CG Garage

A lot has changed in the two years since Pedro Conti last guested on the CG Garage podcast. Not only has he moved from bustling Sao Paulo to the more relaxed city of Florianópolis, but he's also contributed to a playful Katy Perry music video and directed "Tamo Junto," a touching tale of neighborly goodwill in the pandemic. Pedro tells Chris how "Tamo Junto" fell into place, from the inspiration b...

This week, Chris meets Nathan Millsap, a humble but hugely enthusiastic CG generalist. Nathan's career began as a "render monkey" for Chris at Sway, and since then he's gone on to work at 19 effects studios on movies including 2012 , Avatar , and Transformers: Age of Extinction . Today, Nathan is working on TV series for prestigious LA studio, GhostVFX. In this podcast, Nathan talks through his li...

Jelmer Boskma is livin' the VFX dream. Originally hailing from the Netherlands, he moved to Vancouver to go to film school and became interested in character modeling. Jelmer then picked up work as a modeler on movies including Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium , Journey to the Center of the Earth , and District 9 . With Tron: Legacy , he became a matte painter, then moved up to art direction on Sin...

It's been 18 months since Chris recorded a podcast in-person, but he's back with a bang — and the pop of a Belgian beer cork. His guest is Belle van der Woodsen, a talented arch-viz artist whose career has taken her from Europe to the US and the Middle East. At the same time, her work has developed a distinctive, tranquil style. Belle talks about what it takes to be an arch-viz artist today, inclu...

Three years ago, Beauty and The Bit made an enormous splash in the arch-viz world with "Landmark," an atmospheric, anamorphic short film that homaged auteurs such as Scott, Kubrick, and Villeneuve. From here, the Spanish creative studio has worked on imagery and animations for studios including Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects, Bjarke Ingels Group, and Perkins & Will. In this podcast, Beauty and T...

Top of this year's Chaos Christmas wishlist is A Portrait of the Digital Age , Ian Spriggs' book on creating his meticulous character studies. In this week's podcast, the digital portrait artist returns to talk to Chris (who features in the book) about some of the subjects the publication tackles. Ian shares valuable insights into the process of making his portraits, including his Renaissance infl...

Kofi Opoku-Ansah and Daniel Mark Miller have both found interesting routes to becoming successful VFX artists. Kofi was inspired by Final Fantasy to pursue a career in gaming, but working at The Mill ignited his passion for VFX. Daniel, meanwhile, toyed with becoming an editor before getting into compositing via the advertising industry. Together, Kofi and Daniel host The VFX Artists Podcast, whic...

Paul Deasy is a true master of character modeling. His sculpts demonstrate a deft understanding of how to tell stories through emotions and subtle touches, whether it's Hellboy, Mr. Freeze, Voldemort, or his own noir-ish creations. In this podcast, Chris talks to Paul about how becoming one of the most respected character artists on the internet, from his youthful obsession with Batman: The Animat...

Steve Griffith's impressive IMDb page includes The Matrix sequels, Captain America: The First Avenger, Ant-Man, the Watchmen TV series, Jungle Cruise, and many more blockbusters. Over the course of 20 years, he's gone from intern to VP of Production at Legend, taking in stints at major VFX studios including Rodeo FX, MPC, Luma Pictures, Atomic Fiction, and Digital Domain. In this podcast, Chris an...

Jack Evans' illustrious VFX career has taken him to some of the biggest studios in LA and Vancouver, including Digital Domain, ILM, Disney, and Image Engine Design. His impressive roster of credits includes lighting on Speed Racer , TRON: Legacy , X-Men: Days of Future Past , Fast & Furious 8 , Solo: A Star Wars Story, The Mandalorian , and Aquaman .  In this entertaining podcast, Jack talks about...

V-Ray won an Emmy! And joining Chris this week is Craig Weiss, a committee member on the board for the Engineering Emmy Awards. Craig explains how Chaos' rendering engine has changed the way TV VFX are made and why the board chose it to win this prestigious award. Craig also delves into his role as CBS VFX's executive creative director, from his humble beginnings in stop-motion animation to the hi...

The big wide world can be a scary place for neurodiverse people — but Exceptional Minds can help them find their place. Founded in 2011, this remarkable non-profit training academy trains individuals on the autism spectrum to become visual effects and animation professionals. It also runs its own studio, which has put graduates to work on Black Widow , Loki , and a whole animated segment for Sesam...

AJ Jefferies' art is unmistakable. Whether he's indulging in passion projects or designing campaigns for companies including Cadbury's, Virgin Atlantic, and MTV, this UK-based 3D illustrator and animator's work is eye-catching, playful, and colorful — and large, sometimes up to 10K in resolution. In this conversation with Chris, AJ breaks down his career so far, from how Toy Story inspired his ear...

Real-time CG is quickly taking over the film industry — but learning about its virtual cameras, lenses, and sets can be tricky. Tackling this is "Becoming a CG Pro," an online virtual production course aimed at filmmakers and CG artists hosted by Edward Dawson-Taylor and Jacqueline Cooper, a pair of VFX industry pros with credits on Jurassic World , The Jungle Book , and The Lion King . In this po...

Ruairidh "Roo" MacNeill's love for 3D modeling began with sandcastles in Lightwave—and now, he's working in London on blockbusters including Thor: Ragnarok, Alita: Battle Angel, and Wonder Woman 1984 . In this podcast, Roo brings fresh insight into the trends reshaping the way VFX are produced, with procedural tools such as Houdini removing the industry's reliance on hard-surface modelers. Roo giv...

In this week's podcast, Chris digs into the relationship between CG and archaeology with world-renowned archaeologist Bernard Frischer. Having studied Classics, Bernie discovered a passion for the past and led excavations of Horace's Villa in Licenza, Italy. At the same time, he maintained a keen interest in the evolution of computing technology and used it to reconstruct Rome for his Rome Reborn...

Liz Montes bumped into someone at an LA party—and landed a job at Digital Domain. Here, she worked alongside Chris on movies including Real Steel and Oblivion . Then she moved to visualization specialist The Third Floor, where she worked as a production manager and producer on blockbusters including Edge of Tomorrow , Solo: A Star Wars Story , and Avengers: Endgame . In this podcast, Liz talks abo...

Chris Harvey's brief encounters in biology and theater set him up perfectly for a thriving career in VFX. After taking an animation course, he went on to work on movies such as Chappie , TRON: Legacy , and Zero Dark Thirty . Then, he helped Neill Blomkamp launch independent production company Oats Studios and now he works as a freelance VFX supervisor. In this podcast, Chris talks about striking a...

Want to know the secrets of a successful VFX career? In this week's podcast, Andy Boyd tells Chris how he worked his way up from VFX artist to head of 3D at MPC and then became co-founder of his own company, Jamm VFX, moving from Johannesburg to London and Los Angeles in the process. Andy gives useful insights on getting noticed and securing promotions. He also talks through the nerve-wracking pro...

Introducing the CG Garage podcast's first-ever virtual guest: PHIA, AKA Sophia Bollinger. In the space of little over a year, PHIA's "The Virtual Reality Show" has amassed over 100,000 YouTube and Twitch subscribers who tune in to find out about the latest tech and trends in VR. At the same time, she's become a virtual celebrity, and running the show has become her full-time job. In this podcast,...

The globally renowned RealTime Conference couldn't have been founded by anyone other than Jean-Michel Blottière. From a young age, Jean-Michel has been at the heart of both the games and media industries, beginning with gaming magazines and TV series in his native France, and moving into CG and animation conferences via Imagina and FMX. Today, Jean-Michel runs the RealTime Conference, which has pr...

This week's podcast guest, Carlos Fueyo, checks all Chris' boxes for architecture, VFX, and real-time. After working alongside theoretical architecture legend Lebbeus Woods, Carlos provided stunning visual effects for movies including Priest , Super 8 , and Avengers: Age of Ultron . He then set himself up as a studio working on VFX, architectural, virtual reality, and real-time projects, including...

After making stop-motion videos as a kid and studying furniture design, Ross Denner found his way into VFX via stints at Bermuda Shorts and The Mill. He then moved from London to Los Angeles to work for MPC and now lives in New York, where he helped set up boutique studio ArtJail. Ross talks about how SideFX's versatile Houdini software is usurping Maya in traditional pipelines and empowering smal...

Over the past few years, Gravity Sketch has made its way into the workflows of everyone from individual artists to large corporations, including Ford and HP. This unique software allows designers to intuitively create and perfect their visions in a three-dimensional, virtual space. Gravity Sketch Co-Founder and CEO Seyi Sosanya talks about how his team used influences from outside computing, such...

No one knows the virtual world like Solomon Rogers. From an academic background, Sol decided to found his own company, REWIND , to specialize in creating immersive and meaningful VR experiences for an impressive array of companies, including HBO, Lyft, Sony, and Microsoft. In this podcast, Sol tells Chris how VR has evolved over the past decade, explains why we're yet to see good VR architecture,...