What the role of CTO involves at Wētā FX

Ian Failes from befores & afters chats to Phil Tippett about a couple of projects he has in the works - including what could be a follow-up to MAD GOD, ie. MAD GOD 2. There's also Pequin's Pendequin, and the Sentinel feature Tippett Studio already crafted a test for. Plus Tippett shares his candid thoughts about AI (they may not be what you think).

Ian Failes from befores & afters chats to Base FX founder and CEO Chris Bremble about operating a VFX studio for 20 years from China.

Ian Failes from befores & afters chats to 'The Girl Who Cried Pearls' filmmakers Chris Lavis, Maciek Szczerbowski and Éric Pouliot about the making of this stop-motion animated film.

Ian Failes from befores & afters chats to Infinite Realities' Lee Perry-Smith and Henry Pearce about the company's journey into the world of scanning, photogrammetry, videogrammetry and now 4D gaussian splats, including for the holograms in 'Superman.'

Ian Failes from befores & afters chats to Saint Walker, who is the collator of The Core Skills of VFX Handbook 2025.

In this special sponsored episode, Ian Failes from befores & afters talks to the leadership from Phantom Media Group, or PMG, which now includes PhantomFX, Spectre, Tippett Studio, Milk VFX and Lola Post.

Ian Failes from befores & afters chats to Framestore visual effects supervisor Josh Simmonds about the Michael Shanks film, 'Together', diving into Framestore's body morphing work for the main characters played by Allison Brie and Dave Franco.

Ian Failes from befores & afters chats to Wētā FX CTO Kimball Thurstan about being a CTO of the revered visual effects studio. We discuss a range of topics, including rendering, de-noising, data flows and…yes…AI.

Ian Failes from befores & afters chats to Mark Spatny, now VFX supervisor and VAD supervisor at OTOY, about his work at The Roddenberry Archive. This is an archive dedicated to preserving the legacy of Gene Roddenberry, who created Star Trek.

Ian Failes from befores & afters chats to visual effects supervisor Paul Franklin, who reflects on what he was doing 10 years ago, which was just after his VFX Oscar win for Interstellar. We dive into the scientific research, the CG and the miniatures side of that film. There's a whole lot of fun anecdotes I had never heard about before. This is a special ep of the podcast that was originally recorded for Hugo Guerra's 10th anniversary Hugo's Desk stream.