The main problem of CG in Russia and the first step towards its solution

Everything that I see around is always changing at one speed or another. Something is very fast, something is slow, something does not budge at all. And here we are talking about the mentality of people, about their attitude to things that are not connected with them in any way; their understanding of the fact that there are many interesting and complex professions / sciences in the world, the depth of which they never thought about. I am talking about people living in Russia. In our country since Soviet times, settled norms have been firmly settled in people's heads, which they are practically unable to suppress or change. What thoughts soar in the minds of most of our people regarding politics, financial literacy and learning something completely new to yourself is scary. And if everything is clear with politics, with financial literacy - it’s the same, although, perhaps, not only Russians have problems here,

And it is here that I want to focus on the living conditions of CG in our country. I know that this post can be read by specialist artists, as well as people with computer graphics who are not connected in any way. And therefore, there will not be complicated words ala "concept art", or, God forbid, any "renderings".

To begin with, computer graphics in our country is one of the most underestimated and, perhaps, along with IT areas, the most unobvious industry. “Unobvious” here is obscure, ambiguous, or simply “a thing for specific, enthusiastic people.” Have you ever tried to compare yourself with the same IT people (for example, programmers)? Now, when VR and AR technologies are trending, CG and IT are starting to work more closely with each other. However, unlike IT, where “exclusively nerds” work, who work day after day and earn deservedly high fees, guys at CG work who can poke wherever they need, they know about the “make it beautiful” button, and they also draw cool robots or human-like creatures in 3D, well, they can still draw games, “adjust some engines there so that they play normally”,

Surely noticed how I quietly slipped into the most generalized opinion of CG? How? How do you like what most people think about computer graphics and its importance in modern Russia? How do you like the fact that in connection with the above, you won’t be offered decent payouts, and investing in CG ... even sounds strange, agree? But what about the fact that it is this whole society that sets deadlines for you or simply conditions for fulfillment? In the case of CG, the ideal CG company / people will always be the ideal customer, because only they know the true value of your work and the complexity of the work. But, in fairness, we all know that in good, well-established studios for game development / production of 2D / 3D animation, motion design, visualization of interiors / exteriors, salaries are significantly higher than the national average. However, such money will be paid only to those people who managed to prove themselves, managed to learn their skills and are ready (by the way) to educate the rest of the newcomers. But this is exactly the case: CG works with CG.

A lot of volumes can be written about the situation on freelance exchanges, devoted to inadequate customers with their terms and corrections, the problem of dumping, the lack of a clear understanding by the customer of the scale of work, low remuneration, the problem of a large number of newcomers and people with disastrously little work experience who are willing to work for pennies, thereby preventing experienced artists from finding their clients. I constantly hear about it on the forums, I see it on various blogs, and lately I've been following this mood in instant messenger chats like Telegram.

I was struck to the core by the difference in salaries between Russian and foreign studios. But if here you can still find an excuse in the economies of the countries and currency trends, then absolutely no excuse can be found in the difference between payments in Russia and abroad to freelancers. Even if we compare the exchange rates, it still turns out that in the West, the attitude to the work of CG artists is radically different from ours, and this can be seen already from the money that is offered as payment.

In short, the work of CG artists is not appreciated or not appreciated. It is a fact.Many people put up with this, the government of our country seems to be completely unaware of this problem, as well as the fact that in other countries there are special investment companies that invest in media, CG, IT, etc. (the same Providence Equity Partners). Although, for example, I am aware of WargamingLabs, a Wargaming studio project created to help indie game developers promote their product. But then again, this is only gamedev (Game Development, game development) and what the scale of this enterprise is is unknown.

On the other hand, I do not perceive whining (it is whining, not a statement of fact) that the requirements for applicants in large studios are too unattainable. I have not seen a single vacancy, where it would be said that you are required to know all the programs for modeling, the ability to work in everything that exists, and also draw like Michelangelo. Another thing is that even those who meet the requirements simply do not want to leave their native place at the computer and transfer to the office, where strangers scurry around. But the situation in freelance is deplorable, outsourcing is already available for established studios / experienced freelancers, and now imagine that after all this, a newcomer is experiencing who just wanted to create explosions and destruction / simulate / compose / draw and make money on it, but at the same time he still has to learn all this,

Now people are going to CG who really want to learn this and continue to work, raising the level of graphics in Russia to a new level. Of course, there are those people who like the graphics, and they, after many years of study and work in an unloved position, decide to radically change everything and plunge into it (like your humble servant).

And after such a brief review of the situation with CG in Russia, a reasonable question immediately arises: how can everything be changed? How to make the attitude to computer graphics from neutral to positive, to the attitude that has long existed in the US, Canada and the UK?

In my opinion, you need to start with something that is accessible to absolutely everyone, regardless of their type of activity, level of salary and amount of free time. Something that can demonstrate the entire amount of work necessary to create such familiar things for a simple person as games, advertising, movies with special effects, beautiful pictures in architectural magazines, etc. This should show the whole process of creation; how much time it took, exactly how much physical energy was spent on it.

For several months now, the idea of ​​creating this “something” has not left me. However, relatively recently I came across once again the site of the world-famous school of computer graphics Gnomon, and in the Community section I found confirmation of my theory - an exhibition. The famous (as it turned out) exhibition Gnomon Gallery is positioned as an exhibition of the best works of students of the school in the "setting" of traditional exhibitions.

It seemed to me that this is it: the first step towards introducing people to computer graphics, to understanding what it really is and how it is actually created. It’s not even about simple paintings hanging on the wall, but about a visual demonstration of the work, the process of creation itself. From this, it would be quite possible to create not just an exhibition designed to draw the attention of the audience to the scale of CG, but a whole platform on which large and small studios could cooperate with each other, look for newcomers, tell a different audience about their work, and so on, and etc. In the end, quite theoretically, but such an event could well have created its own fund to support CG professionals in our country.

But the main thing here is to develop people's meager knowledge about the work of artists, to show them that everything is not so simple, that everything is so complicated that even experienced professionals can not always keep up with new trends in their work. To show that, in fact, there are a lot of artists, but many of them are unknown to the public, while the quality of their work is akin to the work of an entire studio; that there are guys who create in the very shortest possible time crazy commercials that people switch when they see their beginning; that there is a huge concept of research & development even in CG, when, for example, it is required to achieve maximum realism in the most sophisticated ways. But most importantly, all this is a great work, as well as the work of a programmer, geneticist, top manager, miner or doctor. It is only important to open the curtain at last.

Of course, I do not pretend to be a super-creator-solution-from-all-problems, but nobody forbids us to try. In the end, at least we tried, even if this idea is nonsense with an absolutely zero ending. It is important to try. In this sense, I am very inspired by Sergey Tsyptsyn, who wrote Understanding Maya, the founder of Real School, and later Scream School, the main organizer of CG Event. Sergey did a lot to popularize CG in Russia, however, if the CG Event was created primarily for people living in CG, then why not create something just as colossal, only for people who did not know about CG?

Thanks.