3D Animation & Visual Effects grad Aruna Inversin is a successful (and Emmy-nominated) compositor whose career has included long stints at Tippett Studios and now Digital Domain. Since graduating from VFS in 1998, he’s accumulated a hefty list of credits – including this summer’s Transformers sequel and the fast-approaching J.J. Abrams Star Trek reboot.

But that’s not where it ends – he contributes regularly to the VFX community, as a blogger, a moderator, a mentor, and now founder of the new service VFXWages – a site that enables professionals and students to get real data on wages in the  industry.

As Aruna points out, this type of data has been floating around in bits and pieces – just never with this scope. “Some guilds, such as the Animation Guild and the VES [Visual Effects Society], have polled their members in the past and released wage and salary information,” he explains. “We’re taking it one step further and polling everyone in the industries, globally.”

It’s all in the name of informing and empowering a very fluid workforce in a rapidly evolving industry. We caught up with Aruna just as he was beginning to wrap up his work on Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and he gave us the lowdown on VFXWages.

Do you feel that this kind of initiative is particularly important in the visual effects industry?

The visual effects industry, in addition to gaming, motion graphics, and the computer graphics industries, are global phenomena. An artist can work virtually anywhere and produce great work. One of the big unknowns within these industries can be the lack of knowledge of monetary reimbursement for your work that arises when looking for new work or contracting work overseas and in other markets.

There have been many talks that I’ve been listening to about VFX and gaming unions, for the better part of 10 years!  But nothing has really come of it, to establish a baseline for artists.  With the information that is now available on the internet, knowledge is much easier to acquire, however monetary knowledge can take some wrangling.

We’ve taken the initiative in aggregating all wages, globally, in your choice of currency, to establish a rough baseline of what you might be paid based on the years of experience.

You’ve also at some point been involved in VFXTalk, too. And your blog, Digital Gypsy – you’re offering real insight. Especially now that your career is pretty established and you might not have quite the immediate need to schmooze, what drives you to stay involved in the community in these ways?

I was briefly a co-owner of VFXTalk.com, a VFX forum focusing solely on the art and technology of visual effects. As an insight, we have regular users from well-known studios that browse the site – some contribute, some lurk. It’s definitely a way to get noticed by people in the industry. I am still currently a senior moderator on the site, and contribute regularly to the discussions there.

My blog is something I started midway through my career so far, and wanted to share my experiences with students and other professionals, and originally, as a way to make a name for myself should I choose to freelance and network. It’s actually not very hard to contact me!

Like many students and professionals, I do this job because I love it.  I don’t know if I’ll ever leave. Sure, there are the downsides – irrational clients, silly requests, an impossible deadline. But I enjoy the work, and I enjoy sharing the work I do.  This is probably why I spend much of my waking time – when I’m not full-time at Digital Domain – working on VFXWages, moderating at VFXTalk, and tending to DigitalGypsy.

I am also currently mentoring a student through the Mentor program at VES. This is another chance for me to mold an artist into my own creation!

I find that the more informed an artist is about the work that they will possibly do, the easier the production will go, the better the quality of the work will be, and the more they will be reimbursed for their time. My aim within the VFX community is to inform and teach, to an extent. Information is power.

For a student who’s maybe still a year or two away from joining the professional ranks, all this pay talk might seem a little abstract. What would you say to them as to why they should sign up for the site and pay attention to the data?

The data that we provide is aggregated from all the professional artists that come to the site, looking for the same thing students are looking for – wage equality, a starting baseline, and the information to make realistic decisions in salary negotiations, in positions around the world.

This is less about choosing a career that pays the most and more about reaching a pay level equal to your peers with the same years of experience; where salary becomes a non-issue, and the art becomes the focus. We hope to give artists the confidence in negotiating an appropriate wage or salary, from students to professionals alike. It’s definitely something I wish I had when I first started!

For the sake of full disclosure, I started working in VFX in Vancouver 10 years ago, at $9 an hour Canadian. This has blossomed to more than five times as much, in US dollars, here in Los Angeles. Each incremental wage increase in between was fought hard and I had no clue what my peers were making, if I was working too hard for too little, if I was just a good negotiator, or if I really am worth what they pay me.

Thanks, Aruna! Students interested in what VFXWages has to offer can visit it at VFXWages.com. Every day more data is collected from professionals out in the field and the service becomes even more useful. We’re looking forward to seeing what it can become!