Robert Moggach has experienced the full arc of the VFX artist career, from being treated like a rockstar in the early days of CG to working on personal, small-scale indie projects today. Along the way, he’s racked up credits on movies including Harry Potter, I, Robot, and Stealth, created ads for the world’s biggest brands, bagged a VES award for the Halo ODST trailer, and helped make music videos for the likes of Moby, Muse, Garbage, and Tori Amos.
Rob and Chris discuss the dynamics of cloud versus local workflows, the nuances of small-scale creative projects such as the short film Go For Grandma, and the logistical challenges of collaboration across time zones. The conversation culminates in speculation about AI's potential to catalyze new creative forms in Hollywood and beyond.
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0:03:25 Origins in photography and animation
0:08:23 VFX supervision and compositing on "Battleground: Earth"
0:12:44 Joining Digital Domain for commercials
0:14:26 "Harry Potter," "I, Robot," and "Stealth"
0:20:52 The Flame mindset and going back to Asylum
0:26:33 The dangers of data loss and Robert's current setup
0:32:01 The effects of the pandemic on VFX
0:33:28 Cloud vs local
0:36:31 Small-scale creative work and "Go For Grandma"
0:39:12 Making a movie on Dropbox
0:42:57 Working across timezones
0:47:16 AI tools as a new form of industrialization
0:50:48 Getting good results from AI
0:54:57 Originality in the media
0:57:38 Will AI power new forms in Hollywood?
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.