CG Garage

Sweden's long, harsh winters compelled Johan Thorngren to pursue creative endeavours, and after a stint in advertising he accepted an enviable position with ILM in San Francisco. As a generalist, Johan's job is to pick up VFX shots which don't fit into the typical pipeline. His workload has increased from a handful of shots on movies such as Star Wars: Episode III, to thousands for Avengers: Age o...

Architect Thom Mayne should need no introduction — but here's a potted history for the uninitiated. A graduate of the University of Southern California and Harvard, Thom co-founded Morphosis Architects in 1972. This experimental studio rejected contemporary ideas of architecture, instead using metal and concrete to create angular buildings which reflect their purpose and surroundings. Despite his...

Technical artist, designer and Nick Offerman lookalike Dave Carlson is Chris' guest for this week's podcast. Dave spent his youth perfecting his skills with airbrushes and Amigas, before a demo on an SGI supercomputer, and a fascination with "Babylon 5's" VFX, lit a fire on a career in visual effects. Dave has worked on music videos, commercials and feature films, joining Chris at Digital Domain f...

Kurt Akeley is the genius behind the world's second ever laser printer, SGI supercomputers, and the OpenGL 3D graphics software specification. Now, Kurt has turned his enviable talent to light field photography as CTO of Lytro. Light fields are on the verge of becoming the next big thing, with applications in everything from visual effects, to VR, to astrophotography. It's a complicated subject wh...

In this podcast, Chris talks to Erik Altman and O'Brien Chalmers, CEO and president of Steelblue, along with Mike Brown. This ambitious San Francisco-based arch viz firm has proved itself a master of just about every visualization medium available, including photography, realtime renders, virtual reality and 3D printing. They explain how these different techniques essentially do the same thing: te...

Polymath Rudy Rucker is the author of some 40 books, including a many science-fiction novels, and he's a computer scientist, a painter, and a mathematician. In the 1980s his novels dealt with issues of identity and reality in an age increasingly dominated by computers, and helped found the cyberpunk movement. Rudy is also a relative of podcast host Chris. As well as blood ties they have a lot in c...

Iconic monster with a heart of gold Kong is back on the big screens in "Kong: Skull Island"—and this time he's bigger than ever. For this podcast, Chris managed to tempt Jeff White, the movie's visual effects supervisor, away from wrangling enormous creatures and into talking about how exactly his team brought Kong to life. Jeff goes into great detail about the elements which sell the character to...

Eric Durst's career path has gone hand-in-hand with the evolution of visual effects from the early 80s to the present day. This CalArts animation graduate's first job was in commercials in New York, which proved to be a hotbed of early visual effects techniques. He moved to Los Angeles, where he animated the disc battle for landmark 1982 movie "Tron," and became a key employee at Dream Quest, one...

Trojan Horse was a Unicorn - aka THU - isn't like other digital arts gatherings. Rather than taking over a crowded convention center, it takes place in a luscious beach resort in Portugal. Headline speakers, or "Knights," aren't treated like VIPs, but instead mingle with crowds. And the emphasis for guests is on personal growth and development, as opposed to being wowed by technology or targeted b...

Chris Wells has worked on some of the biggest films of the past 20 years, including "300," "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," and "Captain America: The First Avenger." Although Chris wanted to be a park ranger, he was drawn to computing in the most 80s way possible: a nerd friend, Sigue Sigue Sputnik albums, and software pirated via BBS and five-and-a-quarter floppies. A chance encounter with...

This candid, illuminating podcast is two hours of pure heaven for anyone interested in the history of special and visual effects. Michael Fink's career began almost 40 years ago, when he created the computers for nuclear thriller "The China Syndrome." Over the next few years, he'd sit in a darkened room with a tesla coil for "Star Trek: The Motion Picture," raid components store Apex Electronics t...

CG Labs is very proud of Vladimir "Vlado" Koylazov's recent Scientific and Technical Academy Award win. In fact, Chaos Group's co-founder had barely stepped off the red carpet when Chris and Lon wrangled him into the CG Garage recording studio for this special podcast. As well as talking about the sci-tech awards, Vlado goes into detail about what to expect from Chaos Group's latest 3.5 update to...

Visual effects artist and supervisor Daniel Trbovic hails from former Yugoslavia, where he learned 3D Studio on a 386 computer in the early 90s. He then ventured to Portugal, where he created a surprisingly long-lived lotto jingle, restored old movies about Lisbon, and added noxious gasses to sci-fi movie "Low Flying Aircraft." In the United States Daniel spent time at Real FX in Dallas, did two l...

"Plug" neatly combines sweeping cinematic visuals with an intriguing tale of identity in a post-apocalyptic future, and it's one of the best short films you'll ever see. With over 600,000 views on the internet and a host of awards, it's proof that shorts can be every bit as good as their feature-length brethren. The man behind "Plug" is concept artist and director David Levy, who joined Chris for...

Steven Lisberger's 1982 movie Tron was way ahead of its time. As the first film to have major CG set replacement and full CG shots, it paved the way for the likes of "Jurassic Park," "Toy Story," "Avatar," and many more. Its story investigated ideas of cyberspace and simulated worlds a long time before the internet and virtual reality became part of popular culture. One of the men behind "Tron" wa...

Kevin Mack's skill lies in applying scientific theory to three dimensional art and visual effects. He shared an Oscar for his VFX in "What Dreams May Come," used computer algorithms to create the neural pathways of Edward Norton's brain in "Fight Club," and, more recently, 3D printed seemingly impossible organic forms. Now, Kevin's mashing science and art in virtual reality with two titles:  "Zens...

Inspired by effects magazine Cinefex and repeated viewings of "Star Wars," Dutch compositor and environments artist Justin van der Lek used professional breakdancing to fund a degree in graphic design. Then he jetted to LA to follow his dreams. As Justin discusses with Chris, his first role was in the mysterious world of integration, which receives a comprehensive explanation. As his career progre...

Chris' guest for this episode is Ed Ulbrich, President and General Manager, Deluxe VFX and VR. He's Digital Domain's former CCO and CEO, and when the effects company faced financial difficulties a few years ago, Ed did a heroic job of reassuring staff and providing transparent answers to difficult questions. Ed also spearheaded the VFX industry's experiments with digital head replacements. Back in...

Chris's guest for this ridiculously entertaining episode is Erick Schiele. Erick and Chris worked together at architectural studio Gensler, and then followed similar career paths into visual effects, with Erick working on "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow," "Stealth," and "Iron Man 2." Erick has an incredible array of stories from the worlds of visual effects and the music industry. He tells...

We first spoke to Craig Shimahara for Podcast #26 , way back in June 2015. Since then, his film Masterless has debuted in Japan, and his architectural visualization practice Shimahara Illustration has gone from strength to strength. On his second visit to the Chaos recording suite, Craig talks about all things VR. A lot of questions come up: Where are we in Gartner's "hype cycle" of VR? How do VR...

Ever since the T-Rex stomped onto the screen in 1993, audiences have been captivated by "Jurassic Park." Steven Spielberg's film heralded a new era of family-oriented event movies, and Chris has already discussed the film's groundbreaking effects with Matt Winston  and Steve "Spaz" Williams and Mark Dippe. In this podcast, Dan and Chris thoroughly eviscerate the franchise in velociraptor-like fash...

Since November 2, 2014, Chris Nichols has interviewed 99 people for the CG Garage Podcast. Legendary photography Norman Seeff , architectural pioneer Art Gensler and director Wes Ball are among some of the big name guests who've graced the Chaos Group recording suite. But it's also served as a platform to discuss the deeper and more esoteric nature of just about anything CG related, as well as Cha...

Art Gensler's name will be familiar to architects and designers, but if you haven't heard of him, here's a rundown. In 1965, Art founded M. Arthur Gensler Jr. & Associates, which is now the world's biggest architecture firm in terms of revenue. It creates everything from wine bottle labels to the biggest buildings in the world. Chances are you've set foot in a Gensler-designed space at some point...

David Lee Strasberg is the son of Lee Strasberg, the acting coach who introduced the method theory of acting to Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, and Marlon Brando. David has followed in his father's footsteps, serving as an acting coach and actor in his own right. But why was he at this year's THU festival in Portugal, and why did Chris record this podcast with him? It turns out that digital and 3D art...

The internet, and its content, has become as precision-tooled and refined as a jet fighter—or a rendering engine. In this illuminating podcast, VFX writer and editor Ian Failes talks about creating articles and videos for an audience which is bombarded with information from the moment they wake up. He and Chris talk at great length about the success of the CG garage podcast, what it means to be Fi...