PixelHub Podcast

For anyone looking to get into the VFX business, it’s a good idea to have a realistic picture of what the day-to-day job involves. No one knows this more than a VFX supervisor for television. The “golden age” of TV has brought bigger sets, larger casts and gigantic budgets. Handling daily problems in-house or on set is what VFX sups do best. We talk with FuseFX supervisor, Jon Massey about the practical challenges of getting the right shots to make successful shows like Turn: Washington’s Spies, Hemlock Grove and True Blood.

Nothing’s probably more buzz-worthy in media and entertainment today than augmented and virtual reality. Companies around the world are finding creative ways to implement these new platforms into our everyday experiences. From helping cyclists to playing video games, it’s easy to see how AR and VR might quickly become the standard for consuming all types of content. Many companies are pushing the tech into surprising areas of our lives.

Toronto-based developer and content creator, AWE (Augmented World Engine) is using VR to bring uncommon experiences to familiar venues like museums and historic sites. CEO Srinivas Krishna and his team have partnered with the City of Toronto to create a virtual tour for visitors to the historic site of Fort York, an important garrison in the War of 1812. During the tour, visitors can don Nexus 6 VR gear and watch digital versions of soldiers loading and firing cannons, ships being attached and other historic dramas played out around the 9-acre site.

We talked with Srinivas about how his company created their own Unity engine-based software to power the experience, what types of VR viewers worked and didn’t, and what other applications VR and AR might have it the future.

James Pina is a veteran VFX artist currently working for Laika Studios (Coraline, The Boxtrolls). Their newest project, Kubo and the Two Strings is set for release in August of 2016. James specializes in rotoscoping and paint, an essential part of any VFX pipeline. He is also a founding member of a unique VFX company called, Boundary. The company works like an artistic cooperative where members who are in downtimes for their regular full-time gigs can make extra money by working together on Boundary projects. The studio has recently finished work on Charlie Kaufman’s Golden Globe nominated feature, Anomalisa. James talks to us about what a career in roto and paint entails along with describing the benefits and challenges of running a cooperative company like Boundary.

With the holidays upon us, Dan and I thought we’d turn our attention to the Pluralsight family. We interview our two talented web design instructors, Susan Simkins and Amy Childers who’s knowledge and experience helps create some great tutorials for our library. Susan and Amy give us a behind-the-scenes look at the tutorial making process, from deciding on subjects all the way to recording. We also touch on their plans over the holiday season, their favorite board games and holiday foods.

It’s hard to find a form of corporate advertising that’s as entertaining and exciting as live events. From Apple’s product launches to Google I/O conference, companies are looking more and more to such events to bring brand awareness. One of the shops making these complex spectacles happen is Riverview Systems Group (RSG). Evan Williams is CEO and co-founder of RSG and understands the high-end demands of corporate live events. Recently, RSG announced the building of a dedicated Creative Services division led by Franco Berardi, Riverview’s award-winning Director of Design Services. We talked with both Williams and Berardi about what it takes to produce a live event of this scale, from working with clients to previs.

The Flash and Arrow are two popular television series. Each requires high quality, specialized VFX work to make the superhero stories believable. Graphic designer Robyn Haddow specializes in fantasy user interfaces (FUI’s) for both shows, creating realistic technology.

FUI’s are a growing trend in movies and films, and professionals like Robyn must have a strong background in graphic design and an imagination to match. Much like ads, FUI’s usually are only seen for short moments, but they must communicate the right messages. We talked to the Scarab Digital artist about what it takes to build these important visual elements.

The products of engineering and product design are all around us. From the cars we drive to the coffee cups we drink, thousands of products are designed and built by teams all over the world. Supporting those artists and designers are software packages like Autodesk’s Fusion 360, a powerful 3D modeling app with a focus on flexibility and collaboration. Companies and teams are often spread throughout the world, but they still need to collaborate. Fusion 360 fills this need because it’s a cloud-based system that lets operating, rendering and simulations happen on external servers. This frees up your time and bandwidth. We talked with Autodesk evangelist Tanner Reid about the unique opportunities Fusion 360 provides arch/eng and product design firms.

VFX supervisors need a good perspective on how the pipeline should work to meet the client’s needs. Nordin Rahhali is a veteran VFX sup from Method Studios whose experience has given him a broader view of the pipeline and overall process. From Iron Man 3 to San Andreas, Nordin has overseen some top Hollywood blockbusters. He’s been with Method since 2010, but before that held numerous supervisory and director roles for Digital Domain as well as freelancing work. Our discussion with the veteran supervisor illustrates what technical and personal skills it takes to be an effective leader at a studio. In addition, Nordin tells us about the technical side of creating some pretty challenging shots for San Andreas.

Motion capture or “mocap” is a popular VFX tool used for building movies and video games today. By helping increase post production speed while giving 3D characters realistic movement, mocap has become an industry standard for these pipelines. From Ironman to Jurassic Park, teams of talented digital artists continue to push the technology to make it better. However, underpinning this workflow are the actual performers, those incredibly flexible, athletic and dedicated performance capture artists who don the funny-looking ping-pong ball suits.

Oliver Hollis-Leick is one such artist with as prolific a background and as extensive a resume as you’ll find today. Having a career spanning over 80 video games and movie titles, Oliver has given digital life to some impressive characters, including Iron Man, Master Chief, Spiderman and James Bond. He’s a training gymnast and martial arts master, which is helpful since mo-cap is one of the most physically demanding acting gigs today.

Dan Da Rocha and Henry Hoffman are two UK-based game developers whose Fiddlesticks studios is pushing what games can be. Their latest project is Hue, a platform puzzler using color as a narrative theme and central game mechanic.

Hue’s story follows a small boy’s attempt to find his missing mother, a researcher specializing in color theory. Players control the color of the environment to reveal platforms, levels, swings, etc. in order to progress. Hue is a richly conceived world using flat designs, bold colors and an engaging storyline. We talked with Da Rocha and Hoffman about the game’s evolving development, how you use color as a major game rule and the makeup of their pipeline.