Meet the Magnopians: Roo MacNeill
With over 11 years of experience in the industry, Roo has worked on everything from small-scale TV advertisements up to AAA game titles and visual effects for Oscar and BAFTA-winning titles. Highlights include Christopher Robin, Avengers Infinity War, and Transformers Rise of the Beasts.
Born and raised in Inverness, Roo firmly believes that location should never be a barrier to success and that hidden talent and ambition exist in the most remote places, it just needs to be nurtured.
Tell us more about your role at Magnopus
I’m a Lead Artist working on real-time projects. It's a role that includes a very hands-on approach to builds and creation, as well as team management and keeping our department tied in with all the other studio disciplines.
What attracted you to Magnopus in the first place?
After years of uncertainty in studios and roles where there was a constant fear of job loss or stagnant progress, Magnopus caught my eye. It looked super dynamic, career progression looked very possible, and the fast-paced change of projects and style really matched my interests. Throughout the interview process, I was drawn to the strong focus on exploring new techniques and technologies. The application process was a little longer than usual, but it's built to ensure the right people are in the right places for the long term! It ticked every box I had and having only been here for a few months, it already feels like home.
What made you decide to pursue a career in this field?
I had a free CD trial of Lightwave 3D from a random magazine (which barely ran on the family PC hidden in a cupboard, as the internet was still pretty fresh and no one really knew what they were meant to do with it). With that, I discovered I could make sandcastles without having to go to the beach, and *boom*, that was me off to the races.
I have built my entire career in the film side of VFX. As cool as it's been to work on massive projects, I had hit a bit of a brick wall. I was in a spot where career progression had drastically slowed down in a system where you have to wait for the next one up to drop off the board rather than progressing because of your skillset.
Mixed in with a very pigeonholed approach to tasking, and the wild instability of film contracting, I needed to make a change and move forward. It's very energizing to feel challenged again rather than copy-paste the same process over and over for another Marvel film.
Real-time is almost an entirely new field to me, and it's so nice after grinding away to find fresh new challenges to remind me why I got into all of this in the first place – to make awesome stuff that brings me joy.
What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned in your career?
No matter the stress, the budget, the company, the project, the hardware, or the software, you need your team at the end of the day. That's where the real work is done. Invest as much time as you can into developing them, growing with them, and above all, developing a social work relationship with them. Make time for meetings and catch-ups no matter what your calendar looks like. Everyone has specialties and hidden knowledge. Budgets are always tight, timelines are always messy, and these are things that can be worked around, but if you burn an artist out, more often than not this can't be repaired.
What’s your favorite thing to do when you’re not working?
Outside of work, I'm a massive photography fan. I spend the majority of my free time shooting and editing. I find it's a great way to keep the creativity up in a fun way on my own schedule, and it's a place to further develop skills and keep up with advancing software.
What’s your special skill?
The ability to find super tasty street food in countries I have never been to. I wish I could say it's from some exquisite palette or superpower of taste senses, but in reality, it's just from my deep binges on YouTube so I know what ‘vibes’ to look for.
If you had unlimited resources and funding, what project or initiative would you launch?
I would love to create a full-length CG film staffed entirely by final-year students and self-learners, to capture the super-high creativity of those about to get started. It would give people the opportunity to experience what it's really like to work in a studio – something which I think is massively missing from the university and self-learning experience.
How do you approach challenges and setbacks?
On a case-by-case basis. You can't always plan for things breaking. The main thing I do is to try to approach each one with a positive mindset rather than complaining and fighting against an idea. As a Lead, if you go into a problem with a defeated mindset, how can you expect your team to be motivated? Vent your frustrations in a way that doesn't affect the team and get to work on finding a solution, it's where most of my learning comes from. Going to the pub is always good.
What are you reading/listening to right now?
In a desperate attempt to remember all the Polish that I have forgotten, I'm watching shows I know with Polish dubbing to try to get immersed in the language again. It's the best place I have lived so far, I need more of that mountain cheese in my life.
What’s your tactic for surviving a zombie apocalypse?
I would try and get the zombies on my side, by grilling up and serving up Michelin star survivors to them. Everyone wants to keep a good chef around (even the undead) so if they aren’t trying to kill me, it’s gonna save me from a massive amount of cardio.
