CG Garage

Through his globe-trotting career, softly-spoken Cris Blyth has helped give the world Worms, flashed James Cameron and jumpstarted Kenya's visual effects industry. In this frequently hilarious podcast, he tells Chris his fascinating story. After spending his childhood programming Commodore computers, and a surprisingly fruitful excursion to the Philippines, Cris worked on then-cutting-edge FMV sequences for games such as Alien Breed: Tower Assault and Worms at developer Team 17. He joined Digital Domain as a VFX artist, turning car engines into dogs for the famous Pennzoil ad, and then moved up to become a fully fledged director of commercials and music videos. He also contributed effects to movies including We Were Soldiers, Adaptation and Daredevil. Cris's next move was to Africa, to create documentaries on charity work and, in an unconventional sidestep, he's remained there since. He talks about how Nairobi, Kenya is on the verge of a computing revolution, why the country's restrictions have created amazing athletes and e-athletes, and the ways in which he's bringing his Hollywood skills to a new generation of Kenyans.

This week, Chris goes behind the scenes at the Gnomon School of Visual Effects. Founded in 1997, this Hollywood-based establishment has grown to a thriving and crucial part of the effects industry, with over 400 students picking up the skills which will land them hot jobs on games and movies. In this podcast, Chris is joined by Eric Miller, the school's Chief Technology Officer. His job is to ensure Gnomon is always ahead of industry trends in both hardware and software, managing a vast array of technology and 135 different software packages. Eric also talks about some of the teaching methods Gnomon employs to get students ready for the tough world of visual effects or games, and he offers some great advice on how to prepare for a course at Gnomon.

As a child, Andy Wilkoff spent his childhood pulling technology apart and reading comic books — and he's been lucky enough to follow these obsessions into his career. He picked up his first VFX gigs on the TV series Star Trek: Voyager and Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles, then worked at Digital Domain on commercials and movies including X-Men; I, Robot; The Day After Tomorrow and Stealth. Now, Andy works as CG Lead and Technical Director at creative visual effects studio A52 in Santa Monica, California. In this epic G&T-fuelled podcast, Andy talks Chris through his professional career in visual effects, and how it's been affected by the twists and turns of his personal life. Andy is full of sound industry advice, and you'll find out why he hung from the side of buildings in New York, the reason he was accosted in a Costco parking lot — and how "the smelly room" got its name. He also talks about his passion for 3D printing and the businesses it's inspired. The film and visual effects industries are often characterized by dramatic clashes of enormous egos, but this podcast reveals a tender and more caring side of the silver screen.

The Animatrix, Liquid Television, Ren & Stimpy - there have always been blips of mature content on the animation spectrum, but never anything like Love, Death & Robots. This new anthology kicks open the doors for adult storytelling in the medium, taking Tim Miller and David Fincher's unique influences, and letting over 14 studios run wild through topics like racism, war, free will and human nature, as they collectively produced 18 jaw-dropping shorts. This week, series' VFX supervisor Jerome "Jed" Denjean stops by the podcast to talk about his own history, as well as explain how this project came together, from Tim's initial ideas to how Blur brought in competing studios to join in on the fun. As the discussion continues, they get into bigger topics like what Love, Death & Robots means for the entertainment industry as a whole, why we could be moving away from longer-form storytelling and into bite-size chunks, and the chances of a second season. Love, Death and Robots is streaming now.

Film and art have fascinated Loic Zimmermann from a young age: he drew all the time and built rocket ship sets in his back garden during his childhood in rural France. His fascination drew him towards studying CG at university, then onto work for innovative game studio Quantic Dream, and his clever method of getting the perfect tattoo won him a job at Luma Pictures in Los Angeles. As well as working on visual effects for Marvel movies and many more, Loic has directed fascinating documentaries on modern art masters William Wray (Gamma Wray) and Jeremy Mann (A Solitary Mann). He tells Chris how he gets under the skin of these characters without getting in their way, geeks out about video cameras, and gives a little insight into his upcoming documentary Larry. It's a fascinating podcast which dives deep into the way artists and filmmakers work, and reveals the numerous connections and passions Chris and Loic have in common.

Known as "eSports Mom" — or "CoD Mom" — Kim Meltzer, the CEO of KidKesty Productions, is an unsung heroine of the professional gaming industry. This competitive and lucrative business can whisk kids from their bedrooms to stadiums and make them millions in a short space of time, and in this podcast, Kim tells Chris how she reassures parents that their children are in safe hands — while helping upcoming pro gamers keep their lives and careers on track. Chris and Kim both have kids who are into video games, and they also talk about some of the benefits of the medium, from building friendships in Fortnite, to just plain building in Minecraft, to the surprising benefits of Call of Duty's simulated war. Kim also highlights some of the ways the industry is likely to change in the future, including her role in advocating gaming scholarships, and latest phenomenon Apex Legends.

Digital Giant is using new technology to make it easier and faster to create photorealistic digital content. Joining Chris this week are the company's Operative Dallas Carroll and VFX Supervisor/Partner Felix Urquiza, who go in depth on the way the company has been set up, and how it's doing things differently. CG car work is notoriously finicky. The challenge of making vehicles look real — as well as keeping up with every detail of the car design — increases year on year. Digital Giant has taken years of experience and found new ways to keep their process accurate and efficient, combining both real-time technologies along with offline rendering and making sure everything is synced up. It's a fascinating discussion of an area of CG which is at the forefront of the industry, and one which is experiencing sweeping changes thanks to social media and new technology.

Robh Ruppel has been on Chris's most-wanted podcast guest list for a long time — and it's not hard to see why. This talented designer, concept and visual development artist has a wealth of knowledge and experience, which makes this podcast utterly enthralling from start to finish. Robh tells Chris about his adventurous career so far. From his early movie experience at effects shop Boss Film Studios to a sojourn to Wisconsin for Dungeons and Dragons; his tenure at Disney and his work at Uncharted games studio Naughty Dog; the roles he played on masterful comic-book movie Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and David Fincher and Tim Miller's upcoming Love, Death, and Robot. It's Robh's insight into the creative process that truly makes this podcast stand out. Referencing everyone from Sergei Eisenstein to Sergio Leone to Alfonso Cuaron, Robh delves into the technical and artistic choices which produce iconic cinematic imagery. He also talks about how big TVs and streaming services have changed the way entertainment is created and consumed and offers plenty of solid advice to up-and-coming artists.

Andrew Maximov has a vision for how to change the gaming and CG industries from the ground up. His Promethean AI is a super-smart piece of software which allows designers, developers and artists to create and populate environments simply by asking for them via voice or text. It neatly cuts out the fiddly, time-consuming parts of the CG creative process, and allows users to get straight to the fun and interesting parts of decorating virtual sets. In his chat with Chris, Andrew reveals how his work at Wargaming (World of Tanks) and Naughty Dog (Uncharted and Last of Us) led to the creation of Promethean AI. He and Chris also debate the creative industry's fears about AI's potential to replace jobs en masse, and Promethean AI's potential applications in other areas such as e-commerce and storytelling. Want to know more about Andrew and Promethean AI? Come to Total Chaos and see his presentation, as well as many more fascinating and inspiring talks.

This week, Chris is joined by the versatile talent of John Hewitt. As a child, John was addicted to sketching and drafting everything he saw on TV, and this drove him into automobile design. After helping out on Schwarzenegger movie Eraser, John moved into visual effects and his impressive IMDb page includes credits on Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Star Trek Beyond and Alice Through the Looking Glass. John's career has taken him from visual effects in post-production to the movie-planning stages in previz. He discusses the differences between the two: the time-consuming and intricate crafting of beautiful FX shots versus the fast and furious timelines of previz. He also talks about his infamous shader networks for movies such as I, Robot and Transformers: Dark of the Moon, as well as how great previz can help directors make confident decisions and the future of film production.

From the age of two, Colin Aguiar has been fascinated by music. It's an obsession which has paid off: over the past 20 years he's scored numerous projects and worked with mentor Mychael Danna on films including Life of Pi. His talent caught the attention of Construct director Kevin Margo who called on his abilities to create an experimental score for his groundbreaking short film. In this podcast, Colin joins Construct producer Chris Nichols for a chat about the process of creating its score, including some of the challenges of adding dubstep elements, creating themes for specific characters, and working from a temp score. The discussion opens up into a wider discussion of music in general where Colin reveals how he loves everything from North African to German experimental to US industrial styles, and talks about some of his all-time favorite composers. Scores are an oft-overlooked part of cinema, and Colin gives a huge amount of insight into the most important elements of movie music.

When Kurt Lawson isn't assembling effects for some of Hollywood's biggest movies, he's in backcountry California creating astonishing long-exposure shots of the natural landscape. In this engaging podcast, he tells Chris how teenage experiments in visual effects and Olympus cameras inspired his successful career and awe-inspiring hobby. Kurt and Chris reminisce about working together at Digital Domain with director Joe Kosinski on a jaw-dropping effects shot for Oblivion, and Kurt talks about his more recent work on 300: Rise of an Empire and The Spy Who Dumped Me. He also discusses the current state of the visual effects industry in Los Angeles and the work which goes into setting up his photography projects. Listen to find out how certain VFX artists are presented with pineapples, why rocks in Death Valley seem to have a life of their own, and some of the tricks compositors use to make the audience believe CG is real.

From a young age, Joe Farrell knew he was destined for a career in entertainment. After helping interview musical superstars, he 'tweened for Disney and Warner Brothers animations, moved into commercials at their hedonistic peak, and then traveled to Vancouver and Los Angeles to work as a concept artist, VFX supervisor and compositor on films including Star Trek, The Wolf of Wall Street and Hereafter — the latter of which earned him an Academy Award nomination. Today, Joe runs Tangerine Apps, an innovative studio which brings his experience into the worlds of AR and VR for experiences based on The Jungle Book, Los Angeles' Olympic bid and an enticing upcoming opera project. Joe is a fascinating podcast guest with some funny, insightful stories about the visual effects of Aeon Flux and I, Robot. He also reveals the more rewarding aspects of VR experiences and the advantages of being a small and agile company in Los Angeles.

Over almost 25 years, Phil Miller has helped bring products such as 3ds Max, Combustion, Dreamweaver, and NVIDIA's commercial rendering solutions to market — and dabbled in his own software and his original vocation of architecture. Now, Phil has brought his wealth of experience and knowledge to Chaos Group where he serves as vice president of product management. This podcast is a treasure trove of long-lost computing terms like Pentium processors, MS-DOS and ISDN lines. Phil gives a potted history of the ups and downs of technology, including the ingenious method he used to give plotted architectural illustrations a hand-drawn look, the success of his books on 3D Studio and 3ds Max, and how Chaos Group shook up the rendering industry with V-Ray RT. Phil is always a few years ahead of his time, and the podcast concludes with his thoughts on the future of CG, real-time rendering via Project Lavina and why speed increases are only part of the battle.

Artificial intelligence has gone from sci-fi subject matter to part of our day-to-day lives via assistant services such as Apple's Siri and machine learning which helps 3D artists create better work more quickly. But is this merely another technological leap forwards, like photography or computer-aided design, or a genuine threat to lives and livelihoods? That's the question Chris posed to an expert panel at this year's THU festival. Among his guests were Daimler futurologists Sabine Engelhardt and Alexander Mankowsky, CG supervisor-turned-Google technical director Jeff Kember, anatomy specialist Scott Eaton and Lenovo's head of media and entertainment Rob Hoffmann. This entertaining, informative and occasionally heated debate tackles everything from the intricacies of neural networks and image learning, to the science and psychology of scents, and the way Netflix and Hulu stats help create entertainment precisely calibrated for certain audiences.

Virginie Bourdin's astonishing career whisked her from a small town in France to art director on blockbusters including X-Men: Days of Future Past, Harry Potter movies, and the upcoming Captain Marvel. In this podcast, recorded at the THU festival, Virginie explains how she's become one of the most sought-after art directors in the VFX industry. Virginie talks about her work on the otherworldly villains of Wrath of the Titans and Edge of Tomorrow, how she uses mood boards and the importance of keeping everything loose and fluid. She goes into detail on her French origins and the reasons behind its supercritical national stereotypes. Virginie is a tour de force, and you'll come away from this podcast with lots of inspiration on how to generate great ideas.

Few people have seen the rise of VFX like Kelly Port and Matt Butler. Over the course of 25 years, they've risen from digital artists to VFX supervisors at effects powerhouse Digital Domain. The watershed moment for both was their work on Titanic, and they discuss the million-dollar computers used to generate the 2TB of effects in the film. Of course, software and hardware have moved on a great deal since Jack and Rose's perilous adventure. Kelly talks about the groundbreaking technology and performance capture which made Avengers: Infinity War's CG supervillain Thanos a reality, and Matt discusses his input on Ender's Game and Ready Player One. They also muse about what makes Digital Domain a great place to work and their tactics for avoiding conflict and nurturing talent. Kelly and Matt have great chemistry with one another and Chris, and you'll hear about their experiences of working with actors Dan Stevens and Josh Brolin, and directors Steven Spielberg and Gavin Hood. Plus, there's a bonus pearl of wisdom from none other than Ron Howard.

Games have compelling narratives worthy of Hollywood movies — so it should come as no surprise that cinematic talent is swapping cameras for controllers. Joining Chris this week are two men who've made the leap and now work on EA's blockbuster Madden sports franchise. Producer Robin Cowie went from Nickelodeon idents to box office phenomenon The Blair Witch Project, which taught him how to tell a first-person narrative on a tight budget. Animation director Tony Stanley cut his teeth on Disney classics The Lion King, Lilo and Stitch, and Mulan, the latter of which has just turned 20 — and had an enduring legacy in the Chinese animation industry. The pair tell Chris how they created Madden NFL 18: Longshot and Madden NFL 19: Longshot Homecoming campaigns, which seamlessly mix dramatic player-driven branching stories with action from the gridiron. You'll find out about the technology and techniques Robin and Tony use to create and edit in-game cinematics, how they fashion game design documents into scripts and why motion capture has become a vital part of the realism of modern games.

This is the 200th CG Garage Podcast — and the first Martini Giant spinoff episode. To commemorate reaching this huge milestone, Chris, Dan and Erick look at films about reaching huge stones: Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Peter Hyams' sequel 2010: The Year We Make Contact. The first is a true masterpiece of cinema, with Kubrick employing then state-of-the-art visual effects, smart set design and clever editing to tell a prophetical story about the dehumanizing effects of technology. The trio compare and contrast this with Hyams' vision of a leathery Roy Schieder fixing a giant hinge in the sequel. In typical Martini Giant fashion there are many hilarious tangents, from Lionel Richie's relationship with 2001, to The Abyss and Chris' wedding ring, to Dan's nostalgia for a time when all we had to worry about was being nuked by Russia. Just as Kubrick's movie depicts the birth of a new form of human, this episode includes the birth of a new form of podcast: a dedicated spin-off series of Martini Giant podcasts. They talk about some of the subjects they'd like to discuss in future episodes — and you're invited to let them know your ideas in the comments. Here's to another 200 CG Garage podcasts. Cheers!

One of the best things about THU is having so many world-class experts in one place — something Chris took advantage of when he assembled this panel for a discussion on digital humans. The superstar lineup consisted of digital Rembrandt Ian Spriggs, CG pioneer Paul Debevec, ILM's chief re-animator Hal Hickel, acclaimed anatomy artist Scott Eaton, and Naughty Dog lead character artist Frank Tzeng. This debate tracks the evolution of digital characters through movies such as Spider-Man 2, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Wall-E, and The Incredibles. Chris and his guests tackle the challenges of building realistic digital humans, the shortcuts games take to present convincing characters on limited hardware, and how subtle artistic decisions can help inject personality and story. They also talk about the ethical conundrums of creating virtual people, and how the film stars of tomorrow might be AI-driven algorithms.

You may not have heard of Donna Smith — but she's one of the most important players behind the scenes in Hollywood. Over the course of almost 40 years, she's been instrumental in the production of 157 movies, including Raging Bull, The Terminator, Back to the Future, Jurassic Park, Schindler's List and The Matrix. She's also the first woman to serve as President of Physical Production and Post Production at Universal Pictures. Despite her enviable career and powerful position, Donna is down-to-earth and affable in this podcast. She offers invaluable advice for anyone looking to get ahead in the film industry, including who you should get to know, the importance of the "business" in show business, and getting started in the seven-year process from script to screen. This is a must-listen for movie fans, and Donna's tales of working with Marty (Scorsese), Bobby (DeNiro) and Sly (Stallone) are every bit as inspirational as the films she's helped bring to the silver screen.

Recorded at THU, this week's podcast guest is ILM Animation Director Hal Hickel. Inspired by Star Wars and Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion work on King Kong, Hal became an animator on hugely successful California Raisins advertisements of the 1980s. Despite initial reservations, Hal switched clay for computers on Pixar's breakthrough CG movie Toy Story, then moved to ILM for the Star Wars prequels, A.I. Artificial Intelligence and Rango. Thanks to his wealth of experience in character animation, Hal has become an expert on digital humans. He goes into detail on how ILM created a CG Grand Moff Tarkin for Rogue One and explains why, in this case, there were no ethical issues with digitally recreating the late Peter Cushing. He also talks about the tiny tweaks his team made to make the character look as real as possible and the dangers of getting stuck in the swamp of opinions at the bottom of the uncanny valley. This podcast serves as a concise guide to how digital characters have evolved — and where they're headed next.

Alex's early career combined his passion for architecture with his love of theater, but an early experience with an Oculus Rift inspired him to move into the virtual arena. His company, Agile Lens, produces everything from quick virtual sketches to immersive photorealistic visualizations for the AEC industry. In this podcast, Alex tells Chris why it's important to fasten your headset early on in the development process, some of the subtle cues he uses to guide participants around VR experiences, and the pros and cons of cutting-edge augmented reality gear such as the Microsoft Hololens and Magic Leap One. It concludes with an impassioned geek-out on favorite architects and dream VR architecture, as well as Alex's plans for XR Dads, a podcast on parenthood in the virtual age.

THU festival is a wonderful place filled with inspiring things; among them this year was this deep-dive panel discussion on the relationship between artists and their tools. The superstar participants include famed traditional-leaning Visual Artist Phil Hale, visionary Gnomon School Founder Alex Alvarez, and prestigious Hollywood Concept Artist and Production Designer Dylan Cole. Representing the advanced tools today's creators use to build worlds are Lenovo's Media & Entertainment Manager Rob Hoffmann, and Chaos Group's Co-Founder and CEO Peter Mitev. Chris does a great job of steering the conversation and involving all his guests, and it covers everything from the relationship between traditional and digital art, the evolution of mediums from cave paintings to Zbrush, and how AI and accurate skin shaders are changing the role of the artist. You'll find out about the development process behind V-Ray, and how building software and hardware has many similarities with creating art.

Geoffrey Baumann's career has propelled him around the world on some of Hollywood's biggest movies, including his most recent role as VFX supervisor on Marvel's record-breaking Black Panther. Having spent time in Europe and America as a child, Geoffrey majored in public relations before becoming a PA at Digital Domain. His linguistic skills landed him a job in on-set survey and digital integration for the movie xXx — and he hasn't stopped working on movies since. In this podcast, recorded at THU festival, Geoffrey discusses how he's gone from the bottom to the top of the VFX industry via movies such as The Time Machine, Real Steel, and Iron Man 3. He talks about how he's seen projects go from film to digital, and from a few hundred effects shots to thousands. You'll discover what it's like to work with the characters behind the scenes of Black Panther, the importance of his PR training, and how he's rapidly becoming an important part of the Marvel family.

At Google's Cloud Next '18 event in San Francisco earlier this year, a small team of CG artists and Google technicians took part in an audacious experiment: to create a Hollywood-quality animated short film in just three days. Fortunately, the team had a little help from Google's Cloud Platform, a scalable and versatile system which gave them a huge amount of remote computing power. In this enlightening podcast, Google Cloud Platform's Adrian Graham and CG artist D. Ryan Reeb talk about the various pieces of technology which made Robot Dance Party possible: Teradici's PCoIP remote workstations, Bebop's orchestration layer, and Zync's queue manager, as well as Maya, V-Ray for Maya and After Effects. Adrian does a fantastic job of breaking down each component and explaining how it fits into Google Cloud's slick infrastructure, while Ryan is a living testament to how it can save vital time on the front line of visual effects. Both also offer their thoughts on the future of cloud rendering, and how it will dramatically change the way the studios of tomorrow will be set up. Want to try rendering on the cloud? Chaos Group is currently offering free rendering credits for anyone who takes part in our Google-powered V-Ray Cloud beta. Try it now!

For a short film, Construct's production has taken a long time. But, as Director Kevin Margo explains there have been many good reasons for the delays. Conceived as a way to push the boundaries of ray tracing and virtual production, Construct become a perfect test subject for cutting-edge VFX techniques. It's been cloud rendered via an NVIDIA cluster some 500 miles away, rejigged as a VR experience, and even presented in 120 hz via Douglas Trumbull's Magi system. But Construct is much more than just a tech demo. Despite its mechanical CG characters, the film tells a very human story, and there's much more here than meets the eye. Actor Darren Ross explains how his motion-captured performance adds depth to the main character, and how they worked with Hollywood stunt coordinators to create the film's elaborate fight scenes. If you're a regular listener, you'll know that Construct has been a long and exciting journey for Kevin, Darren, Chris, and the many other collaborators who've helped make it a reality. It's incredible to see Kevin's vision finally come to life, and he discusses how the film could even be headed to the big screen.

This week, Chris, Dan, and Erick finally get round to discussing Alien. It's one of the most-requested topics for the podcast, and it's not hard to see why: Ridley Scott's 1979 movie is still terrifying today, and it gave birth to one of the silver screen's most memorable monsters. But Alien also gave us Ripley, the plucky, punky feminist hero who rises up against both the xenomorph and the patriarchal hierarchy of the Nostromo. Her story arc is examined by the podcast, as well as the film's meticulous production design, and the Freudian nightmare of its imagery. Just like the Nostromo, this is a podcast which goes on some pretty significant diversions. Alien sequels including James Cameron's expansive Aliens, David Fincher's flaccid Alien 3, and Scott's own prequels Prometheus and Alien: Covenant are all put under the microscope. The trio also covers the way the movie industry works today, and directors from Gasper Noe to Russ Meyer, with some very funny anecdotes along the way.

Recorded at SIGGRAPH in Vancouver, this podcast features self-taught rendering expert Zap Andersson. Zap's career in CG began early, with the modification of a Swedish ABC 80 computer so it supported higher resolutions, ray tracing, gaming, and even image editing and music sampling. His passion for computing propelled him into a career in CAD, then back into ray tracing, where he earned his "Shader Wizard" moniker for his implementation of subsurface scattering. In the second half of the podcast, Chris asks Zap for his thoughts on the future of ray tracing, tackling some of the myths around physically based and spectral rendering, metalness, and real-time. As Zap reveals, the restrictions of any CG method ties into the limitations of how human beings are wired to perceive optical phenomenon. It's a fascinating deep dive into the theory of CG and the shape of things to come.

Our host Chris Nichols is joined by his name twin Chris Nichols from Digital Domain. After reminiscing about working at DD at the same time (and accidently getting each other's emails and phone calls), they dive into Chris's role in the look development of Thanos on Avengers: Infinity Wars. The Chris' discuss the detail and thought that went into Thanos, and how Chris had to imagine so much of his backstory to add character to his face, skin and even the condition of his hands. At the same time, we find out more about Chris's own backstory growing up in Perth, Australia, being inspired by the concept art of Lord of the Rings, and finally moving to Vancouver to work on one of the biggest movies of 2018. Since both Chris's have a passion for digital humans, they go into a deep discussion on which movies have been able to tackle the Uncanny Valley, leading to some very interesting conclusions along the way.

Fresh off a tour of America, INK Founder Dave Macey joins Chris and Lon to talk about how two unemployed arch viz artists started one of the UK's most distinctive creative studios. As well as working with everyone from BMW to Wired to Asics, the company has created side projects which range from the beautiful (stark Le Mans sportscars) to the bizarre (inflating 1970s vehicles). While its Workshop experiments don't generate income, they're a great way to spot talent in the company, experiment with new styles and techniques — and just have fun. Dave also delves into his love of cars, and things that move quickly. He discusses the future of how we'll get around, from the simplicity of Bird's electric scooters to Elon Musk's grand designs for the Hyperloop One, and the way automation will put our living rooms and offices on the road. It's awesome to hear from someone with an innate knowledge of the past and future of tech and transport.

Joining Chris for this podcast are Brick's CEO András Káldos, Chief Development Officer Attila Cselovszki, Product Development Specialist Péter Sárhidai — and a bottle of Pálinka, Hungary's favorite fruit brandy. As András explains, Brick Visual was founded in Budapest in 2012, among the perfect storm of a financial crisis which resulted in a surplus of unemployed architects. The company was able to compete with international arch viz studios thanks to its low prices, and after a trial-by-fire debut project, it's established itself in the premier league. But, as Peter explains, incredible architectural visualization for firms such as Snøhetta and SOM is not all Brick does. Its research and development department is dedicated to exploring solutions for age-old problems such as managing distributed rendering, and the new worlds of AR and VR.

V-Ray for Houdini made a spectacular debut last year — via the music video for Taylor Swift's Look What You Made Me Do. Behind the visual effects of the video — and most of Swift's promos — is Ingenuity Studios, and its Creative Director Grant Miller. In this podcast, Grant talks with Lon and Chris about how Ingenuity has embraced V-Ray for Houdini, from its early days as a GitHub project to full commercial software. Grant discusses how it's streamlined workflows and joined the dots of Ingenuity's pipeline, making it faster and easier to create content. Grant also goes into detail on how V-Ray for Houdini fits in with Ingenuity's agile approach to technology, and how the small but successful company makes use of V-Ray for Nuke and V-Ray for Unreal in many different mediums. You'll find out how the Ingenuity's gone from making five cheap music videos a week to five megabudget videos a year, what it's like to work with Tay and James van der Beek, and the effects it contributed to Oscar-winning movie Get Out.

Softly-spoken VFX supervisor Bill Spradlin currently works at Zoic Studios on TV shows such as Arrow, Iron Fist, and Legends of Tomorrow, and his previous credits include Oblivion (with Chris), Transformers, and Iron Man 3. In this podcast, he talks about how his childhood fascination with Star Trek helped him choose his career path, as well as his early ventures in computing and MMOs. He highlights the many differences between working in TV and film, how both are seeping into gaming and VR, and what it's like to work with industry personalities such as Joe Kosinski, Eric Barba, and Jeff Baksinski. It evolves into a deeper discussion of the relevance of working in VFX today, and why the industry is about so much more than getting your name in the credits of a big movie. An essential listen if you're considering a career in VFX.

In this podcast, Chris is joined by Neoscape's Evan Buxton and Bryan Holmes, as well as former Neoscaper - and now Chaos Group CCO - Lon Grohs. The innovative Boston-based studio has been on the podcast wishlist for some time, and it's peppered with amusing anecdotes about when Evan, Bryan, and Lon worked together. The podcast also features some great advice on running a modern arch viz company, including how Neoscape has adapted to a rapidly changing market by working with developers rather than architects and now has to compete with companies such as Facebook and WhatsApp for VR-savvy employees. The topic of video games comes up frequently, especially in relationship to storytelling in arch viz and VR. You'll find out about Evan's paintball ballsiness, and why you should never let Lon in your brand new car.

Creative studio Squint/Opera has many talents: as well as creating playful, story-driven arch viz films it has produced kids TV series Messy Goes to Okido, and it even runs a bar in south-east London. Recorded at Total Chaos, this podcast features three of the company's 3D artists: Michelle Obayda, Camille Lymer, and Zlatina Pancheva Drawing from their experience working with Bjarke Ingels (BIG) on the incredible Spiral skyscraper in New York, the trio tell Chris about how they combine 3D, motion graphics and live action footage to create charming, humorous videos. They discuss how they took a more tactful approach to BIG's The Dryline, an ambitious project to protect Manhattan from flooding caused by superstorms like Hurricane Sandy. The Squint/Opera team also talk about working on Elon Musk's Hyperloop One, how they've adapted their unique style to virtual reality. It's a fun and engaging podcast, and it makes Squint/Opera sound like a great place to work.

This podcast features Aaron Kupferman, an expert on the intertwined fields of CGI and photography. He's served as compositor on movies such as Avengers: Infinity War, Alice in Wonderland, and upcoming Statham vs. Shark film The Meg. But he's also an unbelievably talented photographer, effortlessly shifting between shiny automobiles, expansive land and cityscapes, and dwarfing time-lapse photos of the night sky. Despite having a lot of photography equipment, Aaron highlights the importance of good technique over tech. He explains how imaginative photographers can compose and light great pictures with little more than a sheet of paper and a lamp, he delves into his dramatic shots of fast-moving cars, and describes his home-made time-lapse kit for capturing the night sky. Aaron also gives insight into his life in technology and CG, from an early start in radio communications with a space shuttle, to how to render shots for action movies. If you want to know what to do - and what not to do - to create amazing photographs and renders, this is the podcast for you.

It's not hard to see why Karim Mousa has become one of the world's most respected arch viz artists. His renders and animations for Zaha Hadid, KPF and MVRDV are cinematic, realistic, and spectacular. In this podcast, recorded at Total Chaos, Karim tells Chris how he's carved out a career among some of the best in the business. Karim and Chris have a lot in common: both have lived in the vibrant city of Cairo, and both pursued arch viz careers. After spending time in Dubai, Karim swapped sand for snow and traveled to Bergen, Norway to work for creative studio MIR. Now, Karim is back in Cairo, where he continues to create eye-popping imagery and videos. It's an engaging, energetic listen. You'll find out how approaches to architectural visualization have changed over the past few years, the differences between middle eastern and western projects — and how Karim's love of Taekwondo inspired him to create an incredible series of images.

On the verge of his 50th birthday, Chris's former colleague Ken Ibrahim looks back at an incredible career in which his childhood dreams came spectacularly true. Ken's interest in visual effects began at the age of nine, when he and his brother were inspired by Star Wars and Star Trek to create Super 8 films, complete with hand-drawn visual effects. He was introduced to computers at high school, and shortly afterwards he made the leap to Japan where he ended up as a programmer – and occasional voice artist – at SEGA. Then Ken returned to the US to work at companies such as PDI, Cinesite, Square and Digital Domain on movies like Shrek, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, X-Men 2 and 2012. He landed in nerd heaven, and met some of the universe's heroes, when he joined JJ Abrams' Bad Robot studio, to work on the franchises which inspired his career. Ken's an entertaining podcast guest, and he and Chris discuss everything from digital humans to Isomorphic web design. You'll also find out how he enjoys free beer, ball games and concerts in San Francisco.

At Total Chaos, Ian Spriggs unveiled Portrait of Cassidy, the latest lifelike portrait from the digital Rembrandt. It's such a striking image that it graced the cover of 3D World magazine, alongside the tag "This is not a photo!" In this podcast, Ian reveals the painstaking and lengthy process of creating Cassidy and his other portraits. He tells Chris about how he makes his subjects feel at ease, and then the numerous elements he must consider, such as whether the images should be realistic or stylized, candid or posed, harshly or softly lit. And, after this epic process, the subject might not even like their portrait. It's a very interesting podcast which ponders how artists like Rembrandt, da Vinci, Caravaggio, Jackson Pollock and even actor Sharlto Copley use their work to reflect the complicated inner workings of human beings.

Andre Matos is something of a hero at Chaos Group. He's a proponent of V-Ray GPU and VRscans, which are part of the toolset he uses to create enormous eye-catching renders for sports car company Porsche. As a special guest at the Total Chaos conference in Sofia, he delivered a keynote speech, a masterclass on motor vehicle renders, and recorded this podcast with Chris. Andre and Chris share some subtle tricks of the trade which can make good car models look great; from the lighting to the positions of the wheels, the angle of the car, and the headlight set up. Andre also talks about his early life on the Azores islands, how he got started in CG, and the advantages of a GPU-based pipeline. If you've ever struggled to make your car renders or photographs pop, this podcast is for you.

Under their Studio Niskota moniker, Dean Niskota and Hrvoje Čop have become renowned around the world for their remarkable arch viz images and videos. At Total Chaos - where this podcast was recorded - the pair announced Polymachine, a new venture in a new office, which will transform them from arch viz specialists into a fully fledged creative agency. Dean and Hrvoje tell Chris about their journey so far, beginning with their childhood friendship in Zagreb, to surfing the wave of Croatian tourism and single-handedly creating the country's arch viz scene, to the pros and cons of their in-house, post-production-free pipeline. You'll discover how Polymachine will expand on the immense amount of knowledge they've already built, as well as a brief history of fluid sims, and Chris' unusual link with Croatia and Zagreb.

Our pals from Corona played a big part at Total Chaos, delivering a keynote speech and numerous presentations. Founding partner and main developer Ondřej Karlík, and research and development partner Jaroslav Křivánek, also sat down with Chris to talk about what's changed in the nine months since the partnership was announced. Corona and V-Ray developers working together as a happy family has brought benefits to both pieces of software, with the companies sharing knowledge to solve problems, and Vlado even diving into Corona's code to implement features. Ondřej and Jaroslav go into detail on the new technology which makes Corona fast and efficient, via exotic terms such as machine learning with Bayesian inference, heterogeneous media, and GPU rendering. You'll find out about upcoming features in Corona 2, and more background on Jaroslav Křivánek, the mentor who's been instrumental in the creation of renderer.

Dan Thron joins Chris for another epic discussion of a groundbreaking movie — with special guest star Erick Schiele. Steven Spielberg's Jaws marked a turning point when it was released in 1975, blending believable characters and a relatable setting with an unstoppable monster. It built on movies of the time, like Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, The Godfather and Bonnie and Clyde, and heralded a new era of profitable blockbusters such as Star Wars, E.T., and Jurassic Park. Dan, Chris, and Erick discuss pre and post-Jaws movies, from T-Men and Ali: Fear Eats the Soul to Blue Velvet and L.A. Confidential. They talk about how the Marvel movies could learn from Spielberg's well-crafted storytelling and ponder what the Millennial equivalent of Easy Rider will be. Listen to find out how Erick accidentally injured a film star's mother, how Chris helped change the movie Splinter and stay tuned to the end to hear Dan's thoughts on Ready Player One.

Avengers: Infinity War is full of wonderful things, but a particular highlight is Thanos, the movie's purple antagonist. In this week's podcast, Digital Domain's Darren Hendler and Ron Miller join Chris to explain how they turned actor Josh Brolin's nuanced performance into one of the most impressive digital characters ever to hit the big screen. Darren and Ron break down the steps of creating Thanos, from the accurate capture of Josh Brolin's face, the on-set techniques to record his movements and expressions, and the extra work needed to translate everything into a photorealistic CG character. They talk about the numerous systems and human beings involved in this two-year process, as well as the ethics of digital performances and characters. You'll even find out what color Thanos' blood is.

Steve Blakey has been in visual effects since 1989, beginning with animated logos and commercials in New York, and then moving to Los Angeles to work on movies. He and Chris first met at Digital Domain, where they worked on disaster movie The Day After Tomorrow. Recorded over a bottle of whisky, this podcast covers everything from the megabucks contracts digital artists could command in the early days of CG, to the beginning and end of Digital Domain's infamous Martini Nights, to the rapid evolution of CG software features starting with grouped objects in Wavefront. Chris and Steve offer some important words of wisdom to young people working in the field, and Steve sets up an intriguing story involving DD co-founder Scott Ross. Hopefully we'll hear more on this in coming episodes...

Jesse James Chisholm's illustrious movie career has spanned work from The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons to upcoming Marvel blockbuster Ant-Man and the Wasp. Along the way, he's done everything from sweeping set floors, to supervising effects shots alongside legendary directors David Fincher, Clint Eastwood and Steven Spielberg. In this candid podcast, Jesse reveals all about the pressures of working on set on projects that can cost $300,000 a day. He shares some incredible anecdotes about stars such as Tom Cruise, Hugh Jackman and Brad Pitt. You'll hear about some of the cool parts of his job, like hanging out of helicopters over a closed-down Chicago to get shots for Suicide Squad, and how major sequences in Black Panther and Ready Player One were achieved. Despite his awesome job and daily brushes with fame, Jesse acknowledges how lucky he is to do what he does, and discusses how he juggles his globe-trotting role with his young family.

Colin Green took the computer graphics skills he learned from his architecture education to help start Pixel Liberation Front. While the company is no longer around, it was one of the first to focus on envisaging movies with an art form known as previsualization. Colin talks about how previs was pioneered in films such as Fight Club, Panic Room, and Minority Report, how it's become an essential part of the filmmaking process today, and how it's forming the backbone of what is becoming virtual production. Chris and Colin talk about some of the challenges of previs, such as how it can influence choices without locking people into them, and its effects on post production. Colin also mentions the huge respect he has for directors like David Fincher, who use previs to better communicate their vision to those around him.

If you've played any AAA videogame in the last few years, chances are you've seen Allegorithmic's tech in action. Headed up by Sebastien Deguy, the company's Substance Painter and Substance Designer help artists create and fine-tune realistic textures which aren't repetitive or obviously procedurally generated. In this podcast, recorded at the Vertex conference in London, Sebastien tells Chris how a single mistake lead to the founding of this fast-growing and innovative company, which is branching out into visual effects and architecture. He also talks about the little tricks Allegorithmic uses behind the scenes, the future of the software, and even how we can understand the universe through mathematics.