CGI Fridays – A Visual Effects Interview Podcast (Season 2 Coming Soon): Recent Episodes
The Companion
SEASON 2 COMING SOON!
Industrial Light and Magic alum and CGI educator Ed Kramer (Star Wars, Stargate, The Mummy, Galaxy Quest) catches up with pioneers and innovators to learn about the coolest VFX in our favorite films and how they got started in the industry. Hilarious, informative, and surprising, CGI Fridays is a must for anyone starting a career in visual effects or computer animation, as well as fans of behind-the-scenes stories from some of the biggest science fiction films of all time.
Will Anielewicz is an artist. Others have at various times used engineer or developer or sequence supervisor to describe what he does, but the Polish-born Canadian is motivated by a purer force. For all the credits on his IMDb, his proudest achievement is undeniably having his work exhibited in SIGGRAPH’s first-ever exhibition of computer art back in 1981.
Our first two-part episode of CGI Fridays – and if you’ve caught up with Episode 6, you’ll understand why – Australian-born veteran of small and large screen CG is, like many Aussies, a natural raconteur. When we left him he was recalling work on James Cameron’s epic Titanic – which in 1997 overtook Star Wars’ box office records – so it’s appropriate that we rejoin him for CGI Fridays Episode 7 in the climatic final chapter of the Prequel Trilogy.
From a firefighter’s mosaic to phasers and photon torpedoes, digital painter and animator Adam Howard reveals a passion for pyro in CGI Fridays Episode 6. It’s easy to drop meaningless platitudes about the power of teachers to change lives, but as Adam Howard tells Ed Kramer in CGI Fridays Episode 6, his entire career has one man at the heart of it – a teacher prepared to go the extra mile.
From answering the phones at ILM to previs on The Phantom Menace, Alia Agha tells Ed Kramer how she became a “matchmove master” in CGI Fridays Episode 5. It’s hardly surprising when Ed Kramer introduces us to someone with a hand in one of the landmark visual effects sequences in science fiction cinema. What is surprising is that when it comes to James Cameron’s The Abyss (1989), Alia Agha literally had a hand in the eerie funnel of sentient water.
Probably the only person at ILM to prefer Star Trek over Star Wars, Henry LaBounta shares his incredible career with Ed Kramer on CGI Fridays Episode 4.
The first generation to have been inspired by big screen CGI, Henry LaBounta was working on commercials for Crawford Digital Effects in Atlanta when Robert Patrick’s liquid metal T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) literally changed his life.
Learn how LaBounta got his start at Industrial Light and Magic, before moving to DreamWorks, and then changing lanes entirely as senior art director at Electronic Arts.
Henry LaBounta's full IMDb profile is:
Need for Speed: Heat (Video Game) (senior art director)
Need for Speed: Payback (Video Game)
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (Video Game) (senior art director)
Skate 2 (Video Game)
Burnout Paradise (Video Game)
Skate. (Video Game)
SSX 3 (Video Game) (senior art director)
BraceFace Brandi (Short) (visual effects compositor)
People I Know (visual effects supervisor: PDI/Dreamworks)
Minority Report (visual effects supervisor: PDI/Dreamworks)
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (visual effects supervisor: PDI)
Mission: Impossible II (visual effects supervisor: PDI - as Henry Labounta)
Supernova (digital effects producer: PDI)
Forces of Nature (visual effects supervisor)
The Prince of Egypt (supervising sequence lead: "Red Sea" sequence)
Twister (digital tornado designer)
Casper (senior CG supervisor)
Star Trek: Generations (computer effects artist: ILM)
Baby's Day Out (senior digital artist)
From pitching Tron to opening the Stargate, Frank Vitz discusses his career in visual effects in the new episode of Ed Kramer’s CGI Fridays.
Vitz is best known for his work at animation studio Kleiser-Walczak Construction Co, where – alongside CGI Fridays host Ed Kramer and previous guest Jeff Kleiser – he contributed to the visual effects of the late Doug Trumbull’s multimedia Luxor Las Vegas attraction, and its spiritual successor, Roland Emmerich’s ancient astronaut action movie and accidental franchise-starter, Stargate (1994).
His association with Kleiser goes back further than the company when by eerie coincidence, Vitz – then working for Robert Abel and Associates – found himself at ground zero for the birth of modern CGI: 1982’s Tron.
Frank Vitz's full IMDB profile reads:
How to Boil a Frog (Documentary) (cgi supervisor)
X-Men 2 (visual effects supervisor: Kleiser-Walczak)
Evolution (TV Mini Series documentary) (animator - 7 episodes, 2002) (visual effects supervisor - 7 episodes, 2002)
Corkscrew Hill (Short) (technical supervisor)
X-Men (visual effects supervisor: Kleiser Walczak)
The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man (Video short) (visual effects)
The Rage: Carrie 2 (visual effects coordinator)
Judge Dredd (head of software: Kleiser-Walczak)
Stargate (software development: Kleiser-Walczak)
In Search of the Obelisk (Short) (head of software: Klesier Walczak)
TRON (systems programmer: Robert Abel and Associates)
If you’re a fan of Stargate SG-1 then you should know Jeff Kleiser’s name.
It’s not your fault if you don’t, he can’t be found in a single episode of the show, but along with CGI Fridays host Ed Kramer, and future podcast guest Frank Vitz, they created the visual language of 1994’s Stargate movie – the iconic kawoosh of the Stargate opening and morphing helmets of the Jackal Guards and Horus Guards – that are now indelibly linked to the series.
But how we got there has more twists and turns – and Tide – than you might expect from a résumé that groans under the weight of visual effects triumphs.
Jeff Kleiser's full IMDb profile reads:
The Legen of Ne Zha (visual effects supervisor: synthespian studios)
Defrost: The Virtual Series (TV Short) (vfx consultant)
RoboCop (visual effects supervisor: Perception NYC)
Ra.One (visual effects supervisor)
Surrogates (visual effects plate supervisor: Synthespian Studios)
X-Men: The Last Stand (visual effects supervisor: Kleiser-Walczak)
Scary Movie 4 (visual effects supervisor: Synthespian Studios)
Slither (senior visual effects supervisor: Kleiser-Walczak)
Fantastic Four (executive producer: Kleiser-Walczak - as Jeff Kleiser)
Son of the Mask (visual effects supervisor: Kleiser-Walczak)
Exorcist: The Beginning (executive producer: Kleiser-Walczak)
Scary Movie 3 (executive producer: Kleiser-Walczak - as Jeff Kleiser)
X-Men 2 (senior visual effects supervisor: Kleiser-Walczak)
The One (senior visual effects supervisor: Kleiser-Walczak)
X-Men (creative advisor: Kleiser-Walczak)
The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man (Video short) (animation director)
The Rage: Carrie 2 (digital effects executive producer: Kleiser-Walczak)
Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (digital effects producer: Kleiser-Walczak)
It's My Party (computer animation supervisor: Kleiser-Walczak)
Judge Dredd (computer animation supervisor: Kleiser-Walczak)
Honey, I Shrunk the Audience (Short) (animation director - uncredited)
Stargate (executive producer: Kleiser-Walczak - as Jeff Kleiser)
Clear and Present Danger (computer animation supervisor: Kleiser-Walczak)
Secrets of the Luxor Pyramid (visual effects supervisor: Kleiser-Walczak)
Luxor Live (Short) (visual effects supervisor)
Theater of Time (Short) (visual effects supervisor)
In Search of the Obelisk (Short) (visual effects supervisor: Kleiser-Walczak)
Honey, I Blew Up the Kid (digital effects supervisor: Kleiser-Walczak - uncredited)
Flight of the Navigator (digital effects supervisor)
Still of the Night (optical effects: EFX Unlimited, New York - as J. Kleiser)
Summer Lovers (special optical effects: EFX Unlimited - as Jeff Kleiser)
TRON (computer production supervisor: Digital Effects Inc.)
Xanadu (layout artist: special visual effects unit)
The Blue Lagoon (special optical effects)
Siegel was teaching junior high in his hometown of Minneapolis before turning his back on dispensing education, in favor of receiving it as one of the 1,700 students to pratfall through the doors of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College between 1968 and 1997, earning a spot in their touring show.
There he was fortunate enough to study under the late, great Verne Langdon who “besides teaching us clown makeup and helping develop our characters. He taught us basic prosthetics – he had recently been on the original Planet of the Apes [1968] with John Chambers. I learned how to take the casting of my nose, do sculptures and molds and make my own rubber clown nose. Verne liked my work. And I enjoyed doing it. And we stayed in touch."
Mark Siegel's full IMDb profile reads:
Lucy (digital artist)
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (digital artist: Industrial Light & Magic)
Noah (digital artist: ILM)
Star Trek Into Darkness (digital artist: Industrial Light & Magic)
Cowboys & Aliens (digital artist: ILM)
Transformers: Dark of the Moon (digital models and simulations: Industrial Light & Magic)
Rango (digital modeler: ILM)
I Am Number Four (digital artist: ILM)
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (digital modeler and simulator: ILM)
Evan Almighty (digital artist: ILM)
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (digital modeler: ILM)
Eragon (digital artist: ILM)
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (digital modeler: ILM)
The Island (digital artist)
War of the Worlds (digital artist)
Son of the Mask (lead modeler)
Van Helsing (digital modeler)
Planet of the Apes (model maker: ILM)
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (model maker: ILM)
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (concept sculptor)
Space Cowboys (model maker)
Galaxy Quest (model maker: ILM)
Men in Black (model maker: saucer crash miniature and blue screen unit)
DragonHeart (creature maker) / (puppeteer)
The Meteor Man (action property performer)
Fire in the Sky (sculptor)
Memoirs of an Invisible Man (action property performer)
Death Becomes Her (model maker: ILM)
Naked Lunch (creature maker)
Back to the Future Part III (model maker)
Joe Versus the Volcano (chief model maker)
Back to the Future Part II (model maker: ILM)
Look Who's Talking (project supervisor: San Francisco, Magic Vista Studios, Inc.)
Ghostbusters II (sculptor: ILM)
The Blob (creature maker) / (puppeteer)
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (creature maker) / (puppeteer)
Big Trouble in Little China (creature maker) / (puppeteer)
Poltergeist II: The Other Side (creature crew: Boss Film Corporation)
The Goonies (creature maker - uncredited) / (puppeteer - uncredited)
Dune (creature maker - uncredited) / (puppeteer - uncredited)
Ghostbusters (creature maker - uncredited) / (puppeteer - uncredited)
Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (model and creature maker: ILM - special version)
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (model and creature maker: ILM - 1997 special version)
Music: Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio