Tag Archive for: interview

VFX Pro Joseph Lawson Talks about the Visual Effects in ‘On Fire’

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Joseph Lawson has been in the field of Visual Effects for over 20 years, with credits on iconic movies and shows like The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Star Trek: Enterprise, and many films from The Asylum (the Sharknado series). The father-son team at Lawson Digital Arts bring us their latest work with On Fire (dir. Peter Facinelli & Nick Lyon), a thriller inspired by true events about a family escaping from a raging forest fire. With the movie in theaters nationwide, we sat down with Joseph to talk about visual effects.

P: Congrats on On Fire‘s reception! We’re looking forward to seeing it on the big screen.
J: Thanks so much! We’re proud to be part of On Fire using ProductionCrate elements as part of our VFX toolkit!


P: The VFX team for On Fire was relatively small for a feature-length, natural disaster movie; What kind of challenges did this present? Were there any benefits?
J: My son and I are probably the only father-son VFX team I know of in the world.  We have a lot of experience tag-teaming and working with each others strengths to make shows like On Fire come together.   We’re also hyper organized which helps us do a lot more than average. Tons of lower budget film experiences has taught us how to leverage budgets to make things look like more than the budget by the time folks experience them. As a director myself it’s possible to know what helps organically tell the film-maker’s story in a way that integrates visually without being too much VFX flashy. Ideally most folks won’t always realize we’re there at all. The biggest challenge was going from what was a project with 150 planned to 389 delivered shots.  A lot of fire effects planned for on set came to us out of genuine safety concerns. Fortunately we have a robust internal pipeline and organizational setup using ShotGrid that enables us to do a project of this scope.  The producers also gave us a generous amount of time to do the work.  The benefit of our two-person team (with some tracking/matte help from Joseph’s friend Elijah Morrow) is we have the visual shorthand and shared respect to trust each other with any task.


P: What made you want to pursue visual effects? What was your gateway to working professionally?
J: When I was 12 living in Okinawa I was a huge Star Trek fan. Some friends and I did Super 8mm short films so I knew I wanted to be a director. Doing our special effects got me hooked on that. Silent Running, Space:1999 and Star Wars, of course, confirmed my life goals. After a career in broadcasting radio and television including commercials with effects and being a weather announcer, I started a graphics business that did animation in Montana using LightWave 3D. I married my darling Kelly then got a job on Roughneck’s: The Starship Troopers Chronicles at the legendary Foundation Imaging (Babylon 5, Hypernauts).  This brought us to Valencia, California where we raised our son and daughter while I worked for various studios over almost two decades.  That included everything from The Global Asylum as VFX supervisor for seven years (and directing five of their movies) to Rhythm & Hues plus Digital Domain and so many great places and projects. With over 200 IMDB listings and growing it’s hard to give them all individual proper credit due.


P: What do you consider the biggest sea change in the time that you’ve worked as a VFX Artist/Supervisor?
J: There have been so many changes but one huge one is the availability of tools to a wide range of artist.  The hardware has gotten faster and cheaper, the software more capable and the availability of tools like ProductionCrate that provide elements and more to we creators quickly via internet makes it possible for us to create from anywhere there’s adequate speedy connection like our place here on the North Coast of Oregon.  And it’s all only getting better for those with tools, talent and desire to create.

P: What made Blender & After Effects the ideal tools for creating the VFX in On Fire?
J: Blender has become a perfect tool for freelance and boutique shops looking for a wide range of ever growing/improving capabilities.  We still leverage other software like LightWave when needed.  After Effects has always worked well for us and since we have so much experience; So many presets and plug-ins, it’s hard to change.  With AE’s color capabilities coming of age during On Fire we were able to integrate elements better than ever before.


P: Were there any lessons learned while working on a project like On Fire? Were there any unexpected hurdles?
J: Every show has its unique challenges, and for On Fire it was having to integrate so much fire into practical footage that was initially planned for live on set. We couldn’t do that because the forest floor was tinder-dry, forcing us to do even the smaller fire work in post.  That was also the biggest unexpected hurdle along with a lot of invisible effects like clocks, monitor screens, crew paint outs.  It was a long post period for a reason!

P: Which shot/sequence are you most excited for people to see?
J: The family fire chase sequence is pretty scary cool narrative and works.  A lot of my sons 100 percent CG shots are fantastic throughout the movie. I’m so proud of the artist he’s grown to be since starting almost a decade ago at age 14. That’s all him! He has an astounding future!


P: Did working on shots set mostly at night present any unique obstacles?
J: It actually made our job easier, especially because Chris Wilks and his stunt/effects team (along with the amazing lighting crew) set up some fantastic light sources to dramatically tell the director Nick Lyon’s and writer Ron Peer’s story.  We added the fires where needed and motivated by them. The main challenge it caused was tracking and lots of roto.  TONS of roto.  The lady on fire sequence was one of the toughest for both yet most of it integrates well.  Scary stuff.

P: What are your favorite VFX shots/sequences that you didn’t work on?
J: My favorite sequence Joseph worked on were some CG point-of-view shots during a family driving sequence.  The burning buildings and trees are all CG with a mix of fire and spark elements including ProductionCrate selling it.

P: Who are the masters you looked-up to and learned from?
J: Of course, we all stand on the shoulders of giants and my inspirations are decidedly old school names.  So many hardworking TV and movie artists but especially Ray Harryhausen, Douglas Trumbull, Brian Johnson, Greg Jein, and John Dykstra’s whole ILM team from Star Wars. Then computer pioneer and later friends Ron Thornton, Adam Mojo Leibowitz, Mark Kochinski, Glenn Campbell and SO many other great coworkers who always inspired me with how much better they were and gracious to all me to learn from.  Too many great folks to list here.  I continue to be humbled and learn from them all even now.

P: Most movie audiences only see the end product and not what it used to look like; what are some common VFX responsibilities that most viewers wouldn’t even think about that need to be done?
J: Pre-visualization, shot choreography and design, database set-up and organization and shot progress/delivery tracking, plate downloads, preview and final uploads, thumbnail captures, timeline scrubbing, bidding, prep, tracking, roto, invisible/clean up effects, deciding on elements, prepping things like frame rates, outputs and color space in compositing, plug-in management, constantly learning new software updates and plug-ins, working with clients, zoom calls, invoices, taxes, our own IT work, storage and disk space management, keeping up on hardware and software… and much more like having a family life!


P: Do you have any wisdom for aspiring visual effects artists?
J: Learn your craft.  Love your chosen field.  Follow your passion with all your heart.  Appreciate what time and resources you have to do the best you can for any given project then forgive yourself enough so as to learn what to do better next time.  Build friendships.  Be reliable.  Under-promise, over deliver, be fair and be pleasant enough that people WANT to work with you again.  Have fun!  Otherwise why are we in this at all?

P: How/where/when can people support On Fire?
J: On Fire is in theatres nationwide! We’re proud to have helped the fantastic teams of artists and actors who gave their art, talents and passion honoring first responders and acknowledging the toll of real world tragedy with this heartfelt emotional family story. 

Michael Shanks – 36 Weeks of Unpaid VFX Work

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Michael Shanks, creator of Timtimfed, has been one of my favorite filmmakers for years. His webseries Wizards of Aus and his short films Rebooted and Time Trap are incredible and inspiring for any indie filmmaker. Check out our interview with him and hear what it takes to make it happen!

Meet Danny Shepherd – Director and VFX Artist

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I remember coming across a web series 6 years ago that got me excited for indie creators. Usually, webseries tend to bomb. Even when they’re well made, they tend not to get very many views, especially compared to the one-off videos a lot of creators release.

I get it. Watching a series is a commitment we tend to reserve for television, while Youtube is primarily where we watch our short form content. However, Youtube is still one of the best places for indie creators to find their audience, so if they do pull off the unlikely and make a successful series I give them extra props.

Danny Shepherd and the Ismahawk team did just that. In 2014 they released Nightwing: The Series, the first episode now has nearly 8 Million views. Danny and the team have since gone on to make action-packed viral videos, working with some of the top creators you know and love. He was kind enough to sit down with us and talk about their insane journey. Watch the highlights of the interview here.

Meet David Blaker – Lead 3D Artist at ProductionCrate

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David has been working with us since 2016, creating some of the most iconic visual effects the Crater community has seen. From explosions to 3D models, meet the creator behind some of your favorite assets. David walks us through some of his favorite software, how he’s finding success on Instagram and what his favorite dinosaur is! Watch the interview here –

From Youtuber to Hollywood – Interview with Chris Clements

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The first time I heard of Chris Clements was when my brother forwarded me “Star Wars SC38 Reimagined”, a wonderful video which reinvigorated the somewhat dated Visual Effects in the original Star Wars. The quality of the work was impressive, from the stunt to the effects.

We’ve been doing some interviews with various artists on our new Craters Youtube Channel,  and I figured this was a great time to get to know a bit more about Chris and the work he does. He told me about his start on Youtube creating fun VFX sketches and shorts. His Youtube channel was discovered by some folks in the industry, who contacted Chris for some work. From there he’s gone on to work for Hollywood films and TV shows such as Deadpool, Terminator: Dark Fate and Netflix’s The Punisher series. Check out the full interview here.

And if somehow you haven’t seen Scene 38 Reimagined, watch it now!

 

Over 1 Billion Views – ShutterAuthority Interview

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A lot of us talk about the good old days of ‘Early Youtube’. We like to look back five or ten years and remember the ridiculous sketches, mind-blowing short films, awkward music videos and the initially unique but now tired gimmicks.

 

There were also the early VFX legends inspiring new waves of artists. Corridor Digital, FreddieW (now RocketJump), and VideoCopilot to name just a few. Videos with consistently more impressive and more creative visual effects starting to pop up all over the place. The industry that seemed exclusive to high-budget blockbuster films had somehow found a place online. I can’t tell you the number of times friends and family have sent me an ActionMovieKid video or one of the seemingly endless Zack King clips. Somehow VFX artists have found themselves at the forefront of this insane, exciting and extremely delightful industry.

 

More lately than ever before it seems like Youtubers are pushing out content faster and faster. Quantity over quality has been a surprising evolution for online media. It’s not all bad, I do enjoy a lot of the new content, but I can’t help but miss ‘Early Youtube’. That’s why when I found ShutterAuthority, I was instantly sucked in.

 

Raghav and his team create VFX heavy internet shorts. Creativity, quality, style and uniqueness are squeezed into each video. Each short is fun to watch, with well developed story and comedic timing. Their content is a lot of ‘In Real Life’ videos and dream-battles that would never happen otherwise. Titles like The Terminator VS T-Rex and Packman In Real Life give you a good idea of what to expect.

 

Shutter Authority has over a Billion Views and 2 Million subscribers. Their story is inspiring for all Youtubers looking to build an audience and make awesome content. Check out the full interview below.

 

Godzilla VS Packman (26,553,185 views)

 

Chris: Godzilla VS Packman, Terminator VS T-rex, these are fantastic and really out-there ideas. How do you decide what video to make next?

 

Raghav AK: It’s usually a combination several factors; topics I’m passionate about, CG/VFX aspects I’ve been experimenting with that match the topic and if the topic has any topical value at the time.

 

Chris: You’ve started adding breakdowns at the end of your videos, why did you decide to start doing this?

 

Raghav AK: We get a ton of comments asking us how we make these videos and a lot of people don’t seem to know anything about VFX and other filmmaking techniques, so we thought we’d take the opportunity to give the audience a little sneak peak into the making of to bring awareness on what’s possible even for a very small team like ours.

 

Check out this awesome breakdown for Mega-Godzilla: King of the Universe

 

Chris: It seems like you’re able to release a project roughly every month. With the level of work that goes into each, I have to assume this is your full time job. Do you do client work as well?

 

Raghav AK: Yes, its quite a bit of work to take a video idea to completion, because we try to do most of the tasks in-house. Of course, we do use stock footage and other assets from sources like ProductionCrate, VideoCopilot, ActionVFX, Film Riot etc, which really help us make better quality work at a shorter turn around times. Yes, I do this full time and I do take up a little bit of client work if the project is very interesting and I find the time to pull it off alongside the videos for my channel.

 

Chris: What was your most difficult project to-date, and why?

 

Raghav AK: We worked on a 360 video based on Temple Run as a collaboration with Google Daydream. It was our first time working on a 360 video. Every shot was a VFX shot involving 3D CGI and most of them were moving camera shots that needed loads of clean up too. It took us nearly 3 months of non-stop work to pull this off.

 

 

Chris: After Effects and Blender seem like your preferred software, are there others you’d like to learn?

 

Raghav AK: Yes, AE and B3D seem like a perfect fit for an indie creator like me who needs to be able to quickly create semi complex shots for my short films. I’m currently working on improving my sculpting and texturing skills in Blender, but I’d love to learn Substance Painter to take the realism to next level. I’m also very impressed with TyFlow which is extremely powerful for simulations. Another tool that interests me EmberGen to create fluid sims in Real time.

 

Chris: You seem to start things off with a lot of preparation and planning. Can you explain what your process is like from idea to completion?

 

Raghav AK: Thank you! As you have seen in our making-of segments, I always like to break down a task into as many small tasks as possible. Our process is as follows:

 

  1. Writing the script
  1. Making storyboards. Run VFX tests in parallel to make sure what we’re aiming for is even possible
  1. Prepare for the shoot- and Shoot it
  1. Editing a rough cut, identifying and categorizing the VFX shots
  1. VFX Process
  1. Editing, colour grading and sound design.

 

Chris: What is the most surprising or exciting thing that has happened with Shutter Authority?

 

Raghav AK: We’ve had a lot of exciting things happen over the last few years, and some of them include going mega viral with more than half our videos, and accumulating 1B views in total on our channel, where 3 of our videos have surpassed 120M views. This to me is absolutely insane and I’d really love to thank our audience for supporting our work!

 

Chris: Whats advice can you give aspriring Youtubers?

 

Raghav AK: I’d encourage creators not to hesitate when experimenting with multiple ideas at the start to figure out what exactly they’d like to do on Youtube. Also make sure its something you truly love doing, because you might have to do it for a while before anything happens. I started my channel back in 2006 and it took me 7 years to hit 1,000 subscribers and 9 years for 10K. It only sped up later and took off to 1M in just 2 years after that.

 

It was only possible for me to stick around doing this kind of content for that long because I love making films with VFX and I’d be willing to do it regardless of whether I made money from it or not. Its ultimately about find a common intersection between something unique that you love to create and what people would love to watch.

 

Chris: What’s next?

 

Raghav AK: We have a bunch of cool short film ideas lined up for 2020 that involve Sci-fi, Robots and Dinosaurs. We’d love to do something bigger involving larger productions in the future around similar topics. Until then, Stay tuned for our youtube vids 😉

 

Make sure to visit ShutterAuthority on Youtube and subscribe if you haven’t already!

 

 

 

 

Youtuber Raz “Mr. AMG” Rehan Interview

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Youtube has it all. Big studio work, family videos, instructional tutorials of every kind, cats, more cats, meditation walkthroughs, music videos, gaming screencap, reviews and so much more. It’s absolutely massive. Youtube, more than any platform, has helped of connect people through their curiosity. It enables you to pursue, learn, teach and be entertained.

 

I don’t consider myself a ‘car person’, but that might be changing. I have watched an absurd amount of Remove Before Race in a very short period. It’s a Youtube channel that utilizes VFX, humor and impressive production-quality to review awesome cars. I had the privilege of interviewing Raz Rehan, the host of RBR. He tells us how he built a growing and successful Youtube channel, with over 150K subscribers, and where he wants go go next.

 

Here’s a great episode of RBR, full interview below!

 

 

Chris: Can you tell our viewers a bit about your channel?

 

Raz: Sure! Remove Before Race is on the face of it a car review channel like many others, but it has a big twist!

 

Alongside seeing reviews of the latest and greatest cars, we also use VFX to take the traditional car review to the next level. So if we talk about the engine then we’ll strip the body away in front of your eyes, or if we talk about another car we‘ll teleport it there in seconds. Its car reviews, just more fun!

 

Chris: What motivated the idea of using visual effects in your videos?  

 

Raz: I’m a big geek! I love film, TV, video games and comic books. So back when the channel was younger I experimented with incorporating that side of me into the content. It ended up really resonating with our viewers, who also love Star Wars, Mario, the Avengers and whatever else we throw into our videos as a surprise.

 

It’s given me a great USP, hence why FootageCrate is so invaluable to me: I just end up getting so many ideas from here!

 

Chris: That’s awesome to hear! Do you have any FootageCrate Effects you couldn’t find that you want us to create?


Raz: The more movie, super hero and video game effects the better for my channel! Really helps create themes around videos and keep things exciting. Perhaps even simple things like more animal renderings. Though top of my list would be a service that allows you to request the creation of a unique effect : that would be special!

 

Chris: For creators looking to build a Youtube Channel, do you have any suggestions?

 

Raz: Too many to give in one answer, but I’ll try! First and foremost, chase excellence of product, and success will follow! If you chase numbers you’re sure to fail, but make excellent content and it’s hard for viewers to ignore you.

 

Secondly, be yourself! It’s cliche, but by harnessing the power of my own nerdiness I  stumbled on the perfect unique niche for my channel. And don’t let what others are doing in your area of the market dissuade or effect you, focus on your craft.

 

Chris: Where do you want your channel to be in 5 years?

 

Raz: I’d love to have expanded the type of content we do, into some episodic car review series with our signature VFX, or heck even into things non-automotive!

 

But really most of all, I hope our library of old videos by that point, will be a joy to watch back.

 

 

 

 

Chris: I noticed you had some great sponsors for your videos, do you have any tips for finding sponsors?

 

Raz: Sponsors are firmly linked to quality of content for me, so as I said about, chase the quality and the demand will follow. There’s also no harm in asking companies that you see synergy with, and just starting a conversation!


Chris: Thanks, Raz!

If you’re into cars, or just want to see some high-quality work, check out RBR on Youtube.

Interview with Jared Rowe – VFX Artist and Motion Designer

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I came across Jared’s work not so long ago and was instantly impressed by his style and skill. Jared was kind enough to take the time to answer a few questions for us. If you’re looking to enter the field of Visual Effects or Motion Graphics then this interview is a must-read. Jared’s answers were enlightening and honest, and are helpful whether you’re just starting out or have been working in the field for as many years as I have.

 

Chris:

Thanks for doing this Q&A, Jared! Love your portfolio and all the work you’ve been doing. What software do you tend to use most often for your VFX and Motion Design work?

 

Jared:

Thanks, Chris! Stoked to be noticed and share my story.

 

Adobe After Effects is my compositing tool of choice, complemented with various plugins and scripts. All depending on the project I’m working on, of course.

 

If we’re talking my favorite workflow, that usually starts with either Cinema 4D or a similar 3D application which I use to create my main scene work – then finish with compositing and effects in After Effects.

 

I’ll admit though, I’m a sucker for experimenting with a wide range of software types. I even used the Unreal Engine recently for a big Esports client! With Unreal I was able to compile a 3D environment, which I then transferred to After Effects. I mixed in a barrage of ProductionCrate compositing effects, together with some of my own that I’ve created over the years. The final product turned out pretty awesome. The video below gives you a brief look into the making. 

 

 

Chris:

A lot of our users are interested in pursuing a career in this field. Any tips for getting started?

 

Jared:

Especially for new artists, there is an overemphasis and over-reliance on tools. I remember early on in my career, many in the community determined ‘skill’ by the software you used or the conferences you attended. I’ve seen this trend diminish recently, but there is still this expectation that you are required to have a specific application or plugin to be the best at what you do. This is false.

 

For me, the greatest teacher hasn’t been a course, or a mentor, or a YouTube tutorial. My greatest teacher has been failure. Don’t get me wrong, there are some incredible resources out there for learning to master specific effects and techniques. But there is no ‘one way’ to do anything in this field. 

 

The best way to build real-world skill is to get out there and just do it. You’re never going to be any good until you’ve tried and failed. And I mean failed a lot. You need to fail in your own unique way, on your own unique projects. And no tutorial is going to teach you that.

 

Here’s a fun anecdote to illustrate my point. I once worked on a project for Disney, where I needed to pull off a dynamic water effect on a super-quick deadline. I wouldn’t have the time for liquid simulation, so I needed to think resourcefully. I decided to take my iPhone and go out to our office sink. I turned off the lights and recorded a simple setup, recreating the intended water movement. I recorded the scene in slow motion, using only the light on my camera. Little did I know that this simple solution would far exceed expectations. After compositing the capture into my scene, the end result was even better than any water simulation would have been.

 

I like to share this story because we learn best in these resourceful moments. And it is going to take a few big moments like these in your career to build your arsenal and confidence as a visual artist. My advice is to try your best to pull off a big idea, whether you know how or not. In doing so, you will figure out a way. At first, it may not seem like the ideal ‘way’, but over time these experiences will add up and lead to mastery.

Chris:

Did you go to school, or are you self-taught?

 

Jared: 

A mix of both. I suffered a football injury in high school which left me on crutches for a long time. That free time gave me an opportunity to focus on video editing, which was my favorite hobby and eventual career path.

 

I began as an intern at a local access television station, then continued my education at the Valencia Film Program back in 2005. At the time, my passion was cinematography. In particular, I loved using scene lighting to tell a story, through setting, blocking, and practical light solutions. It was an incredible experience being on set for 36 hours and witnessing a film set in action. I really learned to appreciate everything that goes into film production. 

 

It was my film experience that inspired me to branch into animation and motion design. I came to a realization; telling a story in the film industry was incredibly complex, with lots of moving parts. You need a LOT of people working simultaneously to turn your vision into a reality. On the other hand, I was finding that motion design allowed me to bypass a lot of these complexities. I started dabbling in CGI environments and animation, telling my own stories that were just as effective as those on set – only made in a fraction of the time and with more creative freedom. It quickly became my favorite art form of storytelling and expression.

 

From here my skills became almost entirely self-taught. The passion was there and I saw my talents improving rapidly. I became obsessed with improving my techniques, soaking up every bit of knowledge I could. I imagine this is a natural progression for most motion artists. No matter your formal education, at one point or another you’ll experience that ‘lightswitch’ moment. The ‘self-teaching’ instinct suddenly takes over out of passion and a desire to master your craft.

 

Chris: I love what you and the people at Visuals by Impulse are doing. Were you freelancing before working at VBI?

 

Jared:

Thanks, Chris. It’s been a wild ride for VBI. To date we’ve worked with over 60,000 streamers, gamers, and creators. Across Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook Gaming, VBI is raising the bar on branding and visual presentation. Internally, we’re lucky to have an incredibly talented team and strong leadership. What impresses me the most though, is the company culture. It’s one of the most unique and strongest I’ve ever experienced in a remote team (and an international one, at that!).

 

 

Personally, it’s been many years since my last freelancing experience. For the past 15+ years, I’ve been partnered with my brother, Derek Alan Rowe. Together we founded the company Doctrine Creative, a creative team focusing on VR/AR and interactive experiences. 

 

More recently, I spent four years with Eezy as their Director of Video. There I worked to build Videezy’s libraries of free stock videos and After Effects templates. It was a dream come true to give back to the design community; a community that I had learned so much from over the years. But then VBI showed up and offered me the role of Marketplace Director. I couldn’t say no. 

 

It’s all been history since then. With VBI it’s an opportunity to innovate and – essentially – reinvent the world of broadcast design. The timing couldn’t be much better. Live streaming and esports gaming is growing faster than ever before. I count myself very fortunate to be part of that movement.

 

Chris: Any big projects on the horizon?

 

Jared:

Big time. 2020 is going to be a big year for Visuals by Impulse. We have ambitious plans to take streaming into an entirely new space; a next level. No spoilers yet, but it will be big. And it will affect both our graphics library and custom design services. 

 

Over the years, VBI has been lucky to team up with some of the biggest celebrities and brands in the game. This January we unveiled a new collaboration with 100 Thieves, the legendary organization founded by Call of Duty legend Nadeshot. You can check out some of our work in their new studio tour below! Stay tuned – there’s much more in the works that I’m stoked to reveal.

On the flip side, my brother Derek and I have been working on an exciting new project. We were recently awarded an Epic Games grant for our WildEyes project – an initiative focused on connecting people to the natural world through technology. The goal is to produce an immersive new VR experience using the Unreal Engine. It’s a daunting task for sure, but something we’re both stoked to see through.

 

Needless to say, it’s going to be an exciting year for myself and the entire VBI team.

 

Chris: I first came across your work after noticing you were using ProductionCrate goodies. Do you have any favorite assets?

 

Jared:

Some time ago, I stumbled upon ProductionCrate while working on an experimental project. I was looking to achieve some very specific effects, without having to invest time creating them from scratch myself. Some lightning and magic assets, if I remember correctly. ProductionCrate had exactly what I was looking for, and much more. I immediately saw the potential for my workflow; not only for this project, but for future projects as well.

 

I’ve spent enough time in this industry to understand the importance of a high-quality effects directory. Over the years I’ve developed a lot of my own baked effects and backgrounds, for use in compositing over time. But ProductionCrate dwarfed my own library, and I’ve kept coming back ever since that first encounter.

 

For me, the real beauty of ProductionCrate is the impact on my efficiency. I can achieve my overall scene without having to reinvent the wheel, saving me loads of time and energy. This allows me to focus on higher priorities, like the overall direction, composition, and feel of my work. 

 

It’s also an excellent tool for previsualization. I often use ProductionCrate assets during early project stages, inserting placeholder effects to sell the overall idea of my pieces. It’s a win-win; clients and teammates can easily grasp the story, without requiring massive time investment on my part. For this fact alone, ProductionCrate is essential to my creative pipeline.

 

Chris: Thanks, Jared! 

Interview with Nathan Dodson – Tutvid

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Click here to visit Tutvid’s YouTube channel.

 

Nathan, dude, 773k subscribers?! Every time I check your channel it’s grown immensely, 1 Million is around the corner! What’s something that’s worked well and something that hasn’t for growing TutVid?

I went through a period of about 6 years where I grew very complacent with the company and what I wanted to do with tutvid and nearly lost everything I had built before that. Not working on my company was the biggest thing that didn’t “work” for growing tutvid.

Maintaining awareness of the industry and always being critical of and willing to change what I am doing has been a massive factor of success thus far. Also, creating content consistently is important.

I think for current-day content creators on a platform like YouTube, you must not only create content consistently, but also be able to create the kind of content that is useful, impactful, is shareable, and is engaging. If you create boring content or useless boring content day after day, you’ll never grow.

I’m self-taught, and so is Adrian. We owe most of our expertise to those who teach online (especially YouTube) so thanks for making such informative tutorials. Why did you decide to teach digital media on TutVid?

I was frustrated when I first started to use Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator that most of the tutorials that were available (back in 2006-07) were either very boring or left out vital details.
I bought a microphone and screen recorder one day and decided to make a crack at recording my own video tutorials (nearly none of them in 2007) and ended up putting them on YouTube and the rest has been history.

We’ve been making tutorials for a while but just recently found a style that works best for us. What’s your workflow like for making a tutorial? 

I have a list of ideas and images that I’d like to create tutorials about and I pick something that I like (or sometimes a trend will dictate a video or even the analytics will show that a certain type of videos resonates well with the audience) and begin playing in Photoshop to figure out how I would do it.
I then draft a rough series of notes to reference while recording and sit down and record my screen and audio and work through whatever the subject of the tutorial is.
After that, it’s a matter of post-production, graphics creation, social media, web, and email distribution, uploading to YouTube, Facebook, etc… and trying to share some behind the scenes stuff along the way.
It’s a big process that I’m still working on perfecting.

What’s your day to day work-life like? 

Work, email, research, making videos, each working portion of the day is very different depending on what we’re working on so this segment varies greatly day-to-day.
My morning and evening routines are usually pretty much the same, it’s the big chunk in the middle of the day that is always different.
One notable thing is that I only check my email once a day. It’s too much of a distraction and people who need to get a hold of me (clients or family) have my phone number and can call or text if something urgent arises.

Here’s some shameless self-promotion, what’s your favorite ProductionCrate content? 

I love so much of what you have to offer in the Motion Graphics portion of ProductionCrate. The transitions would have to be my current favorite. So much good stuff, though.

Interview with Jack Troisi – VFX Artist for Youtube Celebrities

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Chris: Hey Jack, what are you working on right now?

Currently working on some content for some well known YouTubers under my little company, Trash Panda FX, most recently with the Sidemen, KSI and RackaRacka. Some other ones coming in I can’t say just yet but it should be a good time. (ProductionCrate will be helping us smash some amazing FX on these too!)

The video has since been released, check it out below! Tons of FootageCrate VFX were used, like the Floating Rocks, the Magical Fire and Lightning

We always enjoy working with you, the DBZ vs. Avatar video  that RackaRacka released was an insanely fun project to build VFX for.

 

 

What’s your VFX workflow like?

You try your best to make for a nice and sorted pipeline so everything moves smoothly. Get the shots and scenes nicely labeled and organised in folders and spreadsheets for artists to access, along with assets, camera data and anything required for their shots. Organise teams for clean up, comp work and FX to get it all to come together at the end.

One of the best attributes any artist/producer/filmmaker is to be a problem solver.

No matter how amazing your workflow/pipeline is, you will 110% come up against inconceivable problems. Being able push through and meet deadlines is a huge part of it.

You’re based out of Australia, and we’re here in California. Our workflow together has been great, even with the time difference. Do you mostly work with VFX Artists online, or do you work with some artists in-person? Do you have a preference?

It used to be more in person – but recently has been switching heavily to online. Which is great as it brings in awesome talent (such as ProductionCrate) and provides opportunities for people be part of some big projects without having to compromise leaving their home/family/friends.

I just prefer to work alongside reliable and talented artists who I believe can smash out shots regardless of location.

You’ve done a lot of work for some big YouTubers, what is your favorite project?

They’re all great. It’s weird, I think the quality of work is better than it has ever been. But my favourite has to be a throwback to Lord of the Rings vs Game of Thrones. My acting was phenomenal and I got to slice an arm off (2:20)

Haha, yeah I love that video. I remember seeing a behind-the-scenes of that short where Danny is trying to give you some direction (not that you needed it, being a phenomenal actor and all). That video has over 7 Million views! What’s the most viewed video you’ve worked on?

Was that the footage of me slipping on blood and cracking my head…hahaha

I think Richy from Royal Stampede was telling me the Tank gold digger prank has a total of close to a billion views, (including facebook shares, youtube, insta)  which is crazy.

Can you give us some insight into what it’s like to do blockbuster VFX work? I know you’ve done work on Tarzan (2016), Pan (2015) and the Babadook (2014)

The smaller the company, the better. You feel less like a cog in a machine.

There is also more opportunity to grow and try things as you’re forced to become a generalist to help carry the workload. With bigger companies, you’ll get to work on bigger productions with great talent – but you will get burned out and discarded. It’s brutal the way some of my friends have been treated. But VFX artists have to be some of the best people you will ever meet and work alongside.

I know you use ProductionCrate content in a lot of your work (good choice!), any favorite assets or requests for content?

well where do I begin!

The explosion asset that was used on that most viewed video mentioned earlier was a Crate element!

So definitely helped contribute to the viral success of that video.

When you’re racing shots out – you can’t go into the deep of making something custom and need to churn 10 shots out in a day.

Some of the FX on there can blow you away and save you from deadlines. As for requests, just keep doing what you guys are doing because you’re killing it!

Thanks, Jack!