Murai Sadayuki is the writer behind some of the most astonishing and groundbreaking anime films of all time, including the Hitchcockian Perfect Blue, Otomo’s Akira follow-up Steamboy, and the reality-blurring Millennium Actress. But he’s not done yet: he continues to write for TV series, including Knights of Sidonia, Godzilla, and Sabikui Bisco.

Conducted at THU via a translator, this podcast sees Chris discover the world of Japanese animated movie-making and storytelling. Murai explains the importance of Godzilla, Ultraman, Akira, and WWII in Japanese culture. He also discusses the back-and-forth between Western and Japanese movie-making, and gives us his thoughts on what it means to be a creative person today.

What can today’s artists and storytellers learn from an ancient Japanese method? In this podcast, Chris is joined by Google brand expert Cláudia Cristovão, who practices Kintsugi, the art of taking old ceramics and repairing them with gold-infused sap that grows stronger with time.

Building on her presentation at the THU festival in Kaga, Japan, Cláudia explains how Kintsugi’s restorative, meditative process can apply to art and even people themselves. Claudia brings a refreshing perspective on creativity to the podcast, and she also reveals how upcoming artists can build their own brands.

Amy Aniobi is a whirlwind of inspiration, smart advice, and creative energy. As a young girl, she was inspired by Frasier and Boy Meets World to become a writer. After graduating from Stanford University, she entered the industry and worked her way up to becoming head writer, executive producer, and director of HBO’s Insecure. In addition, she co-hosts The Antidote podcast and has movie projects coming up with Fox and Universal.

Recorded at THU in Japan, Amy talks about getting ahead in the industry and how she honed her creative skills and found her voice. She also shares how she’s helping fellow Black writers make a name for themselves, gives her thoughts on AI as a writing tool, and reveals why Barbie and Oppenheimer are bringing authorship back to the big screen.

Kevin Reste is a font of knowledge for companies looking to improve their creative initiatives and campaigns. Beginning his career with mocap for the Rock Band video games, Kevin’s natural people skills and technical confidence have helped him secure work for companies including NBC Sports, Sony Music Entertainment, and WWE, as well as giant financial and pharmaceutical corporations.

Chris catches up with fellow THU attendee Kevin, talks about his career so far, and offers some tips on getting ahead in the creative industry and staying on top of technological trends. Kevin also gives some invaluable insights into how AI is affecting the industry for newcomers, established artists, and big tech companies.

What if the 1969 moon landing catastrophically failed? That’s the question artist Halsey Burgund poses with his “Moon Disaster” project, which makes use of AI technology to envision then-president Richard Nixon delivering an alternative speech to be used in the case of emergency.

In doing so, Halsey draws attention to the fact that such a speech existed and was never broadcast, as well as the ways in which modern technology can fool viewers. Halsey sheds light on the video and audio technology used for this alternative take on history, talks about how he combines tech and art for his audio installations and reveals what he’s got coming up.

Michelle Munson’s passion for internet technology took her from streaming video over LAN to founding data transfer company Aspera. Now, she’s launched Eluvio, a Web3-based content distribution system that makes it easier and cheaper for producers to share media while giving consumers fair access to a high-quality product with added extras.

Michelle discusses Eluvio’s partnership with Warner Bros, and its first content: Superman and Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of The Ring. Michelle also busts some of the myths around NFTs and blockchain technology, and talks about how the Eluvio Content Fabric Protocol could be adopted by streaming platforms, indie producers, and live events in the future.

Marc Simonetti’s dreamy visual style has made him a big name in sci-fi and fantasy art — but what does this mean in the age of AI? In this podcast, Marc tells Chris how it feels to have your name used as an AI art prompt some 400,000 times, and what it’s like to see your name attached to artwork that isn’t yours.

But it’s not all bad — Marc delves into the advantages of AI art and how it might put the concept back into concept art, and offers positive advice for budding artists who are about to embark on art courses. He also talks about his fascinating career, which has seen him rub shoulders with George RR Martin, and he discusses his work on movies including Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets and the upcoming Ghostbusters: Afterlife sequel.

Hailing from Detroit, Linden Vennard began his career in visualizing vehicles (of course!). Having established pipelines that turned raw CAD data into sumptuous CG images, Linden became a core part of Speedshape, the VFX studio that specialized in creating visuals for automotive companies. After Speedshape closed, Linden traveled to Asia and Africa before returning to the US to become a freelance CG generalist.

Linden talks about his early inspirations to pursue a career in VFX, how he got started in automotive visualization, and how he worked with budding Hollywood director Joseph Kosinski to bring his “Blackbird” commercial to life. Linden also talks about his explorations in Midjourney AI imagery, where he’s created over 10,000 images.

Could Macroverse change the way creative content is created and consumed? In this podcast, Chris is joined by Adam Martin, an assistant director who has worked on productions including Transformers, Dave, and Barry. After growing frustrated with the Hollywood system, Adam co-founded Macroverse to give writers and artists a platform to share their stories and visions.

Adam gives a full overview of Macroverse and what makes it work, explaining how its Tap Story system enriches comic stories and gives them a cinematic flair, and covering how this democratized web 3.0 platform gives everyone a chance to tell their story and adds a level of transparency to funding and payments.

We want some of Chris Browne’s energy. This multiskilled VFX supervisor, currently working at Sony Pictures Animation, has helped bring animated series to life, including The Fast and Furious Spy Racers, Kung Fu Panda, and Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous. At the same time, he’s devoted his spare time to his own award-winning short films, beginning with “Gibb” at university, alien sci-fi “Beating the Abductors,” and now “Pleroma,” which examines themes of AI versus humanity. 

Chris breaks down what it was like to work on “Pleroma” during the pandemic, talks about shooting in a dangerous particle accelerator facility, and shares how he single-handedly created 200-plus visual effects shots and built robots for the short. He also reveals his big plans for the future of “Pleroma,” as well as discussing what’s coming up in the world of animation.