Hello Steffen, Can you briefly introduce yourself?

Hello there! I am Steffen Hampel, 30 years old, from northern Germany and a Sr. Generalist at Industrial Light & Magic Vancouver.

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Can you tell us about your childhood? What inspired you growing up, and how did those early experiences lead you to your current career? Were there any unique challenges you faced during those early stages?

My childhood was awesome, lots of football, videogames, friends and surprisingly not really anything connected to VFX per se, but there were definitely hints now that I think about it. I would always just build the houses and environments in Sims instead of playing and loved building cities in Lego.

The only time I directly got connected to VFX and also inspired by was at the age of 13, when I watched a Lord of the Rings Making of on DVD and they showed how Weta created CGI for set extensions etc. Everything looked so real and I was amazed by how they tricked the audience. From then on I kinda knew I wanted to do something similar too (Back then I had no idea about the different VFX departments or so)

What lights the spark for you? Where do you find the most  inspiration when you're deep into a project?

Cinematic, beautifully composed shots, concept art, movies, TV shows. Overall movies where every frame is a painting. Most recently I think “The Batman” is the best looking and cinematography wise perfect movie from the last decade. The lighting, compositions, the dirtyness of the lens. Exactly my jam. I am a bit sad that I couldn't work on it. But maybe the next one 🙂

Let’s shine a light on one of your favorite projects. Walk us through the creative process and the magic that brought it to life. What makes it stand out in your portfolio?

In my professional life my favourite show was “Ahsoka” - Simply because it was the first time in my life where I was responsible for a whole sequence myself. Challenging but lots of fun! Magic that brought it to life? Industrial Light & Magic hehe.

In my personal projects, one of my favorites was that “Thailand” shot which was heavily inspired by the movie “The Creator”. That whole movie was just inspiring, the VFX were so good, everything was so grounded and looked real. It was also something new design wise. I just loved it and I wanted to create something that could live in this world as well. I also upgraded to 128 GB RAM for this project, because I wanted to scatter as much real geometry as possible. I think what makes it stand out in my portfolio is the scale of the scene, detail and matching the original inspiration.

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How do you manage your time, especially with side personal projects?  And when stress creeps in, how do you handle it and keep your energy levels up?

Well with my side projects I just do them whenever I have time. I have a wonderful girlfriend, I play football and golf. I do not spend as much time on my personal projects as people may think. I would say I am just pretty fast and since I never really model anything myself, assembling a scene with everything but modeling goes pretty quickly, especially when you know about those awesome libraries from Vray (Chaos Cosmos), Megascans, kitbash3d, BigMediumSmall and what not. Otherwise I just take the time. For me doing personal projects does not feel like work at all. It is like playing a video game or paint, it's a hobby.

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When stress creeps in - I always remind myself of the words one of my supervisors said to me during a show: “We are not saving lives, don’t worry, we are just creating movies”. And that is true, also I always think step by step and try to not get overwhelmed by all the work. I’m overall just pretty organized, chill and calm 🙂 Also balance is everything, as long as you do things after work that create joy for yourself, its all good!

As you’ve climbed the ladder to Senior CG Generalist position, What's your secret sauce?  Any tips for those aspiring to grow into similar roles? Are there any gotchas or obvious statements that you wish you knew earlier?

An obvious “gotcha”  for me was - work with real world references. When I started I thought I knew how glass, concrete, wood, and exposure levels etc looked like. Well I was wrong. I was just creating things and it looked off. I never knew why. It just didn't look real. And now I know it was because I was just creating things out of my own perception of reality, which is not necessarily correct.

There is no secret sauce to be honest, people who are motivated and work on themselves all the time will get there eventually. Since I was a VFX student (September 2017) I always worked on some sort of personal projects. Always creating, trying new things, learning, schooling my own eyes basically. Everybody can learn how to press buttons, but you cannot learn how to get better eyes for light, composition etc just like that. It takes time and practice. All the successful people I know are dedicated and work on personal projects! Coincidence? I don’t think so.

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As a Env Artist, with working on various styles and scale of projects showcasing detailed Environments in your showreel, what specific challenges do you encounter in these projects?

So overall I think in terms of style, everything is the same because it's ALWAYS photoreal, which means it's ALWAYS somehow based on real life things, even for star wars or anything fantasy. Everything has its roots in the real world. The only REALLY BIG challenge every time is making it look believable. It is NEVER easy. It requires so many details and randomness that happen in nature. That is enough challenge already 😀

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What are the things you wish you knew or learned earlier that would have made a significant impact on your current situation?

Like I said above, I wish I knew earlier that working with references is one of the most important part in creating worlds. Also Exposure levels - overall learning how cameras work. And then of course composition. You can make the most perfect materials and light, if the composition is not pleasing or anything, it will never look like a movie or so. Every shot in a movie or tv show has thoughts behind it. Do the same! 🙂

Who in the industry do you look up to as an inspiration or role model? Is there someone you’ve said, "I want to be like them when I grow up"? or “I wish I collaborated to work on a project with”

Who do I look up to? Basically every supervisor (especially in the Generalist department) - Most importantly my friend, colleague  and mentor Falk Boje (who is the guy who brought me to ILM in the first place), Supervisor Enrico Damm (who also has a Generalist background)

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How did you join ILM?

I did not apply at all. I got asked because some of the GEN leads/supervisors found my stuff on artstation and they recommended me. When I got the email I first thought it was a scam and not real - but VERY quickly I understood what happened. So a week later I already got an interview, another week later they let me know that they want to hire me. Some complicated covid travel restriction stuff happened back then but well.. now  here I am. For already almost 4 years.The same story happens all the time. I myself have recommended people that I know trough artstation/discord and they got hired at ILM.

I can guarantee you, we always have people looking on artstation to fit in the GEN department all the time looking for talent. I don’t know about other departments, but we look on there alot.

Moral of the story: Keep posting stuff and keep improving - If you fit the job profile you may get an email one day.

What's your favorite part of your job? Is there a particular feature or tool that you love and couldn't imagine working without?

My favourite part of my job is creating worlds and at the same time having such a big ownership of a shot. Sometimes it's creating a shot from scratch, sometimes you’re responsible for the set extension, but usually its only a few people working on this, or just myself alone 🙂

Tools that I love? Well, the holy trinity: 3dsmax, vray & forestpack.

On the path of personal development, how do you continue to challenge yourself and grow as an artist?

Do something new, things that I haven't done before. Recently I was so deep into editing and filmmaking overall. Sound design, why directors show us what they show etc. I really fell into a rabbit hole there. But it is just so interesting to see how many thoughts are behind shots and also it makes me a better artist as well. Also in terms of not just creating a single shot, but doing a whole sequence 🙂

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As Env artist / Generalist, do you have a set of tips and tricks you can share that you find helpful and would like to share.

Hmmm not really? I think the only thing that I personally learned myself was getting a 3d render into comp as soon as possible, even if its just a grey shaded render or blockout, just to get a feeling of what works, where you need to spend more time on etc etc. Overall: the better the comp, the better your 3D is!

For artists who want to check out your work and learn more about you, where should they go?  Feel free to share your website and social media links.

Basically my name everywhere is the same: “stfvfx”. So that works for artstation, instagram, youtube.

https://stfvfx.gumroad.com/

https://www.artstation.com/stfvfx

https://www.instagram.com/stfvfx/?hl=de

https://www.youtube.com/@stfVFX

Lastly, what do you have for the community? Whether it's a personal project file, a tool, or a website you find helpful, this is your chance to give back and contribute to the community.

I don’t have anything really to give away except knowledge? I give a lot of feedback on peoples work, 99% of the time it's for env work. Where? On the CGLounge Discord server

I am pretty active there and always open to give notes for people's work 🙂

As we wrap up, what final words do you have for your fellow artists? No pressure, but is there something you'd like to share or a piece of advice you think would resonate with your colleagues in the industry?

Hmmmmm maybe just do not give up, it is a journey and if you put the effort into it, you will reach your goals, in germany we say: “Es ist noch kein Meister vom Himmel gefallen!” -  Which basically means that nobody started as a master.