CGarchitect has become a massive part of the global archviz community. The all-in-one site incorporates LinkedIn-style job listings, the latest industry insights, and a super-smart AI-powered gallery that curates impressive renders from thousands of submissions. And now, CGarchitect has become part of the Chaos family.

In this podcast, Chris is joined by CGarchitect founder Jeff Mottle as he prepares to pass the mantle of running the site to Chaos’ Director of Creative and Communications, Lon Grohs. Jeff goes into detail on why he founded the site, how it works, and the exciting next steps for his career, while Lon talks about the future of CGarchitect, what it means for its community, and its first major change: to a completely free model for all users.

It’s been 18 months since Chris recorded a podcast in-person, but he’s back with a bang — and the pop of a Belgian beer cork. His guest is Belle van der Woodsen, a talented arch-viz artist whose career has taken her from Europe to the US and the Middle East. At the same time, her work has developed a distinctive, tranquil style.

Belle talks about what it takes to be an arch-viz artist today, including the expectations to be active on social media and how technology such as Corona's LightMix helps perfect her images. She and Chris also talk about how Inception inspired her career, worldwide architecture styles, and why she loves depicting home comforts.

Three years ago, Beauty and The Bit made an enormous splash in the arch-viz world with “Landmark,” an atmospheric, anamorphic short film that homaged auteurs such as Scott, Kubrick, and Villeneuve. From here, the Spanish creative studio has worked on imagery and animations for studios including Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects, Bjarke Ingels Group, and Perkins & Will.

In this podcast, Beauty and The Bit’s CEO, Victor Bonafonte, joins Chris to tell the studio’s story, from his beginnings in architecture to finding artistic inspiration at THU festival. Victor also talks about how arch-viz has evolved into its own art form, how he learned the rules in order to break them, and how the future of CG ties in with his ambitions.

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

In this podcast, Jeff tells Chris about the super-powered new CGarchitect, which launched in May this year. Jeff reveals how he trained its smart AI to pick the best images among the thousands submitted without ignoring more abstract works. He also sheds light on how its new subscription, recruitment and content creation features work, his plans for the site's future and the data it’s collated, and managing the increasingly momentous CGarchitect awards.

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

But, as Matthew explains, the arch-viz business has become a victim of its own success, with social media accounts reposting artists’ work without giving credit. For this reason, Matthew has founded The Credit Revolution, a movement that seeks to remarry artists’ titles with the artwork they’ve poured their blood, sweat and tears into. Matthew also talks about how his musical project, The Beautiful Fear, has helped him tackle personal demons.

Michael Golden’s winding career path has taken in philosophy and creative writing degrees, charter fishing in Alaska as well as work for celebrated New York arch-viz studio DBOX and a role as Head of 3D for timesaving worldbuilding asset company KitBash3d. Today, Michael runs arch-viz studio Three Marks while indulging his love for fantasy and sci-fi architecture and sculpture via his Droquis alter-ego.

Michael is full of sage-like wisdom on how to create great arch-viz. His more holistic approach to creating imagery makes it easy to get clients on board with projects while maintaining creative control. He also discusses why a bad photorealistic image is worse than no image, reveals the subtle details that breathe life into renders — and explains what we can all learn from Japanese comic books.

Recorded at the American Society of Architectural Illustrators' “Architecture in Perspective” event, this week's podcast is a panel discussion on architecture and imagined environments. Taking part are The Lion King and AR Wall CG Art Director Joy Lea, 3Marks and KitBash3d's Mike Golden, Luxigon founder Eric de Broche des Combes, Star Wars: The Force Awakens concept artist Nick Hiatt, Architectural Visualization Artist Isabella Eckmann, and Gensler's Creative Media Leader Megan Lubaszka. And, of course, the whole thing is moderated by CG Labs' Chris Nichols.

Among the topics discussed are the representation of space and storytelling in new mediums, the business of visualization and what different CG industries, such as arch-viz, VFX and gaming, can learn from one another. This lively debate is full of insight into modern creative methods and you'll discover what still images can do that VR can't (and vice-versa), the vast differences in cost between architectural and marketing VR experiences — as well as the importance of minigolf.

WeWork has become one of this decade’s biggest success stories. This New York-based firm offers flexible shared workspaces for anyone from freelancers to large enterprises, complete with health insurance, an internal social network and events. Its approach has helped businesses thrive, and its model has rolled out to 738 locations in 39 countries with more than 13,000 employees.

Two of those employees are Jake Williams (Creative Manager) and Greg Rogers (Head of Visualization), who are responsible for visualizing the company’s upcoming workspaces. In this podcast, recorded at the Total Chaos conference, Jake and Greg tell Chris how their team has grown exponentially alongside WeWork and The We Company; how working in-house compares to working for an external architectural visualization agency; and they discuss the technology they use to turn around beautiful images in astonishingly short periods of time.

Homelessness is a growing issue in Los Angeles. The number of people without anywhere to live increases every year, but at the same time, the city is building conspicuous billion-dollar high rises. Architectural illustrator, filmmaker and returning podcast guest Craig Shimahara believes he’s found a way to help solve this complex and oft-overlooked problem.

Craig’s mission begins with Architecture of Hope, an upcoming feature-length documentary which explains the root causes of homelessness, tackles common misconceptions about the homeless and reveals how architects can help create attractive and practical housing to help people off the streets.

This altruistic, optimistic podcast is sure to open your eyes — and your heart — to an unseen crisis.

Joining Chris for this podcast are Brick’s CEO András Káldos, Chief Development Officer Attila Cselovszki, Product Development Specialist Péter Sárhidai — and a bottle of Pálinka, Hungary’s favorite fruit brandy.

As András explains, Brick Visual was founded in Budapest in 2012, among the perfect storm of a financial crisis which resulted in a surplus of unemployed architects. The company was able to compete with international arch viz studios thanks to its low prices, and after a trial-by-fire debut project, it’s established itself in the premier league.

But, as Peter explains, incredible architectural visualization for firms such as Snøhetta and SOM is not all Brick does. Its research and development department is dedicated to exploring solutions for age-old problems such as managing distributed rendering, and the new worlds of AR and VR.