Looking for a successful career in the Visual Effects, Animation, and Games industry?
Tune in to the 21 Artist Show. We're talking to the top creators, artists, and engineers about their careers, the lessons they've learned, and how to make an impact. Providing valuable insights and advice for anyone looking to succeed in the industry.
Season 1
On Season 1 our guests share their different and sometimes unusual careers in Visual Effects, Animation and Games. Learn how films and games are made and what it takes to get there.
Paul Kanyuk a Lead Technical Director at Pixar Animation Studio who was working there for the last 14 years and involved in one of my favorite movies of all time ... Ratatouille. His impressive resume also includes Cars, Wall-E, UP, Brave and Finding Dory.
Carl Rosendahl former President of PDI (Pacific Data Images) a company that started working on visual effects, producing computer-generated graphics for broadcast networks, TV shows, commercials and films such as “Batman Forever,” “The Arrival,” “Terminator 2,” and “Toys”. They later expanded into feature animation, with 1998’s “Antz” followed by “Shrek” in 2001 which went on to win the Oscar for best animated feature in 2002. DreamWorks acquired PDI in 2000 renaming it PDI/DreamWorks.
It is an often stressful situation and feels like playing chess with your opponent. While you're trying to get the highest buck for your services the company on the other side tries to underbid you to the lowest possible costs.
Oliver Hollis-Leick, an actor and performance capture specialist who has worked in the industry for 15 years. With almost 100 credits to his name, including Iron Man 2, Ant Man, Hitman, the Master Chief in Halo, Call of Duty, Quantum Break, Until Dawn and many more.
Eugenie von Tunzelmann is a VFX supervisor and engineer at Framestore focusing on theme park rides. We talk about Interstellar, Theme Park Rides and how a career change can spark your passion.
Nicolas Leblanc who is a CG supervisor and Lead Modeler working at Industrial Light & Magic, Framestore, MPC and Mikros. Nicolas started his career with commercials and music videos until he switched over to VFX working on films like The Jungle Book, Avengers: Infinity War, Thor: Ragnarok, Dr. Strange, Guardians Of Galaxy, Man of Steel, World War Z, Prometheus and many more.
Season 2
Season 2 explores the unique culture behind the careers in Visual Effects, Animation and Games.
Sabine Heller is the Global Head of Character Animation and Rigging at Mikros Animation and worked incredible 12 years in the Rigging department at Blue Sky Studios until its recent closure.
Together we talk about her Rigging career from a Junior to the Head of Characters, her experiences at Blue Sky Studios, the feature animation films she worked on and the final days of a legendary studio in 2021.
Gael Kerchenbaum is currently the Creature Specialist at Facebook AI. Before that he worked as a Creature Supervisor at DNEG, creature artist at Axis Animation and many more while teaching sculpting and anatomy at CGMA and all around the globe.
Andrew Schlussel who was the Director of Global Talent Development at Framestore and is now the Head of Education and Training at Netflix Animation. Before that he was an Instructor at Pixar Animation Studios, Global Head of Training and Development at MPC and Education Manager at DreamWorks Animation just to name a few.
Allan McKay is a Visual Effects Supervisor, Director, Producer and Content Creator. Before that he worked as an FX TD at Blur, Industrial Light & Magic, Pixomondo and many more on Transformers, Game of Thrones, God of War and Half Life 1.
Carl Schroeter is a senior compositor at DNEG and worked previously 5 years for Industrial Light & Magic on Star Wars 8, 9, Solo: A Star Wars Story and The Mandalorian.
Carl Rosendahl was the former President of PDI (Pacific Data Images) a company focused on visual effects, producing computer-generated graphics for broadcast networks, TV shows, commercials and films such as “Batman Forever”, “The Arrival”, “Terminator 2,” and “Toys”. DreamWorks acquired PDI in 2000 renaming it PDI/DreamWorks.
Victor Perez is a director, visual effects supervisor and compositor working at Double Negative, Cinesite Studios, Union VFX and many more on films like Harry Potter, The Dark Knight Rises and Pirates of the Caribbean.
Jimmy Ockey is currently the Recruiting Department Supervisor at Animal Logic. For over 6 years he supported his team there, recruited and trained future talent.
Christopher Hiess is a supervisor, lead and engineer working for Double Negative and the Foundry. Chris was my lighting supervisor on the Heinzels animation feature film and I could experience his team management style in person.
Florian Gellinger is the Owner and VFX Producer of RISE. RISE created the visual effects for some of the biggest movies and series in recent history: Avengers, Matrix 4, The Kings Man, Stranger Things, Loki and many more.
Hugo Guerra is a Director, Supervisor, Teacher and Compositor in Visual Effects and Video Game cinematics.
About the Author
I'm Alexander, an Award-Winning Technical Director & Coach in Visual Effects, Animation and Games. My skills are solving technical problems, simplifying workflows and mentoring career goals.
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