CG Garage

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. R...

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 Houdi...

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....

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 dif...

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 com...

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 Enterta...

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...

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|wavefr...

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 vi...

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 metave...

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 h...

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 art...

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 see...

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 b...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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, Benja...

Michał Misiński's name may be familiar to regular listeners — this CG artist turned director helped previous podcast guest Ash Thorp create his Ghost in the Shell homage "Project 2501." Michał is also a partner at Polish visual effects VFX studio Juice, directing videos for Porsche, Honda, Skoda, Dolby, and more. Recently, Michał brought his talent and passion together for a music video that ties...

Over the past 30 years, Kyle Balda has risen from humble animator to co-director of beloved kids' movies Minions: The Rise of Gru and Despicable Me 3 . Beginning in animation for films including Mars Attacks , The Mask , and Toy Story 2 , Kyle met director Pierre Coffin in Europe and helped create the animated series Pat & Stan , which would build the foundations for the Minions' lovable antics. I...

Ryan Woodward began his career in traditional animation for movies, including cult classics The Iron Giant and Space Jam , before becoming a storyboard artist on Spider-Man 2 , Iron Man 2 , and Avengers Assemble , and creating the stirring short, "Thought of You." Today, he's pursuing many avenues for his creative powers. In this podcast, recorded at THU in Japan, he talks about how he's found hap...

Murai Sadayuki is the writer behind some of the most astonishing and groundbreaking anime films of all time, including the Hitchcockian Perfect Blue , Otomo's Akira follow-up Steamboy , and the reality-blurring Millennium Actress . But he's not done yet: he continues to write for TV series, including Knights of Sidonia , Godzilla , and Sabikui Bisco . Conducted at THU via a translator, this podcas...

What can today's artists and storytellers learn from an ancient Japanese method? In this podcast, Chris is joined by Google brand expert Cláudia Cristovão, who practices Kintsugi , the art of taking old ceramics and repairing them with gold-infused sap that grows stronger with time. Building on her presentation at the THU festival in Kaga, Japan, Cláudia explains how Kintsugi's restorative, medita...

Amy Aniobi is a whirlwind of inspiration, smart advice, and creative energy. As a young girl, she was inspired by Frasier and Boy Meets World to become a writer. After graduating from Stanford University, she entered the industry and worked her way up to becoming head writer, executive producer, and director of HBO's Insecure . In addition, she co-hosts The Antidote podcast and has movie projects...