“When you start taking care of other people, amazing things happen,” says David Guthrie. And he’s right — after discovering the lack of PPE during the COVID-19 pandemic, he took matters into his own hands and founded a company to manufacture and distribute face masks, making use of contacts he’s made in app development and fashion design.

David also discusses how he teaches the fundamentals of design at Rice University and the University of Houston via projects involving cubes, mandolins and furniture, imposing constraints to investigate and understand form and function. He gives his thoughts on how modern architecture and technology don’t encourage socialization — as well as his hopes for the post-COVID future.

In 18 months, audiences will be transported back to Pandora for Avatar 2 — and Ben Procter is one of the people who’s preparing to take us there. This concept artist turned production designer gives insight into the sequel’s seven-year production journey, as well as some of the technology his team along with Lightstorm Entertainment and Weta Digital are using to create James Cameron’s sumptuous digital world.

Ben also tells Chris about his ascent through the visual effects industry, from his early days at previz pioneer Pixel Liberation Front to The Matrix sequels, Transformers, Tron: Legacy and Ender’s Game. He reveals the organized chaos of VFX and art departments, celebrating the characters and methods that can quickly turn around and tweak incredible work. He also gives insight into how virtual production marks a return to more traditional, in-camera filmmaking processes.

Jim Lammers knows 3D like no other. Since 1994 his company, Trinity3D, has been vending 3D content and software (including V-Ray). At the same time his studio, Trinity Animation, has created content for technical and medical projects as well as visual effects for the movie Starship Troopers and backdrops for animated sitcom Archer.

In this podcast, Jim joins Chris and Lon to reminisce about SIGGRAPHs past and long-lost data storage media, as well as the shifts that have taken place in the 3D industry since the mid-90s — and how new technology is throwing up familiar problems. Jim also talks about how his team creates and delivers Archer’s painterly backdrops while giving the show’s designers creative control, the issues that make legal animations so challenging — and the inner workings of industrial flour-sifting machines.

Over the past 20 years, Jody Madden has worked her way to the top of the visual effects career ladder. She began her career at Industrial Light & Magic and Lucasfilm in San Francisco, then moved to Los Angeles to work for Digital Domain. Today, Jody is CEO of Foundry, the London-based company behind essential VFX software Nuke, Modo, Katana, Mari and Modo. 

In this podcast, Jody discusses how interesting new approaches to working may come out of the COVID situation, as well as how her experience at Digital Domain and long-distance management of Foundry have prepared her for managing people through times of uncertainty. She also tells Chris about Foundry’s history as a Digital Domain off-shoot and how it’s preparing for a shift in the way media is produced and consumed.

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.

Warning: This podcast contains explicit language.

Among the many pleasures of Love, Death & Robots, “The Witness” was a particular standout: Its mind-bending story and vivid art style combined to create a unique and challenging short film. In this inspirational podcast, director Alberto Mielgo breaks down the making of the project.

You’ll find out Alberto’s influences, from Tintin to Disney to Blade Runner and the films of Éric Rohmer. He also talks about blending simple 2D and advanced cloth techniques to achieve “The Witness’” distinctive look, the inspiration behind its story — and his ambition to make animated movies that are regarded in the same light as live-action features.

Large-scale realistic cityscapes have never been more important — whether they’re for blockbuster VFX, open-world videogames, architectural planning or even training self-driving cars. This week’s podcast guest, Matthias Buehler, is an expert in generating realistic urban environments thanks to his work on the CityEngine procedural city modeling software.

Matthias talks Chris through his career, from learning about architecture from industry legends such as Hani Rashid and Greg Lynn, to his work building CityScape into VFX company Scanline’s pipeline, to his new CG city-focused company, vrbn. It’s a fascinating conversation about the methods and rules that we can use to effortlessly create realistic CG metropolises.

Over the past 12 years, V-Ray GPU has been developed alongside the CPU renderer to take advantage of increasingly powerful and specialized hardware — and now it’s coming of age. Joining Chris this week is Alex Soklev, whose passion for ray tracing has propelled him to the position of Team Leader in Chaos Group’s V-Ray GPU team.

Fresh from his online GTC presentation, Alex breaks down the components that make V-Ray GPU such a versatile renderer. He goes into detail on integrating the Optix API to make the most of NVIDIA's latest RT cores, explains how clever technology such as out-of-core and on-demand rendering help keep GPU ray tracing fast and efficient, and gives a thorough breakdown of how static, dynamic and evictable geometry can keep rendering fast and efficient. 

It's a perfect refresher on ray tracing techniques — and you'll find out why V-Ray GPU can handle any scene no matter how much GPU memory you've got.

Pixar’s unique fusion of cutting-edge technology with storytelling has changed the face of cinema and given us some memorable movies along the way. A key player behind-the-scenes has been Esdras Varagnolo, who contributed to lighting and compositing on Pixar movies including Ratatouille, Up and Cars 2, as well as shorts “La Luna,” “Piper” and “Lou.”

As Esdras begins a new chapter in his life, at David Ellison’s Skydance Animation, he reflects on the technical innovations he’s helped make possible, from “shampositing” at Digital Domain to integrating deep compositing and Katana at Pixar. He reveals how Pixar uses its short films as testbeds for new technology, how Incredibles 2’s production schedule was slashed by 12 months and the fascinating reason why the company’s early characters had that iconic eye glint.

Lauren Mayer-Beug has come a long way since working at Sway Studio with Chris. This multi-talented artist cut her teeth in compositing and VFX supervision for movies and music videos before moving into motion graphics, animation and social media features. She’s created pieces for Apple, Google, Facebook and Beats, and her clientele include Dr. Dre, Ron Howard, Barack Obama and George Lucas.

In this podcast, Lauren gives Chris a rundown of how she’s worked up to the position of creative director at Chapeau Studios, a brand think-tank with roots in the world of VFX. She imparts vital advice on how women can make their voices heard in a traditionally male-dominated industry and reveals the techniques she uses to make smart, innovative creative decisions.