MEET THE ARTIST
Richard Costin
The co-founder of Rumble VFX answers our questions on how the studio produces its high-end visual effects for film and TV
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ichard Costin co-founded the Soho-based Rumble VFX with Tim Zaccheo, Max Wright and Joe Cork in autumn 2019, and is a senior 3D supervisor in addition to corunning the company. In their first year of Rumble VFX, the studio has worked on some amazing projects including season 4 of the Golden Globe-winning The Crown, the James Bond Super Bowl trailer as well as the BBC’s A Christmas Carol and Netflix’s Alien Worlds. At present, the team are finishing up 100 shots for the latest series of Epix’s Pennyworth.
We interviewed Costin to find out more about Rumble VFX’s work, his personal career journey, and day-to-day life as a senior 3D supervisor.
Do you have a background in 3D design or are you self taught?
After some time attempting to self teach in the late 90s (an era before guides, tutorials and institutional knowledge was generally available and software cost well over £15,000 per seat), I enrolled in and completed a brief two-week course on Softimage at a small training facility in London called The Finishing School on Hoxton Square. This put me in good stead to continue to self learn what was then the very dark art of 3D. Two years later I began a degree in Computer Visualisation and Animation at Ravensbourne University which I completed three years later.
Shortly after graduating I got my foot in the industry door as a runner at The Mill. After about eight months of delivering tea and coffee I progressed into their 3D department, initially on trial and then progressing to full time. Working alongside some very talented seniors really pushed me to become good very quickly and I will always be grateful for that period in my career, particularly as I was sat next to Jordi Bares who shepherded me through those early days and taught me some essential foundational knowledge about getting shots done that you just can’t pick up from a book. I very much believe in learning by doing where possible and it was a fertile time.