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Oliver Markowski — Head of 3D, RISE | Visual Effects Studios

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Taking part in a CG Garage podcast has been on Oliver Markowski’s bucket list for some time — and with good reason. The self-proclaimed VFX geek has a lot to talk about in this lively and honest conversation with Chris, from his work on movies including Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2, Spectre, and Black Panther, to how new file formats and pipelines are making it easy for vendors to collaborate on visual effects.

Oliver reminisces about his early days in computing and VFX, when 3D Studio came on 40 floppy disks and you needed a whole book to learn how to use it. He also discusses the pros and cons of a career in VFX, from SIGGRAPH 2007’s infamous Autodesk party to the importance of taking occasional breaks. Finally, Oliver discusses the incredible neural rendering technology he’s looking forward to.

Links:

RISE | Visual Effects Studios >

RISE REEL - 2021 Edition >

Dragon Rider | Extended Trailer >

USD and Solaris in a Feature Film Pipeline Presentation on YouTube >

Oliver Markowski on IMDb >


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0:06:01 Oliver's lucky break in VFX

0:12:10 SIGGRAPH 2007 and Oliver's specialties

0:15:29 Books, discs, and 3D Studio: getting into CG

0:21:18 Switching to Maya 1.5

0:31:01 "Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2" and joining RISE

0:37:28 Working on "Dragon Rider"

0:40:05 Avoiding a burnout

0:43:40 Thoughts on Houdini, Solaris, and USD

0:51:46 Which problems does Material X solve?

0:56:13 Solving human and pipeline problems

1:06:11 What happens to renderers in the age of USD?

1:09:58 Neural rendering and irradiance fields from NVIDIA

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About the author

Christopher Nichols

Chris is a CG industry veteran and Director of Chaos Labs. He can also be heard regularly as the host of the CG Garage podcast which attracts 20,000 weekly listeners. With a background in both VFX and Design, Chris has worked for Gensler, Digital Domain, Imageworks and Method Studios. His credits include Maleficent, Oblivion and Tron: Legacy.

Originally published: October 3, 2022.
© Škoda Design

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