Ten Giant Robots

By Ten Giant Robots

An in-depth look behind the curtain at Hollywood visual effects, the craft of storytelling, and the people who make magic for screens both big and small. Hosted by showbiz veterans and new media entre... more

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FAQs about Ten Giant Robots:

How many episodes does Ten Giant Robots have?

The podcast currently has 24 episodes available.

Ten Giant Robots episodes:

November 13, 2015 Episode 7 - The Metacast and a Meat-Based Raytracer - Ten Giant Robots
Episode 7 – The Metacast – It’s Labor Day! – Tim’s Vermeer – A Meat-Based Raytracer

* We talk about getting our podcast up and running, Tim's Vermeer, and the trials and tribulations of starting a new job

* And working while sick and how stalwart that is of us VFX workforce
* HipChat is our behind the scenes tool for collaboration

* We’re not cool enough to use Slack

* Obama addressed the nation for Labor Day

* …and appealed to lawmakers to create paid sick days nationwide
* California does have a part-time workers sick day policy now!

* Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland
* “Working for the credit” … still doesn’t pay the bills
* Day After Tomorrow
* Van Helsing
* A little insight into the dark magic of how credits are doled out
* The Tim Ferris interview with Robert Rodriguez is pretty insightful

* Segue mastery is demonstrated

* …and then botched by PJ forgetting Tim Jenisen’s last name! So sorry!

* Tim’s Vermeer

* Official TGR Recommendation: See this documentary! #vfxcanon
* The execution of art verses technical mastery – is there a difference?
* Vermeer was a 17th Century Dutch Master of painting that was seemingly ahead of its time
* Optical aberrations explained

* Bokeh

* David Hockney book Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters
* My Kid Could Paint That
* Camera Obscura

* Santa Monica’s Camera Obscura

* Spoiler alert — Remember – DO see this movie!

* The likely technique explained

* Our money is on this being a correct conclusion

* Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

* Mort Drucker

* High level discussion of crafting a movie vs animating creatures
* Behind the scenes on Jurassic World – mocapping dinosaurs
* Spielberg's Moving Master Shots

As always, you can contact us on our Facebook page or Twitter. Let us know what you think, if you have any questions, or if there's anything you might like us to cover in the future!
...more
1h 11min
October 30, 2015 Episode 6 – Master of All; Jack of None - Ten Giant Robots
Episode 6: We continue our journey into our Hollywood destinies while Sean tries to recall all the times he's been fired. Meanwhile, Efram just chooses to win his way into your television.

* Sean got fired from True Lies…
* …And the Playboy News

* Richard Jeni

* …and Starbucks
* Photoshop leads to a photo restoration job at A and I
* Which leads to performing color correction at Foundation Imaging

* Sherry Hitch
* Charlie White

* Efram starts at Project Greenlight, Season 2 (2003)

* He wanted to create CG bugs for his short
* Learned Maya via DVD lessons from Gnomon
* Giant bug short: Insex
* A generic definition for Maquette. Not to be confused with Chris Marquette, star of…
* …the giant bug movie is “Infestation” aka “Big Bugs Panic” in Japan, which we always get a kick out of
* Shout outs to Dilated Pixels, a VFX and Production company in Hollywood
* Infestation, the first project from Dilated Pixels, received a VES Nomination for “Best VFX In a Miniseries or Special”. Not too shabby
* And the award we didn't get: that shiny thing in the middle of the page

* Sony Imageworks, now headquartered in Vancouver, Canada
* Dreamwork's Animation; still American
* Situations we often run into while “in the muck”

* Inheriting or taking over a project and trying to decipher what is going on and how to finish it off

* Usually not possible to start from the existing assets and solve the issues

* 5k RED footage
* Pipelines!

* Every studio does it their own way and with their own choice of software and how it interoperates
* Have your own contingency plan
* Every size project needs artist orientation
* Kevin Geiger's FMX/08 YouTube video (there are many parts to this presentation)
* Life of a Shot with Jeff Scheetz, founder of the DAVE School. Now leading Monkey Chow Productions
* Working on Roughnecks (IMDb)

* Diversions

* Efram has just seen Tim's Vermeer
* Tim Jenison of Newtek
* PJ likes his HBO Now, now! now!
* Sean brings up a tear-jerking and profound episode of Radio Lab<...
...more
1h 23min
October 20, 2015 Episode 5 – Breaking In Is Hard To Do - Ten Giant Robots
We talk about what it takes to get “that big break.” What does that mean? And who’s been doing a lot of lording? And does your break need Star Trek?

* !! Semi-spoiler alerts for… Mad Men and General Hospital! Whaaa? !!
* Old Business

* Sean drops a name he dropped before: Dave Smith, professor at Ball State, who helped Sean get his break

* What it means to break into Hollywood

* Dave Letterman gives Sean a scholarship
* More name dropping: Jeff Parise
* What is the “big break?”

* at 15:00 — hardware goes haywire! Sorry about that…

* We mix metaphors like a DJ mixes language tapes
* Grandpa’s advice on expecting and using downtime
* An aside about shifts in casting bias
* Adaptation by Spike Jones. A great movie. A must see.
* How PJ got his job at Foundation Imaging

* Foundation Imaging
* Ron Thornton
* Paul Bryant
* Rob Bonchune
* Mojo

* SciFi Channel (now SyFy, of course) Exposure
* Efram’s entry

* 405, the short

* Bruce Brannit
* 2G Digital Post
* SnP work
* Me, Myself & Irene
* This is what happens when you find a stranger in the alps
* Project Greenlight, Season 2
* Efram and Kyle’s entry video
* And their Project Greenlight challenge video

* And the new series, on HBO

* Ray Wise
* And some short films Efram made, back in the day:

* Pennyweight, the short film
* They Came To Attack Us, another short film
* Alias, The Lost Episode

* Sean’s internship with Edgar Sherick

* Peter Lamont
* Charles Lee

* The takeaway: If you wanna make movies or VFX, you gotta make movies or make VFX!

As always, you can contact us on our Facebook page or Twitter. Let us know what you think, if you have any questions, or if there’s anything you might like us to cover in the future!
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1h 33min
September 27, 2015 Episode 3 – Don’t Not Go - Ten Giant Robots
The guys artificially talk intelligently about artificial intelligence in movies. Discussion includes the feature film Ex Machina, and its astounding visual effects.

* Old Business

* PJ Mentions

* Choose Yourself Guide to Wealth by James Altucher
* Become an Idea Machine by Claudia Altucher

* Sean Mentions

* Made to Stick by Dan Heath and Chip Heath
* Oscar Wilde’s shorter letter attribution? Maybe not.
* The Inverted Pyramid

* Ex Machina, Directed by Alex Garland

* There will be spoilers! But not in these notes
* The Turing Test
* Film Critic Hulk on Ex Machina
* Technopoly by Neil Postman
* Clarification: Sean specifically meant Facebook psychological experiments. Learn about it on the always excellent RadioLab podcast
* What PJ was trying to come up with for tone and feel was The Ghost Writer, by Roman Polanski
* Giorgio Mordor, creator of the synth-dance-techno sound
* Ex Machina was primarily filmed in Norway and England
* VFX Companies Responsible for Ex Machina’s fantastic effects

* Double Negative’s show reel
* Milk VFX

* Special effects by Millennium FX

* Discoveries and Distractions

* Efram has been working on his own short film. Check it out (More sites and updates coming up in the future)
* Podcast listening app on iPhone: Overcast
* PJ bought happiness when he obtained a MyPillow
* Sean is checking out an online Masterclass course with Dustin Hoffman

As always, you can contact us on our Facebook page or Twitter. Let us know what you think, if you have any questions, or if there’s anything you might like us to cover in the future!
...more
1h 11min

FAQs about Ten Giant Robots:

How many episodes does Ten Giant Robots have?

The podcast currently has 24 episodes available.