Meet Yifei Pei | visual effects artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Yifei Pei and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Yifei, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
I watched a lot of American movies when I was in high school, and the visual effects in the movie scenes were very shocking to me at the time. I think these things are really cool, but I don’t think I’ll do it in the future at that time.

After high school, I’m going to college and have to decide what I want to major in, and I really don’t know. But I stumbled across Digital Media Arts (Visual Effects for Film and Television) on the list, so I thought “well, that’s an interesting name, I take this one”,..and then it became part of my life. I feel like every VFX artist has been influenced by a movie or a few movies before going down this path. One of my friend decided to study VFX after he watched the first Avatar movie.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I came to America with the dream of being able to do visual effects in a Hollywood movie. I was a visual effects graduate student from Savannah college of art and design (SCAD). I graduated in 2021 and successfully got a job at Scanline VFX. Recently, I moved to another VFX company 9 month age, Ingenuity Studios, work as an FX artist. finally fulfilled my first life dream, making visual effects for a Hollywood movie. The movie is called “The Flash” about DC heroes and it just release.

Im so happy my dream come true. I think it is not a smooth road. English, the culture, the American way of thinking and speaking are different from Chinese, it takes time to get used to it. Specially in my first year, I always study English overnight, it doesn’t mean I study hard, just i need to spend more time than others to complete my English homework or prepare for the exam because my English is bad. And if you failed your English class 3 times, you will be sent back to your country. That’s very terrible and a lot stress. All you can do is work hard, overcome or solve various problems, talk to your professor or colleagues, ask for some help

I think there should be less criticism and complaints and more thinking about how to solve the problem. After learning this, you can avoid the same problem next time. I think the most important thing is to have a peaceful mind and a tolerant heart. When you are constantly solving problems, it is also a process of continuous learning.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I have lived in Savannah for 5 years and I don’t have to move anywhere since I can work online. If my friends or family want to visit me, I will show them downtown Savannah, which is a very beautiful and cute, and I know some really good restaurants. If I have enough time, we can travel some cities which nearby savannah, like orlando or atlanta

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
my friend and mentor zhao wang, who guided me on this path and helped me a lot in professional matters. also I would like to thank my parents, without their help I could not be where I am today. Secondly, I want to thank my friends, I miss the old school days, we worked on projects together, and discussed homework and the future life, they are the most friendly and interesting group of people I have ever met. Finally, I would like to thank my professors for their help and guidance, especially my thesis advisor Deborah Fowler, without her help I would not have been able to complete my thesis.

Website: www.yifeipei.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/peiyifei44/

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/yifeifx

Image Credits
Yifei Pei