Meet Charlie Frail | CG Supervisor & Generalist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Charlie Frail and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Charlie, what’s something about your industry that outsiders are probably unaware of?
I think the bulk of movie-goers today are unaware of the sheer number of people that it takes to get an idea up on the screen, especially within the field of visual effects. Ever watch the credits of a blockbuster film and see those huge blocks of names scrolling past under the title “digital artist”? There are typically hundreds and hundreds across several companies, and here’s the kicker: not everyone even makes the credits. But what do all these people really do? They create cg assets, they animate, they simulate fx like explosions and destruction, they composite the final image by combing through every frame at the pixel level looking for issues. And by the completion of a movie, a single artist’s contribution is often measured in seconds of screen time. Visual effects is very much a labor of love, a patient craft, and at it’s most successful, invisible to the movie-goer.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I took on a lot of different roles in the entertainment industry before landing in the world of visual effects. I had done acting, voice overs, stunt work, some writing and producing. Those years of professional exploration in my late teens and early 20s really defined what eventually became my central career mentality: learn, learn, learn, and never stop.

It’s very common for a vfx artist to stick to a particular discipline, whether that be animation, asset creation, fx, or compositing to name a few. I think the biggest factor that sets my career apart from others’ is continued self-learning and delving into other specialties. Even my breaking into VFX was heavily rooted in learning the necessary digital matte painting skills from free online resources and then creating a high enough quality reel for a studio to hire me.

When I began my first gig at MPC Montreal, even though I was hired for my matte painting skills, it became clear to me that there was actually a greater need for competent CG Asset Artists, so I heavily devoted myself to learning those workflows. With a lot of effort, I was able to jump between disciplines within MPC’s Environment department, which in turn created new opportunities to grow because suddenly I had a reputation as a fast learner.

Around this time I began work on Aquaman, where I was introduced to the power of small teams of highly technically capable artists. I also saw a path forward where I could potentially become proficient in every discipline of VFX over just a few years if I maintained my pace of self learning outside of work hours. I was not always successful in that pursuit, burnout is a very real thing, but overall that lofty goal of becoming a true CG Generalist has grown closer and closer to fruition.

By the time I was working on Joker, my work became much less about applying a standard technique over and over again. I now had a sizeable toolbelt to pull from, allowing me to chose workflows best suited to the specific task at hand. For example [Spoiler Alert], in the apartment scene in Joker in which a certain title character commits a brutal murder, there was zero practical blood used on set. When you see the final scene, some of the blood on the walls and floors were hand painted in photoshop, the blood on the Joker’s face is a combination of painting and cg elements working together, and his entire right arm that gets covered in blood is a full CG arm replacement.

Interestingly enough, the way that CG arm was created was by me squishing practical fake blood in my own hand and mimicking Joaquin Phoenix’s movements to get some accurate drip patterns. I then scanned my arm with my smartphone, cleaned it up on my computer, and we slapped it overtop of Phoenix’s arm. But such a workflow wouldn’t have been possible if I hadn’t stepped well outside my existing specialties to learn scanning with photogrammetry and had supervisors trusting enough to let me try a rather atypical workflow.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Given how much time I spend on my work, when someone comes to visit it’s often an excuse for me to become a tourist in my own city. If someone was in for a week and was as much of a movie lover as myself, I’d bring them on the Warner Bros Studio Tour and take them to an outdoor movie at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. If I could find a SAG screening that was happening that week, I’d take them regardless of the movie playing just to experience their excitement of seeing a movie that isn’t actually out yet. I’d steer them away from the underwhelming Hollywood Walk of Fame, and then patiently resign myself to walking it anyways when they insist. I’d also take them to an improv show at Upright Citizen’s Brigade and then walk to grab a drink at one of the many spots along Hollywood, pointing out the underwhelming stars once again as a passive “I told you so” for making me walk it earlier that day. lol.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
First of all, my girlfriend and love of my life Emily Reviczky, who was extremely supportive during my first year in visual effects in which I left LA for Montreal to work on X-Men: Dark Phoenix, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Aquaman, and Maleficent 2. We made the best of long-distance during that year, face timing constantly and often falling asleep while watching our “almost” sync’d up Netflix.

Of course, my parents, who didn’t blink twice (at least in front of me) when I told them that I wanted to drive out to LA as soon as I graduated high school. Their confidence that I’d always find my way has in turn given me that very same confidence.

I’ve had a number of professional mentors over the years. One very notable experience was during my time creating Ancient Atlantis for Aquaman, in which then CG Supervisor at MPC, now Head of Environments at Method Montreal, Andreas Nehls, showed a large amount of trust in my abilities, making me the head of the modeling team even though I had been working in the industry for less than a year. He had regular meetings with his artists about what their career goals were and how he could best position them to achieve those goals. His management style became the foundation of my own, which has served me very well since.

I found another key mentor shortly after returning to LA and landing at a smaller studio called Shade VFX. The owner, Bryan Godwin, lured me in with the promise of working on perhaps my favorite project to date, Joker. With the team as small as it was, I knew there would be a lot of opportunity impress and grow as an artist. Bryan and the supervisors at the time, Gabe Vargas and Eric Schoellnast, took notice of my work and began involving me in higher level creative discussions, which also led to my first time seeing behind the curtain of how visual effects studios and productions themselves communicate and relate to one another. Bryan, now the Head of Studio at Pixomondo LA, has since been a reliable source of advice and wisdom as I’ve continued to progress in my career.

Website: https://www.charlie_frail.artstation.com/resume

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frailcharlie/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlie-frail-35263a139/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/charlie.ian/