Yellow Brick Road

With the Covid pandemic roaming the world, many of us will spend the holidays in lockdown, at home in our private quarantine stations. A perfect opportunity to watch great series and movies. Join Yellow Brick Road’s Harrison Ryder, Matilda Olsson and Nils Lagergren as they talk about their favourite series to binge watch during the strange pandemic holiday season of 2020.

Director Emnet Mulugeta, Art Director Gustaf Holmsten and Executive Producer Jan Cafourek discuss the Goodbye Kansas production of the release trailer for Ubisoft’s great game Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.

How do you plan a production like this, where do you find inspiration and how do you create a connection between the viewer and the main character?

Retro-futuristic artist Simon Stålenhag, songwriter/producer Jens “Duvchi” Duvsjö and Goodbye Kansas VFX supervisor Staffan Linder discuss the production of Stålenhag’s directorial debut: the music video for Duvchi’s latest single “Geronimo”. What’s the story behind the song, what was the vision behind the video and how did Goodbye Kansas create the visual effects for this mesmerizing “visual extension” of the song.

As the Corona virus pandemic continues to terrorize the world, films like “Contagion” and “Outbreak” are more popular than ever. The movie history is filled with films about plagues and pandemics and in episode #47, Yellow Brick Road’s Nils Lagergren, Matilda Olsson and Harrison Ryder discuss some favourites from this infectious genre.

The VFX industry is a very international one and many of the artists at Goodbye Kansas Studios in Stockholm have moved here from abroad. In ep 46, we meet three of them: Bidding Producer Julia Ferguson, Pipeline Developer Stephen Hada and Tiffany Johansson from the Frontdesk team.

What are the best (and worst) things about working and living in Sweden, what exactly is “fika” and why is company culture so important?

In episode #45, Yellow Brick Road’s Nils Lagergren meets Daniel Bystedt (Senior Character Artist & Head of Modeling Department at Goodbye Kansas) to discuss his career, tutorials and why the Blender software has become such a big part of his work as an artist.

In episode #44 the Yellow Brick Road leads straight to Hell, as Senior Animator Staffan Linder and CG Supervisor Hannes Drossel share their stories from Goodbye Kansas’ VFX production for the latest Hellboy film.

How do you cope working with effects that include people getting impaled and torn apart by nightmarish demons? And is it true that some CG artists look at cute kitten clips on youtube to wind down after a working day filled with blood and gore?

We also talk about other demons in popular culture, including the classic beast in “Curse of the demon” (1957) and Krampus, the hoofed goat demon who might turn up on your doorstep around Christmas if you’re on Santa’s “naughty list”…

How do you marry Motion Capture and FX to create a commercial about crash test data and car safety - inspired by modern dance? In episode #43 of our podcast Yellow Brick Road we meet two members of the Goodbye Kansas team that created the visual effects and imagery for the multi-awarded campaign “Volvo: The E.V.A. Initiative”: VFX Producer Linda Öhlund and FX guru Filip Orrby.

How was the film made, how do you go about to find the right look for a film like this and how does it feel to be part of such a successful campaign?

How does it feel to animate a returning character for a commercial, is it like meeting an old friend? What kind of animation style is the most rewarding one to work with, and how do you make a plain egg express feelings? In episode #42 of our podcast Yellow Brick Road, we discuss a bunch of characters from different commercials. Senior Animator & Animation Director Rickard Engqvist and Supervising Animator & Head of Keyframe Animation Raoul Cacciamani walk down memory lane and talk about characters like the Freddy (“spokeschameleon” for Müller Milch’s Froop), Frank the Sheep (“spokessheep” for Swedish telecom brand Tele2), Vinnie (“spokeshorse” for ATG), the oddball Brilleland eyeballs and the German oldtimer Kleine Hunger (spokesperson for Müller Milch)

Also: the toe fungus film that made it to Superball and a trip around the world in an animated puppet world for flygresor.se.

The mission was to show the pre-history of the Persian Gulf in 16K full CG films, involving extinct animals, underwater sceneries and even the cosmic Big Bang that started it all. The result can be seen projected on the huge gallery walls of the brand new National Museum of Qatar in Doha and in episode 41 of our podcast Yellow Brick Road we meet three key members of the Goodbye Kansas team that made it happen: VFX Producer Rebeca Cervantes, VFX Supervisor Filip Orrby and Compositing artist Hannah Myllyoja.