From the Amiga to Houdini, Nuke and Digital Domain with Sean Cunningham Part 1  | TVAP EP28

We go all the way back the 1990's in this 2 part interview with Sean Cunningham, a veteran of the VFX industry whose credits as an FX Artists include films such as True Lies, Strange Days, The Fifth Element, Godzilla, Oh Brother Where Art Thou and who has directed and produced independent feature films in his own right.

This journey takes us from the excitement of the Commodore Amiga, missed proms, the inspiration of T2 and the founding days of James Cameron's Digital Domain studios.

We learn about the origins of industry standard tools SideFX Houdini and Foundry Nuke from someone who was using both in their earliest incarnations as SideFX Prisms and Digital Domain's in house compositing tool - Nuke.

We go deep and geeky so be warned.



00:00 : What to Expect
01:53 : Meet Sean Cunningham
03:01 : How I got started in the industry
05:29 : The importance of the Amiga for creative computing
07:00 : Sculpt 3D on the Amiga
07:52 : Lightwave
14:10 : The inspirational effect of T2
14:33 : First VFX online bulletin board
16:15 : T2 Comes out, a turning point
17:47 : Calarts
23:36 : : Metrolight Studios and Sexy Robot
28:07 : The Role of TD in the 1990's
31:05 : You had to build up an intuition - working without UI feedback
36:22 : Elastic Reality, morphs and splines
39:28 : James Cameron founds Digital Domain
42:05 : Digital Domain in Stan Winston's Creature Shop
42:53 : Stealing Artists and the pirate mentality
45:18 : True Lies
49:51 : Side FX Prisms (which became Houdini)
51:51 : Learning VFX software in the 1990's
58:06 : My Approach to learning at Digital Domain and since

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

Sean Cunningham Part 2, From Digital Domain to Indie Film and Rooster Teeth | TVAP EP29

In the second installment of our interview with veteran VFX Artist and filmmaker, Sean Cunningham we go into detail about the process used on the 1990's action movie True Lies for the missile sequence - featuring some of the earliest uses of Nuke digital compositing at Digital Domain as well as an early version of SideFX Houdini (Prisms).

We talk about his role supervising on Strange Days and working on Oh Brother Where Art Thou with the first use of full DI on feature film. We discuss how he raised funds, produced and distributed two indie feature films and his return to VFX.

It's a great tour for VFX artists interested in some of the early history of digital FX and the tools we use everyday as well as a case study in indie filmmaking.




00:00:05 : The Team on True Lies
00:00:05 : Marker 1
00:03:34 : The origin of the name "Nuke"
00:04:42 : Nuke always planned as a commercial project
00:06:43 : Th Pixel was sacred
00:07:56 : Talking through the workflow on a missile shot
00:09:09 : The use of Amigas at DD for playback
00:10:45 : Everybody would have to queue up their tests
00:21:39 : How FVX work teaches you to think about things
00:32:46 : Running out to film
00:33:30 : First time as Supervisor and the fear
00:35:00 : O Brother Where Art Thou - first film with end to end DI
00:35:31 : Working with Roger Deakins
00:41:13 : Presentation to PETA
00:42:28 : From Hollywood to indie filmmaking
00:45:50 : Fundraising first indie feature film
00:49:47 : Shooting in a small town
00:56:02 : Distribution
01:00:09 : After release - back to VFX
01:02:03 : A kidnapping
01:03:18 : Sick Boy - finally making a horror movie
01:08:06 : The response to Sick Boy
01:24:37 : Working at Rooster Teeth
01:28:12 : How to get out of a creative rut
01:29:44 : Remote work opportunities
01:32:31 : Final words and advice

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

From the Amiga to Houdini, Nuke and Digital Domain with Sean Cunningham Part 1 | TVAP EP28

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Sean Cunningham Part 2, From Digital Domain to Indie Film and Rooster Teeth | TVAP EP29