To help promote CAD Month 2015, we’re chatting with our own AutoCAD instructor and blog contributor, Pierre Derenoncourt to see what’s up in the world of architecture and engineering software. However, Pierre gave us so much great information and advice, we had to make it a two-part series! In this first CAD Month installment, Pierre explains such concepts as “What are BIM’s?” and enlightens us on how they’er changing the foundations of arch/eng pipelines and even how they could influence other industries like gaming and film production. Pierre also goes into how updates for software like AutoCAD and Revit are making it easier to work as well as explaining some of the favorite courses he’s produced at Digital-Tutors.

In episode 11 Dan and I talk to legendary animator Carlos Baena. The Hollywood veteran has worked on such iconic films as Toy Story 3, Cars, Finding Nemo, Star Wars: Episode II, Men in Black II and Jurassic Park III.

However Carlos isn’t just a artist, he’s also a teacher, having co-founded the online school, Animation Mentor to teach others the craft of bringing characters to life. During our talk, Carlos tells us about his journey from his home country of Spain to the U.S., some of his strongest artistic influences and a few of the lessons he’s learned over the years that have helped him become one of the most sought animators today.

In episode 10 Dan and I talk to freelance 3D animator, CG director and VFX artist, Andy Lefton about his newly released short Two Worlds, a project Andy has been working on in his spare time for the last five years. Two Worlds is a light-hearted tale about two very different space characters who find common ground within their current predicament.

Andy’s VFX and animation work on the project are superbly executed and we sat down with him to discuss his one-man pipeline. His story is a study on perseverance in keeping one’s artistic vision alive for years. Watch Two Worlds now.

In episode 9, Dan and I talk to Shaddy Safadi concept artist and founder of One Pixel Brush. Shaddy has worked high AAA game studios like Naughty Dog, before founding his concept art studio, which has shipped work for titles like Uncharted, The Division and The Last of Us.

We first met Shaddy at a GDC session earlier this year where he discussed his personal philosophy behind improving your concept design skills through the “Zones of Awesomeness.” Shaddy takes us through his entertaining and enlightening journey from being a self-acknowledged slacker to running one of the topic concept art studios today.

In this episode, Dan and I talk to ShotPro co-founders Dan Fearing and Andy Mileusnic about their new previs 3D mobile app designed to make a DP’s life much easier. ShotPro is an all-in-one previs app that lets you do camera setups, lighting, prop and character placement, and insert keyframes into a 3D scene. The app also comes with a variety of characters, environments, animations already built into the software. What’s even better, Dan and Andy have already begun development on the next ShotPro version. Find out what the newest features will be by listening to our PixelHub Podcast.

In this episode, we talk with our in-house Houdini expert and course author, John Moncrief about the launch of his brand new course on fluid simulations in Houdini. John discusses his professional career, particularly the formative internship at Side Effects, makers of the Houdini software. Also, John walks you through his new Houdini course’s offerings, projects, and what you should expect.

In anticipation of his upcoming ZBrush 4R7 course, which is slated for a release next week, we interview our own, Justin Marshall, about the software’s new features, his course project, and why he thinks learning a sculpting software is important for all artists.

Being an indie filmmaker can be a rewarding and challenging craft. Working on shoestring budgets, finding pro bono work, and equipment rentals are just a few of the issues indie projects have to master. In our latest PixelHub podcast, we sat down with indie filmmaker, VFX expert, and producer of Hellyfish, Patrick Longstreth, about what it was like making the short film and what lessons he learned.

Patrick Longstreth is an L.A.-based VFX artist with over 13 years as a director, editor, and visual effects artist. Hellyfish was an official selection at the Raindance Film Festival, won “Best Short” at Scare-a-con 2014, and was featured on CG Society. He is currently working on a freelance basis for commercials and film, while also teaching classes in visual effects and motion graphics at Video Symphony in Burbank. We talk with Patrick about his experiences being an indie filmmaker and working on Hellyfish. You may want to watch the movie before listening to the podcast.

In this episode, Dan and I share our advice for beginners who want to take on modeling in Maya. From tips to dealing with the app’s interface to our thoughts on when to use ngons over triangles, Dan and I walk you through some of the common obstacles for beginners to 3D applications in general. In addition, we discuss The Maya Journal, my series of articles targeted to artists making the transition from 2D to 3D. In the article series, I go through the modeling section of Digital-Tutors Introduction to Maya 2015, wherein I construct the course’s mech asset.

Agile is the process improvement philosophy used by thousands of studios and businesses world wide to help increase the output and efficiency of their teams. Giving us her insights on the topic is Agile expert, Nathalie Goh-Livorness. Nathalie is a gaming evangelist from Microsoft who has worked with many developers over the years, most notably credited on “World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria” while she was at Blizzard. She’s also worked in product development for Disney.com, responsible for the creating of movie, television and game websites.