Podcasts about Sony Pictures Imageworks

We present our review of A Minecraft Movie (2025)! A Minecraft Movie is a 2025 fantasy adventure comedy film based on the 2011 video game Minecraft by Mojang Studios. It was directed by Jared Hess and written by Chris Bowman, Hubbel Palmer, Neil Widener, Gavin James, and Chris Galletta, from a story by Allison Schroeder, Bowman, and Palmer. The film stars Jason Momoa, Jack Black, Danielle Brooks, Emma Myers, and Sebastian Hansen. In the film, four misfits are pulled through a portal into a cubic world that thrives on imagination, having no choice but to master the world while embarking on a quest with an expert crafter named Steve.Plans for a Minecraft film adaptation originated in 2014, when game creator Markus Persson revealed that Mojang was in talks with Warner Bros. Pictures to develop the project. Throughout its development, A Minecraft Movie shifted between several directors, producers, and story drafts. By 2022, Legendary Entertainment became involved, and Hess was hired as director with Momoa in talks to star. Further casting took place from May 2023 to January 2024. Principal photography began later that month in New Zealand and concluded in April 2024. Mark Mothersbaugh composed the score, and Sony Pictures Imageworks, Wētā FX, and Digital Domain provided the films visual effects.A Minecraft Movie had its world premiere at Empire, Leicester Square in London on March 30, 2025, and was theatrically released in the United States on April 4. The film received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the performances of the cast, though some were divided on its plot and faithfulness to the source material. It has grossed $317.7 million worldwide against a budget of $150 million, becoming the fourth-highest-grossing film of 2025.Disclaimer: The following may contain offensive language, adult humor, and/or content that some viewers may find offensive – The views and opinions expressed by any one speaker does not explicitly or necessarily reflect or represent those of Mark Radulich or W2M Network.Mark Radulich and his wacky podcast on all the things:https://linktr.ee/markkind76alsohttps://www.teepublic.com/user/radulich-in-broadcasting-networkFB Messenger: Mark Radulich LCSWTiktok: @markradulichtwitter: @MarkRadulichInstagram: markkind76RIBN Album Playlist: https://suno.com/playlist/91d704c9-d1ea-45a0-9ffe-5069497bad59

A Minecraft Movie is a 2025 American fantasy adventure comedy film based on the 2011 video game Minecraft by Mojang Studios. It was directed by Jared Hess and written by Chris Bowman, Hubbel Palmer, Neil Widener, Gavin James, and Chris Galletta, from a story by Allison Schroeder, Bowman, and Palmer. The film stars Jason Momoa, Jack Black, Danielle Brooks, Emma Myers, and Sebastian Hansen. In the film, four misfits are pulled through a portal into a cubic world that thrives on imagination, having no choice but to master the world while embarking on a quest with an expert crafter named Steve.Plans for a Minecraft film adaptation originated in 2014, when game creator Markus Persson revealed that Mojang was in talks with Warner Bros. Pictures to develop the project. Throughout its development, A Minecraft Movie shifted between several directors, producers, and story drafts. By 2022, Legendary Entertainment became involved, and Hess was hired as director with Momoa in talks to star. Further casting took place from May 2023 to January 2024. Principal photography began later that month in New Zealand and concluded in April 2024. Mark Mothersbaugh composed the score, and Sony Pictures Imageworks, Wētā FX, and Digital Domain provided the films visual effects.A Minecraft Movie had its world premiere at Empire, Leicester Square in London on March 30, 2025, and was theatrically released in the United States on April 4. The film received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the performances of the cast, though some were divided on its plot and faithfulness to the source material. It has grossed $301 million worldwide against a budget of $150 million, becoming the fourth-highest-grossing film of 2025.

In this podcast, Gemma Creagh talks to Pav Grochola, FX and Look of Picture Supervisor at Sony Pictures Imageworks.  Pav Grochola is in Belfast to give a talk at RENDR Festival on 1st March 2024. RENDR Festival is a unique evening event, celebrating creative craft and artistry in a fully immersive two-day festival exploring the space between Creativity and Technology. Ignite your imagination with inspiring speakers from the worlds of Film, Gaming, Animation, Immersive, and more! Learn from the best, with 30+ creatives from the likes of Netflix, Pixar, Walt Disney Studios and Epic Games among others. Witness creative uses of new technology, explore the gallery of digital art, chow down at the food village or play in the arcade. We want to transport you to the future, and provide you with unforgettable and inspirational nights. Like nothing you have experienced before, our unique combination is guaranteed to provide two nights you can't miss. RENDR Festival takes place 29th Feb - 1st March 2024 https://www.rendrfestival.com/ https://filmireland.net/

The Framestore Podcast, our learning and talent development focused podcast made by Framestore, for Framestore, is back with another fantastic new episode. In this two-part episode, instead of our usual format, we dedicate this special edition to recognise the incredible visual effects achievement that is 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3' by the epic Framestore team and its multitude of award nominations this year, including the Visual Effects Society, Academy Awards, BAFTA and more. Our special guests this week are VFX Supervisor, Alexis Wajsbrot, and Lead Animators Pete Warbis and Chris McGaw.    Alexis, famed for crafting action scenes in Doctor Strange, Thor: Ragnarok, and Spider-Man: Far From Home, joined Framestore as Lead FX TD in 2009. He has contributed to 'Prince of Persia' and later served as FX Super on Gravity, leading the shows groundbreaking software development. After a three-film MCU stint, he supervised Wonder Woman 1984's explosive third act, and more recently, served as VFX Supe for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and the GOTG holiday special. Pete, having previously worked at MPC and ILM has portfolio that includes Tom and Jerry, The One and Only Ivan, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Avengers: Infinity War, and Paddington 2. He excels in crafting nuanced performances for characters and creatures, adding depth to storytelling.  Chris, a veteran character animator with decades of experience, left his mark at major VFX studios in Canada and the UK, including ILM, Sony Pictures Imageworks, and MPC. He has worked on some of the world's biggest film franchises including The MCU, Star Wars, Jurassic World, and Fantastic Beasts. This is a discussion brimming with spoilers, where we delve into our work on Rocket Raccoon's origin story, pivotal moments and sequences handled by the Framestore crew, the remarkable impact the actors' performances had on the creature and character animation in the film, all while acknowledging the Guardians Trilogy as the best of the MCU! We talk about the wonderful dichotomy of creating 'crazy characters' who are grounded, flawed and relatable, as well as what made James Gunn such a great director to work with from a VFX perspective and the obvious challenge for our guests picking their favourite shots!

The Framestore Podcast, our learning and talent development focused podcast made by Framestore, for Framestore, is back this week with another fantastic new episode. Every two weeks on Mondays, we welcome a special guest to the pod to answer questions about their inspirations, work at our studio, and career journey via the Framestore Podcast 'dailies' questions. Then, the following Thursday, we invite a guest 'co-host' from our global community to take over, engaging our guest in a deeper dive conversation for a valuable learning experience. In this two-part episode, we meet Chris Blasko, our new Head of Production for Framestore Montreal. Chris has been in the industry since the Summer of 2004 where he 'cut his teeth' as a VFX Production Coordinator at Sony Pictures Imageworks, then continued to sharpen his ‘VFX producer toolset' with roles that followed at MPC, The Walt Disney Company, and Warner Bros Entertainment up until the fall of 2013. He then spent over 3 years in similar roles with emerging tech and immersive facilities Jaunt XR, and Subvrsive, before landing at DNEG Montreal at the end of 2019 where he stayed for almost 4 years quickly rising through the ranks to Head of Production. Joining us as this week's guest co-host is Chloe Rodrigues, 3D Production Assistant in IA based in London. As a Bournemouth University graduate she quickly took on a role at Blue Zoo Animation Studio in the role of 3D Production Assistant, and then joined Framestore just a month before Chris this Summer. Chloe is also a non-executive board member with ACCESS:VFX the industry movement striving for increased diversity, inclusion and representation across visual effects, animation and games.

VFX Supervisor Mike Lasker swings by to chat about using visual style to enhance storytelling, keeping characters distinct and alive through effects (but not letting them become overwhelming), and building out complicated "stunt" set pieces for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Note: At the time of recording SAG-AFTRA's guidance has not asked film critics and entertainment journalists to cease coverage. More about Mike Lasker: He is a VFX supervisor at Sony Pictures Imageworks with over two decades of experience working on live-action and animated features. His recent credits include THE MITCHELLS VS. THE MACHINES, from director Mike Rianda and producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller and the Academy Award®-winning SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE. Valuing team work and collaboration, Lasker previously served as a computer graphics supervisor on: SMURFS: THE LOST VILLAGE, CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS, and HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA. He began his computer graphics career in New York City working on commercials for leading advertising agencies. Lasker received a BFA in computer graphics from Syracuse University. More about Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: After reuniting with Gwen Stacy, Brooklyn's full-time friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is catapulted across the Multiverse, where he encounters the Spider Society, a team of Spider-People charged with protecting the Multiverse's very existence. But when the heroes clash on how to handle a new threat, Miles finds himself pitted against the other Spiders and must redefine what it means to be a hero so he can save the people he loves most. Anyone can wear the mask, it's how you wear the mask that makes you a hero. Starring: Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Brian Tyree Henry, Luna Lauren Velez, Jake Johnson, Jason Schwartzman, Issa Rae, Karan Soni, Daniel Kaluuya, and Oscar Isaac. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is out now on Digital and Blu-Ray. Find us at⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.werewatchingwhat.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠⁠instagram.com/werewatchingwhat⁠⁠⁠⁠ Mike Lasker can be found at ⁠twitter.com/mlasker THEDHK can be found at⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠instagram.com/thedhk ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠twitter.com/thedhk⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠facebook.com/thedhkmovies⁠

Wrap Session 34: In this episode Ere Santos , currently a Animator Supervisor at Walt Disney Animation Studios, takes the Royal Court on a captivating story telling journey of rejections and triumphs as he pursues his dream of becoming an animator and working at PIXAR Animation Studios and Sony Pictures Imageworks. Born in Nigeria, raised in Scotland & currently living in Canada Ere, who started out as a self-taught animator describes his process and experience working on the critically acclaimed animation, Spider-man: Across the Spider-Verse . Ere also shares how he hopes sharing his career journey, animation process and work across social media will inspires others especially other black kids to purse their animation dreams. Other animation movies Ere has worked on include Hotel Transylvania and Spirit Untamed. This episode inspires and encourages the Royal Court to remember a dream deferred is not a dream denied. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/techwrapqueen/message

Ken Ralston (born 1954) is an American visual effects artist, currently the Visual Effect Supervisor and Creative Head at Sony Pictures Imageworks. Ralston began his career at the commercial animation and visual effects company, Cascade Pictures in Hollywood, where he worked on over 150 advertising campaigns in the early 1970s. In 1976, he was hired at Industrial Light & Magic by Dennis Muren to help George Lucas create the effects for Star Wars. He remained at ILM for 20 years before joining Sony Pictures Imageworks as president. Ralston is best known for his work in the films of Robert Zemeckis. Ralston has won five Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, including a Special Achievement Oscar for the visual effects in Return of the Jedi (1983), and regular awards for his work on Cocoon (1985), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), Death Becomes Her (1992) and Forrest Gump (1994). He was nominated three more times for Dragonslayer (1981), Back to the Future Part II (1989) and Alice in Wonderland (2010). --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/amuse/support

In our 99th podcast we interview Animation Lead Ron Smith. Ron has been working in the animation industry for over 25 years. The majority of his career has been comprised of character animation at the feature level where he has worked at such studios as Blue Sky, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Reel FX, as well as Big Idea Production. He's worked on such titles as Tangled, Surf's Up, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, and The Peanuts Movie. But as of January 2022, he teamed up with the likes of Keith Lango & Chris Wall, where he become the Animation Lead on the hit book series The Wingfeather Saga.

Hoje falei com o Diego Tavares, Engenheiro de Software da Sony Pictures Imageworks que participou da criação do filme “Homem Aranha no Aranhaverso”, ganhador do Oscar de melhor animação. Links: TechGuide.sh, um mapeamento das principais tecnologias demandadas pelo mercado para […]

For this episode, number 69 I spoke with ILM and Sony Picture Imageworks legend Ken Ralston. Ken started on VFX in advertising, then in 1976 he was employed to work on a little film called Star Wars. He remained at ILM for 20 years having worked on Star Wars, Star Trek, Dragon Slayer, Back to the Future, I mean the list is huge. He then went on to work as Visual Effect Supervisor and Creative Head at Sony Pictures Imageworks. He's won five academy awards during his career. If you know who Ken is, you'll love this conversation. If you don't know who Ken is, firstly WHY? But secondly, you'll definitely know his work.He of course recently featured in the Disney+ Lawrence Kasdan documentary series Light and Magic. But as ever I am keen to dig a little deeper. I hope you enjoy our conversation.Filmumentaries Merch!Support the Podcast on Patreon

Find Mark: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pullyblank/Learn 3D Animation: https://www.cgspectrum.com/career-pathways/3d-animatorMaxine interviews Mark Pullyblank, Department Head of 3D Animation at CG Spectrum, to talk about his midlife career switch into animation from an entirely different industry -- live music. Mark tells us how he went from starting a new career in animation in his mid-30s with two young kids and zero income to getting headhunted to work on Avatar. He and Maxine discuss why your attitude matters so much, how failures lead to success, and the importance of falling in love with the process. This episode is not to be missed!Mark Pullyblank spent much of the nineties working as a musician before beginning his animation career. He has been an Animation Supervisor at Rainmaker Digital and Frantic Films, a Senior Animator at Sony Pictures Imageworks, and worked in various departments at Wētā FX. His film credits include Avatar, The Adventures of Tintin, The Smurfs, Night at the Museum, and many others. Mark is currently the Department Head of 3D Animation at CG Spectrum, co-founder of Theia Interactive, Director of Non-Stop Motion Virtual Productions, a Lecturer at a Californian university, and undertakes freelance and consulting work at film and game studios.

In 2017, when the industry caught sight of the first teaser trailer for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, our collective jaws dropped. The rest is history of course as the movie went on to win just about every award imaginable. In this episode, I chat with Josh Beveridge, Head of Animation on Spider-Verse, and we talk through his career, all of which has been at Sony Pictures Imageworks, and how the animation on Spider-Verse was a culmination of things that had been building for years, and how that first trailer drop allowed them to breathe a sigh of relief. Josh was also Head of Animation on Netflix's surprise gem, The Sea Beast which premiered earlier this year.I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.Please remember to like, rate, and comment on your favorite podcasting platform and share the episode on social media.If you have any comments or suggestions please get in touch. Host & Producer: Michael WakelamExecutive Producer: Eric M. MillerMusic by: Rich DickersonAudio Engineering: Mike RochaEdited by: Zoe WakelamThe Creators Society is a professional society for all disciplines of the animation industry. Our mission is to bring the animation community together to build strong relationships, provide education, and form a better understanding of the different roles we all play in creating animated stories. We celebrate and promote the love of animation, and all the talented Creators who breathe life and imagination into their work.Learn more about the Creators Society, and how to become a member at creatorssociety.net

Barbara Ford Grant is President, NEP Prysm Stages, a business of NEP Virtual Studios. She is responsible for growing NEP's global network of permanent virtual production facilities, stage partnerships and client relationships in Film and TV, and for building solutions with her team to empower artists and storytelling.Barbara has contributed to media and entertainment for nearly 30 years across both creative and technical aspects of film production. Her experience includes emerging technologies, large-scale production operations, research and development, visual effects, animation and enterprise level management. Before joining NEP, Barbara was Chief Technology Officer at arts and entertainment company Meow Wolf overseeing the company's mixed-reality platform and IT divisions. Before Meow Wolf, she served as SVP, Digital Production Services at HBO overseeing studio production and post-production operations and growth, and next-gen technologies. Prior to that, she worked at entertainment companies Digital Domain, Sony Pictures Imageworks, and DreamWorks Animation, where she enabled new digital human animation and rendering, digital story and post production workflows, and simulations technologies. Her credits include groundbreaking Film and TV productions Game of Thrones, Maleficent, Alice in Wonderland and the Shrek franchise. Barbara has been active throughout her career in recognizing and mentoring current and new talent. She is a member of both the Television Academy and the Motion Picture Academy, currently serving as Chair of the Scientific and Technical Awards Committee, is a member of the Technology Committee of the Visual Effects Society, and recently worked as a strategy consultant to MovieLabs, a non-profit R&D joint venture providing universities, corporations, start-ups and others technical guidance and funding for innovative technologies in the distribution and use of motion pictures. She studied Art History and Photography at the University of New Mexico and currently lives in Los Angeles with her family. Highlights of the Episode:0:23 Introduction to Barbara Ford Grant1:19 Journey into visual effects7:11 Coding16:28 Starting in New Mexico20:45 What it's like working on….24:16 Is it possible to retain creative spirit in a bigger institution31:38 The hardest part to scale34:10 Role as President of NEP Prysm Stages39:02 Currently working in Production40:43 Building tools independent of the engine43:51 Having a healthy R&D team48:41 Stage plans for the New York Metro area48:56 Opportunities to see the Atlanta stage50:19 Favorite aspects in virtual production53:08 Machine learning AI tools coming out1:01:39 A short film1:02:57 Being multi disciplinary Quotes: "If you've been in visual effects this long nothing drives you're more crazy than rebuilding the same asset over and over again for a different purpose." - Barbara Ford Grant "The advantage of a big company is that they were the IP and the advantage of a small company is they were kind of a punk scrappy collective that kinda started the whole thing." - Barbara Ford Grant "It's a sketch with technology, they're sketching out something that's never been sketched before and using some amounts of technology to help illustrate that." - Barbara Ford Grant “It's not about policy it's like what's necessary, what's actually gonna have the biggest impact.” - Barbara Ford Grant “Maintaining our passions is important to our career growth.” - Barbara Ford Grant Connecting with the Guest:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barbaraanneford/Instagram: @barbarafordgrantTwitter: https://twitter.com/barbarafordgra1?lang=en Connecting with CG Pro:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/becomecgproInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/becomecgpro/Website: https://www.becomecgpro.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/edgevisualCG RSVP here for upcoming CG Pro Podcasts: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/cg-pro-39748423833 #virtualproduction #filmmaking #innovation

David Han is a Senior Animator for Sony Pictures Imageworks and has worked on animations such as “Storks,” “Angry Birds,” and Academy Award winner for Best Animated Feature, “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.” Listen as David explains to me the crazy process that goes into 3D animation, his art school experience, and some details on making “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.” --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/blair-kim/support

Find Sean: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amlaner/Learn VFX Compositing: https://www.cgspectrum.com/courses/vfx-compositingJustin catches up with Compositing Supervisor and CG Spectrum Head of Compositing, Sean Amlaner, about what a compositing artist really does, the burgeoning demand for compositors in the industry, and they go behind the scenes of CG Spectrum's newly-released Dune-inspired commercial, which Sean worked on as a Compositor and VFX Supervisor!Sean has worked as a Compositing Supervisor, Senior Compositor, and Senior Artist Trainer for studios such as Technicolor VFX, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Walt Disney Animation Studios, and Rhythm & Hues, among others. He has worked on over 100 feature and episodic television post-productions including Star Trek: Picard, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Black Panther, Frozen, Westworld, Thor: Ragnarok, and Avengers: Infinity War.

This week on 8111 the tables are turned and my hero/mentor Kim Bromley interviews me about my career and background. I grew up in the Los Angeles suburbs in the 70's and 80's skateboarding and going to the movies. In 1992 I earned my degree in Cinema from San Francisco State University.That same year, I began my career at George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic where I worked for nearly a decade in the company's computer graphics division. For over 25 years I have worked around the world at the top visual effects houses; Peter Jackson's Weta Digital in New Zealand, Tippett Studio in Berkeley, Sony Pictures Imageworks in Los Angeles, Warner Bros. ESC Entertainment in California, Brainstorm Digital in New York, and the Moving Picture Company in Vancouver. My film credits include; The Mummy, Twister, Star Wars: The Special Editions, Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions, Hellboy, Constantine, King Kong, Watchmen, and Jurassic Park: The Lost World.Outside of Hollywood, I served as the Visual Effects Supervisor for American artist Matthew Barney's five-part Cremaster Cycle and the follow up experimental film, Drawing Restraint 9 staring Icelandic pop star Bjork.I am the host of the 8111 (Eighty-one Eleven) podcast. Each episode is a conversation with a guest who worked at George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic during its 40+ year history. Guests discuss their journeys and career paths, and how working at ILM changed them. I'm also the co-host of FX Guide's VFX Show podcast listened to by visual effects professionals, fans, and aspiring artists from all over the world.Today I am the senior full-time faculty and Chair in the department of Communication Arts in the School of the Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. I teach numerous courses specializing in 3D computer graphics, visual effects, and the creative application of emerging digital technologies. http://mattwallin.com/

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse é um filme de animação de 2018, baseado nas histórias em quadrinhos do personagem Miles Morales da Marvel Comics, produzido pela Columbia Pictures e Sony Pictures Animation em associação com a Marvel Entertainment e distribuído pela Sony Pictures Releasing. O filme se passa em um multiverso compartilhado chamado de "Aranhaverso". O filme é dirigido por Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey e Rodney Rothman, com roteiro por Phil Lord e Rothman. O elenco é composto por Shameik Moore interpretando Miles Morales, além de Hailee Steinfeld, Mahershala Ali, Jake Johnson, Liev Schreiber, Brian Tyree Henry, Luna Lauren Velez, Lily Tomlin, Nicolas Cage, Kimiko Glenn e John Mulaney. No filme, Miles Morales se torna uma das versões alternativas do Homem-Aranha. Os planos para um filme de animação do Homem-Aranha, desenvolvidos por Lord e Christopher Miller, foram revelados em 2014 e anunciados em abril de 2015. Persichetti, Ramsey e Rothman se juntaram ao projeto nos dois anos seguintes, com Shameik Moore e Liev Schreiber escalados para o elenco em abril de 2017. Lord e Miller queriam que o filme tivesse seu um estilo único, combinando a animação computadorizada interna da Sony Pictures Imageworks com as técnicas tradicionais de desenho à mão inspiradas no trabalho de Sara Pichelli, a cocriadora de Miles Morales. Para completar a animação para o filme, foram necessários 140 animadores, sendo esta a maior equipe já usada em um filme da Sony Pictures Animation. Homem-Aranha no Aranhaverso teve sua estreia mundial no Regency Village Theater, em Los Angeles, em 1 de dezembro de 2018, e foi lançado nos Estados Unidos em 14 de dezembro de 2018. Ele arrecadou mais de 359 milhões de dólares em todo o mundo contra um orçamento de 90 milhões de dólares. O filme recebeu elogios por sua animação, personagens, história, dublagem, humor e trilha sonora. Ganhou inúmeros prêmios, incluindo a premiação de Melhor Animação no 91º Oscar, no 46th Annie Awards e no 76º Globo de Ouro. Uma continuação e um spin-off estão ambos em desenvolvimento. Quer ficar atualizado sempre que sair algum conteúdo novo? Gostou do nosso conteúdo? Siga nosso perfil no Instagram, visite nosso site para se integrar mais sobre os episódios e se quiser pode apoiar nosso projeto através do Apoia-se: Site: https://cantinhocast.com.br Apoia-se: https://apoia.se/cantinhocast Instagram: https://instagram.com/cantinho_cast/ Dúvidas, sugestões, caneladas? E-mail: zartel@cantinhocast.com

This week's podcast guest, Barbara Ford Grant, is particularly inspirational. Barbara's pursuit of fine art led her into VFX, where she worked her way through companies including DreamWorks Animation, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Digital Domain, Walt Disney Studios, and immersive art platform Meow Wolf. She carved an enviable career path during this time, from digital artist to chief technology officer. Today, Barbara is president of Prysm Stages, a state-of-the-art virtual production facility, and she's just become the first female chair of the Sci-Tech Oscar Awards Committee. In this podcast, she details her career and how she's continually pushed VFX technology and pipelines forward. She also reveals why HBO's content is so good, what exactly Meow Wolf does, and the changes needed for women to thrive in the VFX industry.

Tonight, we have a special guest: Jake Rowell! Jake Rowell is an independent Director/Art Director who has worked for various companies including Activision/Infinity Ward, Sony Pictures Imageworks, & Dreamworks Animation. He is best known for his work on Call of Duty, Final Fantasy, Superman Returns, Animatrix, & VR Experiences. The boys will be discussing his prosperous career as a 'Creative Director' in & out of CoD, the future of gaming with VR/AR, & its implications for esports.

Marteinn Örn Óskarsson er meðal annars forritari og vinnur í dag hjá stórfyrirtækinu, Sony Pictures Imageworks. Marteinn hefur tekið þátt í vinnslu stórmynda á borð við Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse, The Emoji Movie, Hotel Transylvania 4 og Mitchell vs. the Machines.   Marteinn ræðir meðal annars bakgrunninn sinn, mikilvægi ástríðu í þessum bransa, námið sem hann stundaði í Vancouver og margt, margt fleira.   Þátturinn er í boði Popp Smells frá Nóa Síríus, Subway og Sambíóanna.

NEW! #CloudNClear returns this week with host Tony Safoian, CEO, SADA, and special guest Mike Ford, CTO, Sony Pictures Imageworks (SPI). This discussion will shed some light on how SPI has been applying #digital technologies to its work in #film and #gaming, and it will delve into how the company is setting the standard in terms of creating #opensource technology that is being used industry-wide. Listen now to learn more about SPI, how the company leveraged SADA's expertise to fully implement Google Workspace during the COVID-19 pandemic, and how it continues to partner with Google Cloud.   Host: Tony Safoian Guests: Mike Ford   Connect on Twitter: https://twitter.com/cloudnclear https://twitter.com/SADA https://twitter.com/safoian https://twitter.com/mfordo Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/safoian/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelford5/

MAX:  Hello and welcome back to the Recruitment Hackers podcast.  I'm your host Max Armbruster and today I'm delighted to welcome you to the show Robin Linn, who is the senior director for creative recruiting.  What is creative recruiting, you're going to find out, for a company called Activision Blizzard, one of the leaders of the leading publishers of games, and Robin, welcome to the show.ROBIN: Lovely to be here. Thank you for having me.MAX: Pleasure.  I was raised on video games and cartoons, and as an adult, I would love to find out what you guys are up to, in the adult world, because I am a big consumer of the output, and you are the factory, you are the input.  So, well, first of all, I need to ask you, Robin, for the audience, maybe not all of them know what Activision Blizzard does.  Could you tell us a few words about what your company does, to get an idea of the size and the kind of people you hire?ROBIN: We're about a 9000 seat company right so it's a fairly large video game company we've been around for many years, our game titles that might be most widely known are World of Warcraft, Starcraft, Call of Duty, Overwatch.  And we're also associated with King, so if you've played Candy Crush or Crash Bandicoot, those are also titles that we produce. MAX: Wow, if you add those up, I think it's like half of mankind has played one of your things.ROBIN: We think so, right.MAX: Especially the candy crush one.  I remember that it was like half the planet on that thing.  It was like a drug.ROBIN: Right casual gaming, right, that is just, it's addictive. MAX: Oh! I'm trying to shake away my old addiction, thinking about it, and what an unusual world to be in.  We've all left the cartoons behind us, and the games behind us, many of us have, unfortunately.  But you managed to stay involved and we want to know the secret.  How did you end up in this industry?  Could you walk us back?ROBIN: Sure, we'll start back with where I grew up in Orange County, California, which was right next door to Disneyland.  Right next door the ashes from the fireworks would fall upon our roof every summer night.  And I think you grow up next to a place that's based on animation and based on escapism, it can't help infect you a little bit, and I fell in love with animation, early on, because it's the most liberating medium out there.  Anything can be turned into an animated character.  There's been a brave little toaster that took a vacuum cleaner and a toaster and an electric blanket and sent them on a journey.  And any number of anthropomorphic-sized animals and other characters have populated animation since its earliest days, and that freedom intrigued me. I was raised in a very traditional home so the fact that characters were rebellious, and they were rewarded for being rebellious.  You think about the early Mickey Mouse cartoons.  He's not the polite little corporate spokesman that he is now he was, you know, he was quite a little rough and tumble character.  And I think that appealed to me early on, and then I was exposed through Saturday morning movies right after the cartoons, you'd have the movies come on that were those that had Ray Harryhausen stop motion animation.  The Sinbad movies, Jason and the Argonauts, where you could see what you knew were animated characters, right.  I knew that those skeletons weren't real but they felt real.  And to see them interact with live-action actors was just so fascinating for me, that I got drawn into it.  I was lucky enough in school to have a teacher who gave me a box of clay and said well you're not very good at drawing, maybe you can sculpt.  And it turns out it could, and I spun that up into a career and I joined Hanna Barbera cartoons in the late 80s as a meerkat sculptor, someone who was sculpting animated characters.  This was pre CG.  This is back before CG was even thought of.  We'd sculpt the statues that the animators could then hold up and see the character from various perspectives to help them draw their drawings.  And I did that for a couple of years and then CG came along, Jurassic Park and Toy Story, and that kind of spun the industry on its head a little bit.  And I left traditional sculpting and went over to a studio called Sony Pictures Imageworks, which was one of the founders of computer-generated imagery, and worked on Anaconda and contact and then Stuart Little.  And while I was there as an artist I had a manager come to me and said, you have a background in management, because I had been a bank manager, million years ago, and he said you're an artist, so we'd like you to be the artist manager.  Okay. And part of being an artist manager was recruiting talent.MAX: That's the hardest part.ROBIN: Yeah.  And when I started the group was about 25 people and I left here about 320, and loved every minute of it and went to work for a couple of smaller studios to get experience there, and then gaming came along, and I thought well I'm not done gaming.  And, it's the interactive version of what I love so much in animation, let's give that a try. So I went to Riot for a bit.  I left Riot and went to Netflix because when Netflix comes calling, you've got to see what that circus is about, you've got to go figure out what that is.  And then, this past fall, the boss I had at Riot, he had left there and gone to Activision and he called me up and said we have a position here of recruiting creatives, what do you think? and so I made the jump back.MAX: Awesome.  So, from that childhood flame, you skip the part where you ended up working in a bank for a couple of years.  I guess that was less memorable.ROBIN: I graduated high school, unfortunately, economic situations were such that I couldn't go to college.MAX: You had to take a real job, it happens.Robin: I had to take a real job and I thought banking is a real job where you wear a tie. I remember I was given a gift of a briefcase, right, because I'm going to carry my, I don't know what I was supposed to carry.  I carried my lunch in it primarily.  Yeah, and that was it.  But yeah I did a number of years in banking and I was pretty good at it.  I was about to be promoted to be an assistant vice president of operations at a small bank.  And at that same time that was coming together, I got that offer to be a sculptor and Hanna Barbera cartoons and I'm sorry.  You know when that lands in your lap, the banking just kind of fades away.  I ran from finance.MAX: It faded away, but you mentioned in your story that they looked at your resume and said, Well, you've worked at a bank, therefore you can manage people, it's funny how that association works because why would somebody who is coming from a bank, know how to manage creators, it doesn't make much sense.  But I suppose management for some people who are so in love with their craft is considered a chore.  And something that I don't want to deal with is the admin type, I don't want to have to deal with people, I just want to be at my desk making beautiful work.  And, and so, you know that created a gap in that team.  I imagined that's how it played out.ROBIN: Yeah, well I think it was more than the fact that I'd written performance evaluations in the past and nobody likes doing those so at least Robin knows how to do them.  Although, reviewing a bank teller, and reviewing an artist are very different animals.  Just the way you speak with artists is very different than you would with an engineer or with you know another type of candidate.MAX: Yeah, well, let's get into that.  We're here to talk about recruitment, not cartoons.  So I would love to get some tips from you on when you're at Activision, or Netflix, or even Riot Games, you have a huge brand behind you, anybody in the industry would know who you are and your reputation would somewhat proceed you.  But if you remove the brand and we can talk about the brand later, just focus on the art of recruiting, which is the mano a mano battle between recruiter and candidate.  Yeah, how do you appeal to that creative audience, and how do you put together a team with creative people who just want to jump on board.  Is it all about getting them excited about the vision of a project or, is it more about creating the right environment?  How does it differ from let's say hiring for a bank?ROBIN: Well I think we have to go back to the foundation, the fact that I came up as an artist before I moved into the recruiting space I think gives me a little bit of calling it street cred for lack of a better.  We're sitting down you're talking with an animator about what it's like to work on a deadline.  Most films are budgeted on a 50 hour week, so there's overtime going into it, there's crunch time coming out at the end of it where you might be working 60-70 hour weeks.  If you can sit down and talk with the candidate and through your language and your sharing of whatever they understand that you sat in that chair, that it's not abstract, you're selling a product that you're familiar with, that you have already have used you.   You've been on a production that's gone haywire, you've been through working on weekends to have your shot canceled.  I think that that lends a little bit of again credibility to you as a recruiter, as opposed to someone who may have come up through an agency, who has been a professional recruiter all of their time in the industry may not have that understanding.  At least that's been my experience.  And it also gives you a vocabulary that you can talk to a candidate in such a way that they know you know their role, right.  I'm probably cursed or it's unfortunate to me that I can't sell an opportunity that I don't have a complete in-depth understanding of.  Like if you were to put me in front of an engineering role I would struggle at being able to sell that because I just don't have the in-depth understanding of it, but even coming in front of art and animation and visual effects and gaming, and the creative spaces in there, and I'll have either the experience myself or I'll have worked closely with people who have, and be able to have that same vocabulary resume.MAX: I think whether you're in your industry or others, it's something that we can all get better at.  I do hire engineers and I'm not an engineer myself and I've often felt that I could get a little bit deeper into it so I could describe the environment better.  If you're a recruiter, you're not necessarily going to maintain that relationship, post the point of hire.  But you are that first impression and so, should sound familiar enough.ROBIN: It's interesting you say that because I still keep in contact with people that I recruited 25 years ago.  Social media has made it so much easier now.  But it's rare that a week goes by that I don't exchange an email or a text or something with people that I have hired early in my career and early in their career and we both kind of advanced up.  You'll reach back and share more stories or whatever.  I think because you're recruiting for lack of a better term is an intimate process.  You get to know somebody very well over the weeks you may spend with them because you're talking about where their challenges are.  If you're a good recruiter, you don't go in saying, this is the great stuff about the candidate, you have to go into your hiring manager and say these are the challenges, this is where this person is going to need to support.  And the only way you can find that is by having really in-depth conversations with that candidate in developing trust.  On top of that, the financials are right, you're going into that knowing what that person makes her living which is, in many cases their significant other may not even know that.  So you develop a friendship is probably too strong of a word. We should develop a relationship with these candidates that certainly is kind of the bedding for a friendship, it's bedding for a relationship that will spawn up out of that.MAX: You need to bleed a little bit and worry a little bit about if this is gonna fit, otherwise, this is gonna hurt my relationship, and we will suffer from it.  Whereas, in the high volume recruitment space, it is a one-time interaction so it's a very different world.  ROBIN: Yeah. So we were talking before we started recording.  The talent pools that I'm working within are very finite.  If we're talking about Academy Award-winning visual effects supervisors, there are 60, maybe 70 of those on the planet.  I cannot letter bomb all 50 of them with a templated email and expecting a response back from any of them because they'll delete it before they even get-go.  So you have to have the ability to understand what these people have done, what their background is, what the connective tissue is, who do you know who knows them that can introduce you.  It becomes much more of a social game at some level than just reaching out with a cold email.MAX: The Netflix culture made a lot of noise emphasizing accountability and performance in the early days.  I haven't heard that much about it since.  I suppose that would resonate relatively well with creatives because there are also very autonomous people who want to get things done, and who have a strong drive for personal accomplishments.  Would you say that's a fair statement or that people kind of rejected corporatism?ROBIN: Well I think we can't paint with too broad of a brush, this is appropriate for everyone.  My experience with the Netflix culture was that it was a great kind of litmus test, right.  Every call that I had when I was working there for the three years I did, started with, have you read the Netflix culture memo, what are your thoughts on it?  And also sharing that with there were things that were written on that document that was like, Oh, I don't know if I agree with that.  I don't think anyone can lock step in with all 52 points that are made on that document.  It was a great opportunity, like a conversation icebreaker to talk about where they didn't align.  It's one thing and I'm sure you've experienced that in recruiting as well.  At some point, with certain levels of candidates, you stop talking about the benefits of the job and you start talking about the challenges, right. You don't say oh this is the best place in the world to work, you start saying, this place has got some challenges we're broken because that's why we need you to come in.  That's why we need you to help fix us.  That's for a certain type of candidate, the fact that everything is running smoothly is like red meat to a tiger, like, I want that.  I want to come in, I want to leave a mark, I want to make a stand, I will make a difference.  I want to feel like I've contributed.  And if the workplace is seamless, there's no opportunity to do that.  So the more challenging an environment is, the more intriguing and interesting that will be to the right level of a candidate.MAX: Yeah, well let's talk about the recent challenges of your industry where, my mental image of the creatives and the developers, everybody's living in basements, drinking Mountain Dew under green neon lights, and having sleepless nights of coding and gaming.  I'm sure it's not exactly like that, but that doesn't sound very COVID-friendly.ROBIN: No, and I think what this situation has taught us, especially in animation, and in gaming as well, is that the artists no longer have to be in-house, right.  They can operate from home, and produce work safely and without there being too big of a hit on our production cycles.  For recruiting this means that our talent pools are no longer geographically locked, right.  I'm no longer looking for people who are necessarily in Los Angeles based in or in proximity to our studios, and the campuses.  It opens the world up, right, especially if you're looking for people to come in and do contract work where we might need seven or eight paintings done or we might need character designer or prop design.  All of a sudden we can start looking on a global scale as to where those people are located and track them down and this is when it becomes all-important to candidates to brand themselves.  When we started this conversation talking about branding, candidates have to be forward-facing.  They have to put themselves out there and they can do that.  It's so much easier now than it was in the older days before to the web where you had to send around a portfolio just so you can get work.  Now you can create a website, you can utilize social media channels like Tik-Tok, and Instagram to put your artwork out there.  You can follow recruiters, and recruiters have Instagram accounts.  You can find them, you can follow them, you can interact with them, you can share your work with them, ask for feedback and they won't necessarily give it but it's always good to ask.MAX: Is there unemployment in your space?  Are there animation artists and game developers that are sitting on the bench?ROBIN: Always, right.  A part of that is because we're a finite industry but schools keep graduating students.  And that's just, I don't know, in the best of yours we could absorb everybody who's looking to get into the industry.  It just doesn't happen.  There was a stat, years ago and it was probably still the same, that there were more professional football players in the NFL than there were professional working animators.  And that's a fairly accurate parallel because the desire to do something, the desire to be an animator, the desire to be an artist, the desire to be a game developer does not guarantee you employment in that space.  MAX: That's right.  Not enough to want it, I don't know what you need, what do you need?ROBIN: Talent. You don't have the talent to.You can want to be an actor, and you can study all the lines, and you can memorize everything and you can know where to stand, and where the lighting is, but if the performance isn't there, you're never going to be an actor.MAX: So how do you measure that?  Are there some exercises you can submit, for the younger crowd? When you seem to get older you can see their professional outputs but for the younger crowd, are there ways for you to evaluate that talent that can be applied by others?ROBIN: Certainly.  The web has made all this so much easier because you could find, you can type into Google, animators reels, or if you're a prop designer, professional prop designers worksheets, whatever it is, you can type it in there and find examples online of what good looks like.  And odds are you can find somebody who's willing to teach, right.  Or you can find tutorials that someone's already completed for you, then it's up to you to do the legwork.  We're not necessarily concerned about where you go to school or where you have a degree or if you have an advanced degree.  We're more concerned if you have talent and you can do the job.  And there are a million different pathways to get to that result, you don't have to just go through formal education.MAX: But those reels, that are online, that's going to be the basis for your evaluation, there's going to be the first interview, get to know each other and then afterward, somebody is going to evaluate your work on its creative merits?ROBIN: Yeah, normally what we do when we're looking for an artist is we'll go on to Instagram or go on to YouTube or any of these media channels.  And we'll just start vetting art, we'll start looking, we'll put in a search engine, right.  So we're going to search for you so if you create a profile, you're going to want to use keywords that we can find.  That's how we're going to find you.  So you can put in animation, you can put in character design, you can put in prop design.  Build those out so you're easily searchable.  And we're going to gather those up into a database.  We're going to then go through that database and that candidates, and it's one of the sad realities that just the mechanics of the process of vetting candidates means we only look at your artwork, for maybe 10 to 15 seconds.  Right, so you have to make a fantastic first impression because you won't get a second opportunity to make that work.  If we like your work well we'll watch it longer, we'll look at it longer if we don't like your work if your work is really bad, we'll also look at it a bit longer but for a different reason.  But that's it, 10 To 15 seconds is all you get.  We'll boil those lists down.  I think the ratios that I'm comfortable speaking about, for every 50 websites or 50 reels or 50 portfolios we look at, we may find one that we advance. MAX: Okay, so 2.5% conversion rate.  ROBIN: Right.MAX: I've seen worse.  ROBIN: Yeah. MAX: And you get to browse Instagram all day, that sounds like a Millennials dream job.ROBIN: Yeah, but I'm not looking at cat videos necessarily.MAX: Or other robots or other monsters.ROBIN: We'll gather those up and we'll take those to the supervisor in that particular discipline and ask them what do you think, and out of that list of 10 or 15, we may get one or two that they like.  And then we'll do a phone screen, we'll go grab a phone call with the candidate and just talk to them and try and get a feel for who they are.  We've already assessed craft we know you can do the work, then it's about who they are as a candidate.  Are they brave, are they timid, just all those things you started looking for because we're casting.  Right, that's what we're doing at that point.  We're trying to see what's the deficit on the team that I'm looking to fill and how does this person fit into that.  Candidates need to understand that, especially first-time emerging talent.  But we often hear from emerging talent or when we talk to them is oh I want to be a sponge I just want to come in there and I just want to learn and I just want to be like, I just want to take everything and just take it all in.  And that's great, but what are you bringing right.  What do you bring to it?  If I'm making this meal over here.  Right, what's your addition to the menu.  How are you going to make us better by your presence, and that can be in your talent, that can be in your feedback, that can be in your personnel.  It's a number of factors that they bring, or they can bring to the team to improve that, it's not just their ability to create, especially with emerging talent, we hire primarily.  We've seen that you can do it, we don't know if you can necessarily do it again but we hope you can.MAX: In engineering, there are some fields that are extremely hot, and if you get in early, you will find jobs, you will find work.  If you're one of the first developers to build on AWS, and it took off, I'm sure you would find a job in that field if you're one of the first developers building chatbots, your salary would go up by 50% the first year, etc.  That there must be still some pockets of grade gaps where somebody has done that and then they get picked up.ROBIN: It's the less glamorous job like everybody wants to be an animator because animators are actors.  And it's performance-based very sexily to see your character come to life on the screen, but there are a number of disciplines.  I won't even say support. I almost did it and caught myself.  They partner with animators to make that performance possible, right, character riggers that actually take a static model and input the controls that allow it to move, that allows the animator to drive that performance.  That's a great career path for somebody who may not have the acting chops, they may not have made the best acting decisions, but they're more technically minded and they have a sculptural mind, they understand that when you bend a finger this is what happens to the skin, and they can duplicate that using technology.  People who are proficient in software called Houdini, which builds visual effects, right, now all the visual effects you see out there.  All the new kinds of AR and VR technology.  So if you can animate or you can work and build visual effects in that new space.MAX: Does that Houdini software cost an arm and a leg?ROBIN: Yeah, pretty much.  Like real-time, we can't find real-time visual effects artists, that's always an area that just drives us crazy.  So further if you can find joy in doing something that someone else doesn't want to, you will never be unemployed.  And I think that holds true in our industry as well.MAX: Yeah, those are good last words. But before we part ways.  Robin, I have a question I always ask, and it's kind of shitty of me to end on a sad note but I always like to ask about hiring mistakes made in the past and what we can learn from them.  And so I'd ask you to think about one person, without giving a name.  One person in particular, where you made a mistake and blew up in your face and in then their face, and what that mistake was?  Could you walk us back?  One coming to mind?ROBIN: Sure.  Oh immediately.  I think every recruiter got like a handful of these like Oh yeah, that one.  I'll start with this.  If you love chocolate it doesn't necessarily mean you want to work in a factory that makes chocolate.  Right.  You have to be able to distance yourself from the process of making the product, what the actual product is.  And I remember sitting down with a candidate, and his significant other who came into the interview with us, and that's fine.  This is a business where the animator is going to be away from home quite a bit working on these projects.  And I remember her saying in the course of the interview, to me, Oh, I'm so happy he's done with animation school because the hours were so long and now he'll just have a regular nine to five job.  I was young in my recruiting career, and I should have just gone, wait, let's talk about that because that's not the case.  And I didn't and we hired him anyway.  And I think the first time he went on a 60-70 hour week, it may have put some strain on their relationship that I felt in some way responsible.MAX: Okay, yeah.  We all put our heads in the sand sometimes when we hear something and we just brush it over, that'll be fine.  ROBIN: Yeah, that's a ghost that haunts me. That's one of those 3 am thoughts like god why.MAX: Well, if their relationship survived it, then it'll be stronger for it.ROBIN: So the good news is I hired him subsequently a couple of other times and they're together and have kids everyone's been great.  Man, you do learn from those experiences, never to just skip over something lightly in an effort to make a hire.MAX: It was very kind of you to come and share with us the wonderful world of gaming, and studios, and animation, and on the off chance that Houdini developer.  Here's our conversation, where can you be reached? Can people connect with you on Instagram or what's the best way to connect?ROBIN: LinkedIn, I'm old school, right.  My Instagram is filled with gardening pics and videos with my grandchildren.  But, LinkedIn is the best way to get hold of me and I try to respond to everybody on there.  This was my New Year's resolution this year to be very active on LinkedIn so I try to post something every couple of weeks that's related to recruiting and getting a job in animation and sharing whatever I picked up over my 30 years.MAX: Thanks for sharing with our audience, Robin. ROBIN: My pleasure.MAX: Good luck with hiring people from all over the world and making the dreams of these young animators come true.ROBIN: It's the most fun I've ever had.  It's just been the most rewarding career to do that, right.  I feel very very fortunate to have had the years I've had.MAX: That was Robin Lynn, who is in charge of creative recruiting for Activision Blizzard. And who reminded us of how important it is and how useful it can be for a recruiter to know to have sat in the shoes of the candidate and to know their industry jargon and so on.  It does make everything  go better and the trust builds faster.So a good reminder for all of us recruiters out there to really know our industry deeply. Hope you enjoyed it. I certainly did. And you'll be back for more, please follow us on the recruitment hackers podcast and share with friends. 

Grace Villaroman is a filipino american animator currently working at Sony Pictures Imageworks! On this week's episode we get into the challenges of a 3D animator at a big studio like Sony and Pixar, but also the perks like relocating from the USA to Canada. We also get to touch on her experience working with Signing Animation, and much, much more! LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grace-villaroman-279162156/ Portfolio: https://gracefulrunning.wixsite.com/animation/portfolio Signing Animation Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/signing_animation/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/SignAnimation --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/straight-ahead-podcast/message

I'll be interviewing Jess Giang about her experience working in the Animation & Film industry. Jess is currently a Rough and Final Layout Artist at Sony Pictures Imageworks. We'll be answering the questions below and more: - What is your title and what do you do at work? - How did you find your first job in the animation industry? - How do you identify in terms of your queer / LGBT identity? Jessica is a queer, Vietnamese Canadian woman. How has you identity affected your career? - What's one of the favorite pictures you worked on? Jessica has worked on major pictures like Thor: Ragnarok, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and Over the Moon. If you want to find out more about Jess, check out her Twitter: https://twitter.com/jess_giang --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/qpod/support

"If human cooperation is the most powerful force in history, then human cooperation with intelligent machines will actually define the next era of history" — Dr. Mark Sagar Double Academy Award winner Dr. Mark Sagar is the CEO and co-founder of Soul Machines and Director of the Laboratory for Animate Technologies at the Auckland Bioengineering Institute. Mark has a Ph.D. in Engineering from the University of Auckland, and was a post-doctoral fellow at M.I.T. He has previously worked as the Special Projects Supervisor at Weta Digital and Sony Pictures Imageworks and developed technology for the digital characters in blockbusters such as Avatar, King Kong, and Spiderman 2. His pioneering work in computer-generated faces was recognised with two consecutive Scientific and Engineering Oscars in 2010 and 2011, and Mark was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2019 in recognition of his world-leading research. Mark is responsible for driving the technology vision of Soul Machines and sits on the Board of Directors. *** For show notes and past guests, please visit https://aiasiapacific.org/index.php/podcasts/.fsa If you have questions or are interested in sponsoring the podcast, please email us at contact@aiasiapacific.org or follow us on Twitter to stay in touch.

In this episode we sat down to chat with Ben Radcliffe who is a digital artist and Media & Entertainment Technical Specialist currently working for Unity. With over 20 years’ experience in CG Feature Animation, Television Animation, and VFX, Ben has worked across the globe with a variety of high-end studios, including Dreamworks Animation, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Walt Disney Feature Animation, MPC, and Industrial Light and Magic. Ben has worked on several amazing projects over the years, including Shrek 2, Veggie Tales, The Polar Express, Chicken Little, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Trek: Into Darkness, The Martian, The Jungle Book, Avengers, Transformers, Dr. Strange, and many more In his current role, Ben is a Media & Entertainment Technical Specialist for Unity Technologies, working with key Game Studios, VFX facilities, and Animation Studios throughout the UK to advance the art and science of film making, visual effects, and animation through the use of Unity, which is the world’s leading real-time 3D development platform, and opens up incredible possibilities for filmmakers and creators across industries and applications in 2D, 3D, VR, and AR. Watch the full video version on YouTube: https://youtu.be/qNjQmGYD1dc Give us a follow on our social channels: - https://www.facebook.com/JustaChatWith - https://www.instagram.com/JustAChatWith - https://twitter.com/justachatwith - https://www.linkedin.com/company/35615125/ Hosted by Andrew Dobbie | Founder, MadeBrave - http://www.madebrave.com

In 2018, the Spider-Man film we didn’t know we wanted hit the silver screen. The lovechild of Sony Pictures Imageworks, hand-drawn comic art and the mind-boggling Lord-Miller imagination, the film is a masterclass in animation, voice acting, character development and humour. To help analyse the film, Alex and Jack have brought in special guest, politico and fellow film fanatic Henry Mendoza. Also featuring the likes of Tom Hanks Noir, Tom Hanks 2099, and Tom Hamks, they discuss what makes this film so great, what we can learn from it, and what opportunities were created by opening the unpredictable, ceaselessly exciting, multi-dimensional Spiderverse.

Over the past two decades Mark de Sousa has contributed to almost 2 dozen films as an artist and computer graphics supervisor while working on multiple award- winning films including the Oscar VFX winning Titanic and Spider-Man 2. He started off his career at VIFX in Los Angeles, then transitioned to Sony Pictures Imageworks. During his 15-year tenure at Sony, he helped to create and oversee the Character FX department as well serving as a department supervisor on various shows for both live action and animated features. Mark has also authored an instructional DVD for The Gnomon Workshop and contributed a chapter for a Sybex publication on Autodesk’s Maya software. Mark now represents Anibrain in North America including Canada and other locations globally. He manages development from concept to release and ensures delivery of high quality VFX attaining financial and schedule goals on time. He is instrumental in coordinating with multiple cross-functional groups and vendors. Additionally, Mark also uses his experience on the front lines to improve production and organizational processes. imdb.com/name/nm0002805/ anibrain.com linkedin.com/company/anibrain facebook.com/Anibrain twitter.com/anibrainvfx schoolofmediadesign.com

Rob Bredow is a strategic and visionary leader with a unique understanding of how media and innovation can join forces to tell great stories and create groundbreaking experiences. As SVP, Executive Creative Director and Head of Industrial Light & Magic, he is responsible for the company's overall creative strategy and global operations. Most recently Bredow was the Visual Effects Supervisor and Co-Producer on Solo: A Star Wars Story. He served as a creative partner to the filmmakers throughout the production, from the earliest story meetings to the final frames of visual effects. He leveraged his background in innovative technology to help tell the story of the film, creating grounded images with a unique shooting style designed for the movie. In his former role as Lucasfilm Chief Technology Officer, Bredow oversaw all technology development for Lucasfilm and ILM. Bredow joined Lucasfilm in 2014 as Vice President of New Media and Head of Lucasfilm's Advanced Development Group. He helped launch ILMxLAB in 2015 and co-wrote and directed Trials on Tatooine, a story-based virtual reality experiment created in collaboration with Lucasfilm's Story Group, ILMxLAB and Skywalker Sound. Previously, Bredow was CTO and Visual Effects Supervisor at Sony Pictures Imageworks. He has contributed as a supervisor on films such as Independence Day, Godzilla, Stuart Little, Cast Away, Surf's Up, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, and others. Bredow is a member of the VFX Branch of Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences and the AMPAS Science and Technology Council.*  In this Podcast Allan McKay interviews SVP, Executive Creative Director and Head of Industrial Light & Magic Rob Bredow about his career in as a VFX Artist and Supervisor and his experience with launching the ILM location in Sydney, Australia.  *Bio by www.ILM.com For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/219/.

This episode of the Animation Industry Podcast features Humberto Rosa on how he became a lead animator on Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse at Sony Pictures Imageworks. You will also learn: *Why positive reinforcement nearly led him down the wrong career path (and what it took to set his path straight) *The skill he picked up after animation school that changed his career for the better *How anyone can produce their best work possible Humberto Rosa is originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he studied animation in his home town and completed the feature animation program at iAnimate.net. While he’s got a background in traditional 2D animation, Humberto has also worked in advertising, television, and the gaming industries as a freelance generalist and 3D animator before he made the move to Canada to work in feature films. Currently, his Imageworks credits include Storks and The Emoji Movie, plus he recently won a VES award from the Visual Effects Society for his work on Miles Morales in Into the Spider-Verse. Get in touch with Humberto through his LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/humbertorosa/), or Twitter (https://twitter.com/hf_rosa). Learn more about this podcast at terryibele.com/animation-industry-podcast/

Noëlle Triaureau was the Production Designer on Sony Pictures Animation movie Smurfs. She joined Sony Pictures Animation in 2005. Since then, she worked as a Visual Development artist on Surf's Up and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. She was Art Director on Hotel Transylvania. She is also a recipient of the Joule award, an honor recognizing outstanding Sony Pictures Imageworks and Sony Pictures Animation members. Noëlle graduated in 1996 with honors from Middlesex University, England and Ecole de Commerce de Reims, France, with a Bachelor of Art in European Business Management.  In 1997, Triaureau helped start up L'Envol, a Summer camp for children with a serious illness modeled after Paul Newman's Hole in the Wall Gang Camps. In 2004, she graduated from a four-year program at ENSAD, Paris, specializing in Illustration and Animation.  She is now a freelance Concept Designer. In this Podcast, Noëlle talks about the importance of networking and balancing art with business, and gives advice on how to break into the industry. For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/175/.  

Today’s conversation is a crash course into the journey of an animator. It’s about how a young man who never met an art medium he didn’t like chose to pursue a highly competitive and challenging career and truly thrived in his art form. We follow Joshua Beveridge’s early memories in a home filled with art history books, as a kid always painting and drawing or sculpting, to attending a College of Art and Design to being the Animator Director on "Spider-man: Into the Spider-Verse". Joshua Beveridge is a Head of Character Animator at Sony Pictures Imageworks. His other titles have included Animation Director and Supervising Animator. Beveridge earned his BA in Computer Animation from the Ringling College of Art and Design before landing his first professional job on Disney’s adaptation of C.S. Lewis’ “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.” Since then he’s worked on various teams as a Character Animator, Supervising Animator or Lead Animator in popular films such as “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2,” “Alice in Wonderland,” “Hotel Transylvania 2,” “Arthur Christmas,” “The Amazing Spider-Man 2,” and “Storks.” His work on Warner Bros “I Am Legend,” starring Will Smith and Alice Braga, garnered a 2008 Visual Effects Society Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by an Animated Character in a Live action Motion Picture. Beveridge’s latest animated feature film “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” has broken the mold (again) for telling stories.     Quotes: “The idea of animation being a job people did was kind of like a lightbulb, aha, moment.” “You have to be comfortable with making things. Just making something is better than trying to make something perfect and letting that paralyze you from trying.” “We’re manipulating every single shape and motion and form is sculpted, crafted, posed and a decision. Nothing happens accidentally.” “Talent is such a small percentage of anything really great. Work ethic is the most important. Work ethic runs circles around talent any day and I was an early subscriber to that.” “The actual process of truly being an animator I didn’t learn until on the job and I think that’s a luxury that I don’t think exists anymore.” “I feel like with every promotion I’ve gotten it’s really just been another way to help more animators.” “There’s nothing impulsive about animation.” “If you are afraid in art that’s usually an indication that you’re on the right path.” “There’s no such thing as enough information. All we’re doing is trying to be as observant as possible.”   Joshua Beveridge IMDB Instagram https://joshuabeveridge.com/ Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse Official Trailer https://www.ianimate.net/ https://www.animationmentor.com/ Storks Trailer

Adam Holmes is a Senior Layout Supervisor, Director of Photography and Editor. He has worked for a variety of international studios, such as Lucasfilm Animation, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Digital Domain, Disney, Warner Bros, Imagi and several others. His credits include large budget films like Alice in Wonderland, Superman Returns, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Elf, Freddy vs Jason and many more. Adam has 20 years of experience in VFX. While working at Imagi Studios, Adam helped build a team of artists and technicians to produce new CG animated films with smaller budgets but blockbuster results. He was handpicked as a Senior Previs Artist for a CG feature film project at Lucasfilm where he collaborated daily with the Directors, Producers and George Lucas himself. In this Podcast, Adam talks about his passion for visual storytelling, working in both VFX and on live action sets, having a plan and being open minded about your opportunities -- and taking ownership of your career. For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/141/.

On this episode of Conversations With on The HMC, host Sarah Mason interviews award winning VFX Artist, Pav Grochola who is the Lead VFX Artist on Sony Pictures Imageworks upcoming animated film, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Pav Grochola is the Lead VFX Artist for Sony Pictures Imageworks. His credits include Guardians of the Galaxy, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Edge of Tomorrow for which he won an Annie Award from the Visual Effects Society for Outstanding Effects Simulations in a Photoreal/Live Action Feature Motion Picture. For more episodes of Conversations With and other podcasts visit www.thehmcnetwork.com

Ruben Mayor is a Senior FX TD at Weta Digital. Over the course of his career, he has traveled the world while working for giant studios like Sony Pictures Imageworks, The Mill, Mr. X. Ruben has worked on high profile films like Avengers: Infinity War, War for the Planet of the Apes, Dr. Who, Resident Evil, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, and many more. Ruben began his career in 2011 when he worked for nWave Digital Studios in Belgium. Before he discovered his passion for visual effects, he was an engineer for BMW. In this Podcast, Ruben Mayor talks about the lessons he's learned throughout his career: to always learn and improve your skills; to work hard and to take risks! For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/105/

Scott Stokdyk is an Academy Award winning Visual Effects Supervisor. During his two decades of experience in visual effects, he has worked for big studios like Digital Domain and Sony Pictures ImageWorks. Some of the groundbreaking films on his resume are: Titanic, Contact, Starship Troopers, Hollow Man, Fifth Element and three of the Spider-Man movies. Scott's work on Spider-Man 2 won him and his team an Academy Award for Best Achievement in Visual Effects. Most recently, Scott worked as a Visual Effect Supervisor on Luc Besson's Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. In this Episode, Allan interviews Scott about his experience working for big studios, on blockbuster films; what makes a successful artist or a dynamic VFX Supervisor -- and other lessons he's learned along the way! For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/89/. 

Video Game Movie Anatomy hosts break down Video Game inspired movies to answer the age old question: DO GAMES MAKE GOOD MOVIES?!?! In today's episode, hosts Mark Donica and Stacey Shuttleworth talk The Angry Birds Movie! The Angry Birds Movie (or simply Angry Birds) is a 2016 Finnish-American 3D computer-animated action-adventure comedy film based on the video game series of the same name. It was directed by Clay Kaytisand Fergal Reilly (in their directorial debuts), produced by John Cohen and Catherine Winder, and written by Jon Vitti. The film was animated by Sony Pictures Imageworks, and stars Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Danny McBride, Maya Rudolph, Kate McKinnon, Sean Penn, Tony Hale, Keegan-Michael Key, Bill Hader and Peter Dinklage. It was released in the United States on May 20, 2016, received mixed reviews from critics and has grossed over $283 million.

Thinking outside the box, a critical ingredient in the success of every business. We also discuss how the recent changes to You Tube make your business life a lot easier and make it simpler to get your message out there. We also have “Bob's Thoughts for the Day”. We examine how mobile marketing works for small business, the trend towards offbeat titles, do they work or don't they; our regular email segment and a great interview. Our guest today is Don Levy who has served on the front lines of the digital transformation of entertainment. For 17 years, he led the communication efforts for top visual effects and Digital animation studio, Sony Pictures Imageworks. He was recently a keynote speaker at TED.

Dan Camp, Hair and Cloth Guru from Sony Pictures Imageworks, and genius behind the look of the villain of the upcoming Amazing Spiderman movie joins the Nerdtastic Crew this week in jaw-dropping 3D!!!  Dan shares his history and story that brought him to the wonderful world of Sony all while embarking on a very exciting […]

00:20 Robert Rodriguez's Heavy Metal http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/risky-business/sxsw-2012-robert-rodriguez-announces-299277 03:10 Bla Bla SXSW Interactive winner http://www.awn.com/news/internet-and-interactive/bla-bla-wins-sxsw-interactive-award 5:45 Cartoon Brew Crusade -Digital Domain and Sony Pictures Imageworks http://www.Cartoonbrew.com 8:19 Edgar Wright Interactive Animation http://www.brandongenerator.com/ 10:02 Extraordinary Alt Animation Fans  Scott Benson http://vimeo.com/bombsfall/videos Dhaval Soni http://keyframeguy.com/ Andrew Cothill http://andrewcothill.blogspot.com/ 12:52 Miguel Jiron Interview http://www.migueljiron.com/ http://mibaji.com/