income can do. Cost of living increasing while wages shrink is an awful combination

    I’m 35, left a six figure job, folding my company and starting an electrician’s apprenticeship. To give you an idea around what my views about AI are. And of course this is as an Australian. We have a garbage white collar work culture anyway.

    I think there will be a net improvement. But I worry that others will fail to adapt quickly. Too many are writing off AI as this thing that already came and went, but the tools have just landed, and we don’t yet have workflows that correctly implement and leverage these yet.


  • There was a smallish VFX group here that was attached to a volume screen company. They employed something like 20 people I think? So pretty small.

    But the volume screen employed a guy who could do an adequate enough job with generative tools instead and the company folded. The larger VFX company they partner with had 200 employees, they recently cut to 50.

    In my field, a team leader in 2018 could earn about 180,000 AUD P/A. Now those jobs are advertised for 130,000 AUD, because new models can do ~80% of the analysis with human accuracy.

    AI is already folding companies and cutting jobs. It’s not in the news maybe, but as industries shift to compete with smaller firms leveraging AI it will cascade.

    I had/have my own company, we were attached to Metropolis which unfortunately folded. I think that had a role to play in the job cuts as well. Luckily for me I wasn’t overleveraged, but I am packing up and changing careers for sure.




  • It never feels like yours when you can be removed on a whim. Not having a place to call home is super taxing. Even a mobile home is a home, for most of our history we suspect we were nomadic mostly. But we took home with us and it was ours.

    Every six months some 18 year old.walks through my house and judges how I live. I have to hassle some psycho REA to perform basic repairs, I have no agency.

    It shouldn’t be shocking that it wears on our psychology.

    I have a dope camp set up, with a nice setup for small cooking. I regularly go out, on my own, and spend days away in the desert or the forests nearby. In those moments, I feel a relief that I don’t get at home in my rental. I own my 4x4, I own my solar panels and portable battery banks, I own my tent and so on.

    Even though it’s meagre compared to the house I live in, it’s mine.