Visual Effects

After I have finished my school, I want to become a Visual effects Supervisor/Assistant or something like that. A visual effects supervisor/assistant makes the visual effects in a movie, like an explosion, or a dragon or something wich isn't possible in reality. Take a look at this site: http://www.simstones.nl/portfoliovisualeffects2.htm
You'll see a very short movie, with some nice explosions. @ the left, it says: 'Gebruikte technieken: Lightwave 7.5, After Effects 6.0'. Now, 'Gebruikte technieken' is Dutch, it means, used software. So, has anyone got this software, or does someone want me to recommend some software? Any help would be gladly appreciated.

k dude, first of all, it seems like your starting off with no knowledge at all, so just take a university course in 3d animation, and 3d graphics. To get really good at any kind of 3d takes ALOT of time and effort, and the first few months tend to be extremely boring as your learning the program. It's nice that you want to do that but if you don't know more then one 3d program then maby you should look elsewhere. BTW some other programs would be: 3ds max, maya, rhino, and blender, those along with lightwaves tend to be the most used in the industry.

A lot of the large effects houses and CGI animation companies also use a lot of custom designed scripts, plugins, renderers. You want to be good and go work for an effects company, you have to learn more than just 3D modeling and post rendering/post production effects. You need to also lean a good deal of computer programming, and I am not talking about VB. University programs are probably not enough for a career, a real career in that field. There are technical schools that focus in on these areas, and that is really what you need. If I had to do it all over again, I would have said screw the engineering field, and taken computer science/programming in college, and then went on to a technical program for 3D stuff later on.

Or you can do what I am doing, and that is learn on my own, investing THOUSANDS of dollars and software, hardware and books/courses, and then investing THOUSANDS of hours of time over the last 3 years. Now I have married my education to 3D modeling in my present job, but it is not as cool as say working for ILM.

Originally posted by RCFlyer

A lot of the large effects houses and CGI animation companies also use a lot of custom designed scripts, plugins, renderers. You want to be good and go work for an effects company, you have to learn more than just 3D modeling and post rendering/post production effects. You need to also lean a good deal of computer programming, and I am not talking about VB. University programs are probably not enough for a career, a real career in that field. There are technical schools that focus in on these areas, and that is really what you need. If I had to do it all over again, I would have said screw the engineering field, and taken computer science/programming in college, and then went on to a technical program for 3D stuff later on.

Or you can do what I am doing, and that is learn on my own, investing THOUSANDS of dollars and software, hardware and books/courses, and then investing THOUSANDS of hours of time over the last 3 years. Now I have married my education to 3D modeling in my present job, but it is not as cool as say working for ILM.

I've heard of ILM, but what does it exactly mean?

industrial light and magic, it's one of the largest effects companies out there.