CG Garage

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...

Kevin Reste is a font of knowledge for companies looking to improve their creative initiatives and campaigns. Beginning his career with mocap for the Rock Band video games, Kevin's natural people skills and technical confidence have helped him secure work for companies including NBC Sports, Sony Music Entertainment, and WWE, as well as giant financial and pharmaceutical corporations. Chris catches...

Jonathan Rothbart's illustrious career in VFX includes credits on everything from Men In Black to Superman Returns and The Predator . He was a founding member of John Knoll's Rebel Mac Unit at ILM, he established The Orphanage, where he delivered the HUD shots for Iron Man , and then became a sought-after VFX supervisor for movies including Deadpool and John Wick: Chapter 4 .  In this in-depth pod...

Ted Lasso became a surprise hit for Apple TV+, blending comedy and drama in just the right way — and it contained a surprising amount of invisible VFX, from set extensions to turning local soccer pitches into international stadiums, complete with cheering crowds. In this podcast, Chris meets James MacLachlan, the VFX supervisor behind the show. James talks about how his love for bringing stories t...

Andrew MacDonald's adventurous career packs as many twists and turns as a Hollywood movie. Coming from humble origins in the north of England, Andrew moved to London's Soho district to begin his career in optical effects, before getting into VFX and being lured to Hollywood to work for big VFX companies, including Digital Domain and Method. In this rollercoaster of a podcast, Andrew talks about th...

Apple TV+ miniseries Five Days at Memorial shines a light on a disturbing true story of a New Orleans hospital flooded during Hurricane Katrina. In this podcast, the show's VFX supervisors — returning guest Eric Durst and newbie Matt Whelan — reveal how they recreated New Orleans circa 2005 and added invisible effects that would earn the show an Emmy nomination. Eric and Matt talk about how they w...

What if the 1969 moon landing catastrophically failed? That's the question artist Halsey Burgund poses with his "Moon Disaster" project, which makes use of AI technology to envision then-president Richard Nixon delivering an alternative speech to be used in the case of emergency. In doing so, Halsey draws attention to the fact that such a speech existed and was never broadcast, as well as the ways...

Recorded at a high-tech facility in Chaos' plush new offices in Sofia, Bulgaria, this week's episode checks in with Vladimir "Vlado" Koylazov, Chaos' co-founder. Chris discovers more about Vlado's new role as head of innovation, and how the company is embracing recent technological developments to make it easy and efficient for customers to stage and render scenes. Vlado also shares his thoughts o...

Much has changed since Chaos launched Project Lavina in 2020. Remote working has become the norm, real-time workflows have become increasingly prevalent, and GPU power has accelerated. In response, Lavina has evolved into Chaos Vantage, a real-time ray-traced rendering engine tailored to the needs of today's VFX and arch viz artists. Simeon Balabanov, Chaos Vantage's product manager, talks through...

Hanno Basse has been a guiding hand behind the scenes of the modern entertainment experience. At 20th Century Fox, he pushed HDR into the movie experience at home and in theaters, and he helped the entertainment industry adopt cloud computing via his role at Microsoft Azure. Today, Hanno is bringing his expertise to Digital Domain, where he serves as CTO. In this podcast, Hanno reveals how advance...

Terrence Masson's students are probably the luckiest on the planet. The computer arts lecturer draws on 30 years of experience in the industry, from working on innovative movies including True Lies and Interview with the Vampire , helping create South Park 's progenitor in CG, and retooling the original Star Wars trilogy for its 1997 reissue. In this podcast, Terrence talks through some highlights...

Michelle Munson's passion for internet technology took her from streaming video over LAN to founding data transfer company Aspera. Now, she's launched Eluvio, a Web3-based content distribution system that makes it easier and cheaper for producers to share media while giving consumers fair access to a high-quality product with added extras. Michelle discusses Eluvio's partnership with Warner Bros,...

After being inspired by Star Wars to pursue a career in entertainment law, Joshua Lastine helped with clearances on everything from American Idol to The Man in the High Castle to Midway to the Hulkbuster armor in Avengers: Age of Ultron and weapons for TV series Echo 3 . Today, Joshua runs Lastine Entertainment Law, which drafts bespoke agreements for everything from YouTube videos to big-budget m...

Marc Simonetti's dreamy visual style has made him a big name in sci-fi and fantasy art — but what does this mean in the age of AI? In this podcast, Marc tells Chris how it feels to have your name used as an AI art prompt some 400,000 times, and what it's like to see your name attached to artwork that isn't yours. But it's not all bad — Marc delves into the advantages of AI art and how it might put...

Hailing from Detroit, Linden Vennard began his career in visualizing vehicles (of course!). Having established pipelines that turned raw CAD data into sumptuous CG images, Linden became a core part of Speedshape, the VFX studio that specialized in creating visuals for automotive companies. After Speedshape closed, Linden traveled to Asia and Africa before returning to the US to become a freelance...