befores & afters

By Ian Failes

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Category: TV & Film

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Subscribers: 13
Reviews: 0
Episodes: 256

Description

The befores & afters VFX podcast from journalist Ian Failes, covering the latest in visual effects, animation and virtual production.

Episode Date
Fire, explosions, water and deer: the visual effects of season 3 of 'The Night Agent'
Jun 12, 2026
The visual effects of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy
Jun 10, 2026
How to get the most out of the VES On-Set VFX Data Collection and Usage Guide
Jun 08, 2026
Behind the visual effects of 'Ted' season 2, including the bear, and the deepfake Bill Clinton
Jun 05, 2026
How ILM invented ambient occlusion for 'Pearl Harbor'
Jun 03, 2026
A mysterious creature in a mysterious retirement community: the VFX of 'The Boroughs'
Jun 01, 2026
A deep dive into the visual effects of 'Murderbot'
May 29, 2026
The old-school show-within-a-show in 'Wonder Man' used some old-school effects techniques
May 25, 2026
The art of CG ping pong balls and crowds in 'Marty Supreme'
May 22, 2026
How to make a photoreal CG octopus: the VFX of 'Remarkably Bright Creatures'
May 18, 2026
In-depth on the all the key explosive visual effects in Netflix's 'Man on Fire'
May 04, 2026
How the artistic innovations behind the 'Spider-Verse' films led to a Scientific and Technical Award
Apr 27, 2026
ILM's Ben Morris reflects on 'The Last Jedi' and 'ABBA Voyage'
Apr 11, 2026
ILM's Rachel Rose on the R&D side of visual effects
Mar 31, 2026
ILM's Jeff White breaks down that incredible oner from 'The Avengers'
Mar 21, 2026
Rob Bredow shares 'Solo' stories, and how ILM inspired him before he was even at ILM
Mar 14, 2026
A deep dive into Wētā FX's visual effects for 'A Minecraft Movie'
Mar 10, 2026
ILM's Janet Lewin reflects on more than three decades with the studio
Mar 06, 2026
The creatures of 'Keeper'
Mar 03, 2026
Our new ILM podcast series starts with Dennis Muren!
Feb 25, 2026
Alec Gillis on the practical effects design process for 'Predator: Badlands'
Feb 18, 2026
How the in-house VFX process worked on s2 of 'The Sandman'
Feb 11, 2026
Crafting 'Andor' season 2
Feb 05, 2026
How on-set scanning of environments and actor capture works
Jan 20, 2026
How Framestore helped make the creatures and cinematography of 'Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age' feel so real
Jan 07, 2026
Phil Tippett updates us on the state of his personal projects, and his view on AI
Dec 09, 2025
What it's like to run a visual effects studio in China
Dec 01, 2025
The painterly art and tech behind stop-motion animated 'The Girl Who Cried Pearls'
Nov 24, 2025
Infinite Realities on the path to 4G gaussian splatting in digital human capture
Nov 18, 2025
Saint Walker on the new Core Skills of VFX Handbook 2025
Nov 09, 2025
Discussing a new era in visual effects with Phantom Media Group
Nov 04, 2025
The art and tech behind the body morphing in 'Together'
Oct 22, 2025
What the role of CTO involves at Wētā FX
Oct 06, 2025
How The Roddenberry Archive is preserving 'Star Trek' history
Sep 29, 2025
Paul Franklin reflects on the VFX of 'Interstellar'
Sep 15, 2025
Behind that crazy creature work in the finale of 'The Umbrella Academy'
Aug 18, 2025
What exactly does the role of a visual effects producer involve?
Jul 20, 2025
How they made the new 'Lilo & Stitch'
Jul 07, 2025
The surprising use of visual effects in season 6 of 'The Handmaid's Tale'
Jun 16, 2025
How Steamroller Animation made a 30 min animated pilot episode in Unreal Engine
May 22, 2025
Version Zero AI has a splines output solution for AI/ML rotoscoping
May 19, 2025
The latest machine learning side of Silhouette
May 12, 2025
AI and ML in VFX from a VFX artist/supervisor point of view
May 05, 2025
Behind the development of Slapshot's AI roto and generative retiming tools
Apr 28, 2025
Where Wonder Dynamics has now gone with its AI VFX tools
Apr 21, 2025
The dream of AI roto with Electric Sheep
Apr 13, 2025
How Rising Sun Pictures' REVIZE machine learning tech came to be
Apr 06, 2025
Metaphysic's neural HMC performance injection tech
Mar 31, 2025
Wētā FX used its Loki state machine for muscle simulations on Red Hulk in 'Captain America: Brave New World'
Mar 25, 2025
Why planes flying at hundreds of miles an hour is really tough to pull off in VFX
Mar 13, 2025
Sponsored: How Reallusion AccuFace was used on 'Love is a Championship'
Mar 05, 2025
How the motion capture worked on 'Better Man'
Feb 18, 2025
The visual effects of 'Alien: Romulus'
Feb 03, 2025
Will Becher from Aardman on the old-school and new-school tech in 'Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl'
Jan 31, 2025
The wide use of machine learning VFX techniques on 'Here'
Jan 20, 2025
How the Academy Software Foundation works
Jan 13, 2025
How to get VFX into your Sundance film
Jan 04, 2025
Miniatures, puppets, lightsabers and Purrgils
Jan 04, 2025
How to make practical bubble effects
Jan 04, 2025
How DNEG made the troll in s2 of 'The Rings of Power'
Dec 23, 2024
The virtual production behind 'Daddio'
Dec 09, 2024
How the wrestling scenes in 'Unstoppable' were made
Nov 29, 2024
In-depth on face replacement, environments and that crazy tennis ball POV shot in 'Challengers'
Nov 27, 2024
Animation producer Jinko Gotoh on getting her start on 'Space Jam'
Nov 25, 2024
Sponsored: How ActionVFX assets were used in 'Godzilla Minus One'
Nov 20, 2024
The visual effects of 'Dune: Part Two'
Nov 18, 2024
The making of 'Gladiator': a look back with VFX supervisor John Nelson
Nov 11, 2024
The VFX and stop-motion animation in 'Beetlejuice Beetlejuice'
Nov 04, 2024
The visual effects of 'Percy Jackson and the Olympians'
Oct 28, 2024
Starting a startup in the world of VFX training
Oct 21, 2024
Matt Estela: a life
Oct 14, 2024
The invisible visual effects in 'Longlegs'
Oct 05, 2024
How the Visual Effects World Atlas might change your perspective on the VFX industry
Sep 27, 2024
Creating alternate versions of reality for 'Dark Matter'
Sep 20, 2024
'Sky Captain' turns 20: looking back at filmmaking on the digital backlot
Sep 17, 2024
Behind the invisible effects of 'The Instigators'
Sep 13, 2024
How Wētā FX made that 5400 frame Vermithor dragon oner in 'House of the Dragon'
Sep 06, 2024
Sponsored: How Reallusion tools were used for concept previs on '3 Body Problem'
Sep 03, 2024
A preview of the VFX and animation conference VIEW taking place in Italy in October
Sep 01, 2024
A look at the state of play of virtual production with Jim Geduldick
Aug 29, 2024
The state of play in VFX employment right now
Aug 23, 2024
VFX supervisor Stephan Fleet on the latest mayhem he helped orchestrate for 'The Boys'
Aug 09, 2024
Celebrating the CG legacy of 'The Last Starfighter'
Jul 29, 2024
The machine learning tech behind Digital Domain's in-house facial capture tool Masquerade3
Jul 22, 2024
All about the motion base mechs in the Jennifer Lopez film, 'Atlas'
Jul 15, 2024
Behind the tests, on-set shoot and CG animation of the characters in 'IF'
Jul 08, 2024
The visual effects of Pixar's 'Inside Out 2'
Jul 01, 2024
How those nuclear explosions in 'Fallout' were made
Jun 24, 2024
How multiple Robert Downey Jr.'s appeared on screen in 'The Sympathizer'
Jun 17, 2024
How 'Ripley' used VFX to aid in its storytelling
Jun 13, 2024
Go behind the scenes of this full-length CG anime from HaZ Dulull
Jun 10, 2024
The creatures of 'Avatar: The Last Airbender'
Jun 08, 2024
You might not even notice any VFX in 'We Were the Lucky Ones'
Jun 07, 2024
Creatures, battles, environments -- the big VFX in 'Halo The Series' s2
Jun 06, 2024
The invisible effects of 'Lawmen: Bass Reeves'
Jun 05, 2024
All about time slipping and spaghettification in 'Loki' s2
Jun 04, 2024
VFX supe Jason Zimmerman on Star Trek: Discovery s5 and Strange New Worlds s2
Jun 03, 2024
Stefen Fangmeier on the big '3 Body Problem' VFX moments
May 27, 2024
Visual effects problem solving: the dinosaurs of '65'
May 20, 2024
Chris Nichols on Chaos' new adventure in virtual production
May 11, 2024
Going from VFX artist to short film director
May 06, 2024
Making slimer, a sewer dragon and those Mini-Pufts for 'Frozen Empire'
Apr 28, 2024
Tim Landry reflects on his time at Dream Quest and at Disney Imagineering
Apr 22, 2024
How the animatronic baby from 'The Matrix' was made
Apr 15, 2024
'Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire' VFX supervisor Alessandro Ongaro
Apr 12, 2024
Yeti creator Colin Doncaster on the challenges of VFX software development
Apr 08, 2024
What you didn't know about how that helicopter rescue in 'The Matrix' was filmed
Apr 01, 2024
Preview the big sessions of FMX 2024 with Mario Müller
Mar 28, 2024
Eyeline Studios' new tech volumetric capture tech used on 'YuYu Hakusho'
Mar 25, 2024
The stuntvis behind that stunning oner 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3'
Mar 18, 2024
Virtual sets in Doctor Who
Mar 10, 2024
Going from greenscreen buck to soaring creature
Mar 04, 2024
A new kind of VFX collective emerges with Dream Machine FX
Feb 25, 2024
How Cartoon Saloon got to play in the Star Wars universe
Feb 19, 2024
The effects of 'Napoleon' were so convincing, Ridley Scott thought they had killed a stunt performer
Feb 12, 2024
'Oppenheimer' special effects supervisor Scott Fisher on what the Trinity Test explosions in the film were made of
Feb 03, 2024
The crazy, intricate work behind DNEG's VFX for 'NYAD'
Jan 29, 2024
David Silverman on the influence of music, and how he got started on 'The Simpsons'
Jan 21, 2024
The virtual production tech behind the new 'Ted' television series
Jan 14, 2024
Behind the scenes of Aardman's 'I Am Your Mother' Star Wars: Visions short
Jan 07, 2024
How Framestore turned Hugh Grant into an Oompa Loompa for 'Wonka'
Dec 28, 2023
Hugo Guerra on directing his ZEISS CinCraft Scenario film
Dec 18, 2023
Wētā Workshop's Richard Taylor on crafting the horrifying creature in 'The Tank'
Dec 11, 2023
How they made this music video by painting the talent silver
Dec 04, 2023
Nick Dudman on the make-up effects and creatures in s2 of 'The Wheel of Time'
Nov 27, 2023
How the live-action plate shoots worked for nature documentary series 'Life on our Planet'
Nov 20, 2023
The Wheel of Time: how do you make a fiery dragon?
Nov 13, 2023
Celebrating 30 years of Digital Domain
Nov 06, 2023
Making a Star Wars short: the creative process behind 'Sith'
Oct 30, 2023
Genetically re-engineered samurai dinosaurs! The making of 'KYORYU'
Oct 24, 2023
How to make a CG Idris Elba
Oct 12, 2023
Here's what actually goes into making a talking animal movie
Oct 08, 2023
Celebrating 25 years of PDI's Antz
Oct 01, 2023
Behind the biggest VFX scenes in 'Foundation' s2
Sep 25, 2023
You might be surprised how Tinkerbell in 'Peter Pan & Wendy' was made
Sep 18, 2023
VFX supe Mike Fink looks back at Batman Returns, bamf'ing and Golden Compass bears
Sep 10, 2023
The Third Floor's Casey Schatz on simulcam, motion bases and the eyeline system on 'Avatar The Way of Water'
Sep 03, 2023
'Andor' production visual effects supervisor Mohen Leo on designing VFX shots
Aug 23, 2023
Behind the scenes of 'Wednesday', its on-set performer for Thing, and complex creature effects
Aug 22, 2023
ILM's Grady Cofer and Hal Hickel break down the visual effects in s3 of 'The Mandalorian'
Aug 20, 2023
How the astonishing real and mech dog in 'The Nevers' was made
Aug 15, 2023
How beloFX used Unreal Engine for their rooftop shots in 'The Last of Us'
Aug 13, 2023
A comprehensive update on the state of play of Wētā Tools at Unity
Aug 07, 2023
Ted Lasso's football matches were made on a 'stand-in' field, with greenscreen, crowd sprites and other VFX
Aug 06, 2023
How they made that spectacular Harrison Ford bus/train jump in 'The Fugitive' with optical front projection tech
Jul 30, 2023
Special effects supervisor Gerd Nefzer reflects on the practical effects of 'Dune'
Jul 24, 2023
The incredible scale, forced perspective, in-camera and invisible effects in 'I'm A Virgo'
Jul 16, 2023
Blowing up model airplanes for a film (against hobby shop owner wishes!)
Jul 09, 2023
Imagining a singing, dancing croc on set with Actor Capture
Jul 07, 2023
Making miniatures and props for 'Asteroid City'
Jul 02, 2023
Looking back at the early innovative VFX in commercials with Eric Durst
Jun 25, 2023
The Left Angle founders discuss new comp and mograph tool Autograph
Jun 18, 2023
Virtual production on an indie budget
Jun 12, 2023
How Monkey Chow made these mocap action clips for ActorCore
Jun 09, 2023
'The Last of Us' VFX supervisor Alex Wang talks clickers, environments and THOSE giraffes
Jun 04, 2023
How 'Andor's' real London locations were the basis of Coruscant finals
May 29, 2023
How 'Handmaid's Tale' used virtual production to plan a train station scene
May 22, 2023
How this short film was a test bed for rigging and stylization tools, and new real-time compositing in Unreal Engine
May 15, 2023
The process of postvis on 'Cocaine Bear'
May 08, 2023
Bringing 'Matilda' to life with more VFX than you might at first realize
Apr 29, 2023
Treating ships like characters in the final episode of 'Star Trek: Picard'
Apr 23, 2023
Urban Bradeško, aka the Explosions Guy, talks sparse GPU accelerated volumetric fluid solver Axiom
Apr 16, 2023
A preview of FMX with Mario Müller
Apr 11, 2023
Making vampire chimps for 'Let the Right One In'
Apr 11, 2023
The history of markerless motion capture company Move.ai
Apr 09, 2023
VFX supe and director Adam Valdez on making the UE5 short 'Brave Creatures' with new real-time tech
Mar 30, 2023
VFX supe Russell Dodgson explores three seasons of 'His Dark Materials' magic
Mar 26, 2023
How to plan for huge VFX sequences: the VFX supe and VFX producer on 'Slumberland'
Mar 19, 2023
How Blender Studio's latest film, with a realistic human character, was made
Mar 13, 2023
A deep dive into Cinesite's visual effects for 'Wakanda Forever'
Mar 05, 2023
How they make the fire in 'Fire Country'
Feb 26, 2023
Go in-depth on the visual effects by Fuse FX for 'Wendell & Wild'
Feb 20, 2023
How the VFX for 'All Quiet on the Western Front' were made
Feb 13, 2023
Digital people, CG water, miniatures, morphing: 'Titanic' had it all
Feb 06, 2023
Where do I find befores & afters VFX content? Your handy guide is here.
Jan 31, 2023
'The Voice in the Hollow' is an Unreal Engine short with a difference
Jan 22, 2023
Framestore on designing an immersive exhibition for the Science Museum in London
Jan 16, 2023
Scott Eaton on the state of A.I. in art
Jan 08, 2023
Ending the world (multiple times) for 'The End is Nye'
Jan 02, 2023
The invisible effects of The Northman
Dec 20, 2022
The VFX behind the forging of the Three Rings in 'The Rings of Power'
Dec 13, 2022
#VFXInsight: How Reallusion's automatic character rigging app AccuRIG came to be
Dec 05, 2022
From 'Gravity' tethers to Ragdoll Dynamics
Nov 30, 2022
Access:VFX has expanded
Nov 22, 2022
Rob Bredow on the state of play of virtual production at ILM
Nov 14, 2022
Kevin Baillie on the virtual production of 'Pinocchio'
Nov 07, 2022
How to build a CG mountain lion (and make it attack Kevin Hart)
Nov 01, 2022
Pinocchio: going from virtual production to VFX
Oct 20, 2022
Making a CG zoetrope for a Pharrell Williams music video
Oct 17, 2022
Wētā FX on the tricky task of crafting battling Asgardian kids in Thor: Love and Thunder
Oct 10, 2022
How DNEG Animation gave 'Entergalactic' its stylized look
Oct 06, 2022
Solving a 3D boat scan was a big part of Industrial Pixel's beginnings
Sep 28, 2022
Rose Duignan and Hal Hickel on the history of ILM
Sep 16, 2022
The AI tool used to redub F-bombs and go from an R rating to PG-13
Sep 08, 2022
How FuseFX built ships and creatures, and de-aged Dolly Parton for s3 of 'The Orville'
Aug 30, 2022
Rising Sun Pictures VFX supe Dan Bethell on 'Thor: Love and Thunder'
Aug 18, 2022
Behind the lighting tech behind those stunning scenes in Ragnarok and Love and Thunder
Aug 10, 2022
The creatures of 'Resident Evil'
Aug 05, 2022
This new RenderMan Walking Teapot short film pays homage to an animated classic
Jul 30, 2022
Making a bird skull god and a hippo god for 'Moon Knight'
Jul 30, 2022
How all those sparks in Pixar's 'Lightyear' were created
Jul 30, 2022
The main on end titles for 'Moon Knight'
Jul 30, 2022
NVIZ on the previs of 'Morbius'
Jul 30, 2022
ftrack's Fredrik Limsater on the state of play of production tracking
Jul 30, 2022
Moving from VFX to games: meet Blinkmoon
Jul 30, 2022
The practical and digital effects of 1997's 'Anaconda'
Jul 30, 2022
Concept designer Ben Mauro on building his HUXLEY universe
Jul 30, 2022
The VFX art department: a chat with Cinesite's Madeleine Scott-Spencer
Jul 30, 2022
Zendaya and Tom Holland's wire work, digi-doubles, and the art of comp'ing hair
Jul 30, 2022
The evolution of Richard Linklater's rotoscoped animation films
Jul 30, 2022
De-ageing, destruction and other digital effects in 'The Adam Project'
Jul 30, 2022
The virtual production behind the pirate ship scenes in 'Our Flag Means Death'
Jul 30, 2022
Pixar's Danielle Feinberg on the studio's new tech in 'Turning Red'
Jul 30, 2022
From VFXer to trucker: Louis Katz's story
Jul 30, 2022
'Wheel of Time' VFX supe Julian Parry on designing the One Power
Jul 30, 2022
The art and tech behind 'The Witcher's' Nivellan
Jul 30, 2022
What it's like to work on the VFX for a Super Bowl spot
Jul 30, 2022
Douglas Trumbull on his plan to change cinema
Jul 30, 2022
VFX supervisor Scott Stokdyk on the digital human breakthroughs in 'Spider-Man 2'
Jul 30, 2022
VFX supervisor Kaitlyn Yang on starting a VFX studio, diversity in VFX and more
Jul 30, 2022
Pipeline, tools and tech with Cinesite
Jul 30, 2022
The making of SideFX's new renderer, Karma
Jul 30, 2022
Behind the scenes of 'My Universe' from Coldplay x BTS
Jul 30, 2022
The visualization tools and techniques behind The Third Floor
Jul 30, 2022
The FreeMoCap Project
Jul 30, 2022
How Halon previs'd 'Free Guy'
Jul 30, 2022
Christos Obretenov on the new wave of stylized rendering
Jul 30, 2022
How do you edit a live action/CG hybrid film?
Jul 30, 2022
How a deep learning renderer was used to re-animate a character's lines in 'Free Guy'
Jul 30, 2022
Facial capture, CG and cut scenes on Codemasters' 'F1 2021'
Jul 30, 2022
Framestore's FIRA for portable real-time rig deformation
Jul 30, 2022
Where are we at with virtual production?
Jul 30, 2022
The first model or miniature
Jul 30, 2022
The first film to use an all-CG photoreal character
Jul 30, 2022
The first digital wire removal on a film
Jul 30, 2022
The first digital matte painting
Jul 30, 2022
The first digital face replacement in a film
Jul 30, 2022
25 years of Foundry
Jul 30, 2022
The first motion capture used in a film
Jul 30, 2022
The first motion control shot in a film
Jul 30, 2022
The first NLEs and digital editing, with Evan Schiff
Jul 30, 2022
The first Nuke composite
Jul 30, 2022
The first ocean simulation in a film
Jul 30, 2022
The first previs for a film
Jul 30, 2022
The first stop-motion
Jul 30, 2022
What was the first film to use Houdini?
Jul 30, 2022
The first cloud tank
Jul 30, 2022
Paul Debevec on Light Stage 3
Jul 30, 2022
How the 'Harry Potter' miniature Hogwarts Castle was made
Jul 30, 2022
Shane Mahan on the practical Dilophosaurus in 'Jurassic Park'
Jul 30, 2022
Phil Tippett on RoboCop's ED-209
Jul 30, 2022
The alpha channel and Alvy Ray Smith
Jul 30, 2022
Elastic Reality
Jul 30, 2022
The Bullet Time rig from The Matrix
Jul 30, 2022
The Dinosaur Input Device
Jul 30, 2022
Welcome to the befores & afters podcast!
Jul 30, 2022