Rise FX was founded in 2007 by Sven Pannicke, Robert Pinnow, Markus Degen and Florian Gellinger in Berlin. Today, this award-winning company -- with offices in Berlin, Munich, Stuttgart, Cologne -- has roughly 100 permanent staff members in addition to 100 freelance artists, which makes it one of the biggest VFX studios in Central Europe.

Rise FX acts as collaborator for episodic series, as well as television and feature film, from early concept to mastering, concept art and previs, every day on set, during effects production and animation, as an advisor for the Digital Intermediate process. Rise FX has partnered with directors like Tom Tykwer (Babylon Berlin, A Hologram for the King, Cloud Atlas), Guy Ritchie (The Man from U.N.C.L.E.), Gore Verbinski (A Cure for Wellness), studios like Marvel (Captain America 1-3, Iron Man 3, Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy), Netflix (Dark), Sony Pictures (The Dark Tower), Europacorp (Renegades). It also produces more and more animated features (Richard the Stork, Dragon Rider). Its sister production company Rise Pictures develops its own original content and co-produces films and series for an international audience.

In this Podcast, Allan McKay interviews Rise FX’s Supervisors Andreas Giesen and Korbinian Hopfner about the secret to a great reel, the importance of starting out as a generalist, the soft and hard skills crucial for a successful VFX Artist, and much more.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/259/.