NFTs — or Non-Fungible Tokens — have hit the headlines recently after digital artist Beeple sold a JPEG for $69 million. But there are many questions about this new way of selling art: Is it a scam? How easy is it for artists to make millions with NFTs? What does “fungible” even mean?

In this podcast, digital artist and returning guest Sally Slade tells Chris everything she’s learned about NFTs in seven days. She talks him through turning one of her artworks into an NFT, beginning with buying cryptocurrency Ethereum to “minting” her artwork and listing it online. Sally digs into some of the ethical and environmental concerns about the NFT process and discusses what it could mean for the future of art and filmmaking.

Chaos’ Key Account Group are unsung heroes of the CG industry. They understand the trends of the VFX, arch-viz and design industries; they’re happy to be woken up at 3AM on Christmas morning to help customers solve problems—and they help gather feedback to help shape Chaos products.

Heading up the Key Account Group is the dynamic and energetic “Mother of Dragons,” Albena Ivanova. After studying business at university, Albena honed her skills in film production before joining Chaos. Albena discusses the unusual ways customers use Chaos software, reminisces about epic parties for clients and talks about her newest recruit—Chris Nichols himself.

Chaos Group is no more; long live Chaos! In this week’s podcast, Richard Pay from design agency Uniform and Chaos’ own Melissa Knight talk us through the year-long process of reinvigorating the computer graphics company’s presence to reflect the increasing diversity of its products and customers. 

Rich explains why a brand is far more than just a logo, and how Uniform has united Chaos’ previously fragmented elements into a more cohesive and colorful whole. Melissa also talks about the advantages of simply being called Chaos, the huge amount of work that went into the rebrand—and reveals a planetary secret hidden in the new logo.

This week’s podcast guest is a true visionary in the CG world. Ash Thorp came from a humble background and perfected his artistic skills via a year-long stint at film title specialist Prologue. Since then, he's contributed to Ghost in the Shell, Ender’s Game and Captain Marvel, while pursuing his love for cinema via personal projects including Ghost in the Shell homage “Project 2501,” electric Ferrari concept “Evinetta” and short film “NONE.”

Ash offers invaluable advice on avoiding creative blocks, the importance of collaboration, getting great performances out of actors, and dealing with criticism and social media. It’s an honest and inspirational discussion and, touchingly, Ash hasn’t lost any of the humility he had at the start of his career.

This week’s podcast guest is Robert Durnin, a talented and agile technical director who can turn his hand to just about anything. He’s perfected pipelines for movies including Pan’s Labyrinth, The Mist, The Amazing Spider-Man and Tron: Legacy, and polished in-engine cinematics for Batman: Arkham Origins and Crysis 3. He's also helped build content for the Leia 3D holographic display and worked out how to create a theme park-size XR experience.

Robert talks about his career so far, the numerous companies he’s worked for, including Digital Domain, The Mill and Magnopus, and how he’s wrangled multiple content creation platforms into working with one another. He also discusses some of the fun challenges he’s faced, and the computer-vision AI training he’d like to tackle in future.

Bilali Mack has always wanted to tell stories. Originally hailing from West Africa, Bilali was at Emerson College in Boston when he realized it was easier to make movies with computers instead of cameras. After graduating, he worked on Coca-Cola and BMW commercials, where he developed an affinity for Flame, Autodesk’s VFX and finishing software.

Today, Bilali is taking his experience to the next level as a VFX supervisor on feature films and TV series, including Let Him Go and Power Book II: Ghost. In this insightful and animated discussion, Bilali talks about the pros and cons of working with Flame, the creative differences between VFX for commercials and features, and how he directs smoke and blood to enhance the narrative. This podcast is a perfect upbeat start to 2021.

CGI obviously has a big role in post-production, but in this podcast, Chris talks to concept artist Dwayne Burgess about how it’s used before filming. Dwayne was inspired by theatrical design to pursue his career path, and after a fortuitous meeting on a B-movie, he worked his way up to art director at NBC Universal.

Today, Dwayne is a freelance concept artist, creating renders for TV shows including Fargo and American Ninja Warrior. He explains what his role is in a production, how he interacts with set designers and directors of photography, plus how V-Ray for SketchUp has improved his workflow.

With over 20 years’ experience in the industry, Shannon Wiggins knows how to get employed at the biggest VFX and games studios. Shannon’s early brushes with behind-the-scenes effects from Star Wars influenced her to learn Softimage and Nuke, and work in roto and paint for companies including Digital Domain, ILM and Dreamworks. Today, she heads up placement and alumni relations at the Gnomon School of Visual Effects.

In this podcast, Shannon shares how Gnomon achieves an incredible 97% employment rate for its students, and offers indispensable advice on preparing a winning reel and being ready for the interview process. She also talks about some of the big changes she’s seen over her 10 years at Gnomon — and the skills students need for the VFX of the future.

Al Quattrocchi is a man of passion and talent. From a young age, he’s honed his artistic skills via typesetting, movie posters and Grammy-winning album packaging. Along the way, he’s been taught by Jim Blinn of Blinn-Phong shading fame, worked with poster artist Drew Struzan and shaken hands with musical legend Art Garfunkel.

At the same time, Al has indulged his love for fly fishing, which grew from exploring the waters near New York. He tells Chris about what makes fly fishing so attractive to artists, his book about catching the elusive California corbina and how he gets involved with the fly-fishing community. Al’s Italian-American inflection and gift for storytelling make for an engrossing podcast.

You’ve probably seen Mike Campau’s work without realizing it. Over the past 20 years, this digital artist has honed his style and techniques to produce eye-catching imagery for brands including Under Armour, Chevy and Specialized, and characterful portraits of Tracy Morgan, John C. Reilly and Dave Grohl. He also creates personal work to experiment with new techniques or skewer social media and politics.

In this podcast, Mike tells Chris how he’s grown from usual inspiration as a three-year-old, to learning from car campaigns, to the tools and collaborations that make his work possible today. If you’ve ever wanted to make the jump to becoming a successful freelance artist, Mike has solid advice on how to get established and manage your work-life balance.