CG Garage

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Episode 275 - Jody Madden - CEO, Foundry May 11, 2020

Show notes

Over the past 20 years, Jody Madden has worked her way to the top of the visual effects career ladder. She began her career at Industrial Light & Magic and Lucasfilm in San Francisco, then moved to Los Angeles to work for Digital Domain. Today, Jody is CEO of Foundry, the London-based company behind essential VFX software Nuke, Modo, Katana, Mari and Modo.

In this podcast, Jody discusses how interesting new approaches to working may come out of the COVID situation, as well as how her experience at Digital Domain and long-distance management of Foundry have prepared her for managing people through times of uncertainty. She also tells Chris about Foundry's history as a Digital Domain off-shoot and how it's preparing for a shift in the way media is produced and consumed.

Episode 274 - Michael Golden - Founder & Visualist, Three Marks May 04, 2020

Show notes

Michael Golden's winding career path has taken in philosophy and creative writing degrees, charter fishing in Alaska as well as work for celebrated New York arch-viz studio DBOX and a role as Head of 3D for timesaving worldbuilding asset company KitBash3d. Today, Michael runs arch-viz studio Three Marks while indulging his love for fantasy and sci-fi architecture and sculpture via his Droquis alter-ego.

Michael is full of sage-like wisdom on how to create great arch-viz. His more holistic approach to creating imagery makes it easy to get clients on board with projects while maintaining creative control. He also discusses why a bad photorealistic image is worse than no image, reveals the subtle details that breathe life into renders — and explains what we can all learn from Japanese comic books.

Episode 273 - Alberto Mielgo - Director, LD+R's "The Witness" Apr 27, 2020

Show notes

Warning: This podcast contains explicit language.

Among the many pleasures of Love, Death & Robots, "The Witness" was a particular standout: Its mind-bending story and vivid art style combined to create a unique and challenging short film. In this inspirational podcast, director Alberto Mielgo breaks down the making of the project.

You'll find out Alberto's influences, from Tintin to Disney to Blade Runner and the films of Éric Rohmer. He also talks about blending simple 2D and advanced cloth techniques to achieve "The Witness'" distinctive look, the inspiration behind its story — and his ambition to make animated movies that are regarded in the same light as live-action features.

Episode 272 - Matthias Buehler - Founder & CTO, vrbn studios Apr 20, 2020

Show notes

Large-scale realistic cityscapes have never been more important — whether they're for blockbuster VFX, open-world videogames, architectural planning or even training self-driving cars. This week's podcast guest, Matthias Buehler, is an expert in generating realistic urban environments thanks to his work on the CityEngine procedural city modeling software.

Matthias talks Chris through his career, from learning about architecture from industry legends such as Hani Rashid and Greg Lynn, to his work building CityScape into VFX company Scanline's pipeline, to his new CG city-focused company, vrbn. It's a fascinating conversation about the methods and rules that we can use to effortlessly create realistic CG metropolises.

Episode 271 - Alexander Soklev - V-Ray GPU Team Lead, Chaos Group Apr 14, 2020

Show notes

Over the past 12 years, V-Ray GPU has been developed alongside the CPU renderer to take advantage of increasingly powerful and specialized hardware — and now it's coming of age. Joining Chris this week is Alex Soklev, whose passion for ray tracing has propelled him to the position of Team Leader in Chaos Group's V-Ray GPU team.

Fresh from his online GTC presentation, Alex breaks down the components that make V-Ray GPU such a versatile renderer. He goes into detail on integrating the Optix API to make the most of NVIDIA's latest RT cores, explains how clever technology such as out-of-core and on-demand rendering help keep GPU ray tracing fast and efficient, and gives a thorough breakdown of how static, dynamic and evictable geometry can keep rendering fast and efficient.

It's a perfect refresher on ray tracing techniques — and you'll find out why V-Ray GPU can handle any scene no matter how much GPU memory you've got.

Episode 270 - Esdras Varagnolo - SVP of Creative Production, SkyDance Apr 06, 2020

Show notes

Pixar's unique fusion of cutting-edge technology with storytelling has changed the face of cinema and given us some memorable movies along the way. A key player behind-the-scenes has been Esdras Varagnolo, who contributed to lighting and compositing on Pixar movies including Ratatouille, Up and Cars 2, as well as shorts "La Luna," "Piper" and "Lou."

As Esdras begins a new chapter in his life, at David Ellison's Skydance Animation, he reflects on the technical innovations he's helped make possible, from "shampositing" at Digital Domain to integrating deep compositing and Katana at Pixar. He reveals how Pixar uses its short films as testbeds for new technology, how Incredibles 2's production schedule was slashed by 12 months and the fascinating reason why the company's early characters had that iconic eye glint.

Episode 269 - Lauren Mayer-Beug - Creative Director, Chapeau Studios Mar 30, 2020

Show notes

Lauren Mayer-Beug has come a long way since working at Sway Studio with Chris. This multi-talented artist cut her teeth in compositing and VFX supervision for movies and music videos before moving into motion graphics, animation and social media features. She's created pieces for Apple, Google, Facebook and Beats, and her clientele include Dr. Dre, Ron Howard, Barack Obama and George Lucas.

In this podcast, Lauren gives Chris a rundown of how she's worked up to the position of creative director at Chapeau Studios, a brand think-tank with roots in the world of VFX. She imparts vital advice on how women can make their voices heard in a traditionally male-dominated industry and reveals the techniques she uses to make smart, innovative creative decisions.

Episode 268 - Duncan Crabtree-Ireland - Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel, SAG-AFTRA Mar 23, 2020

Show notes

With digital humans and deepfakes becoming increasingly prevalent in both traditional and social media, the law surrounding virtual humans has become more complex. Here to save the day is Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, who has served as head lawyer and second-in-command at the Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) for the past 20 years.

Using examples Chris has encountered in his professional life, Duncan gives a level-headed and clear-cut primer on how copyright law applies to performers and CG artists. He tackles everything from the highly detailed digi-doubles of Peter Cushing and Carrie Fisher created for Star Wars movies to amateur fan art at local markets, and the emerging world of deepfakes.

Obviously, this podcast does not constitute legal advice, but it's a fascinating listen whether you're a CG pro, an actor — or just an entertainment fan.

Episode 267 - Alex Nijmeh - Head of Workflow at Walt Disney Animation Studios Mar 09, 2020

Show notes

This week, Chris meets an old friend and former Digital Domain co-worker Alex Nijmeh — and this joyful podcast is a testament to how much fun they had together on movies such as The Day After Tomorrow and I, Robot. They reminisce about how unfeasibly tight deadlines pushed them to learn software and techniques, as well as the characters they met and funny antics they got up to at DD's studio.

Today, Alex's enthusiasm for all things CG has taken him to Walt Disney Animation Studios, where he graduated from working on movies such as Frozen and Zootopia to overseeing the company's workflow. He tells Chris how a lack of practical experience with 3ds Max didn't stop him from beginning his career, and he gives his thoughts on the future computing trends that will reshape in the industry.

Episode 266 - Juan Gomez - Lead Technical Account Manager, Epic Games Mar 02, 2020

Show notes

Like Chris, Juan Gomez worked at Digital Domain on some of the company's biggest and most innovative projects: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Maleficent and Tron: Legacy. But Juan has followed a different career path, first into the world of virtual reality at Method and on to Epic Games, where he's spearheaded game-changing real-time virtual production for movies.

This podcast offers a comprehensive overview of the ways Unreal Engine is turning the entire production process on its head and making it faster and easier to create VFX-heavy movies. Juan tells Chris how the company is able to offer tailor-made tools so directors and DoPs can use familiar interfaces and not get overwhelmed with technical aspects of VFX. He also reveals how the tech is pulling VFX artists away from workstations and onto the set, giving them god-like powers in the creative process.

Virtual production is about to make the film industry more agile and transform the end result — and this podcast is an amazing head start.

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