CG Garage

Patrick Osborne grew up with a passion for Nintendo, Jurassic Park, and Wavefront—and he got to see behind the scenes of movie merchandising via his dad's job as head of design at Kenner Toys. After attending the prestigious Ringling College of Art + Design, he joined Sony Imageworks, then Disney, and polished his skills as an animator. While at Disney, Patrick directed the short film "Feast," whi...

Hard-hitting documentaries and cutting-edge VFX rarely go together, but for David France's Welcome to Chechnya , it was necessary to marry the two. The film captures the flight of LGBTQ citizens from the Russian republic of Chechnya, where being gay can lead to beatings and murders. To preserve his subjects' anonymity while allowing the audience to connect with them emotionally, David turned to VF...

Originally hailing from Russia, Dmitry Vinnik's love for CG computer game cutscenes inspired him to learn 3D Studio and study at Vancouver Film School. He's gone on to work on VFX projects big and small, including Battlestar Galactica , Tron: Legacy , Final Destination 5, and Game of Thrones . Throughout his career, Dmitry has embraced technology and encouraged studios to use V-Ray—with spectacula...

What do NFTs mean for professional artists? That's the question Chris explores this week with returning podcast guest David Levy, whose concept art has helped define the look of big sci-fi movies, including Tron: Legacy , Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, and the upcoming Avatar sequels. In this thought-provoking discussion, David talks about the potential NFTs have to revolutionize digital art an...

Since its launch in 2000, CG content marketplace Turbosquid has amassed almost 1 million 3D models and become a go-to source for VFX, games and much more. In this week's podcast, Turbosquid's VP of Business Development, Beau Perschall, and Chief Creative Officer, Dade Orgeron, join Chris to talk about this unforgettably named company. You'll learn how the company uses clever tech—including V-Ray A...

Chris' exploration of NFTs continues with returning guest and virtual architecture expert Alex Coulombe and podcast newbie Samuel Arsenault-Brassard. Samuel has set up the Museum of Other Realities to display virtual works of art but lacked a convenient way to monetize and distribute them. Enter NFTs, virtual worlds such as Somnium Space and marketplaces including SuperRare and Foundation. In this...

This week, Blur's Franck Balson and Gabe Askew join Chris to discuss the intricacies of cel-shading, which gives 3D visuals a unique cartoony look. You'll find out how Blur combined advanced hacks and simple techniques to create stylized animation for Love, Death & Robots episode "Suits," which features mech-touting farmers, and the frenetic trailer for Riot Games' Valorant . Franck also discusses...

Our exploration of how NFTs apply to CG artists continues with esteemed NYU Stern professor, David Yermack, an expert in cryptocurrency. But don't worry, you don't need a finance background to understand this. David breaks down key concepts behind NFTs in the most accessible way possible, so you can figure out how they factor in your world. We get into issues of ownership, the value of digital cop...

This week's podcast tells the fascinating story of Doug Wilkinson, who worked with Chris on Tron: Legacy and is now head of CG at global creative company Buck. Inspired by Jurassic Park , Doug helped create cutscenes for video games before moving from Boston to LA to join effects companies including Digital Domain, Sway and Buck. Doug recounts his numerous adventures in visual effects, including c...

Over the past 15 years, Matan Abel has worked on lots of cutting-edge VFX projects, including the game Call of Duty , numerous car commercials and movies such as 2012 , A Nightmare on Elm Street , The Last Airbender , Red Tails and Fast & Furious 5 . Now, Matan's getting into real-time via John Wick: Chapter 3: Parabellum's virtual pre-production and The Mandalorian's virtual sets. In this podcast...

NFTs — or Non-Fungible Tokens — have hit the headlines recently after digital artist Beeple sold a JPEG for $69 million. But there are many questions about this new way of selling art: Is it a scam? How easy is it for artists to make millions with NFTs? What does "fungible" even mean? In this podcast, digital artist and returning guest Sally Slade tells Chris everything she's learned about NFTs in...

Joining Chris for this week's podcast are old pals and seasoned professionals Leighton Greer and Paul Ghezzo. Having met Chris at VFX studio Sway, Leighton and Paul have worked for Rhythm and Hues, Zoic and Scanline. Today, they've been reunited at Technicolor, which produces visual effects alongside traditional post-production fixes for shows including Star Trek: Picard, Westworld, Snowfall and B...

VFX veteran Ari Rubenstein has quite a story to tell. After spending a few years in unrelated fields, he gravitated towards visual effects, where a cloth sim experiment landed him work on The Matrix Revolutions . He went on to work at Blue Sky Studios, the company behind animated movies including Horton Hears a Who! , Epic and Rio . At the same time, Ari has indulged his creativity and embraced ne...

Chaos' Key Account Group are unsung heroes of the CG industry. They understand the trends of the VFX, arch-viz and design industries; they're happy to be woken up at 3AM on Christmas morning to help customers solve problems—and they help gather feedback to help shape Chaos products. Heading up the Key Account Group is the dynamic and energetic "Mother of Dragons," Albena Ivanova. After studying bu...

Chaos Group is no more; long live Chaos! In this week's podcast, Richard Pay from design agency Uniform and Chaos' own Melissa Knight talk us through the year-long process of reinvigorating the computer graphics company's presence to reflect the increasing diversity of its products and customers.  Rich explains why a brand is far more than just a logo, and how Uniform has united Chaos' previously...

This week's podcast guest is a true visionary in the CG world. Ash Thorp came from a humble background and perfected his artistic skills via a year-long stint at film title specialist Prologue. Since then, he's contributed to Ghost in the Shell , Ender's Game and Captain Marvel , while pursuing his love for cinema via personal projects including Ghost in the Shell homage "Project 2501," electric F...

Christian Debney's incredible career began awesomely and has only become more awesome: his first job was building lightsaber props for Star Wars: Episodes I and II . After learning 3D for his own short films, he created VFX for Farscape , directed music videos, made animations for the London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony, set up a VFX firm and second-unit-directed little-known but much-loved Aust...

Andrew Murdock is a man of many talents. His career began in a recording studio, alongside Chris Isaak, and he went on to join Mondo Media to work on gaming projects including The Daedalus Encounter and Westwood's Blade Runner . After founding his company, Lots of Robots, he created his own short films, beginning with "Rocket Pants," while producing scientific animations for National Geographic. T...

Over the past 30 years, Habib Zargarpour has helped create some of the most innovative and iconic VFX shots in cinema and pioneered virtual production. Beginning with The Mask's eye-popping protagonist, Habib went on to instigate Twister and The Perfect Storm's freak weather conditions, race pods for Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace and use game-engine technology to build The Jungle Book...

This week's podcast guest is Robert Durnin, a talented and agile technical director who can turn his hand to just about anything. He's perfected pipelines for movies including Pan's Labyrinth , The Mist , The Amazing Spider-Man and Tron: Legacy , and polished in-engine cinematics for Batman: Arkham Origins and Crysis 3 . He's also helped build content for the Leia 3D holographic display and worked...

Intopolis aims to turn video game conventions on their head. Players assume the role of an art historian from the distant future, tasked with finding patterns in detailed, otherworldly artworks. In this podcast, the extraordinary talent behind the game, Kirsten Zirngibl, gives a fascinating glimpse into how she's translated her imagination into a tangible, explorable world. Kirsten discusses every...

In a little over a year, Mondlicht Studios has made a global name for itself in CG advertising projects. Its large-scale, award-winning images for Netflix series literally wrap around buildings, and it also provides animation, retouching, AR and VR services. Here, co-founders David Schaefer and Dmitriy Glazyrin tell Chris the story behind the studio. You'll find out about the technology David and...

Bilali Mack has always wanted to tell stories. Originally hailing from West Africa, Bilali was at Emerson College in Boston when he realized it was easier to make movies with computers instead of cameras. After graduating, he worked on Coca-Cola and BMW commercials, where he developed an affinity for Flame, Autodesk's VFX and finishing software. Today, Bilali is taking his experience to the next l...

Is there anything Alessandro Cangelosi can't do? Over the past 20 years, this versatile generalist has contributed to games, movies, documentaries, film studio idents and commercials for everything from computer accessories to tourist destinations. To handle this wide array of work, Alessandro uses software including 3ds Max, Houdini and V-Ray. In this podcast, Alessandro tells Chris how he likes...

Babak Bina has carved out an illustrious career in VFX — and now he's passing his knowledge onto a new generation. Originally hailing from Iran,  the band Tool's visuals inspired Babak to pursue graphic design in Toronto. He's gone on to work for visual effects studios Double Negative, Method Studios and Scanline VFX on movies and TV shows, including Game of Thrones, Black Panther and Wonder Woman...