Browsing Tag
Interview
157 posts
Let’s talk to the Caddis developer.
Digital Production spoke with developer Mike Gaynor about the creation and implementation of Caddis.
ZEISS LensCore is here
ZEISS explains how LensCore recreates physical lens behaviour inside Nuke, supports custom lenses and fits into professional VFX pipelines.
Workshop: Building a Real-Time Location
A practical workshop on reconstructing real locations in Unreal Engine, using Sonagraf’s Yoyogi project to explain each production decision.
Nukepedia Rebuilt, nuBridge Reloaded
An interview with Nukepedia founder Frank Rueter, one of the long-standing Nuke community voices, about the platform rebuild, nuBridge and the next steps for 2D Compositing tools.
Real Clay and Digital Ice Cream at Uber Eck
Clay sculptures, photos, Houdini MPM and Redshift made Kayak’s Greek ice cream statues melt on cue. Real dairy was less cooperative.
Splat happens: Volinga 3DGS workflow for Unreal
Volinga turns photo sets into Gaussian splats for Unreal, with local processing, PLY and NVOL export, cleanup tools, and relighting support. But what does that actually mean? Let's ask some questions!
Lux Aeterna rebuilds ancient humans
LiDAR caves, rigged skeletons, photogrammetry casts, and millimetre checks against research. Historical VFX gets very literal.
Das szenische Portal RT: When the Stage Starts Listening to the Music
Das szenische Portal RT combines Unreal Engine, live cameras, audio triggers and virtual scene control into a hybrid stage environment for live events. But how?
SpyderPro learns new tricks: where colour goes wrong
Datacolor is pushing beyond display profiling with Device Preview Plus, C2PA tracking, and a software layer that wants to help you with other duties as well.
RISE: Fallout Destroys LA, Politely
Los Angeles gets procedurally wrecked, Area 51 gets sand-blasted, and the Caswennan gets treated like a flying film set. We play 20 Questions with RISE.
Switching to Resolve: Selects and Assembly in Multicam editing
Two cameras, one interview, zero chaos: timecode sync, multicam cuts, gap trimming, quick audio leveling, and titles in Resolve Studio.
How Pixar Cheats a Skunk Tail
Kranzler talks Hoppers grooming and shading, including a layered wet-fur look and why skunks got a “cheated” tail.
MPC’s Cold Storage
MPC Paris delivered 575 shots on Cold Storage, from invisible fixes to slime, creatures and a nuclear finale. But how?
A World Divided: Shaping a Global WWII Epic at Overmind Studios
125 shots, six episodes, and a two-person team. VFX lead Tobias Kummer explained how Overmind Studios delivered geographic transformations, period cleanup, atmospherics, and a nuclear blast for A World Divided, built on disciplined templating and automation in Fusion.
Grading Kraken: insights from the colour grade
Senior Colourist Dylan Hopkin (Shortcut Oslo) outlines the grading process behind the new sci-fi film Kraken, and how contrast, colour and AI-assisted tools were used to support storytelling.
Cascadeur on physics, AI and control
Cascadeur explains how physics solvers and local AI shape modern keyframe animation. Physics-assisted keyframing and AI-generated Inbetweening sound like shorthand for automation. In practice, they describe a layered system that revolves around explicit poses, timing and animator intent.
Mnemonica sets out to fix digital cinema memory
Mnemonica Archive addresses digital film by treating preservation as an active, monitored process rather than passive storage.
Unreal Reality: Building A New Specimen
Director Dimitri Vallein breaks down the real-time production of his Unreal Engine short film New Specimen, from motion capture to cloth sims.
Infinity Hotel: Endless Rooms, Endless Renders
HFF Munich’s VFX students built Infinity Hotel, a hybrid short film merging live action with CGI, LiDAR scans, and Dolby Atmos sound.
Virtual Production Without the Disney Budget
A Rhode Island studio proves virtual production isn’t just for sci-fi. Door G’s team talks LEDs, Unreal, and the human side of real-time filmmaking.
How I Spent Five Years Making a Solo 3D Film
Maxim Gehricke spent five years creating his solo 3D short film SEN. Here’s how he did it without funding, team, or sleep.
Digital Domain welcomes IT to Derry
Digital Domain supervisors break down the design, rigging, lighting, and animation challenges behind the Skeleton Man creature for HBO’s return to the Stephen King universe.
Rendering the Inferno at RiseFX: The Lost Bus
128 shots, 15 sequences, and GPUs on the brink: RISE FX’s Oliver Schulz explains how his team built the burning world of The Lost Bus.
When Annabelle Grew Up: The Digital Domain Horror Pipeline
425 shots, one terrifying doll, and a CG mill town: Digital Domain’s Alex Millet explains how his team built the horror of The Conjuring: Last Rites and kept it real.
“A Model of Madness” Scott Ross Why VFX Fails as a Business
Scott Ross: VFX is “a model of madness.” ILM, Digital Domain, and decades later, the business still cannot stand on three legs.
The Cube Moved: Go for the Chaos (Ad) Vantage
Architecture Illustrators and Visualizers test Chaos Vantage for a narrative short and accidentally build a moving house. Unbox proves real-time previz can tell stories, not just sell floor plans.
Keep Your Pipeline: Chaos on Skipping the Game Engine
Chaos’ Chris Nichols explains how Chaos Arena and Chaos Vantage cut out the engine middleman with full ray tracing, open formats, and one asset for all.
Dolby Vision, Dolby Vision 2, and Beyond!
HDR isn’t just a jungle of acronyms on your TV box—though it may feel that way. To bring some order, we sat down with Michael Hackl from Dolby to talk about Dolby Vision, how it compares to HDR10 and HDR10+, how it is made, and what’s new in Dolby Vision 2.
Momo: Of Time, Turtles, and Technical Wizardry
VFX Supervisor Michael Wortmann on how RiseFX built the fantasy of Momo: almost entirely on location, with 280 shots and the best turtle in the business.
“Task Force Querlitz” Brings Adult Animation to ZDF
With Task Force Querlitz, screenwriter Simon Thummet, director Arne Hain and producer Sebastian Simon have achieved something rare:…
Jason Druss makes Premiere sparkle at IBC 2025
At IBC 2025, Adobe’s Jason Druss showed how Premiere Pro 25.5 brings Film Impact’s 90+ transitions and real-time effects into the core app. Time to test this!
Stitch Head!
“Stitch Head”: A charming animated adventure blending gothic charm, playful humor, and a heartfelt journey of self-acceptance, crafted by a team spanning multiple continents and pipelines.
TD Meetup 21: VR, Quill & the Renaissance of Real-Time Storytelling
At TD Meetup #21, Dan Franke showed how Quill VR lets you literally paint, animate, and pivot scenes in real time—no rig, just hand and headset.
After Effects Gets Hands-On: Victoria Nece Shows Off Quick Offset & Co.
At IBC 2025, I talked with Adobe’s Victoria Nece about Quick Offset, Smooth Zoom, and 3D compositing in After Effects. It’s tactile, fast and oddly fun.
RiseFX on Heads of State: Explosions, Statues, and Digital Diplomacy
500 shots, one exploding limo, and statues aimed at helicopters: Rise FX brings high-stakes action to Heads of State with a new Riseflow pipeline.
Digital Domain on Fantastic Four: From Baby Mocap to Bearded Rock
Digital Domain’s Phil Cramer explains Fantastic Four VFX: Masquerade3, Baby Franklin, The Thing’s beard, and multi-vendor Marvel pipelines.
Realtime Department’s UNIQVUE: The Software Layer Behind Turnkey Corporate Studios
Hardware is nothing without brains. Realtime Department’s UNIQVUE adds the software intelligence to ARRI and Samsung’s turnkey corporate studio. Christoph Gockel explains how.
ARRI Packs Virtual Production Into a Box
ARRI’s turnkey stage bundles LED wall, ALEXA 35, audio, and server into a scalable studio package with automation and colour management.
Matching Your Moves: Inside Vision Age VFX
Vision Age VFX specialises in high-end matchmove and rotoanim. Workflows, QC, case studies, and technical tips from Tunisia’s camera tracking experts.
We have to talk about Switchlight 2.0
Beeble’s SwitchLight 2.0 turns raw plates into PBR maps that can be relit like CG. Now trained on 13× more data and extended to full-scene maps, not just the subject. We spoke with co-founder Hoon Kim about what’s new, how it’s priced, and where 3.0 is headed.
Next-Gen Cloud Rendering for Blender? Meet Praxilla!
Praxilla offers Blender cloud rendering with Cycles and Eevee, starting at 2.50 € per GPU hour. Secure, fast, and aiming for collaborative rendering.
Tomato Warfare: Milk VFX on Heads of State
Milk VFX Supervisor David Sadler-Coppard on how the team built thousands of CG tomatoes, exploding doors, and digital crowds for Heads of State.
These Are the Clones You’re Looking For: Hoplite VFX Fires Up ‘Star Wars: The 212’
Hoplite VFX trades stormtrooper aim for clone trooper precision in Star Wars: The 212. Producer Maurine Fauvert reveals how a two-artist side project turned into a full-blown studio production, complete with Move AI mocap, Blender’s GPU power, and some very unlucky troopers.
Still Taping? You Should Be: Why LTO Is the Only Backup That Ages Well
Your backup drive will die. Your cloud costs will rise. But a £100 tape will quietly last 30 years, if you treat it right. Yes, LTO still matters.
Crossbow: Workflow Automation for VFX & Animation
Four years of R&D, zero spreadsheets, no more copy-pasting shot status—Crossbow promises a less painful way to manage VFX and animation projects. In this interview, Jindrich Cervenka explains what Crossbow shoots, why it matters, and why you still need a mid-range GPU.
Lola Post’s VFX Survival Guide on Walking with Dinosaurs
Lola Post’s Rob Harvey shares VFX details on Walking with Dinosaurs 2025: 800 shots, 200 artists, Unreal Engine for dinosaurs, and zero Jurassic Park liberties.
Skeleton Crew: How Halon Gave Ms. Blue Her Digital Bones
Halon preserved an 87-foot blue whale skeleton for AR using LiDAR, photogrammetry, and good timing—thanks to a foggy morning jog.
Thunderbolts* Vaults: Digital Domain on Marvel’s Most Grounded Brawl
Digital Domain VFX Producer Ryan Wilk breaks down Marvel’s Thunderbolts* vault chaos, Ghost phasing, and why less is more for photoreal CG.
Crossbow Confidential: PFX’s Digital Dashboard Keeps ‘Locked’ Rolling
PFX marshals 60 artists, a lidar-scanned SUV and its Crossbow app to steer 750 shots for Locked through four months of frantic VFX.
Strange New Virtual Production Worlds!
It's a good time for us Trekkies - between Discovery and Lower Decks, between Picard and Strange New Worlds, there's something for everyone - finally again! But there's a lot going on behind the scenes - because the first big show to be filmed on a Virtual Production Stage was Star Trek: Discovery. And right after that - almost simultaneously - came Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. As it was definitely worth seeing, we asked what you can expect from your big VP production.
The Hungarian Dressmaker – by PFX
Not every historic drama is created equal - "The Hungarian Dressmaker" rebuild a world barely out of reach of living memory, and we got a chance to talk to PFX artists and artisans about rebuiling 1940' s Bratislava and Biskupice
WeFX Saddles Up for “1923”
From pristine scans to viscous blood foam: how 50 artists spent six months on 20 shots that make one horse’s final tumble painfully believable.
LiDAR scanning for Everybody!
Scanner veteran Lawren Bancroft-Wilson gives us a look behind the curtain on Lidar Scanning for VFX and Post.
Digital Domain vs. the Nether Horde: Behind the VFX of Minecraft
When Warner Bros. enlisted Digital Domain to tackle the final battle in Minecraft: The Movie, they weren’t just signing up for blocks and shaders...
Rise FX saves christmas?
When Red One dropped last this year, audiences got get a holiday cocktail of Jumanji-style action (The director…
Red Poppies, Bears and Open Source!
Polish war drama Red Poppies (Czerwone Maki) brings the Battle of Monte Cassino to the big screen with over 400 VFX shots, 120 of which were crafted by Polish VFX studio Imaginary Pixels. And the team relied on open-source tools?
Trailmakers from Denmark!
Game trailers should make you interested in the game, obviously, and since we can't wait for Trialmakers 2, the trailer did its job - so, we are talking to the creatives behind the trailer!
Inspiring Artists – Episode 08 | Ft Alexander Richter
In this episode, we dive into Alexander Richter’s inspiring journey as he shares insights into his career as…
Architectural visualisation in a war zone
Let's do a 3D reconstruction of the Museum of Western and Eastern Art with Rhino and Blender in Odessa (Ukraine)!
Mufasa heads to MPC
The Prequel of a remake of a animated movie, based on a Shakespeare play... and still worth watching! We got a Chance to talk to Audrey Ferrara, MPCs VFX Supervisor for Mufasa
IBC 2024 Adobe Premiere Pro News with Francis Crossman
Francis Crossman shows the new color management, the properties panel and the new look of the Adobe Premiere GUI.
Digital Domain Lets Agatha Fly
The prettiest Marvel show this year was "Agatha All Along" Time to ask Digital Domain how they did that!
IBC 2024 Frame.io with JJ Powell
The new version 4 of Fram.io has many workflow improvements. And JJ Powell explains how the Frame.io team uses Frame.io in their own workflow.
IBC 2024 Adobe AI News with Anton Knoblach
A second IBC-Interview: Anton Knoblach talks about the new AI features coming to Firefly. This german interview is translated with the new subtitle translation in Adobe Premiere.
TD Meetup 12: Technical Interview
What Does It Take to Nail a Technical Interview in VFX, Animation, and Games?
World VFX Day 2024: Live Event Details and Highlights
World VFX Day kicks off this Friday with over 20 hours of talks, interviews, and showcases, streaming live from Tokyo and available online.
Hff’s Little Star
Every year, the VFX programme at HFF Munich produces various projects that break new creative ground. These include the animated mixed-media short film "Little Star", which brings a touching encounter to life through a combination of traditional hand-drawn 2D animation and 3D computer animation. But how exactly was the film made?
Through the Woodlands
Creatures made of tree branches and roots seem to have a firm place in the history ofVFX. Just…
How to Persuade Competing VFX Studios to Cooperate
How can you get a number of companies that are in extreme competition with each other and, therefore, do not trust each other to work together? You introduce an independent third organization in which all competitors are jointly involved.
Ghosts at the HFF
A humanoid robot leans against a car, smoking, with a dog sitting opposite. They enjoy the sunset together.
Fallout!
Most of us have played an episode or two of Fallout - and were cautiously pleased when Amazon Prime announced a film adaptation. Turns out the first season was a lot of fun - and had some great shots. Some of the best came from Rise FX - so we connected our Pip-Boy to the bunker in Berlin and asked the artists!
Look development between DoP & colourist
There's a word on everyone's lips at the moment: "look development".
DoP Matthias Bolliger and colourist Louise "Lou" Temmesfeld take a look behind this term.
Kay’s script helper with AI!
AI is the big hype in every industry - at least if you believe breathless marketers who write newsletters to each other that nobody reads. But what if a VFX supervisor took on the topic? What does it do approximately? And now let's find out ....
Intelligent Media Assistant?
Isn't it time to say goodbye to old workflows? And put the hype surrounding AI to good use? Instead of breathless marketeer newsletters that nobody reads anyway, there are also useful applications - for example Cara One.
WIND UP – Family drama on a desert island
As part of their second year of study, students from the VFX specialisation joined forces with all other departments at the Munich University of Television and Film to create a short film. This ambitious project combines various disciplines of the HFF and tells a dramatic story using visual effects.
From the left..
Nomen est omen. When reading the company name "Left Angle", anyone with any mathematical knowledge will think: "There's no such thing!" And it's a bit like that with your product, Autograph: a new compositing and motion design application that stands up to comparison with Nuke and After Effects. That doesn't even exist. Or is there?
Fritzi & Sophie
The cinema film of the story was produced in classic 2D. For the series, we opted for the "third dimension". This presented us with new challenges, but also opened up completely new doors. Blender was our main tool.
The easy Cloudrendering?
There are many, many companies offering cloudrendering services – and most tell you how you can tweak everything, you have all the control –
and therefor you also need a TD and DEEP pockets, because the first time the bill from the cloud infrastructure arrives, it’s going to be massive.
Shotgrid at the discounter?
It's not just VFX studios that have digital assets of all kinds - CGI pipelines are now
now run through all industries. We take a look at what a discounter is doing with Shotgrid (formerly Shotgun).
The power of the crowd
Looking back: In DP 03 : 2015, Lighting Boy Studio realised the film project Le Gouffre. A Kickstarter campaign brought the animated film over the finishing line. An animago AWARD-nominated short film.
Flight of fancy | Retro article
Review: In DP 06 : 2014, the second instalment of Planes rotated its way into the inbound flight path. Disneytoon Studios increased the budget for software licences and personnel at the time - but does the film come close to Disney-Slash-Pixar major productions such as Frozen or Brave?
CityEngine meets Omniverse
Omniverse in its various components can serve as a "meeting point" for the various DCC packages and their output - and now everyone is wondering
and now everyone who wants to work with it is wondering how well it works. So let's just ask Simon Haegler from the CityEngine team how well you can develop with the Nvidia environment.
Between HFF and VHS | Retro article
Looking back: A special film school opened in Mannheim in DP 06 : 2014. The non-profit organisation Flimmermenschen views film as a holistic cultural phenomenon. An educational programme for students, hobbyists and newcomers to the industry.
Star for Stuttgart | Retro article
Review: In DP 06 : 2014, we went into conversation with performance capturing pioneer Andy Serkis - chatting about Planet of the Apes. An encounter at FMX 2014.
More locations, more VFX!
Looking back: In DP 03 : 2015, we found out that Rise Visual Effects Studios has been around since 2007 - eight years later, in 2015, it even had four locations. Founder Florian Gellinger explained to us how the expansion of the VFX business was achieved.
Strange New Worlds in Norway
When we talked about the Virtual Production of Strange New Worlds, we only talked about one side – the interiors and strange
planets. But Star Trek is called STAR Trek –
so who made the Spaceships?
A memorable VFX project
Review: In DP 06 : 2013, we spoke to VFX supervisors Thilo Ewers (Pixomondo) and Paul Lambert (Digital Domain) about the science fiction film Oblivion - and about Tom Cruise's 3D model.
Interview zu Cloud Atlas
Review: In DP 02 : 2013, we spoke to Florian Gellinger, founder of VFX studio Rise, about the David Mitchell film Cloud Atlas. The sci-fi epic was realised by: the Wachowski siblings.
Studio Validations from Nvidia | Kostenloser Artikel
Brought to you by notebooksbilliger.de: In this in-depth interview with Senior Technical Product Manager Rick Napier we talked about Nvidia Studio. What is it and how does it work?
Back in Dinoland
Review: In DP 01 : 2016, "Jurassic World" celebrated its opening. We asked VFX supervisor Martyn Culpitt from Image Engine for a chat - about impressive CG environments and even more impressive CG dinosaurs. Who is the biggest pipeline eater?
The owner of Rise talks about VFX entrepreneurship
This is also part of entrepreneurship: the boss as a hotline. In other words, why does Rise use humorous memes for its marketing? And what does this have to do with VFXs?
Building a healthy and productive team w/ Christopher Hiess | 21 Artist Show 017
Lead Lighting Technical Director at Double Negative London talks about what makes a healthy corporate culture in the visual effects industry.
What do VFX recruiters expect from applicants?
In this episode of 21 Artist Show, Animal Logic's Recruitment Supervisor chats about applications - and how up-and-coming talent gets their foot in the door of the industry.
Leave your home country for a VFX career?
Aiming for an international career in the VFX industry? Victor Perez is a freelance visual effects supervisor from Spain who now works in the UK. How did he manage the transnational balancing act?
Germany in Baselight
A look back: In DP 01:2019, we took a look at high-end grading with Baselight. We also spoke to Rotor Film about HDR material and the Amazon series "Deutschland 86".
Interview about the company history of “Pacific Data Images”
Company founder Carl Rosendahl chats about his VFX company PDI, visual effects in the 90s and 0s - and the legendary company's memento mori in 2015.
Framestore kills Tom Cruise
Review: In DP 06:2014, we looked to London - and to the effects of sci-fi gem "Edge of Tomorrow", in which Tom Cruise dies a thousand deaths.