CG Garage

CGI obviously has a big role in post-production, but in this podcast, Chris talks to concept artist Dwayne Burgess about how it's used before filming. Dwayne was inspired by theatrical design to pursue his career path, and after a fortuitous meeting on a B-movie, he worked his way up to art director at NBC Universal. Today, Dwayne is a freelance concept artist, creating renders for TV shows includ...

With over 20 years' experience in the industry, Shannon Wiggins knows how to get employed at the biggest VFX and games studios. Shannon's early brushes with behind-the-scenes effects from Star Wars influenced her to learn Softimage and Nuke, and work in roto and paint for companies including Digital Domain, ILM and Dreamworks. Today, she heads up placement and alumni relations at the Gnomon School...

Al Quattrocchi is a man of passion and talent. From a young age, he's honed his artistic skills via typesetting, movie posters and Grammy-winning album packaging. Along the way, he's been taught by Jim Blinn of Blinn-Phong shading fame, worked with poster artist Drew Struzan and shaken hands with musical legend Art Garfunkel. At the same time, Al has indulged his love for fly fishing, which grew f...

Versatile and talented software engineer Yining Karl Li has taken an unconventional but successful approach to his career. He sideloaded a graphics degree onto his business degree and he was inspired to create his own renderer, Takua, by Alex Roman's "The Third and The Seventh" and V-Ray's rendering quality. He's also made leaps and bounds with the development of Disney's in-house renderer, Hyperi...

You've probably seen Mike Campau's work without realizing it. Over the past 20 years, this digital artist has honed his style and techniques to produce eye-catching imagery for brands including Under Armour, Chevy and Specialized, and characterful portraits of Tracy Morgan, John C. Reilly and Dave Grohl. He also creates personal work to experiment with new techniques or skewer social media and pol...

CG Garage's 300th podcast features a true superstar of CG: 3D Studio and 3ds Max team leader Gary Yost. After working for an Atari magazine, in the mid 1980s, Gary became involved in software, eventually overseeing the development of 3D Studio from its early days as a DOS package to its limelight-stealing Windows release as 3D Studio MAX 1.0. He talks about how his five-person team (including one...

Returning podcast guest Lou Pecora was inspired by the Haunted Mansion ride, Star Wars, Sinbad and his love of taking things apart to pursue a career in VFX. His first work was creating morphs for Buffy the Vampire Slayer , and he's gone on to work on big-budget movies and TV shows at Digital Domain and now Zoic. In this epic discussion, Lou breaks down some of the challenges that he's faced recen...

This week's podcast guest, Scott Meadows, is the crown prince of previz. After graduating in architecture from Texas A&M University, Scott found his way into VFX as part of a two-man team working on the previz of Michael Bay's Bad Boys II in 2002 — and he's now Head of Visualization and Virtual Production at Digital Domain.  In this fascinating interview, Scott shares tales and tips from previz on...

If you're a big Japan-fan, you'll love this podcast. Joining Chris is Shuzo Shiota, CEO of Polygon Pictures, the long-lived and prolific Tokyo-based digital animation studio behind movies and TV series including Godzilla , Star Wars: The Clone Wars , Transformers: Prime and Big Hero 6: The Series . Shuzo and Chris discuss the impact of Japanese art on the west, from its breakthrough at a Parisian...

Recently released on Netflix, The Babysitter: Killer Queen is director McG's gory follow-up to his equally bloody 2017 comedy-horror, The Babysitter . Assisting with the blood, guts and mayhem this time is Crafty Apes, a rising studio that's crafted effects for movies and TV series including Stranger Things , Thor: Ragnarok and Birds of Prey . Joining Chris are Crafty Apes' Executive VFX Producer...

Want to be a more successful CG artist? In this podcast, returning guest Allan McKay shares crucial tips on how to market yourself, sell your products and boost your income. He takes down the myth of the starving artist, highlights the big mistakes people make on their showreels and even delves into the psychology of pricing strategies. That's not all: Allan also predicts the VFX areas to focus on...

Maciej Kuciara has established himself as a go-to talent for awe-inspiring concept art. Originally hailing from Poland, Maciej quit university to create artwork for tabletop games, then landed jobs at video game developers People Can Fly ( Painkiller ), Crytek ( Crysis ) and Naughty Dog ( The Last of Us ), and then worked on movies including the Ghost in the Shell remake, Blade Runner 2049 and Ter...

Asuka Tohda-Kinney was inspired by Titanic to pursue a career in visual effects — and she now works for Digital Domain, the studio that helped bring James Cameron's blockbuster to life. Her first role at the company was on I, Robot , as an intern to Chris himself, and she went on to work on pipelines and lighting for movies, including Stealth , Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End and Ender's...

CGarchitect has established itself as a go-to website for the arch-viz community, giving talent a platform to share their work with recruiters and studios, as well as serving as a blog, forum and gallery. But, as CEO and Founder Jeff Mottle explains, now 19-year-old the site needed to move with the times and reinvent itself. In this podcast, Jeff tells Chris about the super-powered new CGarchitect...

Throughout his career, Jose Gomez has blended entrepreneurship with creativity. After founding and selling a skateboard clothing firm, he discovered a passion for motion graphics and animation. He then started his own creative production company, Shilo, then joined Reel FX to form ATK PLN, a company specialized in design, animation and live-action. Jose presents some interesting points on the mode...

SHoP Architects has made a name for itself in its native New York via distinctive projects including Brooklyn's Barclays Center — and now it's expanding globally via Uber's San Francisco HQ, US embassies in Honduras and Bangkok, and an innovation hub in Botswana. To create these buildings, SHoP has embraced technology and started its own in-house visualization team. In this podcast, Visualization...

Released earlier this year, V-Ray 5 for 3ds Max and V-Ray 5 for Maya represent a new generation of Chaos Group software that does more than just render. In this podcast, Product Specialist Alex Yolov and Software Tester Peter Matanov reveal the research and development process that's expanded the capabilities of V-Ray. You'll discover how V-Ray 5 integrates the retooled V-Ray Frame Buffer, Light M...

Aron Hjartarson originally dreamed of being a rockstar — but he became more fascinated with CG and 3D. After founding a studio in his native Iceland he created commercials for Visa and Coca-Cola, but his understanding of software propelled him on a career path that took in Italy, London, New York, Iceland (again) and now Los Angeles, where he works as Executive Creative Director at Framestore. In...

In the near future, we may find ourselves talking to and interacting with digital humans as if they were real people. They'll be there to help us find clothes that fit, or to act as virtual assistants — and they might even take our places during Zoom calls. The architect of this new age is likely to be Hao Li, the former director of the Institute of Creative Technology (ICT) research lead who foun...

Over the past few years, Blender has gone from niche software to a significant part of the CG landscape. The free, open-source 3D package has shed its geeky image and steep learning curve in favor of an accessible interface and simple workflows. And for anyone who wants to learn Blender, Blender Guru's YouTube tutorials are the perfect place to start. Joining Chris for this week's podcast is Andre...

With his latest Disney project on hold due to COVID-19, lighting artist Afonso Salcedo seized the opportunity to explore his other passion: Photography. Equipped with his trusty camera, he took to Los Angeles' streets to capture their emptiness during lockdown then documented the surge of crowds for the BLM protests. In his second CG Garage podcast, Afonso explains how these unusual circumstances...

This week's podcast features a truly legendary guest: Douglas Trumbull. Over the past 50 years, Douglas has pushed the boundaries of filmmaking via stunning effects in 2001: A Space Odyssey , Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Star Trek: The Motion Picture , and directed his own films including Silent Running and Brainstorm .  Today, Douglas still works tirelessly to enhance the cinematic expe...

Glenn Derry began his career in practical effects, creating advanced puppets for movies, including A.I. Artificial Intelligence . As CG took over filmmaking, he transferred his skills into visual effects via films such as The Aviator , Real Steel , The Jungle Book and Avatar — for which he coined the phrase "virtual production." In this discussion with Chris, Glenn talks about the rise of virtual...

Andy Lomas has always been fascinated with math and filmmaking. On graduating from Cambridge he founded a video production company, then worked on VFX for movies including The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. At the same time, he explored his passion for CG art, making use of render farms in their downtime. In this podcast, Andy goes into detail on his artwork and how he uses technology...

Matthew Bannister has been a key player in the evolution of arch-viz. Having founded arch-viz studio DBOX in New York in the mid-90s, he's watched the medium grow into an industry unto itself, borrowing techniques from VFX — such as greenscreen, depth-of-field and helicopter shots — to create awe-inspiring work.  But, as Matthew explains, the arch-viz business has become a victim of its own succes...