Today we’d like to introduce you to Yifei Pei.
Hi Yifei, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
A man from China with the dream of being able to make visual effects in Hollywood movies. I was a visual effects graduate student from Savannah college of art and design (SCAD). I graduated last year and successfully got a job at Scanline VFX. Recently, I just moved to another VFX company, Ingenuity Studios, work as an FX artist and here is a short story.
I actually didn’t know what VFX was at first. I watched a lot of American movies in high school, and the visual effects in the movie scenes were very shocking to me at that time. I thought these things were really cool but I didn’t think I would be doing this in the future.
So after high school, I am going to a university and have to decide what kind of major do I want to study and I really have no idea. But I accidentally discovered the digital media art (visual effects for film and television) in the list, so I was thinking “Ok, the name is very interesting, I take it”, so I decided to apply for this major… then, I learned a lot of different things during my undergraduate years, not only about VFX but also about film production and video editing, as well as writing scripting and other related knowledge.
The time in school has allowed me to see and learn a lot of things, and it has also helped me determine my future direction. Yep… I’m going to America to study visual effects deeper. So the first challenge “English”. My English level is not very good. Especially after entering university, I basically never used English again. So in my first year in the America basically is a year of learning English. Special thanks to Google Translate, it really helps me a lot.
My college in china gave me clear goals and SCAD gave me the ability to achieve my dreams. At the same time, I also met some friends, and most of my stress came from them because they also worked really hard. The whole graduate period was like a silent competition for me, everyone was trying to make their work look cooler and better. We have a lot of fun together.
Last year, after I got into Scanline VFX, I finally fulfilled my first life dream, making visual effects for a Hollywood movie. The movie is called “The Flash” about DC heroes and it’s coming out next year.
The more I see, the more I feel lost. I need to keep learning to keep up with the progress of technology. I still have many dreams to fulfill. I hope I can succeed.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No, it has never been a smooth road. English, the culture, the American way of thinking and speaking are different from Chinese, it takes time to get used to it. Specially in my first year, I always study English overnight, it doesn’t mean I study hard, just i need to spend more time than others to complete my English homework or prepare for the exam because my English is bad. And if you failed your English class 3 times, you will be sent back to your country. That’s the rule about my major. I think the trick is to go online to find more information and study, observe some high-quality works from other people and check their breakdown, spend a lot of time polishing your work and listen carefully to the opinions of the professors. I don’t get tired of sitting in front of the computer all day, I don’t know if anyone else feels that way, it’s like a feeling of excitement looking forward to seeing the final render, and that feeling drives me to work. I don’t feel like struggling, I enjoy it.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m an FX artist who makes visual effects for film or TV series. The software I use is called Houdini, it’s a really powerful tool. So far, I’m most proud of myself for being part of the Flash movie. Thanks to my family and friends who have helped me a lot in my life, especially about my parents, love them so much.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
I think there should be less criticism and complaints and more thinking about how to solve the problem. After learning this, you can avoid the same problem next time. I think the most important thing is to have a peaceful mind and a tolerant heart. When you are constantly solving problems, it is also a process of continuous learning.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.yifeipei.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/peiyifei44
