Sino Choi, Freed Workshop, Hongkong: Top V/FX Talent talks about film visual effects from Hongkong  

 

Firstly, Thank-you Sino Choi and Welcome to cebas Insights Interview.

Our questions today for Sino Choi are as follow: 

  • Your 2018 FX Showreel caught our eyes, as it involves some interesting visual effects shot using thinkingParticles.
     
  • The vfx community and followers of cebas channel would love to know more about you and your VFX work - do fill everyone with some interesting history of how you came to be a VFX artist?
     
  • Tell us about the Hongkong post-production / VFX industry - Hongkong has long been a major centre of film productions - has much changed with China now, especially Beijing being the main film production city of Chinese language films?
     
  • So how did you become interested in this area of work ? And where did you train? Was it a costly to learn VFX in Hong Kong?
     
  • What are some of the ups and downs in your VFX career in HK - and some memorable anecdotes or of people in the industry or training - that has helped you along the way.
     
  • Do you use both Autodesk Max and Maya and why? From your experience, what is each of these two platforms best for?
     
  •  Maybe Sino, you can first let us know individually - which studios you were in, when you did those scenes (in the following list)? Are you with the same studio and for how many years?

1) That Demon Within - Fumefx + TP (setup for fire column)
2) Helios - TP (Clouds generator) + Fumefx
3) The Vanished Murderer - TP (Sparks) + Fumefx
4) Cold War - TP (Explosion setup) + Fumefx
5) Full Strike - TP (Sparks) + TP (Clouds generator) + Fumefx

We see from the above list quite a few of movie effects you had used thinkingParticles -- was it tough to set things up, or you feel you have master it and now it comes easily to you ?

  • Sino, how did you come to know about and eventually to learn Thinking Particles and its logic, since TP is not well known in Asia - is that a correct statement, or are there quite a number of TP-skills in HK / China ?
     
  •  Which of the above five movie V/FX is your top favourite and why? Could you kindly tell or show some of the TP setups of favorite scenes you have done.
     
  • And which was the toughest one to date ? How many hours did you spend figuring that one out?
     
  • Please pick one more unique TP scene that you would like to show everyone and talk about it - how you created it, from thinking out the wiring logic to fruition.
     
  • What are some of the features in thinkingParticles that you feel are unbeatable - such as, perhaps, help speed up and enhance a creative output for your commercial and film vfx ?
     
  • What do you find usually are the most difficult aspects of 3d/ fx design work - is it technology or artistic inspiration ? - is there an available vfx software that resolves all your technology-to-creativity needs? What is missing?
     
  • Was Maya the main ‘production pipeline’ for your studio? How did you integrate 3dsMax - TP into your production pipeline? Was it a straightforward process?
     
  • Do you use TP blackBoxes and how helpful is this?
     
  • Sino, I am presuming the China-HK VFX market is a huge market and you have a non-stop overwhelming demand for expert FX artists like yourself?
     
  • Is it better to work for a studio or go freelance and why?
     
  • And could you drop us a hint on what projects we can expect from you in the near future (if you're able to tell us) - and we can keep a lookout for more of your TP work?
     
  • What are your professional and what are your personal hopes and dreams in moving into the future in the art of visual effects and balancing life/work
     
  • Finally, in your view, what is your WISH for cebas software to achieve that is not currently doing for you?
     

 Cebas would like to thank Sino Choi & free-D workshop for this interview and if you would like to contact their studio, write to sinochoi@gmailcom / go directly to Freed Workshop