VES Statement Urges VFX Artists Work Remotely

Monday, the Visual Effects Society (VES), the industry’s professional global honorary society, issued the following statement and resources in light of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis:

At this time of crisis, supporting the health and safety of our global visual effects workforce is of vital importance. Many visual effects practitioners are still hard at work at studios and facilities around the world, when they might prefer to work remotely in this difficult time. Municipalities worldwide have been enacting stringent public health protocols to help curb the spread of COVID-19, and that includes strong guidance for employees to work from home, whenever possible.

The Visual Effects Society wants to encourage all employers — large or small — to grant permission for their employees to work remotely during this unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic. We understand the concerns around security to protect proprietary work product, but right now is the time for the utmost flexibility towards VFX artists and all practitioners as we try to figure our way through this crisis. Many companies are trying to take action, and we are optimistic that studios and vendors can find and enact workable solutions.

To aid this transition to remote work, the VES Technology Committee has issued best practices and guidance for working from home, culled from studios, vendors and facilities. The recommendations are designed to help the VFX community by providing technical solutions to common problems practitioners may encounter in preparing and adapting to work from home workflows, acknowledging the security and technical issues involved.

The Committee’s best practices guidelines can be found here.

www.visualeffectssociety.com