Taking part in a CG Garage podcast has been on Oliver Markowski’s bucket list for some time — and with good reason. The self-proclaimed VFX geek has a lot to talk about in this lively and honest conversation with Chris, from his work on movies including Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2, Spectre, and Black Panther, to how new file formats and pipelines are making it easy for vendors to collaborate on visual effects.

Oliver reminisces about his early days in computing and VFX, when 3D Studio came on 40 floppy disks and you needed a whole book to learn how to use it. He also discusses the pros and cons of a career in VFX, from SIGGRAPH 2007’s infamous Autodesk party to the importance of taking occasional breaks. Finally, Oliver discusses the incredible neural rendering technology he’s looking forward to.

An epic career deserves an epic podcast. During Garman Herigstad's 35-year journey in CG, the Houdini wizard has traveled to over 30 countries and worked on everything from real estate commercials in Bangkok to Disney videogames and Hollywood movies. At the same time, he’s taught at prestigious institutions, including Savannah College of Art and Design and Gnomon, and he even completed his most recent degree in his 60s.

Garman recounts his humble beginnings in greetings cards, through to economic highs and lows in Asia. He talks about his VFX work, including researching global weather patterns for a time-lapse sequence in The Time Machine, immersing George Clooney in Houdini-generated water for O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and working on Black Adam. Garman also shares valuable lessons on managing time and the importance of keeping notes. The episode ends with a particularly touching story of what inspired 52½ Feet, his autobiographical screenplay.

VFX supervising Stranger Things is the latest in a series of remarkable achievements for Justin Mitchell. After trying his hand at acting and lighting, Justin moved into animation and VFX, scoring credits on Charmed and Final Destination 2. In 2008, Justin joined Scanline VFX, where he’s worked on a succession of incredible projects, including 2012, Super 8, Iron Man 3, Tomb Raider, Cosmos, and The Nevers.

Justin talks about how he’s seen the industry shift since he started working in it, with Scanline expanding from 10 to 1,300 people, and the emergence of streaming platforms, virtual production, and artificial intelligence. He also reveals how he’s learned to lead a team and explains how he uses Scanline’s proprietary software to create and revise shots according to directors’ wishes.

Isaac Irvin’s incredible VFX industry adventures have taken him across countries and over oceans. From enthusiastic beginnings at Texan TV stations, he moved to Scotland to work on TV series and game cinematics, before returning to the States to flit between studios including Digital Domain, Method, Marauder, and Psyop on projects such as Speed Racer, Iron Man 3, Robocop, and more.

Today, Isaac has taken his big-screen VFX experience to the fast-paced, tech-heavy world of commercials. He talks about evolving from the limitations of software in the early days of VFX, to Real Steel’s perfect pipeline, up to the seemingly limitless possibilities of real-time rendering. He also talks about a nerve-wracking meeting at DD, and how he joined a particular VFX house at exactly the wrong time. Isaac is open and funny, and it’s clear that he’s lost none of his initial enthusiasm for all things VFX.

Sean Devereaux has fulfilled his childhood dream of making movies, and he started and sold a software company along the way. After being inspired by a viewing of The Wizard of Oz, Sean got a break at Digital Domain thanks to fellow alumni Jonathan Egstad. After working on movies including How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Vanilla Sky, he returned to Boston to found Zero VFX, which has created shots for American Hustle, The Equalizer, and Patriots Day.

Sean also discovered the financial and practical benefits of cloud computing, leading to the development of Zync, which was subsequently bought by Google. Sean reflects on his incredible career with contagious enthusiasm and a knack for storytelling. He recounts some great stories involving directors Peter Berg and Antoine Fuqua, and reveals how his work ethic helped him get hired by Digital Domain. He also reveals some of the important life lessons he’s learned, from how to balance creativity and finances, to how to deal with directors.

After getting on-set experience for a Canadian TV series, Mathew Giampa picked up compositing roles on White Noise 2, Sucker Punch, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Green Lantern, and more. He then moved up to progressively more challenging VFX supervision work on The Joker (yes, there were visual effects in that movie!), Black Widow, The Suicide Squad, and the Cowboy Bebop TV series.

Mathew talks about the joy of invisible VFX, moving between studios and countries to further his career, and some of the incredible projects he’s worked on. He also dispels some of the myths about the importance of color accuracy and security when working on Hollywood productions, and offers a compositor’s perspective on virtual production and real-time.

Thinking about starting your own VFX company? This week’s podcast guest, Marc Morissette, has done just that. After gaining experience and friendships at Digital Domain on projects including Peter Pan and Ghost Racer, Marc returned to his native Canada to form his own studio, Cluster. The company has taken on a variety of CG work, from a VR version of the Universal Studios globe for The Mummy to product shots and digital de-aging.

Marc explains the reasons behind starting Cluster and his vision for the company. He also talks about how the VFX industry changed when multiple vendors started working on the same shows, and the effects of the pandemic on smaller studios. Finally, Marc discusses how real-time technology will transform the future of filmmaking, and its advantages for smaller studios.

Eddie Smith is a MacGyver of the VFX industry. Over his career, he’s figured out how to unveil the president as the bad guy for G.I. Joe: Retaliation, explode characters into cubes for Tron: Legacy, destroy planets in Ender’s Game, all the way up to some spoiler-ific effects for Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore.

Eddie’s weapon of choice for VFX is Houdini, SideFX’s versatile node-based effects software. Eddie breaks down some of his favorite work and reveals how he’s often charged with figuring out the best way to tackle complex scenes. He also talks about how effects software has changed in his 14 years at Digital Domain, and the future for the industrious effects studio.

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.

After being inspired by Star Wars to pursue a career in VFX, Andrew Orloff became a technical director on South Park and worked on Joss Whedon’s (un)holy trinity of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly. After founding Zoic Studios, he’s gone on to serve as VFX supervisor and creative director on some of TV’s biggest shows, including Once Upon a Time, The 100, Fringe, and For All Mankind.

In this podcast, Andrew talks Chris through the evolution of VFX technology and techniques, from huge Silicone Graphics workstations and renting blade servers to the latest real-time technology for pre-viz and VFX and cloud rendering. You’ll find out how tax incentives work when most of your team works from home, how he collaborates with creatives on big shows — and he answers the burning question of whether working on streaming series is more like TV or film.

April is Autism Acceptance Month, and Chaos is highlighting some of the upcoming graduates of Exceptional Minds, an academy and studio for neurodiverse young adults. This week, we have Andrew Rosengard, who will be graduating with an emphasis in VFX. You can check out his work on Creatively.

To learn more about Exceptional Minds, visit exceptional-minds.org, or find them on social.