From the Amiga to Houdini, Nuke and Digital Domain with Sean Cunningham Part 1 | TVAP EP28

04/09/22 • 59 min

We go all the way back the 1990's in this 2 part interview with Sean Cunningham, a veteran of the VFX industry whose credits as an FX Artists include films such as True Lies, Strange Days, The Fifth Element, Godzilla, Oh Brother Where Art Thou and who has directed and produced independent feature films in his own right.
This journey takes us from the excitement of the Commodore Amiga, missed proms, the inspiration of T2 and the founding days of James Cameron's Digital Domain studios.
We learn about the origins of industry standard tools SideFX Houdini and Foundry Nuke from someone who was using both in their earliest incarnations as SideFX Prisms and Digital Domain's in house compositing tool - Nuke.
We go deep and geeky so be warned.
00:00 : What to Expect
01:53 : Meet Sean Cunningham
03:01 : How I got started in the industry
05:29 : The importance of the Amiga for creative computing
07:00 : Sculpt 3D on the Amiga
07:52 : Lightwave
14:10 : The inspirational effect of T2
14:33 : First VFX online bulletin board
16:15 : T2 Comes out, a turning point
17:47 : Calarts
23:36 : : Metrolight Studios and Sexy Robot
28:07 : The Role of TD in the 1990's
31:05 : You had to build up an intuition - working without UI feedback
36:22 : Elastic Reality, morphs and splines
39:28 : James Cameron founds Digital Domain
42:05 : Digital Domain in Stan Winston's Creature Shop
42:53 : Stealing Artists and the pirate mentality
45:18 : True Lies
49:51 : Side FX Prisms (which became Houdini)
51:51 : Learning VFX software in the 1990's
58:06 : My Approach to learning at Digital Domain and since
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Previous Episode

An Unreal Engine Discussion, with Filipe Magalhães, Realtime Supervisor at NVIZ | TVAP EP27

In this episode, Kofi chats to Filipe Magalhães, Realtime supervisor at NVIZ about Unreal engine and all things realtime.
We do a deep dive into Unreal engine in the use for previs, VFX, and Virtual production, compare it to Unity, and retrace Filipe's journey into the industry.
Following up on that, we discus the education, diversity and representation in the VFX industry, neurodiversity and more.
A very well packed episode, not to be missed!
As always, if you liked this episode, please like, comment, subscribe and share!
Listen to all episodes on our website
#vfxpodcast #unrealengine #realtime
Chapters:
00:00:00 Episode Overview
00:02:05 intro
00:02:32 Introductions and a bit about Filipe
00:09:52 When did you realise you had a creative interest?
00:13:10 Differences between unreal and unity and why the previs/postvis, VFX and virtual production industries have adopted unreal over Unity
00:18:06 What do you generally use unreal for and how does the workflow differ between previs/postvis, VFX and or virtual production
00:32:33 What are the common requests/demands from directors and what does it take to provide the right tools and results in a fast environment
00:40:48 Non handheld virtual camera challenges in Unreal
00:42:44 What does Unreal lack or can be improved
00:48:23 How technical does one need to be when using unreal
00:55:44 Is non-realtime rendering a thing of the past
00:58:45 Favourite non-real time renderers and why
01:00:27 Achieving diversification and representation in the VFX industry
01:05:44 Assets and Unreal showreel advice
01:08:10 Career path advice
01:14:29 The importance of parental support in finding self
01:18:31 Conclusion

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Next Episode

Sean Cunningham Part 2, From Digital Domain to Indie Film and Rooster Teeth | TVAP EP29

In the second installment of our interview with veteran VFX Artist and filmmaker, Sean Cunningham we go into detail about the process used on the 1990's action movie True Lies for the missile sequence - featuring some of the earliest uses of Nuke digital compositing at Digital Domain as well as an early version of SideFX Houdini (Prisms).
We talk about his role supervising on Strange Days and working on Oh Brother Where Art Thou with the first use of full DI on feature film. We discuss how he raised funds, produced and distributed two indie feature films and his return to VFX.
It's a great tour for VFX artists interested in some of the early history of digital FX and the tools we use everyday as well as a case study in indie filmmaking.
Full timestamps below:
00:00:05 : The Team on True Lies
00:00:05 : Marker 1
00:03:34 : The origin of the name "Nuke"
00:04:42 : Nuke always planned as a commercial project
00:06:43 : Th Pixel was sacred
00:07:56 : Talking through the workflow on a missile shot
00:09:09 : The use of Amigas at DD for playback
00:10:45 : Everybody would have to queue up their tests
00:21:39 : How FVX work teaches you to think about things
00:32:46 : Running out to film
00:33:30 : First time as Supervisor and the fear
00:35:00 : O Brother Where Art Thou - first film with end to end DI
00:35:31 : Working with Roger Deakins
00:41:13 : Presentation to PETA
00:42:28 : From Hollywood to indie filmmaking
00:45:50 : Fundraising first indie feature film
00:49:47 : Shooting in a small town
00:56:02 : Distribution
01:00:09 : After release - back to VFX
01:02:03 : A kidnapping
01:03:18 : Sick Boy - finally making a horror movie
01:08:06 : The response to Sick Boy
01:24:37 : Working at Rooster Teeth
01:28:12 : How to get out of a creative rut
01:29:44 : Remote work opportunities
01:32:31 : Final words and advice
As always, if you liked this episode, please like, comment, subscribe and share!
Listen to all episodes on our website
https://www.thevfxartistspodcast.com/