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All Episodes

befores & afters — 246 episodes

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1

In-depth on the all the key explosive visual effects in Netflix's 'Man on Fire'

2

How the artistic innovations behind the 'Spider-Verse' films led to a Scientific and Technical Award

3

ILM's Ben Morris reflects on 'The Last Jedi' and 'ABBA Voyage'

4

ILM's Rachel Rose on the R&D side of visual effects

5

ILM's Jeff White breaks down that incredible oner from 'The Avengers'

6

Rob Bredow shares 'Solo' stories, and how ILM inspired him before he was even at ILM

7

A deep dive into Wētā FX's visual effects for 'A Minecraft Movie'

8

ILM's Janet Lewin reflects on more than three decades with the studio

9

The creatures of 'Keeper'

10

Our new ILM podcast series starts with Dennis Muren!

11

Alec Gillis on the practical effects design process for 'Predator: Badlands'

12

How the in-house VFX process worked on s2 of 'The Sandman'

13

Crafting 'Andor' season 2

14

How on-set scanning of environments and actor capture works

15

How Framestore helped make the creatures and cinematography of 'Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age' feel so real

16

Phil Tippett updates us on the state of his personal projects, and his view on AI

17

What it's like to run a visual effects studio in China

18

The painterly art and tech behind stop-motion animated 'The Girl Who Cried Pearls'

19

Infinite Realities on the path to 4G gaussian splatting in digital human capture

20

Saint Walker on the new Core Skills of VFX Handbook 2025

21

Discussing a new era in visual effects with Phantom Media Group

22

The art and tech behind the body morphing in 'Together'

23

What the role of CTO involves at Wētā FX

24

How The Roddenberry Archive is preserving 'Star Trek' history

25

Paul Franklin reflects on the VFX of 'Interstellar'

26

Behind that crazy creature work in the finale of 'The Umbrella Academy'

27

What exactly does the role of a visual effects producer involve?

28

How they made the new 'Lilo & Stitch'

29

The surprising use of visual effects in season 6 of 'The Handmaid's Tale'

30

How Steamroller Animation made a 30 min animated pilot episode in Unreal Engine

31

Version Zero AI has a splines output solution for AI/ML rotoscoping

32

The latest machine learning side of Silhouette

33

AI and ML in VFX from a VFX artist/supervisor point of view

34

Behind the development of Slapshot's AI roto and generative retiming tools

35

Where Wonder Dynamics has now gone with its AI VFX tools

36

The dream of AI roto with Electric Sheep

37

How Rising Sun Pictures' REVIZE machine learning tech came to be

38

Metaphysic's neural HMC performance injection tech

39

Wētā FX used its Loki state machine for muscle simulations on Red Hulk in 'Captain America: Brave New World'

40

Why planes flying at hundreds of miles an hour is really tough to pull off in VFX

41

Sponsored: How Reallusion AccuFace was used on 'Love is a Championship'

42

How the motion capture worked on 'Better Man'

43

The visual effects of 'Alien: Romulus'

44

Will Becher from Aardman on the old-school and new-school tech in 'Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl'

45

The wide use of machine learning VFX techniques on 'Here'

46

How the Academy Software Foundation works

47

How to get VFX into your Sundance film

48

Miniatures, puppets, lightsabers and Purrgils

49

How to make practical bubble effects

50

How DNEG made the troll in s2 of 'The Rings of Power'

51

The virtual production behind 'Daddio'

52

How the wrestling scenes in 'Unstoppable' were made

53

In-depth on face replacement, environments and that crazy tennis ball POV shot in 'Challengers'

54

Animation producer Jinko Gotoh on getting her start on 'Space Jam'

55

Sponsored: How ActionVFX assets were used in 'Godzilla Minus One'

56

The visual effects of 'Dune: Part Two'

57

The making of 'Gladiator': a look back with VFX supervisor John Nelson

58

The VFX and stop-motion animation in 'Beetlejuice Beetlejuice'

59

The visual effects of 'Percy Jackson and the Olympians'

60

Starting a startup in the world of VFX training

61

Matt Estela: a life

62

The invisible visual effects in 'Longlegs'

63

How the Visual Effects World Atlas might change your perspective on the VFX industry

64

Creating alternate versions of reality for 'Dark Matter'

65

'Sky Captain' turns 20: looking back at filmmaking on the digital backlot

66

Behind the invisible effects of 'The Instigators'

67

How Wētā FX made that 5400 frame Vermithor dragon oner in 'House of the Dragon'

68

Sponsored: How Reallusion tools were used for concept previs on '3 Body Problem'

69

A preview of the VFX and animation conference VIEW taking place in Italy in October

70

A look at the state of play of virtual production with Jim Geduldick

71

The state of play in VFX employment right now

72

VFX supervisor Stephan Fleet on the latest mayhem he helped orchestrate for 'The Boys'

73

Celebrating the CG legacy of 'The Last Starfighter'

74

The machine learning tech behind Digital Domain's in-house facial capture tool Masquerade3

75

All about the motion base mechs in the Jennifer Lopez film, 'Atlas'

76

Behind the tests, on-set shoot and CG animation of the characters in 'IF'

77

The visual effects of Pixar's 'Inside Out 2'

78

How those nuclear explosions in 'Fallout' were made

79

How multiple Robert Downey Jr.'s appeared on screen in 'The Sympathizer'

80

How 'Ripley' used VFX to aid in its storytelling

81

Go behind the scenes of this full-length CG anime from HaZ Dulull

82

The creatures of 'Avatar: The Last Airbender'

83

You might not even notice any VFX in 'We Were the Lucky Ones'

84

Creatures, battles, environments -- the big VFX in 'Halo The Series' s2

85

The invisible effects of 'Lawmen: Bass Reeves'

86

All about time slipping and spaghettification in 'Loki' s2

87

VFX supe Jason Zimmerman on Star Trek: Discovery s5 and Strange New Worlds s2

88

Stefen Fangmeier on the big '3 Body Problem' VFX moments

89

Visual effects problem solving: the dinosaurs of '65'

90

Chris Nichols on Chaos' new adventure in virtual production

91

Going from VFX artist to short film director

92

Making slimer, a sewer dragon and those Mini-Pufts for 'Frozen Empire'

93

Tim Landry reflects on his time at Dream Quest and at Disney Imagineering

94

How the animatronic baby from 'The Matrix' was made

95

'Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire' VFX supervisor Alessandro Ongaro

96

Yeti creator Colin Doncaster on the challenges of VFX software development

97

What you didn't know about how that helicopter rescue in 'The Matrix' was filmed

98

Preview the big sessions of FMX 2024 with Mario Müller

99

Eyeline Studios' new tech volumetric capture tech used on 'YuYu Hakusho'

100

The stuntvis behind that stunning oner 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3'

101

Virtual sets in Doctor Who

102

Going from greenscreen buck to soaring creature

103

A new kind of VFX collective emerges with Dream Machine FX

104

How Cartoon Saloon got to play in the Star Wars universe

105

The effects of 'Napoleon' were so convincing, Ridley Scott thought they had killed a stunt performer

106

'Oppenheimer' special effects supervisor Scott Fisher on what the Trinity Test explosions in the film were made of

107

The crazy, intricate work behind DNEG's VFX for 'NYAD'

108

David Silverman on the influence of music, and how he got started on 'The Simpsons'

109

The virtual production tech behind the new 'Ted' television series

110

Behind the scenes of Aardman's 'I Am Your Mother' Star Wars: Visions short

111

How Framestore turned Hugh Grant into an Oompa Loompa for 'Wonka'

112

Hugo Guerra on directing his ZEISS CinCraft Scenario film

113

Wētā Workshop's Richard Taylor on crafting the horrifying creature in 'The Tank'

114

How they made this music video by painting the talent silver

115

Nick Dudman on the make-up effects and creatures in s2 of 'The Wheel of Time'

116

How the live-action plate shoots worked for nature documentary series 'Life on our Planet'

117

The Wheel of Time: how do you make a fiery dragon?

118

Celebrating 30 years of Digital Domain

119

Making a Star Wars short: the creative process behind 'Sith'

120

Genetically re-engineered samurai dinosaurs! The making of 'KYORYU'

121

How to make a CG Idris Elba

122

Here's what actually goes into making a talking animal movie

123

Celebrating 25 years of PDI's Antz

124

Behind the biggest VFX scenes in 'Foundation' s2

125

You might be surprised how Tinkerbell in 'Peter Pan & Wendy' was made

126

VFX supe Mike Fink looks back at Batman Returns, bamf'ing and Golden Compass bears

127

The Third Floor's Casey Schatz on simulcam, motion bases and the eyeline system on 'Avatar The Way of Water'

128

'Andor' production visual effects supervisor Mohen Leo on designing VFX shots

129

Behind the scenes of 'Wednesday', its on-set performer for Thing, and complex creature effects

130

ILM's Grady Cofer and Hal Hickel break down the visual effects in s3 of 'The Mandalorian'

131

How the astonishing real and mech dog in 'The Nevers' was made

132

How beloFX used Unreal Engine for their rooftop shots in 'The Last of Us'

133

A comprehensive update on the state of play of Wētā Tools at Unity

134

Ted Lasso's football matches were made on a 'stand-in' field, with greenscreen, crowd sprites and other VFX

135

How they made that spectacular Harrison Ford bus/train jump in 'The Fugitive' with optical front projection tech

136

Special effects supervisor Gerd Nefzer reflects on the practical effects of 'Dune'

137

The incredible scale, forced perspective, in-camera and invisible effects in 'I'm A Virgo'

138

Blowing up model airplanes for a film (against hobby shop owner wishes!)

139

Imagining a singing, dancing croc on set with Actor Capture

140

Making miniatures and props for 'Asteroid City'

141

Looking back at the early innovative VFX in commercials with Eric Durst

142

The Left Angle founders discuss new comp and mograph tool Autograph

143

Virtual production on an indie budget

144

How Monkey Chow made these mocap action clips for ActorCore

145

'The Last of Us' VFX supervisor Alex Wang talks clickers, environments and THOSE giraffes

146

How 'Andor's' real London locations were the basis of Coruscant finals

147

How 'Handmaid's Tale' used virtual production to plan a train station scene

148

How this short film was a test bed for rigging and stylization tools, and new real-time compositing in Unreal Engine

149

The process of postvis on 'Cocaine Bear'

150

Bringing 'Matilda' to life with more VFX than you might at first realize

151

Treating ships like characters in the final episode of 'Star Trek: Picard'

152

Urban Bradeško, aka the Explosions Guy, talks sparse GPU accelerated volumetric fluid solver Axiom

153

A preview of FMX with Mario Müller

154

Making vampire chimps for 'Let the Right One In'

155

The history of markerless motion capture company Move.ai

156

VFX supe and director Adam Valdez on making the UE5 short 'Brave Creatures' with new real-time tech

157

VFX supe Russell Dodgson explores three seasons of 'His Dark Materials' magic

158

How to plan for huge VFX sequences: the VFX supe and VFX producer on 'Slumberland'

159

How Blender Studio's latest film, with a realistic human character, was made

160

A deep dive into Cinesite's visual effects for 'Wakanda Forever'

161

How they make the fire in 'Fire Country'

162

Go in-depth on the visual effects by Fuse FX for 'Wendell & Wild'

163

How the VFX for 'All Quiet on the Western Front' were made

164

Digital people, CG water, miniatures, morphing: 'Titanic' had it all

165

Where do I find befores & afters VFX content? Your handy guide is here.

166

'The Voice in the Hollow' is an Unreal Engine short with a difference

167

Framestore on designing an immersive exhibition for the Science Museum in London

168

Scott Eaton on the state of A.I. in art

169

Ending the world (multiple times) for 'The End is Nye'

170

The invisible effects of The Northman

171

The VFX behind the forging of the Three Rings in 'The Rings of Power'

172

#VFXInsight: How Reallusion's automatic character rigging app AccuRIG came to be

173

From 'Gravity' tethers to Ragdoll Dynamics

174

Access:VFX has expanded

175

Rob Bredow on the state of play of virtual production at ILM

176

Kevin Baillie on the virtual production of 'Pinocchio'

177

How to build a CG mountain lion (and make it attack Kevin Hart)

178

Pinocchio: going from virtual production to VFX

179

Making a CG zoetrope for a Pharrell Williams music video

180

Wētā FX on the tricky task of crafting battling Asgardian kids in Thor: Love and Thunder

181

How DNEG Animation gave 'Entergalactic' its stylized look

182

Solving a 3D boat scan was a big part of Industrial Pixel's beginnings

183

Rose Duignan and Hal Hickel on the history of ILM

184

The AI tool used to redub F-bombs and go from an R rating to PG-13

185

How FuseFX built ships and creatures, and de-aged Dolly Parton for s3 of 'The Orville'

186

Rising Sun Pictures VFX supe Dan Bethell on 'Thor: Love and Thunder'

187

Behind the lighting tech behind those stunning scenes in Ragnarok and Love and Thunder

188

The creatures of 'Resident Evil'

189

This new RenderMan Walking Teapot short film pays homage to an animated classic

190

Making a bird skull god and a hippo god for 'Moon Knight'

191

How all those sparks in Pixar's 'Lightyear' were created

192

The main on end titles for 'Moon Knight'

193

NVIZ on the previs of 'Morbius'

194

ftrack's Fredrik Limsater on the state of play of production tracking

195

Moving from VFX to games: meet Blinkmoon

196

The practical and digital effects of 1997's 'Anaconda'

197

Concept designer Ben Mauro on building his HUXLEY universe

198

The VFX art department: a chat with Cinesite's Madeleine Scott-Spencer

199

Zendaya and Tom Holland's wire work, digi-doubles, and the art of comp'ing hair

200

The evolution of Richard Linklater's rotoscoped animation films

201

De-ageing, destruction and other digital effects in 'The Adam Project'

202

The virtual production behind the pirate ship scenes in 'Our Flag Means Death'

203

Pixar's Danielle Feinberg on the studio's new tech in 'Turning Red'

204

From VFXer to trucker: Louis Katz's story

205

'Wheel of Time' VFX supe Julian Parry on designing the One Power

206

The art and tech behind 'The Witcher's' Nivellan

207

What it's like to work on the VFX for a Super Bowl spot

208

Douglas Trumbull on his plan to change cinema

209

VFX supervisor Scott Stokdyk on the digital human breakthroughs in 'Spider-Man 2'

210

VFX supervisor Kaitlyn Yang on starting a VFX studio, diversity in VFX and more

211

Pipeline, tools and tech with Cinesite

212

The making of SideFX's new renderer, Karma

213

Behind the scenes of 'My Universe' from Coldplay x BTS

214

The visualization tools and techniques behind The Third Floor

215

The FreeMoCap Project

216

How Halon previs'd 'Free Guy'

217

Christos Obretenov on the new wave of stylized rendering

218

How do you edit a live action/CG hybrid film?

219

How a deep learning renderer was used to re-animate a character's lines in 'Free Guy'

220

Facial capture, CG and cut scenes on Codemasters' 'F1 2021'

221

Framestore's FIRA for portable real-time rig deformation

222

Where are we at with virtual production?

223

The first model or miniature

224

The first film to use an all-CG photoreal character

225

The first digital wire removal on a film

226

The first digital matte painting

227

The first digital face replacement in a film

228

25 years of Foundry

229

The first motion capture used in a film

230

The first motion control shot in a film

231

The first NLEs and digital editing, with Evan Schiff

232

The first Nuke composite

233

The first ocean simulation in a film

234

The first previs for a film

235

The first stop-motion

236

What was the first film to use Houdini?

237

The first cloud tank

238

Paul Debevec on Light Stage 3

239

How the 'Harry Potter' miniature Hogwarts Castle was made

240

Shane Mahan on the practical Dilophosaurus in 'Jurassic Park'

241

Phil Tippett on RoboCop's ED-209

242

The alpha channel and Alvy Ray Smith

243

Elastic Reality

244

The Bullet Time rig from The Matrix

245

The Dinosaur Input Device

246

Welcome to the befores & afters podcast!