Chad Wanstreet and Chris Nichols have experienced similar career trajectories — but this is the first time they’ve sat down together. Like Chris, Chad transitioned from architecture to VFX, and his experience spans working at notable firms including Blur Studio and FuseFX. Along the way, Chad has contributed to projects that pushed the boundaries of visual effects, such as The Sympathizer , SWAT , The Tick , and the short-lived but brilliant Kill the Orange-Faced Bear . Chad discusses the challe...
Jul 08, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 480
Nikola Todorovic always wanted to make films, but encountered a familiar problem: the sci-fi screenplays he wrote would require $200 million budgets. Aiming to reduce this cost, Nikola co-founded Wonder Dynamics with Ready Player One actor Tye Sheridan to develop Wonder Studio, a platform that simplifies the time-consuming tasks involved in adding CG characters to live-action plates. Nikola breaks down the creation of Wonder Studio, how it ingests and analyses scenes to allow for easy export to ...
Jul 01, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 479
Andy Fowler’s career has combined his creative eye with his incredible production skills. Beginning in London’s burgeoning VFX scene with titles such as Lost in Space , 300 , and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian , Andy picked up an Emmy for his work on The Life and Death of Peter Sellers . Then he moved to LA to work on Tron: Legacy , Noah , and The Revenant , before moving to Netflix and becoming Vice President of Production Innovation, overseeing an astounding 10,000 shots per year. In...
Jun 24, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 478
Over a 40-year career, Joel Hynek has helped bring some incredible VFX to life, beginning with optical effects for Xanadu , then making the Predator a terrifying opponent for Arnie, and moving onto a range of movies, including xXx , Judge Dredd , Stealth , plus blockbusters from India and China. He picked up a sci-tech Oscar for the design and development of an optical printer, and a VFX Oscar for his quietly revolutionary work on What Dreams May Come . Joel shares incredible stories from the wo...
Jun 17, 2024•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 477
Kathryn Brillhart has always been ahead of her time. As a teen, she assisted her father in shooting documentaries; then she combined her sharp eye as a cinematographer with her passion for VFX to become a virtual production and volume capture expert. Projects she’s worked on include Las Vegas’ ginormous MSG Sphere, pioneering virtual production short “Ripple Effect,” and the movie Black Adam . Most recently, Kathryn has helped create the stunning, desolate world of the Fallout TV series. Kathryn...
Jun 10, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 476
Liz Hitt has worked across VFX departments on some very cool movies — and she’s not stopping there. Beginning at the legendary Dream Quest Images on Deep Rising and Mighty Joe Young , Liz built a name for herself as a talented production coordinator and producer via movies including Hollow Man , Spider-Man , Stealth (with Chris), The Golden Compass , Wonder Woman , and Spider-Man: Homecoming . In this podcast, Liz reflects on her career, the roles she’s taken and the crews she’s worked with, sha...
May 28, 2024•1 hr•Ep. 475
While most five-year-olds were playing with Legos and Barbies, Junaid Baig was taking his first steps with 3D Max. From this early start, Junaid developed an incredibly in-depth understanding of 3D, lighting, and rendering from working on VFX for movies, including Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald , Avengers: Endgame , and Venom . Today, Junaid is head of applied technology at DNEG, where he’s helping pioneer virtual production on films and series including Masters of the Air . Junaid ...
May 20, 2024•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 474
Dan Ring is an expert in empowering VFX artists with cutting-edge research. He began his 20-year career by creating tech to analyze surgery videos (so that no one else would have to), then moved to Foundry to develop CopyCat, the Nuke machine-learning tool that applies corrections to sequences based on a small number of frames. Now, Dan has joined Chaos to help implement machine learning in its visualization products. In this conversation with Chris, Dan covers just about every aspect of modern ...
May 13, 2024•1 hr 44 min•Ep. 473
Phil Galler is a true virtual production guru. From the nuts and bolts of LED screens to the 3D software that provides the imagery to the business decisions and financial trends that help fund this new wave of VFX filmmaking, Phil understands it all. In this podcast, Phil talks about his history in virtual production, beginning with the innovative projections used to make Oblivion ’s sets come to life and continually evolving the tech via Tomorrowland , House of Cards , Solo: A Star Wars Story ,...
May 07, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 472
Chris MacLean’s incredible career in VFX has transported him from documentaries on Cretaceous dinosaurs to the far-flung future for Foundation , Apple TV+’s bold adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s genre-defining sci-fi novels. Along the way, Chris has created and supervised VFX for movies and TV series, including Crimson Peak , Godless , American Gods , Resident Evil , and many more. Having worked his way up from artist to second-unit director, Chris has a unique perspective on filmmaking and how the ...
Apr 29, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 471
Hugo Guerra is the dictionary definition of multitasking. Having taken his eye for compositing into directing short films and commercials, and supervising VFX, Hugo fills his spare time with producing content for his successful YouTube channel and recording the VFX Notes podcast with Ian Failes. If that’s not enough, he’s also produced a cookbook with his wife. Hugo talks about his early career in Portugal and how he took his love for movies into short films, and then compositing and directing. ...
Apr 22, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 470
As Chris is tied up with a really cool Chaos project, we’re revisiting some of the older episodes of the CG Garage podcast. And we’re starting big with true luminaries of Hollywood revealing how they got their projects off the ground. First up is Doug Trumbull, the 2001: A Space Odyssey VFX genius who went on to direct Silent Running and continually innovated Hollywood motion picture technology. Recorded shortly before his death in 2022, Doug talks about getting Brainstorm made and gives a presc...
Apr 08, 2024•1 hr•Ep. 469
With V-Ray 6 for Maya and Houdini, update 2, Chaos adds an important feature to its powerful renderer: MaterialX support. With this addition, artists and studios can seamlessly use materials across different DCCs and get identical results, removing many of the pain points of increasingly complicated modern 3D pipelines. In this podcast, V-Ray for Maya Product Manager Alex Yolov and V-Ray for Houdini Product Manager Gosho Genchev reveal how they’ve worked with studios to implement MaterialX in th...
Apr 02, 2024•58 min•Ep. 468
Over his 30-year career, Julian Levi has produced VFX for Hollywood movies, beginning with Braveheart , moving into O Brother, Where Art Thou? , The Day After Tomorrow (with Chris), Speed Racer , X-Men: First Class , Prometheus , and many more. Most recently, he helped director Gareth Edwards bring the world of The Creator to life, earning four VES awards and a VFX Oscar nomination in the process. Julian talks about how The Creator marks a return to the guerilla-style sci-fi Gareth pioneered wit...
Mar 25, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 467
Archviz artists love Chaos Corona. This renderer has become a go-to for visualizing everything from compact kitchens to sky-scraping towers, giving users stunning results straight out of the box. But what’s on the horizon for this popular renderer? In this podcast, Product Manager Tom Grimes discusses what makes Chaos Corona a popular choice for the architecture industry and how its philosophy differs from other renderers such as V-Ray. He also talks about the software’s future and plans to make...
Mar 20, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 466
Tram Le-Jones has an eye for detail, a people-centric personality, and a passion for computer science — making her perfect for VFX production roles. After getting a job on The Matrix Revolutions via craigslist (no, really), she became a sought-after coordinator and then moved into producing VFX for movies including Spider-Man 3 , Tower Heist , and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close , as well as commercials, moving from west to east coast and back again along the way. Having served on the fron...
Mar 11, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 465
VFX visualization might just be the closest you can get to being a film director without stepping behind the camera. This technology has become a key part of the VFX process, with previz storyboarding growing into pitchviz (to get movies greenlit), techviz (to figure out logistics), and postviz (to create temporary VFX). It’s an area Casey Pyke has become an expert in via his role at Halon Entertainment, which has helped visualize movies including The Batman , Pinnochio , Argylle , and John Wick...
Mar 04, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 464
Richard Crudo began his career in New York City, learning from some of the best in the business, including László Kovács and Gordon Willis, and helping shoot movies such as Ghostbusters 2 , Raising Arizona , and Broadway Danny Rose . He then served as cinematographer on movies including American Pie , Out Cold , and Brooklyn Rules , as well as television series such as FX Network’s Justified , The CW’s Jane the Virgin , and CBS’s SWAT . In this podcast, Richard discusses the transition of motion...
Feb 26, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 463
Could Paolo Berto Durante really be Chris, but from another dimension? These outspoken CG enthusiasts have a lot in common: an extensive knowledge of 3D software and render engines stretching back decades, a history in VFX and teaching CG, and strong opinions on the current state of the industry. Paolo talks about his roles in the research and development of 3D software, starting from Alias|wavefront, to mental images. to Jupiter Jazz, up to his current role at J Cube, their team has developed C...
Feb 20, 2024•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 462
Robert Moggach has experienced the full arc of the VFX artist career, from being treated like a rockstar in the early days of CG to working on personal, small-scale indie projects today. Along the way, he’s racked up credits on movies including Harry Potter , I, Robot , and Stealth , created ads for the world’s biggest brands, bagged a VES award for the Halo ODST trailer , and helped make music videos for the likes of Moby, Muse, Garbage, and Tori Amos. Rob and Chris discuss the dynamics of clou...
Feb 13, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 461
In this podcast, Vikkal breaks down his career so far, from his beginnings in architecture and on MTV series Room Raiders , to founding Ataboy Studios and making use of the latest VFX and motion graphics technology to create eye-catching ads in a variety of formats. Vikkal and Chris also discuss their common ground in architecture and talk about how Apple could potentially revive VR and the metaverse with its Vision Pro VR headset.
Feb 05, 2024•59 min•Ep. 460
Ben Hansford has his finger on the pulse of filmmaking — the prognosis is excellent. Beginning his career in VFX, Ben moved into directing short films and commercials for the likes of Old Spice, Starfield0 , Call of Duty , Nike, and many more. He also teaches AI at the University of Southern California (USC), giving him unfettered access to the minds of a new generation of filmmakers. Ben shares his thoughts on how converging pipelines and creative innovations like AI will create a new kind of f...
Jan 22, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 459
Here’s the perfect start to 2024: Kat Dawes and NOWism’s particular blend of positivity for creative people. From busking in her native Brisbane to traveling through Africa, Kat has combined her love of performance art and spirituality to create NOWism, a playful philosophy that embraces the present moment and focuses on becoming the hero of your own story. In this podcast, Kat tells Chris how artists struggling in a modern, ever-changing world can overcome anxieties related to AI and financial ...
Jan 16, 2024•55 min•Ep. 458
2024 gets off to an explosive start with this week’s guest: CG supervisor Jonas Ussing, who is on a quest to give visibility to the VFX artists and studios who create invisible effects. He’s doing this via his YouTube channel, The Movie Rabbit Hole , where his impeccably researched and presented arguments have racked up over a million views. Jonas and Chris talk about how studios are making it seem like films such as Oppenheimer , Top Gun: Maverick , and Mission: Impossible 7 favored practical e...
Jan 08, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 457
Faruk Heplevent has spent his career perfecting the art of car photography. His experience in traditional photography transferred smoothly into CGI, and he set up his company, The Scope, to create breathtaking renders for the world’s biggest car companies. Now, he’s released Scope City, a groundbreaking tool that empowers car manufacturers and CG artists to create and customize the perfect urban backdrops for digital vehicles. Faruk discusses his career and how the industry has changed from the ...
Dec 18, 2023•56 min•Ep. 456
SideFX President and CEO Kim Davidson has been a luminary of the computer graphics industry since the 1980s. In this podcast, Kim delves into his history, recounting his early days with the PRISMS procedural graphics application and the subsequent development of Houdini, SideFX’s popular and Oscar-winning 3D animation software, which has delivered astounding visuals for everything from Jingle All the Way to Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny . Kim also shares his own journey in the industry, ...
Dec 11, 2023•56 min•Ep. 455
Meet the legend behind some of the movie industry’s most iconic creatures: Joe Letteri. From Jurassic Park ’s dinosaurs to Gollum in The Lord of the Rings , Avatar ’s Na’vi, and the Planet of the Apes ’ simian stars, Joe has constantly pushed VFX boundaries and technology to deliver utterly believable CG characters. In this info-packed Q&A, Joe talks about everything from how he created his very first VFX shot for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country to the cutting-edge technology that hel...
Dec 04, 2023•25 min
The universal language of cinema has proved a constant in Pixar director Peter Sohn’s life, and with Elemental , he used it to tell a story close to his heart. Born in New York City to Korean parents, Peter’s mother fell in love with the visual storytelling of Disney movies. He then carved out a career in animation, starting with The Iron Giant and moving to Pixar for moves including Finding Nemo and Up , and making his directorial debut with The Good Dinosaur . In this podcast, recorded at the ...
Nov 27, 2023•51 min•Ep. 453
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse left some big spider-boots to fill — but director Joaquim Dos Santos was clearly the man to fill them. With Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse , the director expanded the Spider-Verse in new and unexpected directions while, crucially, staying true to the first film’s tender and nuanced approach to character and story. Joaquim reveals how his early obsessions with VHS and comic books led to his first break in storyboarding with Starship Troopers: Roughnecks , th...
Nov 20, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 452
As Illumination Studios' duck tale Migration prepares to take flight on the big screen, Chris had a conversation with its director, Benjamin Renner, at the VIEW Conference in Italy. Benjamin turned his passion for drawing into a career in animation via Macromedia Director and rose to prominence as co-director of the Academy Award-nominated animated movie Ernest & Celestine . In this podcast, Benjamin offers a candid and insightful look into the process of crafting a 3D animated film in Holly...
Nov 13, 2023•56 min•Ep. 451
