Marco Raposo de Barbosa is the co-founder and VFX supervisor at BlackGinger, an animation and visual effects studio in Cape Town, South Africa.
Barbosa started his career in 1994 as a multimedia designer and later moved into 3D animation. When the company he was working for invested in a state-of-the-art animation system – the Silicon Graphics Indigo 2 workstation running Alias/Wavefront PowerAnimator – his love for visual effects (VFX) was ignited.
In 2005, after working as a flame artist for several years, Barbosa, Marc Bloch and two other partners started BlackGinger. “Over the course of the last 13 years, we have continued to focus on high-end VFX, animation and post-production for the commercial market, as well as developing the feature film and series side of the business. This allowed me to move out of Flame and focus on VFX supervision,” shares Barbosa. As a VFX supervisor at BlackGinger, Barbosa oversees the technical and creative execution of all company projects.
BlackGinger’s most recent works include the Cerebos Salt commercial which involves computer-generated (CG) characters combined with miniature live-action sets. “A project like this, which is fundamentally a character animation piece still involves lots of VFX work with complex hair systems, fur and cloth simulations as well as photo-real shading and lighting,” tells Barbosa.
A big part of the company’s feature film work now involves 3D scanning: “both with our 64 camera photogrammetry rig for people and prop scanning and our LIDAR scanners for locations and sets,” Barbosa expands. These films include 24 Hours to Live and Maze Runner: The Death Cure.
During the 2018 Cape Town International Animation Festival (CTIAF) which took place in March, Barbosa was one of the headline speakers presenting a session on VFX, under the title: Zen and the Art of VFX: Surviving in a world where anything is possible.
“My topic was inspired by the challenges, both good and bad; we face as individual artists and as an industry. These are often left unspoken or unacknowledged, and I thought it might be insightful to people new to VFX and relatable to those already in it,” says Barbosa.
“Having been in the digital VFX world since the early days of computer animation I have seen it go from being an obscure field that few people understood to being the cornerstone of many blockbuster movies. The technology, both software and hardware, has evolved hugely, giving artists the tools to be able to achieve things that were very recently not possible. The complexity of a lot of what is achieved is really astounding, which is why most of the industry is made up of artists specialising in sub-fields with VFX, some creative, some technical,” Barbosa adds. “Seeing how VFX has been devalued in many public and industry forums is sad. On one side this is due to the rapid expansion of the industry resulting in the commoditisation of VFX and on the other end there are good and bad examples of everything, with the bad examples getting more attention than is fair. When considering the radical achievements that those at the top of the international industry are attaining, it is truly inspiring to understand how complex and progressive these projects are. VFX has developed into a craft that is capable of creating anything. Negotiating the constraints of time, money and personal development in this context is what my talk was aimed at.”
Barbosa enjoys seeing a growing number of people wanting to pursue a career in VFX, which is still considered to be a fairly small industry in South Africa. In terms of training, Barbosa recommends The Animation School as they have been very open to discussing what skills the industry needs and produce a lot of great students. However, for the more technical/coding side of VFX, studying Computer Science at any university is xan option.
BlackGinger also contributes to this thriving industry through its internship programme where post-graduate interns learn every aspect of the toolset and workflows. “We have a series of courses that each intern needs to complete which have been honed over many years to ensure a smooth and effective transition from the academic world into the production world. They are mentored through these programmes, and beyond, by the department heads and project leads,” says Barbosa. Additionally, the interns get to participate in award-winning projects and productions where the learning curve can be very steep, helping them gain experience quickly.
“VFX requires so many different skills and insights and is constantly developing and advancing. This makes it challenging and forces growth and learning, which is what is so great about it. You get to be involved in projects that have 100’s or 1000’s of people working together, and we all create something that is hopefully great to watch and fulfilling for all who had input. The work is massively diverse and can take you to places you would never otherwise go and meet people you would never meet,” Barbosa concludes.
