Post Profile: Vince Baertsoen; Post Modernist

Being at the cutting edge of technology might win you plaudits today, but tomorrow’s successful VFX houses will be competing to hire the artists that can bring emotion to photoreality, Vince Baertsoen, The Mill New York’s head of 3D, tells Sarah Shearman

Winning acclaim from a discerning peer group and picking up industry awards – such as a gold Lion – are, for most creatives, the highest accolades in the land. But for Vince Baertsoen, head of 3D at The Mill New York, getting the seal of approval from a chimpanzee keeper for one of his ads was the real highlight.

The work in question was PETA’s 98% Human ad, for which Baertsoen was visual FX supervisor. The spot, launched in May last year, depicts a computer animated chimpanzee putting a gun to its head to highlight the plight of apes used as actors by the entertainment industry.

“One of our employee’s friends is an animal keeper who takes care of chimpanzees. When she saw the film she didn’t realise it was CG and thought it was a well-trained chimpanzee. I was extremely proud and touched by that,” he says.

The post production studio was apprehensive when BBDO first approached The Mill three years ago with the idea. “We were not confident with the technology and it was at the same time Rise of the Planet of the Apes was coming out. We knew it had to be perfect but didn’t want to compete with another graphics studio,” says Baertsoen.

But a year passed and The Mill knew it was too good an opportunity to pass up. “We were more confident, pumped-up and ready to do it.”

What makes the animation so realistic is attention to the minutiae of details – such as the chimp’s tear line, muscular system and dust in its fur – overlaid with emotion, explains Baertsoen. “It is amazing how the emotion was all in the eyes,” he says.

Blurring the boundaries between virtual and photoreality has long-inspired Baertsoen, who explored this in his first short film Loop 10 years ago. The film, which he made as a postgraduate student at animation school Supinfocom in Arles, France, depicts a snail’s journey into a different universe.

The film enabled Baertsoen to break into the industry after it was seen by a producer at The Mill, who invited him for a job interview in London. “The film had a big impact on the CG community and it gave me a boost for a few years, even though the life of a short movie is generally a year or two,” he says. (Baertsoen even showed it to director Chris Cunningham, a hero of his, who he happened to be working with on Sony PSP’s Icon commercial a few years later).

Despite speaking very little English at the time, Baertsoen, who comes from a town near Aix-en-Provence, visited The Mill in London and was offered a job as a junior artist after a trial project in 2004. Within a year he was leading projects, and by the following year he was supervising shoots on set. But after four years in London, during which time he worked on campaigns for brands including Orange, Dyson and Seimens, he was “burnt out”.

“I was working 14-to-16 hours a day and I was looking for something else,” he explains. But The Mill was growing its New York office and Baertsoen hopped over the pond six years ago as CG supervisor.

The New York studio now has 170 people (out of 670 across the worldwide group), taking up three floors of a Soho building. The space, with exposed brickwork and the occasional dog padding down the hallway, is currently undergoing renovation. This includes a new roof deck, with views across Manhattan, making it the perfect spot for Friday afternoon beers.

Baertsoen now leads The Mill’s CG department of about 40 people. While he does less artwork and more management these days, he is passionate about bringing up the next crop of talent at the studio. He is also part of The Mill’s global technology board, pushing for the group to pursue better technology and innovative tools.

In his decade at The Mill, Baertsoen has witnessed the industry change into “an extremely competitive market. In London we would compete with the studio across the street for the client across the street but now it is very much a global market. Because technology is becoming more accessible, we also have smaller studios competing with us,” he explains.

The Mill, which a couple of years ago stopped doing TV programming work, has evolved with the shifting landscape. It now offers production services through its animation and design studio The Mill+, launched last year. 98% Human and Hallmark’s Mother Bird, (another one of the ads Baertsoen is proudest of working on), came from The Mill+.

“The Mill+ is good for us because we get to focus on the creative ideas, and it is good for the client because they get to everything under one roof, which is cheaper,” he says.

Amid all this change, Baertsoen says winning talent will determine long-term success. “In 20 years it is all going to be about the artist. Whoever has the best artists in the industry will be the ones who will succeed,” he says.

“But, like any artistic industry, it’s hard and competitive – only the best will survive.”