CG Garage

Daniel Thron, Erick Schiele, and James Blevins join Chris to discuss their work on the short film Ray Tracing FTW . Directed by Daniel, the film pushed the boundaries of virtual production, and Erick's production design had to work both digitally and practically, ensuring consistency across virtual environments and physical sets. James, with his expertise in virtual production, shares how they ove...

Jared Sandrew, a 3D supervisor at Disney and visual effects veteran, joins the podcast to discuss his career journey, from growing up around the pioneering technology of digital colorization to becoming a key figure in stereoscopic 3D conversion for blockbuster films. Jared shares fascinating stories about his time at Legend 3D, where he worked on major projects like A lice in Wonderland and Shrek...

Line producers Debbie Kennard and Ron Eli Cohen discuss their work on the short film Ray Tracing FTW and offer an insider's perspective on the art of film production. Debbie shares her story, from her beginnings as John Carpenter's PA on The Thing to becoming a trusted line producer in Hollywood, while Ron talks about transitioning from acting to producing, with credits like The Dark Knight Rises...

In this episode, Richard Crudo, the cinematographer, and Esther Woodworth, the 1st Assistant Camera for the Ray Tracing FTW short film, share their journey working on the groundbreaking project. We take a deep dive into the dynamics of the camera crew, exploring how different departments like lighting and grip collaborate to bring a director's vision to life. Esther provides insight into her passi...

Matthias Christen, the main 3D artist from The Scope on Ray Tracing FTW , shares his fascinating journey from traditional analog painting to becoming an expert in 3D and virtual production. Starting with a passion for drawing, Matthias entered the advertising industry, where he honed his skills in Photoshop and Illustrator before transitioning into 3D work. He talks about his growth at The Scope,...

In this episode, Chris sits down with AJ Wedding, founder of Orbital Studios, to discuss how the Chaos Innovation Lab used his studio to film Ray Tracing FTW using Project Arena. AJ shares how his early fascination with virtual production, inspired by his work on The Mandalorian , led him to launch Orbital Studios during the pandemic. He explains the challenges of building a virtual production stu...

It's been seven years since Ed Ulbrich last appeared on the CG Garage podcast — and a lot has changed. The man who digitally aged Brad Pitt for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and resurrected late rapper 2Pac as an on-stage hologram is now chief content officer and president of production at metaphysic.ai, which is using AI tools to create photorealistic digital humans in real time for movies...

Kevin Tod Haug has always been destined for a career in VFX. From a young age, he analyzed movies and TV series to work out how they were made. He joined the industry and saw it transform from electro-mechanical to digital via movies and TV series, including Tron and Star Trek: The Next Generation . He then became a full VFX supervisor on movies including Fight Club , The Cell , Panic Room , and Q...

Ian Dawson's dream of a Jarvis-style computing interface seems to be coming true. This multi-talented CG veteran began his career in graphic design, before moving into producing and creating flying logos throughout the 90s. He then moved into advertising, and title sequences and VFX sequences for movies including the Iron Man trilogy , Star Wars: Rogue One , and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol...

Get ready to dive into the magical world of virtual production with the one and only Gary Marshall, Vice President of Virtual Production at Nant Studios. In this episode, Chris chats with Gary, a true wizard in the visual effects industry, who's been behind some of the most jaw-dropping movie moments you've ever seen. From running film reels around London as a newbie at the iconic Moving Picture C...

Alex and Tim Porter have the perfect skillset of a VFX power couple. Alex has a background in interior design, which she leveraged into user experience and virtual spaces. Tim, meanwhile, has worked in games and VFX, beginning as an artist but gravitating towards developing tools and scripts that make it easy to create complicated environments and characters. Together, Alex and Tim have establishe...

Erick Giesler has seen the filmmaking industry change right from the very start. As a child, he acted in TV shows, but found that he was more fascinated with what was happening behind the camera. He learned how to create VFX, beginning on SGIs, then moving to software such as Electric Image, 3ds Max, and V-Ray, and helping to create VFX for movies including Independence Day , Titanic , and The Day...

Todd Terrazas has been part of the AI revolution since the beginning. He started out developing a system to automatically triage 911 calls and then was part of the development team behind the first wave of AI-powered chatbots. Today, Todd has founded FRBC.ai, which empowers storytellers with AI tools. He's also the mastermind of the AI LA Community, which in turn hosts the AI on the Lot summit. To...

A love of computing, music, and cinema has propelled Jeff Kleiser's career from the earliest days of VFX on movies including Tron , Flight of the Navigator , Stargate , Judge Dredd , Surrogates , and many more. Along the way, he's helped the late, great Doug Trumbull create eye-popping film-based projects for Luxor hotels and Radio City's 3D Christmas movie. Jeff talks through his career, and how...

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 ,...

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...

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...

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...

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 . Mos...

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...

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, wher...

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 vi...

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...

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 w...

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...