VICO SHARABANI is a Creative Entrepreneur, award-winning Creative-Director, Director, and Producer. He is also the Founder and CCO of The-Artery, a New York based media production company that creates high-end visual content for brands, feature films, commercials, digital experiences, art installations and more. As one of the most notable Flame artists in the world, Vico is the winner of the first ever Autodesk Flame Award recognizing his vast contributions to the VFX industry over the past 25 y...
May 30, 2023•50 min•Ep. 405
ARwall is a group of indie filmmakers based in LA who are on a mission to democratize their virtual production tech that has previously only been accessible to major studios. ARwall is a virtual production, software and solutions company. Since its founding 7 years ago, the company has been one of the pioneers of in-camera realtime effects. They've worked on projects for HBO, Disney and Discovery. Most recently, ARwall's work won an Emmy for their first film Muppets Haunted Mansion where their r...
May 23, 2023•46 min•Ep. 404
Wonder Dynamics is utilizing Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to develop cutting-edge technologies, innovate production tools and create original content for Film and TV Industry. A startup founded in 2017 by Ready Player One star Tye Sheridan and VFX expert Nikola Todorovic aims to lower the cost and level the playing field for visual effects. In 2021, the company raised $9 million in a Series A funding round that included Epic Games and Samsung as investors, helping expand its team...
May 16, 2023•53 min•Ep. 403
Move.ai develops patented AAA quality marker-less motion capture technology powered by computer vision and deep learning. Their software runs off any mobile device or camera, can capture any relative volume size and can be deployed in any environment on the planet. It’s been tested to be directly comparable to existing suit/optical based systems and generates standard data formats that can be exported to any game engine in real time. The company’s mission is to enable millions of animators and c...
May 09, 2023•53 min•Ep. 402
The intense drama and riveting action in the newest primetime CBS hit series FIRE COUNTRY is accompanied by spectacular firestorms: The work of visual effects leaders CBS VFX which was selected by producers to create the namesake infernos and deliver other critical visual effects for the most watched new network series of the season. Led by VFX Supervisor Colin Strause, whose career includes such big-screen blockbusters as RAMPAGE, SAN ANDREAS and THE AVENGERS, CBS VFX brings together a visual e...
May 02, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 401
Ash Thorp is a graphic designer, illustrator, artist, and creative director for a multitude of media, including feature films, commercial enterprises, and print. Most recently, Ash worked on the concept for the Batmobile and the Batcycle, for the 2022 film The Batman directed by Matt Reeves. Previously, Ash has worked on graphics for Ender’s Game and Total Recall , as well as contributed to the design concepts for Spectre, Prometheus, X-Men First Class, Call of Duty and others. His first directo...
Apr 25, 2023•57 min•Ep. 400
William Faucher is a 3D Artist, Unreal Engine Educator, CG Spectrum Mentor and a successful YouTuber. He is a deaf 3D Generalist who’s been working in the entertainment industry for the past 14 years. Some of his titles include VFX / CGI shots in Marvel's Black Panther and HBO's Watchmen. He created his YouTube Channel over 2 years ago and it currently has over 165K subscribers. In this Podcast, 3D Artist, YouTuber and Unreal Engine Educator William Faucher talks about his journey of in VFX and ...
Apr 18, 2023•54 min•Ep. 399
Pindar Van Arman is an award-winning AI Artist who builds, codes and experiments with robots that paint in a variety of styles. Pindar was a winner of the Robot Art Competition for his home-made robots that use AI to paint artworks. He is best known for his robotic art project Cloud Painter, a sophisticated robot painter highlighted in videos below. Van Arman’s exploration into robot art began by following his curiosity, attempting to answer the question: Where does creativity come from? To try ...
Apr 11, 2023•47 min•Ep. 398
When it comes to job interviews, the number one thing to think about is putting yourself in the interviewer’s shoes. The more you can think like them – the pain points they may have, their wants and needs – the more you are in tune with what they’re thinking. It’s all about understanding their needs and alignment. By understanding what they want, you’re able to be the best fit. Going for an interview is a chance to stand out, beyond your reel. A great interview is when you’re moving into the rat...
Apr 04, 2023•1 hr 29 min•Ep. 397
Important Looking Pirates (ILP) is a visual effects and digital animation studio located in central Stockholm founded in 2007 by Niklas Jacobson, Yafei Wu, Carl Hermelin and Eric Hermelin. The studio has more than 200 artists and have worked on big titles like Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker; and series like Westworld, The Mandalorian, Stranger Things, Lost in Space. ILP was nominated for a number of Emmys for their work on Stranger Things and Lost in Space. In t...
Mar 28, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 396
Sir Wade Neistadt is a Freelance Animator, VFX Artist and YouTube Creator. Currently, his YouTube Channel has over 205K followers. In 2014, after his short film about a sick superhero brought him to the Cannes Film Festival, he completed Animation Mentor's Character Animation Program and got immediately hired at DreamWorks Animation as a Technical Trainer / Educator. Two years later, he left the studio to travel, work freelance and build his YouTube Channel. Sir Wade had taught over 50 classes a...
Mar 21, 2023•44 min•Ep. 395
Christopher Zammit is a VFX Supervisor and Art Director. He’s worked on many films like Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Tomorrowland, Ghostbusters , and of course films in the Transformers franchise Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Transformers: Age of Extinction and Transformers: The Last Knight . In this Podcast, VFX Supervisor and Art Director Christopher Zammit about his work on TOP GUN: MAVERICK, THE BOYS, GHOSTBUSTERS, THE THING, GODZILLA; as well as how to mak...
Mar 14, 2023•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 394
It is amazing how far Artificial Intelligence has progressed just in the last year! No one could’ve predicted the speed of this innovation. A lot of artists are now worried about being replaced with machine learning. While AI can automate and speed things up, it is still up to us as artists to know how to use it as an extension of their ability. Before, we couldn’t talk to computers. We could only program computers via 1’s and 0’s. When GPTs came along, we started communicating with a computer a...
Mar 07, 2023•49 min•Ep. 393
Respeecher uses deep learning (AI) techniques to produce high quality synthetic speech. The company was launched in 2018 by Alex Serdiuk, Dmytro Bielievtsov and Grant Reaber. In March 2020, Respeecher received $1.5 million in startup funding from ff Venture Capital, Acrobator Ventures, ICU Ventures, Network VC, and several angel investors. A year later, the company launched the beta of Voice Marketplace, a democratized version of Respeecher’s tech available for small creators. In September 2021,...
Feb 28, 2023•50 min•Ep. 392
The mission of Monsters Aliens Robots Zombies (MARZ) is to deliver feature-film quality visual effects on television timelines by harnessing GPU clusters, game engine technology, AI and senior industry talent. Leveraging these pillars allows us to consistently execute with both speed and quality for our premium television projects. Lon Molnar is the Co-President of MARZ. With more than 20 years of experience, Lon has contributed a vast amount of visual effects to film and television as an Artist...
Feb 21, 2023•53 min•Ep. 391
Stability AI is the company behind Stable Diffusion, a powerful, free and open-source text-to-image generator that launched in August 2022. Since launching, Stable Diffusion has been downloaded and licensed by more than 200,000 developers globally. Stability AI's consumer-facing product DreamStudio quickly grew to well over a million registered users from more than 50 countries who collectively have created more than 170 million images. Headquartered in London with developers distributed across ...
Feb 14, 2023•50 min•Ep. 390
The most commonly asked questions that get asked are: “Should I go to school to study VFX?” “Should I study online?” “What school / online community should I join?” Attending a school is a more traditional way of learning. However, because of the speed at which technology is changing, school is not always the best route. Throughout the history of this Podcast, Allan has interviewed many artists and VFX supervisors and they attest that: Learning on the job — is the best and the fastest route to l...
Feb 07, 2023•23 min•Ep. 389
Brendan Kane is the Bestselling Author of ONE MILLION FOLLOWERS: HOW I BUILD A MASSIVE SOCIAL AUDIENCE IN 30 DAYS and HOOK POINT: HOW TO STAND OUT IN A 3-SECOND WORLD, as well as the Founder and Managing Director of Hook Point. Since 2005, Brendan has helped the largest brands and celebrities in the world to reverse engineer how to make content go viral. He has worked with major corporations MTV, Viacom, Vice Magazine, Paramount Pictures, IKEA and Sketchers shoes on their digital strategy, as we...
Jan 31, 2023•36 min•Ep. 388
Perfectionism holds artists back. It gets the best of us, both junior and senior artists like. It’s part of the inability to manage ourselves. It also ends up costing more: You’re spending so much time on the project, you burn through the budget. You end up paying the client for the privilege of working on their project. There is a famous quote from Leonardo da Vinci, “Art is never finished, only abandoned.” But if you’re creating art as a business, you need to know when enough is enough. You’re...
Jan 24, 2023•33 min•Ep. 387
Chris Bailey is a Productivity Expert and the bestselling Author of two books about productivity: The Productivity Project and Hyperfocus: How to Be More Productive in a World of Distraction . Chris writes about productivity at www.alifeofproductivity.com and speaks to organizations around the globe on how they can become more productive, without hating the process. Chris was born in Red Deer, Alberta and raised in Ontario, Canada. He first became interested in productivity in high school after ...
Jan 17, 2023•58 min•Ep. 386
We all have doubts if we’re on the right path. Being an artist requires a lot of patience, perseverance and skill. In addition, we have to continue learning and innovating. There is this inner voice that asks, “Am I investing my time into something that’s going to pay off?” It weighs on you. It doesn’t help when we have people around us, telling us to give up. There is so much negativity on the internet – and on social media – as well, and it’s hard to weed out that noise. Everyone is opinionate...
Jan 10, 2023•17 min•Ep. 385
Tim Miller is a Film Director, Animator, Creative Director and VFX Artist. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for the work on his short film Gopher Broke . He made his directing debut with Deadpool . He is also known for creating opening sequences for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Thor: The Dark World . In 1995, Tim co-founded Blur Studio with David Stinnett and Cat Chapman. Blur is where animators and artists can collaborate and be in control of their crea...
Jan 03, 2023•21 min•Ep. 384
AI is exploding everywhere. There are so many technological innovations that use AI in visual effects. You might be already following the massive growth of AI. For VFX artists, the question is: Is AI taking over the art world? Will art be replaced by AI? Are artists’ careers over? In 2010, deep learning changed everything. AI became the revolutionary thing we can utilize. But the big part of preventing AI growth was processing power and storage. With technological innovations, we’re beginning to...
Dec 27, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 383
ActionVFX creates the world's largest library of visual effects stock footage elements for professional VFX Compositors. From Fire, Smoke, and Explosions, to People and Crowds. ActionVFX's mission is to provide artists with the best VFX assets in the world. ActionVFX’s footage has been used in films like: Avengers: Endgame, Spider-Man: Far from Home, Jumanji: The Next Level; television shows like Watchmen, Flash, Fear of the Walking Dead, Legends of Tomorrow, How to Get Away with Murder, Narcos,...
Dec 20, 2022•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 382
EveryPoint combines photogrammetry techniques with the iPhone Pro’s LiDAR scanner to fill in the gaps, as well as utilizes the positional / accelerometer data from the Apple AR toolkit. When combined, this delivers color 3D models that are said to be more accurate than simply using the iPhone’s LiDAR scanner alone. EveryPoint is not an end user product in itself, but a technology layer on which developers can create their solutions, in construction and other industries. In this Podcast, Jonathan...
Dec 13, 2022•41 min•Ep. 381
COVID-19 created havoc in people’s lives and for a while, we thought it would shut down the VFX industry. But it turned out to have the opposite effect. As productions shut down, the studios sent artists home and their equipment to their homes, allowing for artists to work from home. That also means that studios could now hire from artists from anywhere, turning the industry into a truly global one. Which also meant incredible opportunities for artists anywhere. In addition, VFX has become a boo...
Dec 06, 2022•13 min•Ep. 380
Epic Games CTO Kim Libreri is responsible for continuing Epic’s tradition of fusing state-of-the-art technology with the pinnacle of visual artistry, and for defining the studio’s Unreal Engine as the platform of choice for all types of interactive experiences including games, movies, visualization, augmented reality and virtual reality. Prior to joining Epic Games, Kim was the Chief Strategy Officer at Lucasfilm, where he was responsible for the company’s STAR WARS technology strategy and innov...
Nov 29, 2022•1 hr 30 min•Ep. 379
At the beginning of your VFX career, things can seem so hard and so stressful. As a junior VFX Artist, you may feel like everyone is out to get you. Here are some powerful mindset shifts that will change your outlook and how you feel about your career. A lot of artists have a struggling artist mentality. Once you understand that you’re in a commercial industry – and you are a commercial industry of Hollywood movies and AAA games – you also understand that your client’s vision is the most importa...
Nov 22, 2022•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 378
Christopher Zammit is a VFX Supervisor and Art Director. They've worked on many films like Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Tomorrowland, Ghostbusters , and of course films in the Transformers franchise Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Transformers: Age of Extinction and Transformers: The Last Knight . In this Podcast, VFX Supervisor and Art Director Christopher Zammit gives advice to artists about getting the foot in the door, short deadlines and working overtime, ho...
Nov 15, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 377
Darin Moran has been making movies for over 20 years. While he studied design & photography at The Academy of Art in San Francisco and film theory and cinematography at the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, he dropped out of school after a few years to learn in the field by actually making films. Exposed to a wide variety of processes and styles across multiple disciplines, Darin’s eclectic work experience with many talented cinematographers and directors informs his vision now as a DP. Speci...
Nov 08, 2022•59 min•Ep. 376
