PixelHub Podcast

Game designer Mark Parrish is co-designer on an entertaining, and utterly addictive, new indie title called Arena Gods. Parrish and partner, Rodrigo Costa, are currently working on getting the game ready for an eventual launch on Steam Early Access. Arena God’s is two to four-player, top-down gladiator combat game that features screen wrapping action. Throwing a weapon at an opponent can literally come back to bite you. Currently, the game is being built for Windows, Mac, XONE, and PS4 platforms. Parrish and Costa and uses the Unity game engine. We recently talked with Parrish about the game’s genesis, building its mechanics and what’s involved in building an indie title.

Lucas Martell is an artist who’s no stranger to producing animated shorts on a budget. He just happens to also make quality, award-winning shorts while doing it. He also runs a successful boutique located in Austin, TX called Mighty Coconut. Martell is an animator and director best known for Pigeon: Impossible, which won ton’s of awards at festivals a few years back. Earlier this year, he debuted his latest short, The OceanMaker, a more somber look at a strong-willed aviator’s search for  hope in an arid wasteland. What makes the film also unique is the manner of production Martell used–a kind of animation studio-gone-on-working-vacation he calls “destination production.” It’s certainly a way of working Dan and I could get on board with!

Virtual reality is one of the most potentially disruptive technologies in the market today. VR companies like Oculus and HTC are racing to be first in the market while content providers are preparing themselves to meet the inevitable demand. In an adjoining space are a few companies who want to capture the enormous CAD and Arch/Eng markets with file readers for such VR devices. VR readers can make viewing 3D architectural or products faster for designers and more immersive for their clients. IrisVR is such an app that can read Sketchup, Revit and OBJ files. We sat down with IrisVR ‘s lead software developer, Jack Donovan to find out how the app’s beta version is going and to see why he thinks programs like these will be game changers for the industry.

Director of the award-winning The Book of Life, Jorge Gutiérrez is a born storyteller, both on the screen and off. However, the journey to completing the award-winning animated feature was fraught with struggles only a passionate artist of Jorge’s caliber and commitment could overcome.

With a budget of only $50 million, making the director’s larger-than-life version of The Book of Life was a tough to sell to studios and producers. From pitching his idea to Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, Pacific Rim) to the unprecedented accomplishment of convincing Radiohead to license their song “Creep” for the film’s score, Jorge’s stories are inspiring for any artist. Dan and I fight to contain ourselves as the director recalls some hilarious moments in the film’s production.

Pluralsight’s acquisition of the Digital-Tutors brand has produced some exciting developments and positive changes over the previous months. With the recent announcements, we thought it would be fruitful to speak with one of the first Digital-Tutors employees and Director of Creative Content, Kyle Green, to get his perspective on what the change means to him, our courses and our customers as we continue expanding our library.

Steve Emerson is a VFX artist at LAIKA and has worked on the Studio’s biggest hits, which include Coraline (2009), ParaNorman (2012) and The Boxtrolls (2014). Being a VFX artist on stop motion projects provides an opportunity to work with practical FX and to contribute to a hybrid studio workflow that’s unique to the feature film industry.

Grant Wilson and Mike Richie are two enterprising board game designers who are pushing the bounds of what table tops can be. Together with their spouses, Wilson and Richie form Rather Dashing Games, a truly family-run venture that tries to bring the fun of family game night back into the table top industry by producing simple, yet entertaining, games that “take 5 mins to learn and under an hour to play.” We talk with both gentlemen about the unique challenges of creating effective board game design and what fuels their passion for what they do.

Digital-Tutors’ in-house web design instructor, Susan Simkins talks to us about the current trends, debates and hot topics that surround the exciting world of web design. From the “hamburger button” debate to the notion that web design itself may be a dying art form, Susan gives her unique, professional and entertaining perspective on these topics.

Patrick Lin is a director of photography and layout artist for Pixar. Lin has worked on many big name films such as Ratatouille, Brave, Moster’s University in addition to the Studio’s latest Inside Out. Dan and I talk with Lin about the role of camera structure within an animated film. He told us some pretty interesting and incredible things about the contrasting visual language structure within Inside Out. It’s a visual style that’s effective at supporting the main character’s emotional arch while helping audiences identify the two wildly different worlds of the film.

Aaron Epstein is one of the co-founders of the popular digital asset market called Creative Market. These types of digital marketplaces are an invaluable resource for artists every type of artist, providing a place to buy assets or to make some extra money.

Acquired by Autodesk a year ago, CM has seen a significant expansion of its offerings as a result. Dan and I sit down with Aaron to better understand how these types of online markets function, how artists can use them to make money, and what the future of CM looks like.