Erick Geisler has seen the filmmaking industry change right from the very start. As a child, he acted in TV shows, but found that he was more fascinated with what was happening behind the camera. He learned how to create VFX, beginning on SGIs, then moving to software such as Electric Image, 3ds Max, and V-Ray, and helping to create VFX for movies including Independence Day, Titanic, and The Day After Tomorrow, and picking up two Emmy awards.
Today, Erick is leveraging his experience behind the scenes with Global Objects, a company set up to create astonishingly accurate digital twins of real-world things for use in everything from real-time to machine learning. Erick discusses his career and how the VFX industry is still facing familiar challenges, and he gives his thoughts on promising new technology in VFX, including USD, MaterialX, NeRFs, Gaussian Splats, real-time rendering, and artificial intelligence.
Links:
0:06:01 An actor who got into VFX
0:11:57 How Electric Image on the Mac changed things
0:15:25 3ds Max and Brazil
0:20:28 Discovering V-Ray on "Stealth"
0:25:23 Rendering engine cults
0:32:50 The push for USD and MaterialX
0:34:44 Winning Emmys with G2, and digital twins with Global Objects
0:41:51 Nerfs and Gaussian Splats
0:44:18 The EXR of object formats
0:48:06 Using 3D content to train AI
0:54:19 Reducing the barriers to entry for filmmakers
0:55:55 Thoughts on real-time rendering
0:59:41 Minimum viable donuts
1:05:45 What we can learn from digital humans
1:10:11 How virtual production is changing filmmaking
Chris is a CG industry veteran and Director of Chaos Labs. He can also be heard regularly as the host of the CG Garage podcast which attracts 20,000 weekly listeners. With a background in both VFX and Design, Chris has worked for Gensler, Digital Domain, Imageworks and Method Studios. His credits include Maleficent, Oblivion and Tron: Legacy.