CG Garage

Over the past 30 years, Habib Zargarpour has helped create some of the most innovative and iconic VFX shots in cinema and pioneered virtual production. Beginning with The Mask's eye-popping protagonist, Habib went on to instigate Twister and The Perfect Storm's freak weather conditions, race pods for Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace and use game-engine technology to build The Jungle Book and Blade Runner 2049's captivating worlds.

Today, Habib works as head of film development at Digital Monarch Media, a division of Unity Technologies. He deep-dives into how he helped director Denis Villeneuve and DoP Roger Deakins explore LA 2049's wastelands, and details the physics of pod racers. For VFX fans, this podcast is a treat from start to finish.

This week's podcast guest is Robert Durnin, a talented and agile technical director who can turn his hand to just about anything. He's perfected pipelines for movies including Pan's Labyrinth, The Mist, The Amazing Spider-Man and Tron: Legacy, and polished in-engine cinematics for Batman: Arkham Origins and Crysis 3. He's also helped build content for the Leia 3D holographic display and worked out how to create a theme park-size XR experience.

Robert talks about his career so far, the numerous companies he's worked for, including Digital Domain, The Mill and Magnopus, and how he's wrangled multiple content creation platforms into working with one another. He also discusses some of the fun challenges he's faced, and the computer-vision AI training he'd like to tackle in future.

Intopolis aims to turn video game conventions on their head. Players assume the role of an art historian from the distant future, tasked with finding patterns in detailed, otherworldly artworks. In this podcast, the extraordinary talent behind the game, Kirsten Zirngibl, gives a fascinating glimpse into how she's translated her imagination into a tangible, explorable world.

Kirsten discusses everything from her childhood in Ohio to her experiences working for companies including Google, Riot Games and Wizards of the Coast, as well as the real-world and virtual influences that have helped create Intopolis's psychedelic visuals. She also offers insight into the array of technology she's using to build her game's environment, and gives her thoughts on why bright, positive worlds have never been more tempting.

In a little over a year, Mondlicht Studios has made a global name for itself in CG advertising projects. Its large-scale, award-winning images for Netflix series literally wrap around buildings, and it also provides animation, retouching, AR and VR services. Here, co-founders David Schaefer and Dmitriy Glazyrin tell Chris the story behind the studio.

You'll find out about the technology David and Dimo use to create 95MP images, how media and advertising are moving away from stills and into animation, and how new AI tools make their lives easier. They also share some useful tips they've picked up from working in automotive CG and photography, and talk about how they add character and story to their images.

Bilali Mack has always wanted to tell stories. Originally hailing from West Africa, Bilali was at Emerson College in Boston when he realized it was easier to make movies with computers instead of cameras. After graduating, he worked on Coca-Cola and BMW commercials, where he developed an affinity for Flame, Autodesk's VFX and finishing software.

Today, Bilali is taking his experience to the next level as a VFX supervisor on feature films and TV series, including Let Him Go and Power Book II: Ghost. In this insightful and animated discussion, Bilali talks about the pros and cons of working with Flame, the creative differences between VFX for commercials and features, and how he directs smoke and blood to enhance the narrative. This podcast is a perfect upbeat start to 2021.

Is there anything Alessandro Cangelosi can't do? Over the past 20 years, this versatile generalist has contributed to games, movies, documentaries, film studio idents and commercials for everything from computer accessories to tourist destinations. To handle this wide array of work, Alessandro uses software including 3ds Max, Houdini and V-Ray.

In this podcast, Alessandro tells Chris how he likes to get under the hood of his projects, embracing innovative tech and techniques to create stunning effects for movies including Independence Day: Resurgence and 2012. He also talks about his plans to invigorate Italy's visual effects industry with his own school, and the courses he teaches for Gnomon Workshop and Skyup Academy.

Babak Bina has carved out an illustrious career in VFX — and now he's passing his knowledge onto a new generation. Originally hailing from Iran, the band Tool's visuals inspired Babak to pursue graphic design in Toronto. He's gone on to work for visual effects studios Double Negative, Method Studios and Scanline VFX on movies and TV shows, including Game of Thrones, Black Panther and Wonder Woman.

This year, Babak has also started teaching how to create weird and wonderful creatures at The Gnomon Workshop. He tells Chris what it's like to teach students he's never seen and the tools he uses to create believable characters. Babak also discusses his new role as co-director of short movie, "The Seahorse Trainer."

CGI obviously has a big role in post-production, but in this podcast, Chris talks to concept artist Dwayne Burgess about how it's used before filming. Dwayne was inspired by theatrical design to pursue his career path, and after a fortuitous meeting on a B-movie, he worked his way up to art director at NBC Universal.

Today, Dwayne is a freelance concept artist, creating renders for TV shows including Fargo and American Ninja Warrior. He explains what his role is in a production, how he interacts with set designers and directors of photography, plus how V-Ray for SketchUp has improved his workflow.

With over 20 years' experience in the industry, Shannon Wiggins knows how to get employed at the biggest VFX and games studios. Shannon's early brushes with behind-the-scenes effects from Star Wars influenced her to learn Softimage and Nuke, and work in roto and paint for companies including Digital Domain, ILM and Dreamworks. Today, she heads up placement and alumni relations at the Gnomon School of Visual Effects.

In this podcast, Shannon shares how Gnomon achieves an incredible 97% employment rate for its students, and offers indispensable advice on preparing a winning reel and being ready for the interview process. She also talks about some of the big changes she's seen over her 10 years at Gnomon — and the skills students need for the VFX of the future.

Al Quattrocchi is a man of passion and talent. From a young age, he's honed his artistic skills via typesetting, movie posters and Grammy-winning album packaging. Along the way, he's been taught by Jim Blinn of Blinn-Phong shading fame, worked with poster artist Drew Struzan and shaken hands with musical legend Art Garfunkel.

At the same time, Al has indulged his love for fly fishing, which grew from exploring the waters near New York. He tells Chris about what makes fly fishing so attractive to artists, his book about catching the elusive California corbina and how he gets involved with the fly-fishing community. Al's Italian-American inflection and gift for storytelling make for an engrossing podcast.