Judith Crow has seen both sides of the effects industry. After developing an enthusiasm for coding, she worked her way into Digital Domain, where she pioneered visual effects for Interview with the Vampire, Apollo 13, Titanic, and Fight Club. Then, she switched sides and took on a role with Houdini developer SideFX.
In this podcast, Judith talks about everything from her early days in community arts curation to how she got her foot in the door at Digital Domain and created visual effects for major Hollywood movies. She also discusses Houdini’s meteoric rise from particle-specialist to do-it-all VFX software, revealing some of its more interesting use-cases and plans for its future.
Links:
5:15 From community arts to computer graphics
10:31 Discovering the joy of coding CG
14:25 Getting into Digital Domain
20:49 Being a woman at DD in the 90s
23:49 “Apollo 13” and “Titanic”
28:45 Sliding into SideFX
33:14 Houdini takes off
37:53 How Houdini has changed
42:35 Solaris, USD — and beyond
48:11 Houdini’s strategic partnerships
52:01 Beyond VFX and into the metaverse