2022 began with exciting news: Chaos is merging with Enscape. Referred to as a slam-dunk for both companies, the business move will combine Chaos’ award-winning photorealistic ray tracing expertise with Enscape’s flourishing knowledge of real-time rendering. But what will it mean for the companies, their software, and their customers?

In this extra-special podcast, host Chris Nichols joins Chaos CEO Peter Mitev, Chaos CTO Vlado Koylazov, and Enscape CEO Christian Lang, to answer burning questions about the merger. The trio explains how they see the future of visualization, and how a combination of real-time and ray-traced rendering could blur the lines between arch-viz and VFX, reach a broader audience — and even power the metaverse

Peter Baustaedter’s Hollywood career is an adventure worthy of a movie. After cracking the demoscene in Austria, he took a chance and wrote to Digital Domain — only for them to offer him a job. From here, he worked on a string of movies with groundbreaking VFX: Apollo 13, Dante’s Peak, The Fifth Element, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, Sin City, King Kong, and Avatar.

In this extraordinary episode, Peter explains the minor role Arnold Schwarzenegger played in his career, discusses the dangerous world of practical effects in the mid-90s, and reveals why the power kept tripping at Square Pictures’ Hawaiian production facility. Peter also talks about stepping up to become a visual effects art director and shares tidbits on using Unreal Engine to produce a major upcoming TV series from Amazon Studios.

By day, Raf Grassetti works at Sony Computer Entertainment’s Santa Monica Studio, where he art directs the God of War games. But there’s more to Raf than epic videogames: he’s also carved a successful path in the world of NFTs, with his hyperreal sculpts becoming hot virtual commodities.

Raf talks about his NFT artwork and how he’s tailored pieces — such as his Crypto History sculpts of Elon Musk, Snoop “Doge” Dogg, and Beeple — to attract the crypto audience. Raf also reveals his approach to marketing and building a community eager for his next release. It’s a fascinating conversation that helps unravel and explain the keys to success in the world of NFTs.

Mallory Yund always knew she wanted to work in the entertainment industry — and now she’s a post-producer on some of the biggest shows in the world. Beginning in Kansas, she moved to LA, where she slept on a couch (for three years!), worked in restaurants, and became an extra. After PAing on feature films, she worked her way into post-production, where her organizational skills and technical know-how helped her become a producer.

Today, Mallory’s credits include Curb Your Enthusiasm, Silicon Valley, Cobra Kai, and many more shows and movies. She tells her fascinating story, including how a major natural disaster indirectly changed her career path. Mallory also reveals her favorite parts of being a producer and sheds light on the rapid evolution of the technology behind TV series.

In this episode, we get a deep dive into the efficiencies of Goodbye Kansas’ pipeline, and how they grew their team from 4 to 12 TDs. Dan and Erik discuss how they started using V-Ray for Houdini, Solaris, and Hydra. They explain how USD is not just a new file format, but a complete change in the way people think about pipelines.

We get into a lot of technical details about the advantages of USD, including how it can carry a lot of different data including lighting and shading. We also discuss how today, pipelines are more interested in using and supporting open-source initiatives compared to how they used to have to write their own proprietary solutions.

It is a very technical discussion, but also a great way to kick off 2022 as we consider the future of the VFX pipeline.

A lot has changed in the two years since Pedro Conti last guested on the CG Garage podcast. Not only has he moved from bustling Sao Paulo to the more relaxed city of Florianópolis, but he’s also contributed to a playful Katy Perry music video and directed “Tamo Junto,” a touching tale of neighborly goodwill in the pandemic.

Pedro tells Chris how “Tamo Junto” fell into place, from the inspiration behind the story and getting a superstar rapper to provide the vocals, to the support Chaos and Rebus Farm offered to render the final piece. Pedro also talks about his plans for the project and how the pandemic has changed the industry.

This week, Chris meets Nathan Millsap, a humble but hugely enthusiastic CG generalist. Nathan’s career began as a “render monkey” for Chris at Sway, and since then he’s gone on to work at 19 effects studios on movies including 2012, Avatar, and Transformers: Age of Extinction. Today, Nathan is working on TV series for prestigious LA studio, GhostVFX.

In this podcast, Nathan talks through his life and career so far, from how Toy Story inspired him to pursue VFX, to his early days at Sway, moving to Singapore to fix shots on Transformers: Age of Extinction, and then returning to LA to raise his family. He gives his thoughts on why TV is taking over from theaters, talks about his favorite projects, and shares tales of working with directors including Roland Emmerich and Joe Kosinski.

Jelmer Boskma is livin’ the VFX dream. Originally hailing from the Netherlands, he moved to Vancouver to go to film school and became interested in character modeling. Jelmer then picked up work as a modeler on movies including Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and District 9. With Tron: Legacy, he became a matte painter, then moved up to art direction on Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, and VFX supervision on Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and Eternals.

Jelmer tells Chris about his career highlights, from early encouragement from practical effects wizard Rick Baker to working alongside directors including Robert Rodriguez and Tim Burton. He also talks about how love blossomed in the VFX industry, discusses the pros and cons of working remotely, and shares some of the important life lessons he’s learned.

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.