VFX Futures

Hi listeners, I've consolidated some of my podcasts (VFX Futures, VFX Firsts and VFX Artifacts) under the one name: "befores & afters podcast". Please search for that new podcast, where you'll also be able to find every single past VFX Futures podcast. Thanks so much, Ian

We talk to Pixar's Dylan Sisson about 'Teapot Meets Potzilla', a homage to Marv Newland's 'Bambi Meets Godzilla' made with RenderMan's Stylized Looks.

Ian Failes from befores & afters talks to Framestore's Stuart Penn and Chris Hurtt about Khonshu (the bird skull god) and Taweret (the hippo god) in 'Moon Knight'. 

This week on VFX Futures, Ian Failes from befores & afters chats to Pixar effects supervisor Bill Watral about 'Lightyear'. We cover everything from light speed, to ship exhausts to the huge amount of sparks required on the film (yes, there's A LOT of sparks. A LOT.).

Ian Failes from befores & afters asks Perception's Doug Appleton and Seiji Anderson about their main on end titles crafted for 'Moon Knight.'

NVIZ Head of Visualisation, Janek Lender, discusses 'Morbius'. We talk about a couple of the central sequences, including on subway station.

Ian Failes from befores & afters is joined by Fredrik Limsater, CEO and founder of ftrack, to discuss some of the big changes that have occurred at ftrack lately, including the acquisition by Backlight.

Ian Failes from befores & afters talks to Hugh Behroozy and Mohsen Mousavi, former VFX artists from Scanline, who are now working in the gaming space at Blinkmoon. 

'Anaconda' VFX supervisor John Nelson joins Ian Failes from befores & afters for a look back at 25 years since the unique film that saw animatronics and CGI combine.

Concept designer Ben Mauro joins Ian Failes from befores & afters for a discussion about Mauro's HUXLEY universe. We talk graphic novels, film projects and NTFs. 

In this sponsored episode, Cinesite Head of Assets and Visual Development Madeleine Scott-Spencer discusses the changing nature of the art department at a VFX studio, including the move to virtual production.

How Luma Pictures helped craft the VFX of the opening sequences of 'Spider-Man: No Way Home'. Join Ian Failes from befores & afters and Luma Pictures VFX supervisor Brendan Seals as they discuss bluescreen wire stunts, hair keying and city building.

Ian Failes from befores & afters talks to Tommy Pallotta, Head of Animation and Producer on Richard Linklater's 'Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood', about the evolution of the rotoscoped animation techniques on this and a number of previous projects.

'The Adam Project' VFX supervisor Alessandro Ongaro joins Ian Failes from befores & afters to discuss the film, including the spaceship effects, wormholes, time soldiers and the de-ageing work. 

Sam Nicholson from Stargate Studios explains the ocean plate camera array and LED wall shoot for the Taika Waititi show.

Ian Failes from befores & afters catches up with Pixar visual effects supervisor Danielle Feinberg to discuss 'Turning Red', including a look at the new animation tech used on the film called 'profile movers' for rigging and animating such expressive characters.

Former VFX artist and now truck driver Louis Katz shares his up and down and inspirational journey with Ian Failes from befores & afters. 

'The Wheel of Time' visual effects supervisor Julian Parry breaks down a battle that takes place in episode 4 of the show featuring the One Power. 

A round-table discussion with members of ILM's crew who helped bring Nivellan to life for s2 of 'The Witcher'. Ian Failes from befores & afters discusses with ILM the on-set performance by Kristofer Hivju and the fully CG head and face final shots, including the adaptation of ILM's Flux tech.

With the Super Bowl and its massive set of commercials being seen around the world just this past week, we thought it might be interesting to find out more about how a Super Bowl ad is made. Here's Untold Studios creative director Ben Cronin with Ian Failes from befores & afters discussing the VFX behind the Frito-Lay 'Push It' spot.

Sadly, a true pioneer in the visual effects industry passed away this week. Doug Trumbull was a real innovator, and someone passionate about the cinema experience. In this never-released audio, he chats with Ian Failes from befores & afters about the future of cinema.

With the new 'Spider-Man: No Way Home' now in cinemas, befores & afters goes back in time with the digital human VFX that Imageworks orchestrated on 'Spider-Man 2', led by VFX supervisor Scott Stokdyk. 

Alpha Studios founder Kaitlyn Yang shares her journey in visual effects, including the path to becoming a visual effects supervisor, supe'ing the recent 'The Shrink Next Door', and the state of play of diversity and accessibility in VFX.

In this sponsored episode of VFX Futures, we talk to Cinesite CTO Michele Sciolette, Group Head of CG–VFX Holger Voss and Group Head of CG–Animation Hank Driskill to discuss the future of visual effects and feature animation.

Mark Elendt and Brian Sharpe from SideFX talk to Ian Failes from befores & afters about the development of their new Karma renderer inside Houdini.

Ingenuity Studio's David Lebensfeld and Grant Miller, and AMGI's Colin Brady, discuss the making of Coldplay x BTS' 'My Universe', including the volumetric work and the required CG builds and final compositing.

Dane Smith, Vice President at The Third Floor, and Casey Schatz, Head of Virtual Production at The Third Floor, speak with Ian Failes at befores & afters about the particular tools and workflows used at the studio for visualization.

Jon Matthis outlines the FreeMoCap Project, aimed at using open source markerless motion capture software to create an easy 'in-click' pipeline for 3D kinematic reconstruction.

Ian Failes from befores & afters chats to Halon previsualization supervisor Ryan McCoy and Halon on-set supervisor Grant Olin about the previs of 'Free Guy'. 

Lollipop Shaders' Christos Obretenov and befores & afters' Ian Failes discuss the explosion of stylized rendering in animation right now.

Immersive art, computer graphics and visual effects pioneer Kevin Mack joins befores & afters editor Ian Failes to discuss the art of making VR art. 

'Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway' editor Matt Villa (ASE, ACE) joins befores & afters' Ian Failes to discuss the piecing together of early storyboards and animatics, live action plates and work-in-progress effects shots on the film.

Digital Domain VFX supervisor Nikos Kalaitzidis talks to befores & afters' Ian Failes about how the studio's deep learning face-swapping tool called Charlatan was used to replace lines on Channing Tatum's game character in the film.

Ian Failes from befores & afters chats with REALTIME CG director Ian Jones and DI4D co-founder Dug Green about the 'Braking Point' cinematics in Codemasters' F1 2021, and the motion capture, facial capture and real-time work behind them.

Framestore's Theo Jones and Leo Hills join Ian Failes from befores & afters to discuss the studio's FIRA machine learning tech, used for the extension of proprietary simulation and rigging tools to real-time workflows.

Jim Geduldick from Dimension joins Ian Failes from befores & afters to discuss the current state of play of virtual production.