VFX Futures
befores & afters
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Ian Failes from befores & afters is joined by expert guests to discuss the future of visual effects, from virtual production to machine learning and more.
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4 days ago
How all those sparks in Pixar's 'Lightyear' were created
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.).
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Jun 13, 2022
The main on end titles for 'Moon Knight'
Ian Failes from befores & afters asks Perception's Doug Appleton and Seiji Anderson about their main on end titles crafted for 'Moon Knight.'
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May 24, 2022
NVIZ on the previs of 'Morbius'
NVIZ Head of Visualisation, Janek Lender, discusses 'Morbius'. We talk about a couple of the central sequences, including on subway station.
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May 18, 2022
ftrack's Fredrik Limsater on the state of play of production tracking
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.
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Apr 27, 2022
Moving from VFX to games: meet Blinkmoon
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.
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Apr 18, 2022
The practical and digital effects of 1997's 'Anaconda'
'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.
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Apr 13, 2022
Concept designer Ben Mauro on building his HUXLEY universe
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.
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Apr 11, 2022
The VFX art department: a chat with Cinesite's Madeleine Scott-Spencer
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.
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Apr 5, 2022
Zendaya and Tom Holland's wire work, digi-doubles, and the art of comp'ing hair
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.
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Mar 31, 2022
The evolution of Richard Linklater's rotoscoped animation films
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.
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Mar 27, 2022
De-ageing, destruction and other digital effects in ‘The Adam Project’
'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.
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Mar 21, 2022
The virtual production behind the pirate ship scenes in 'Our Flag Means Death'
Sam Nicholson from Stargate Studios explains the ocean plate camera array and LED wall shoot for the Taika Waititi show.
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Mar 18, 2022
Pixar's Danielle Feinberg on the studio's new tech in 'Turning Red'
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.
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Mar 13, 2022
From VFXer to trucker: Louis Katz's story
Former VFX artist and now truck driver Louis Katz shares his up and down and inspirational journey with Ian Failes from befores & afters.
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Mar 10, 2022
'Wheel of Time' VFX supe Julian Parry on designing the One Power
'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.
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Feb 19, 2022
The art and tech behind 'The Witcher's' Nivellan
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.
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Feb 15, 2022
What it's like to work on the VFX for a Super Bowl spot
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.
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Feb 10, 2022
Douglas Trumbull on his plan to change cinema
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.
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Dec 20, 2021
VFX supervisor Scott Stokdyk on the digital human breakthroughs in 'Spider-Man 2'
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.
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Dec 17, 2021
VFX supervisor Kaitlyn Yang on starting a VFX studio, diversity in VFX and more
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.
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Nov 29, 2021
Pipeline, tools and tech with Cinesite
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.
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Nov 21, 2021
The making of SideFX's new renderer, Karma
Mark Elendt and Brian Sharpe from SideFX talk to Ian Failes from befores & afters about the development of their new Karma renderer inside Houdini.
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Oct 27, 2021
Behind the scenes of 'My Universe' from Coldplay x BTS
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.
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Oct 4, 2021
The visualization tools and techniques behind The Third Floor
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.
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Sep 28, 2021
The FreeMoCap Project
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.
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Sep 20, 2021
How Halon previs'd 'Free Guy'
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'.
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Sep 14, 2021
Christos Obretenov on the new wave of stylized rendering
Lollipop Shaders' Christos Obretenov and befores & afters' Ian Failes discuss the explosion of stylized rendering in animation right now.
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Sep 5, 2021
Kevin Mack's abstract virtual reality artworks.
Immersive art, computer graphics and visual effects pioneer Kevin Mack joins befores & afters editor Ian Failes to discuss the art of making VR art.
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Aug 25, 2021
How do you edit a live action/CG hybrid film?
'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.
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Aug 24, 2021
How a deep learning renderer was used to re-animate a character's lines in 'Free Guy'
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.
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Aug 24, 2021
Facial capture, CG and cut scenes on Codemasters’ 'F1 2021'
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.
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Aug 22, 2021
Framestore's FIRA for portable real-time rig deformation
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.
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Aug 6, 2021
Where are we at with virtual production?
Jim Geduldick from Dimension joins Ian Failes from befores & afters to discuss the current state of play of virtual production.
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