Video Special Effects

[katt]

Funnily enough I studied Physics in my undergrad before I did the 3D stuff. In many ways it actually did help me when it came to the physical properties of materials and shaders, understanding light and with simulations and scripting. But yeah not a recommended career path for movies haha! :)

I would say you don't need an engineering degree for ANY of the areas you picked out, if you want to be a 3D/vfx artist. The stuff you picked out really should mostly be covered in a good study programme that deals with 3D/VFX, but how good they are depends on where you go to learn. It really matters. Having said that you can learn any of this stuff yourself, and in fact you can/should get started right away yourself,  if you are really keen and learn as much as you can before you even go to a school. The more you try out and learn about these various things the more you will be able to figure out where your strengths lie.

There will be many different roles within those departments, but if you have a good in-depth broad understanding of 3D software, and a good folio of work, you can probably slot into any of the departments as a Junior 3D / vfx artist, depending on your skill at the time.  Entry level VFX jobs can be pretty dreary, because they get all the "shitty" jobs, like modelling rocks or rotoscoping (basically drawing masks around things frame by frame!)
Depending on your preferences, it might be better to tailor your eventual demo reel / folio towards more specific roles, such as Compositing, or effects or whatever you enjoy the most.  I know that it can be hard to do that in the time it takes to learn, so many student reels are pretty sad affairs of trying to do too much at once, quite averagely.
Don't ever rely or expect that simply going to any school and doing what is required and nothing additional, will automatically mean you come out with a good reel/folio.

You have to do the work, and the more you do, the better your work will be. Same with art. :)

Large studios tend to have more narrowly focused roles, so you might JUST be a lighting guy, or do rigging. or model rocks. In smaller studios you tend to become a bit more general and jump across roles and do whatever needs to get done.

Many studios will have custom setups for their pipeline and tools that require coding and maintenance and R&D, so computer engineering would be paramount for that side, but it doesn't sound like that's what you're actually that interested in.  So it will be up to you if you want to split your time between two degrees or spend more time on the artistic side but that will also depend on the programmes available I guess.

My role was just a fancy way of saying, "I do lighting".  It sounds grander than it was. Because I enjoyed lighting and mood, the most when it came to 3D, I became responsible for all exterior shot lighting, mood setup and renders.  Because it was a small studio I also did some modelling, and R&D on process and tool development. Whatever they needed really.

In terms of design....well that's a pretty different thing really. Most pipelines will have pre-production concept art which is what the production team will use to create the required assets. You probably won't be directly involved in design in a large way if you are in the 3D production side of things, but I think that can depend on how the studio works.

Hope that's clear?!

You concept art is amazing by the way :) (And your'e from nz to!?)

I've picked engineering in uni next year mainly because I know the industry is really competitive and I want a back up that I can use to support myself while I also work towards a potential career in vfx. 

Thanks for all your advice and information, it was really useful and I'll just keep trying until I get somewhere. I already have some experience in 2D digital art, but I think extending that to concept art and diving into some 3D art will be my next steps. I really hope I get into screen production in my 2nd year of uni as well, but I have a whole year of hard work before I find out.