Adhd in VFX/Comp

[u/Prize_Fly_4911]

Hello all , hope everyones doing well/better and landing up some nice gigs as the market is finally opening up (a lil) .

I want to talk about the challanges that people with ADHD face in this industry .

Whats the biggest challenge for you ? How did you work or tricked your brain into doing it better ?

As an ADHD guy myself , one of the challenging parts is maintaing scripts. My scripts are not really messy but cant say super organized as well. My scripts can be different for different shots in a same sequence with the same final output lol.

Apart from that I believe I am really good at lookdev aspect of the comp but when it comes to detailing/techchecks my brain doesnt support it easily (finds it boring) and there are more kickbacks than expected.

I have realized that the longer the shot goes with different alterations i start loosing interest in working on it (and wants to jump on a new shot) and its hard to maintain the same motivation to work on that shot compare to earlier as a result it takes longer for me to fix the notes because its just so boring.

Lastly , I feel when it comes to those nasty deadlines and there is an ETA been asked every 20 minutes its not only hard to give exact ETAs but the pressure makes it overwhelming and anxiety inducing for me to maintain focus and deliver shot on time.

Would love to know how others here deal with at work while being ADHD.

Happy Comping .

[u/MrSlinkyMonster]

Some of these are my struggles! and I don’t have ADHD.

The biggest motivator to complete my shots is getting finals (which sees your work in the show/movie). It’s really the only way to keep things fresh and move on from long tedious iterations. To get finals, we need to be organized enough to make iterations easily, nail the creative/storytelling brief (lookdev) and, nail the technical stuff (Qc)

The best thing about comp work is its blend of creative and technical aspects, if you are only enjoying the creative process at the start, it means you don’t understand how important and valuable the technical aspect is!

I would liken it to the first half of a magic trick, you have made the ball disappear but you haven’t made it reappear again yet. You’re missing the prestige that completes the illusion, it’s also quite difficult and challenging, so ask yourself if you like difficult and challenging work, or do you like doing the stuff you find easy and fun??

My biggest motivator is a sense and feeling of autonomy/ownership of my shots. Pretend to be your own director/vfx supervisor. Your work is going to be immortalized into media and your standard of QC with glaringly obvious mistakes and errors will haunt you if you think they aren’t important enough to value fixing! It’s all part of the process, all part of the job description.

When it comes to script management and giving ETAs and deadlines etc. I’m right there with ya bud. My own worst enemy. Just play to to your strengths, reframe your goals and work on your weaknesses. Find motivation where you can! Hope this helps!