Pros
The company is small, located 20 minutes away from the central station in Antwerp. Easily accessible by bus. They have some visually good movie and game projects. Getting the internship position happened pretty fast - within 3 days I was able to start immediate
Cons
This was one of the most demotivating experiences I have had in the industry so far.
During the interview, I was told that the role would involve cleaning up AI-generated characters, but I was also told that I would receive sculpting tasks. Unfortunately, the sculpting tasks never happened. Instead, most of my work focused on technical cleanup of AI-generated characters, which often had many issues from the start. Because of this, I felt that the role did not help me develop in the areas I wanted to grow in, especially sculpting and texturing.
The work environment was also difficult at times. Some people in the company often came across as negative or unapproachable. When I asked for feedback, I was sometimes told to simply read the instructions and fix things myself, rather than being given constructive guidance. Since I was still learning one of the main softwares used by the company, this made the work more stressful and less educational than expected.
I also felt that the deadlines were often unrealistic, especially for an intern who was still learning the pipeline and tools. I requested a meeting with my university supervisor to discuss some of these concerns, and my company supervisor reassured me that things would improve, but unfortunately the situation did not really change afterward.
When I eventually emailed to explain that I wanted to leave because the role did not match my expectations or support my professional development, I received a response that felt passive-aggressive. I was compared to another 3D character art intern who worked five days a week, while I was working three days at the company and two days on my graduation project. I also felt that the comparison did not take into account that our tasks were different in difficulty.
Overall, I felt that the role was not represented accurately during the interview, the support and feedback were limited, and the expectations placed on interns were not always fair. In my opinion, there were several management and communication issues that made the experience unnecessarily difficult, unprofessional and unpleasant, especially after knowing it is an unpaid position!