Burn Out

It happens in every field. You push yourself too hard, and the worst happens. You break down. You get pissed at everything. You get tired. How do you deal with burn out, and what happens afterwards?

After having a good chat with a friend of mine, and after reading several sites dealing with the ebbs and flows of visual effects production, I wondered how people can make this job a career. Especially in this day and age. This is a question for both the new guys and gals, and the seasoned people. I've had many coworkers and friends really push themselves when it comes to visual effects. Always staying late and working overtime, or just staying late and working! Despite being unhealthy, many people do it. Have the seasoned professionals in this career choice learned that too much is not good? Is there a time limit or "expiration date" for fresh workers in this field? Can you really make a career out of creating visual effects, for both movies and television?

This is sort of an arbitrary question, since you're reading this right now with a) the goal to get into the business or b)to read what other people think about the business. However, if you've been in the business for a long time, over a decade or more, how do you feel about your career choice? Is it something you fell into? Many schools tell students that visual effects could be a career option. But this is entertainment, something other people don't really need.

I've burned out in a previous life. I swum competitively for twelve years, the last four or five at the national level. After a certain point, I got sick of it and gave up, cold turkey style. I haven't swum competitively since. Could this be the same syndrome that may come about in the near future for artists that have been around for five to ten years? Is there a point of diminishing returns where you have to realize that you've been working in visual effects for so long and haven't gained the knowledge and experience that you want? Is visual effects really for you? You're either in it for the long run, or in it for the very short run. It seems that very few people stay in this business as a career choice, and the ones that have, have really pushed and excelled in every aspect of the industry, and continue to learn of the new tools and techniques that shape this field. I know of several former coworkers that have either given up in the visual effects field, or have sidebarred and have gone into a related field with a different technology angle that being a visual effects artist.

The other question that is tied together with this one is, can you make a living? Can you support a family in the future? If visual effects is your only career, and you start in the same company and know the same people and work on the same shows and everything's always been the same, how can you support yourself and your family if everything else is changing? Film visual effects seems to be predominately on the coasts, which have been and are currently very expensive places to live. Can you really raise a family on the coast with one income? Sure. If you have a huge income. Or if you live frugally. But then you're always working overtime to make ends meet and the family that you're working for never really gets to see you.

This post is just an open book into what I've been thinking about the last several days, trying to wrap my head about the options that I have for the future. I'm still young, and can still make changes to my life if necessary. They say a person has an average of nine separate jobs during their lifetime. I've had two.