The VFX Artists Podcast, hosted by Kofi Opoku-Ansah and Daniel Mark Miller is the spot for artists to share, learn and discover other artists in the VFX industry. We aim to bring artists from different levels and departments to discuss industry practice, software, processes, journey and more. We are a podcast made by artists for artists.

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When I embarked on my compositing journey, Ron Brinkmann's book, "The Art and Science of Digital Compositing," proved to be an invaluable resource. It provided a wealth of visual information and included a DVD with footage for hands-on practice.

Even today, this book remains a seminal work and continues to be relevant for artists, thanks to its emphasis on developing the skill of visual perception. Therefore, it was a tremendous honor to have Ron Brinkmann as a guest on our show. 

He served as the Compositing Supervisor at Sony Imageworks for films such as Speed, Contact, James and the Giant Peach, and more. 

Interestingly, despite being widely recognized for his expertise in compositing, Brinkmann initially started his journey in the field of 3D as a demonstration artist for Wavefront. (Wavefront later merged with Alias and played a significant role in the development of Maya, a renowned software). 

Subsequently, Brinkmann co-founded Nothing Real with his colleagues and created Shake, a compositing software that held sway in the industry for many years, particularly in high-end compositing. (I believe it was most recently used by DNeg for their work on Inception). 

 : The Art and Science of Digital Compositing book 

 : How Ron would Design a Compositing Software Today 

The Man Who Wrote the Book On Compositing with Ron Brinkmann  | TVAP 56

This week's guest is co-founder of FXGuide, arguably the first and foremost podcast and blog in our field. He also co-founded FXPhd which was my route into the industry so this was a massive honour for me.

We dive deep into Neural Rendering (which Mike has been involved with since 1999) machine learning and practical applications within visual effects and filmmaking.

We then discuss the ethics of machine learning and art, why there won't "a metaverse" and some of the most likely applications of AR and VR.

This raises some general points about the application of new technology which it would be well of us to heed.

Machine Learning, AI and Compositing with Mike Seymour | TVAP EP55

The Importance of Matchmove within the VFX pipeline | TVAP EP54

In this episode with Matt Merkovich of The Matchmoving Company, we talk about the importance of 3D tracking/matchmove in the VFX industry and what it means to be a matchmove artist.

Matt is an expert user of Syntheyes and has been a great influencer in getting it where it is today. He also uses it for almost all of his work, spiralling almost three decades in the VFX industry.

Matt believes #Syntheyes is by far the best 3D tracking software out there and has by far "the best 2D tracking system in the world!", so in this episode, I sit him down to find out why he believes so.

Being a Matchmove artist myself, having been a user of PFTrack in the past and an ongoing user of 3DEqualizer I was very curious to hear why Matt thinks so.

3D tracking or Matchmove as you may call it, ties perfectly with all the other departments in the VFX pipeline, to complete VFX shots in the biggest visual effects movies out there, making this episode an important one, to gain insights from an industry veteran like Matt.

Matt's filmography spars from Minority Report, Star Trek Voyager, Doctor Dolittle 2, The Amazing Spider-Man and more. Here's Matt's 

.

Matt's company The Matchmoving Company provides 3D tracking services globally and can currently be reached through 



As always, if you liked this episode, please 👍 like, 📝 comment, 📢 subscribe, and 📣 share!


Watch our other videos
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The Importance of Matchmove within the VFX pipeline | TVAP EP54 (P-1)

Inside VFX Recruitment with Melissa Blakey, Global Head of Talent at Crafty Apes | TVAP EP53 (P-1)

Inside VFX Recruitment with Melissa Blakey, Global Head of Talent at Crafty Apes | TVAP EP53 (P-2)

Behind The Desk with Hugo Guerra | TVAP EP47


00:00:00 Coming Up
00:02:19 Introductions
00:03:54 Who is Matt Merkovich
00:07:17 Where my interest for film originated
00:14:59 From Lightwave to Matchmoving on Minority Report
00:23:28 Minority Report Matchmoving Pipeline in the 2000's
00:26:24 Evolution of Aspect Ratios
00:30:18 Comparing Syntheyes, 3dequalizer, Boujou, PFTrack and more
00:35:13 Good & Bad Tracking Markers
00:38:54 Staying relevant in an evolving industry
00:44:36 Being a VFX artist in the mid 90's
00:46:45 Shot talk - Challenges
00:48:38 The future of 3D tracking
00:53:41 Comparing 3dequalizer and Syntheyes
01:01:01 Matchmove Artists - The underappreciated department
01:03:53 About The Matchmoving Company
01:04:11 Unionize the VFX industry
01:04:11 Conclusion

Inside VFX Recruitment with Melissa Blakey, Global Head of Talent at Crafty Apes | TVAP EP53 (P-1)

For many VFX Recruitment is a bit of a black box - we send off our reels and CV and then hope for the best. This week we go behind the curtain with Crafty Apes, Global Head of talent, Melissa Blakey.

We cover Melissa's own fascinating career - she started working on-set before moving into post and then worked for almost 20 years in VFX Production before moving into Recruitment! We discuss why she decided a career on set was not for her and start to unpick the way recruiters and VFX houses select candidates.

Next we laser in on her best practices for candidates as well as the Crafty Apes philosophy for hiring and retaining staff.

WFH resumes, showreel interviews, changing departments we will be discussing all this and more.

Unusually for many VFX Houses, Crafty Apes tends to focus on Generalists and on permanent positions so we go into what that means in a market largely dominated by specialists and freelancing.

Inside VFX Recruitment, with Global Head of Talent at Crafty Apes, Melissa Blakey | TVAP EP53

This is a hot topic with "No AI" trending on Artstation and pending court cases we spoke to Director, Filmmaker and Game Designer Alvaro García Martínez who has been heavily engaged with this topic. 

Alvaro worked as VFX Artist for 10 years at London's top studios before founding Mayhem Mirror, his own Game Design studio. So he has experience as an employee an independent creator and as an employer of artists. 

As Alvaro says, "I am not against AI, but against the unethical use of AI". But what does that mean? 

00:08:00 : If it feels wrong it probably is wrong 

00:42:30 : Translating emotions into actions

Markers powered by [Chaptered.app](https://Chaptered.app) As always, if you liked this episode, please like, comment, subscribe and share!

Listen to all episodes on our website https://www.thevfxartistspodcast.com/#vfxpodcast#compositing#motioncapture

AI - a Historical Moment, with Alvaro García Martínez from Mayhem Mirror | TVAP EP52

A VFX Recruiter's Guide To Getting Hired | TVAP EP51

In the first episode of 2023, we felt it quite important to start the year right, by bringing you some much necessary tips from a VFX recruiter, should you be looking to take on a new role.

We are therefore pleased to have Sophie Maydon, former VFX Global Head of HR, Recruitment and PR at DNEG (Double Negative), and Director, VFX Talent & Recruitment Consultant at her firm PXL Talent

Sophie has over a decade's experience recruiting 100's of VFX and animation artists across many levels and departments.

In this episode, we discuss many topics to do with recruitment, focusing on the perspective of a VFX recruiter, as well as the applicant. We discuss and find out about the best practices and ways one could go about successfully coming on top in an interview, the do's and don'ts, try to understand if there are recruitment prejudices and more.

This is a very insightful, useful and long awaited episode, and we hope you find it so.

As always, if you liked this episode, please 👍 like, 📝 leave us a comment, 📢 subscribe, and 📣 share!



What does it take to be a lighting artist? with Jasmine Katatikarn | TVAP EP49


00:00:00 : Coming Up
00:00:29 : Intro
00:01:48 : Overview
00:02:21 : A bit about Sophie Maydon
00:05:59 : Sophie's background as a recuiter at DNEG
00:10:32 : Power comes with pressure, as a recruiter
00:12:42 : Are generic applications a good idea?
00:14:57 : Going through job portals vs LinkedIn DM
00:17:41 : Are Resume's necessary in the VFX industry?
00:21:19 : Showreel advice from a VFX recruiter
00:27:37 : Showreel advice for returning mothers into the industry
00:31:17 : Flexible/Part-Time hours for Mothers in the VFX industry
00:33:41 : In-person vs remote interviewing advice
00:35:25 : Salary expectations - How to respond
00:41:39 : Budget vs experience
00:44:39 : Artists demand by studios
00:47:26 : Should I go to university before working in VFX?
00:52:48 Discrimination in recruiting
00:59:33 Leave a question in the comment section
00:59:55 How to get in touch with Pixel Talent
01:01:28 What not to do, as an applicant
01:03:19 Conclusion

This week we catch up with a rising star in the industry, Rishabh Laheja, a Junior Digital Compositor at MPC. 

Realizing that a career in IT was not for him. Rishabh began studying nights and eventually putting together a compositing showreel with the help of working industry teachers and mentors he reached out to via Linkedin.

Launching his new career exactly in the middle of the Covid lockdowns. Rishabh won a remote role at MPC Bangalore and has already worked as a compositor on huge shows such as Prehistoric Planet and HBO's House of Dragons.

As he says in the opening, "It's a rollercoaster ride, you may want to buckle up!"

As always, if you liked this episode, please 👍 like, 📝 comment, 📢 subscribe, and 📣 share!

You can click on up below links to get the courses of some brilliant instructors.

📣 Keagan Harris Patreon: patreon.com/keaganharris
📣 Josh Parks Masterclasses: https://www.compositingpro.com/nuke-masterclass-courses/
📣 FXPhd: https://www.fxphd.com

Our own interview with @joshvfxify : https://youtu.be/tgqlS2BswZ0

Listen to all episodes on our website
https://www.thevfxartistspodcast.com/

Watch our other videos
📣What does it take to be a lighting artist? with Jasmine Katatikarn | TVAP EP49
https://youtu.be/ikFiHXeDP1M
📣Behind The Desk with Hugo Guerra | TVAP EP47
https://youtu.be/jGJruJHOx2g

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00:00:00 : Intro - What to Expect
00:01:24 : There's a Tipping POint for Every Artist
00:02:19 : I Didn't Know How to Get into VFX
00:02:45 : Why Compositing?
00:03:20 : Getting in Touch via Linkein, Josh Parks
00:03:47 : Online Courses
00:05:18 : Keagan Haris Patreon and Marseile
00:07:42 : Studying While Working in Another Industry
00:09:51 : London Siggraph , Bring Your Own Comp
00:12:10 : First Freelance Job
00:13:31 : Finally Getting Into The Industry
00:15:03 : The Rookies: Dragon Personal Project
00:17:51 : Bangalore and Mumbai
00:22:58 : Work Life in India
00:26:43 : Being Creative in School
00:34:38 : Indian Work Culture
00:42:00 : Advice for Other New Entrants

Launching a Comp Career in India | Rishabh Laheja | TVAP EP50

What does it take to be a lighting artist? with Jasmine Katatikarn | TVAP EP49

This week we catch up with Jasmine Katatikarn, lighting artist and co-founder of the Academy of Animated Art.

We discuss finding your career path at any stage in life, what it takes to be a lighting artist, what makes a successful lighting application to top VFX, and animation studios, working in the VFX and animation as a woman and POC, diversity in the industry and more.

Without a doubt, we also go on to find out about Jasmine's career path in the industry, as well as how she co-founded the Academy of Animated Art, and what her academy teaches lighting artists.

Jasmine has over two decades of industry experience as both, being a lighting artist in the VFX industry, and the feature animation industry. Jasmine has gone to work for studios such as Blue Sky Studios (Disney), The Mill, Framestore, and many more incredible studios, stamping her signature on shows such as Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, Rio, Rio 2, Spies in Disguise and more.

Enjoy!

◉ 



As always, if you liked this episode, please 👍 like, 📝 comment, 📢 subscribe, and 📣 share!

Listen to all episodes on our website 🔊🔊🎧🎧


The Effective Freelance Compositor, with Shonda Hunt | TVAP EP31

Becoming a mother made me an efficient VFX Animator - Part 1 | TVAP EP35

This week we caught up with Courtney Pryce. Industry veterans will know him from his years as Creative Specialist at Foundry.

Courtney worked with UK Film and TV industry Union, BECTU, to put together a suggested rate card for freelance and contract staff in VFX. We get to engage with the methodology and consequences of open disclosure of the often taboo subject of the pay scale.

Courtney also engaged strongly with the industry-wide discussion of racism sparked by the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020. We don't shy away from tackling the issue of racism and nepotism in the workplace and there is a forthright but ultimately optimistic discussion.

Nevertheless, we never lost sight of Courtney's key skills as a solid professional compositor and reactive as he shares a wealth of knowledge that will benefit artists of all levels and from all backgrounds.

You won't want to miss out on this discussion!

00:00:00 : Intro - what to expect
00:18:17 : The Role of a Creative Specialist at Foundry
00:20:06 : When you're too comfortable
00:24:00 : Freelancing "Year Zero"
00:27:01 : Having kids as a freelancer
00:31:01 : Burnout
00:34:52 : VFX 

: methodology and controversy
00:43:41 : Black Lives Matter and Racism in the Industry 
00:54:25 : Projects most proud of. 

Creativity, Money and the Freelance Career, with Courtney Pryce | TVAP EP 48

Behind The Desk with Hugo Guerra | TVAP EP47

Hugo Guerra, Director, VFX supervisor, and creator of Hugo's Desk.

In this episode, Kofi chats to Hugo about his career in the VFX industry. Uncovering decisions and steps that have made Hugo the Director and Supervisor he is today.

With an incredible industry footprint, Hugo has a huge voice across the VFX industry, and I felt it quite relevant to learn more about the man behind the glasses, or as our title says, 'Behind The Desk'.

In this episode, we discuss the creative and VFX industry in Portugal, and Sweden, remote working, industry overtime, Hugo's VFX journey in London during his time at The Mill, mistakes VFX artists to make when looking for work, steps they could take to protect themselves from being taken advantage of, best video games, movies, series of 2022, industry-wide issues, how we could tackle them, and many more.

It was a packed and insightful discussion worth listening to the end, as well as one to be shared!

A massive thank you to Hugo for his time and for being such a gem to the industry.

As always, if you liked this episode, please 👍 like, 📝 comment, 📢 subscribe, and 📣 share!

Listen to all episodes on our 

Building the Biggest VFX Asset Library in The World! ActionVFX CEO Rodolphe Pierre-Louis | TVAP EP46

Share Knowledge - Keep Learning with María Carriedo | TVAP EP43




You can find Hugo on the following platforms:




#thevfxartistspodcast #vfxpodcast #hugoguerra #hugosdesk




00:00:00 Coming up...
00:01:32 Introductions
00:03:11 Who is Hugo?
00:10:24 The Portuguese creative industry could be better
00:16:30 Reminiscing the London, Soho VFX industry in the 2000's
00:19:27 The unhealthy traits of the VFX industry - Overtime work
00:32:16 Chasing The Goal
00:37:05 How I ended up in the VFX & creative industry
00:39:37 Love-Hate relationship with the VFX industry
00:46:37 What I teach Nuke Compositors
00:49:49 What Junior compositors need to know when job seeking
01:02:41 Achieving targets on a creative journey
01:05:25 Films on Hugo's list for 2022
01:09:29 Where to find Hugo!
01:10:46 Thank you for watching! Subscribe!

I am pretty sure you've heard of Action VFX, I've used them in my own shots! So we managed to get the Founder and CEO on the show to talk about his career. It's a success story that very nearly wasn't!

This is a great one for any artists or filmmakers who are thinking of starting a business because Rodolphe has a lot of insight into how to turn FX talent into a business model, as shown by the widespread use of Action VFX elements in the industry. 

Join us and follow Rodolphe's journey from filmmaker to entrepreneur. After the interview I cheekily asked if I could get our subscribers a discount code and they very kindly agreed to a permanent 15% off for our listeners with the code "TVAP" !

AI in the VFX & Creative Industry: Impact, Issues & Solutions | TVAP EP45

Join us, as we discuss the impact of AI in the VFX & Creative industry. 

With the rise of platforms such as Midjourney, Dalle-2, and Stable Diffusion influencing artists, we bring forth this open discussion about what the impact could be for our industries if certain laws and rules aren't put into place to protect artists and creators worldwide. 

We look to touch on copyright ownership and rights, privacy, ethics, and more! 

Join us this Wednesday, Nov 2nd, 2022, for the discussion and to take part in our Q&A session with industry professionals in the VFX & creative industry. 

 - Realtime Supervisor at Untold Studios London

 - 3d artist, Animator & Graphic designer

 - Senior Lecturer & Course Leader for Concept Art at Staffordshire University

 - Company Owner / Creative Director (Visualisation for Film, Game & TV) at Bigtooth Studios

 - Writer // Director // Producer focused on integrating AI, UE5.

#thevfxartistspodcast #vfxpodcast #aiart #midjourney

This week it's been a real pleasure to meet Paul Miller and Marco Paolini - Software Developer and Product Manager behind the Oscar winning software, Boris Silhouette. 

Despite advances in AI, manual rotoscoping and invisible paintouts are still an essential bullwark of the VFX industry and not going away anytime soon.

We begin with their work on Elastic Reality (used on classic shows like Quantum Leap) a dtalk about how they have built Silhouette for artists who need to pain 100 stokes a second and export mattes accurate to better than a 16th of a pixel.

You can see some of Paul Miller's original design sketches for Silhouette

Recently Silhouette has expanded it's compositing toolset so we discuss their choices around this. Of course machine learning is something cannot avoid discussing both its promise and its limitations at the high end. 

In closing both Paul and Marco give some excellent career advice for anyone entering or advancing in the VFX and Software Development industries.

00:10:56 : Marco's Journey from Artist to Software 

00:14:01 : The Smallness of the Industry 

00:28:38 : The Decision to Add More Comp Features 

00:31:28 : Performance and Paul's Nightmares 

01:17:38 : Paul's Advice for Aspiring Developers 

01:22:41 : Marco's Advice for Getting into VFX and into Software 

(chapters powered by [Chaptered.app](https://Chaptered.app)) 

#Silhouette#Oscars#scitech#VFX#Podcast#rotoscoping#invisiblevfx As always, if you liked this episode, please like, comment, subscribe and share! Listen to all episodes on our website https://www.thevfxartistspodcast.com/

Powering Invisible VFX, with Paul Miller and Marco Paolini, creators of Boris Silhouette | TVAP EP44

In this episode, we chat to María Carriedo, CG Lead at Freefolk. Born in Mexico, María studied VFX at the prestigious Gnomon School in LA before working at Psyops on commercials. Since then she moved to London to work at The Mill before her current role. In this interview we learn about María's journey into VFX and her approach to continuous learning and development. 

As a lead María is involved in the hiring process so her showreel advice will be invaluable to any 3D Artists seeking new projects. While trained in Maya, María mostly works with Houdini so we discuss the merits of the 2 giants in the 3D industry as well as touching on Zbrush, Unreal and the new Solaris/Karma renderer in Houdini. 

There's a lot packed into this interview so you will want to check it out!

Einstein image credit: Smart Energy/The Mill, 

00:00:32 : Education and beginning of career 

00:14:34 : Showreel advice from the point of view of a hirer 

00:19:15 : What seniors can learn from new entrants 

00:20:33 : What qualities make a better 3D artist 

On-Set in Extreme Environments with Jörundur Rafn Arnarson | TVAP EP42

Jörundur Rafn Arnarson returns after exchanging the frozen mountains of Iceland for the Deserts for his recent VFX Supervisor role on "Rise of The Witches". 

We talk about how extreme environments influence filmmakers, the route from Compositing to VFX Supervision, "bad CGI", helicopters and much much more. 

With a Supervisor whose body of work ranges from Icelandic indie films to Cannes Palm D'Or, Triangle of Sadness to Prehistoric Planet to franchise blockbusters Dr Strange - Multiverse of Madness and Game of Thrones, You won't want to miss this one! 

As always, if you liked this episode, please like, comment, subscribe and share! 

00:03:43 : Triangle of Sadness
00:13:42 : The most sought after commodity on-set
00:16:03 : The mindset of extreme environments
00:23:15 : RIse of The Witches - a Saudi Arabian epic
00:28:07 : Dr Strange and Prehistoric Planet
00:36:25 : Issues I have with CG
00:45:45 : Guiding big and small budgets
00:49:17 : I will always cut out VFX if I can
00:53:04 : "Bad CGI"
01:26:04 : Advice for filmmakers using VFX for the first time.

Episode 56 Out Now!

Episodes

The Man Who Wrote the Book On Compositing with Ron Brinkmann | TVAP 56