CG Garage

Most people who end up in VFX spent years obsessing over frames and film. Ryan Kelsey spent 13 years in telecom in Cincinnati, selling fiber and managed IT services, before stumbling into an industry where studios win Oscars and go bankrupt in the same month. That collision of worlds turns out to be exactly the perspective the business needs right now.
Ryan is VP of Sales at Center Grid Virtual Studio, and his outsider's eye cuts through a lot of the noise around cloud infrastructure for creative studios. Why are small VFX shops still running overheating GPU racks in their back offices? Why does a freelancer getting a big render job have nowhere obvious to turn? Why does everyone talk about AI compute without knowing what they're actually doing with it? This conversation, recorded live at the HPA (Hollywood Professional Association) Tech Retreat, ranges from the broken economics of fixed-bid VFX work to what a genuinely boutique cloud partner looks like compared to the AWS-sized behemoths, to Chris's teenage son dragging his friends to see Chainsaw Man while the industry insists nobody goes to the movies anymore.
Links:
Ryan Kelsey LinkedIn >
Center Grid Virtual Studio >
HPA Tech Retreat > 
Scott Ross book >
This episode is sponsored by:
Center Grid Virtual Studio
Kitbash 3D (Use promocode "cggarage" for 10% off)

Jess Loren has built one of the most-followed voices in the entertainment technology space on LinkedIn, and she has earned it by calling industry shifts before they become consensus. Her read on Gaussian splats as a genuine production tool, not a novelty, is proving correct. As co-founder of Global Objects and a board member of the Visual Effects Society, Jess has spent the last year turning that conviction into working pipelines: partnering with XGrid as California's media and entertainment distributor, building Go Scout for collaborative splat-based location scouting, and installing a virtual production wall inside ISS (Independent Studio Services) where filmmakers can shoot a full day on LED for $6,000, props included.
Recorded live at the HPA (Hollywood Professional Association) Tech Retreat in Palm Springs, this conversation covers why polygons are giving way to splats, how AI is quietly restructuring VFX workflows, the uncomfortable reality of synthetic actors and deepfake-flooded social feeds, and what happens when a research lab asks you to find 40,000 random objects for training data and you realize the answer is a prop house. Jess also breaks down Global Objects' partnership with ISS to digitize the world's largest prop library, creating 3D assets destined for Fab, Turbo Squid, and eventually, robot training sets.
//links//
Jess Loren on LinkedIn > 
Global Objects > 
Independent Studio Services (ISS) > 
XGrid > 
Visual Effects Society > 
HPA Tech Retreat > 
This episode is sponsored by:
Center Grid Virtual Studio
Kitbash 3D (Use promocode "cggarage" for 10% off)

Here is a radical idea: what if you rehearsed the movie before you shot it? Not storyboards. Not an animatic. Live actors, real cameras, and actual creative decisions being made in the room. That is what Chris Nichols and Daniel Thron have been doing on June July, and cinematographer Richard Crudo, ASC joined them to find out if it actually works.
Richard brings perspective from the Coen Brothers' dime-store ingenuity on Raising Arizona (yes, an Arri 2C strapped to a two-by-four), decades navigating the film-to-digital transition, and a long-standing argument that the industry has built a priesthood around tech complexity that actively gets in the way of the story. What he found in the VidViz sessions was the opposite: a blue screen, a rough key in OBS, and a team moving fast enough to make creative breakthroughs that quietly rewrote the arc of the entire film. One actor's performance changed the screenplay without changing a single line of dialogue. That kind of discovery does not happen in a pipeline. It happens in a room.
Links:
Monstrous Moonshine > 
Richard Crudo's website >
Chaos Vantage >
Chaos Arena >
This episode is sponsored by:
Center Grid Virtual Studio
Kitbash 3D (Use promocode "cggarage" for 10% off)

Why are we still waiting for a green light from people who do not understand our craft? This reality is at the heart of our conversation with Andy Cochrane, a creative who has spent twenty years navigating the collapsing bridges of the entertainment industry. Andy takes us through the trenches of his career, from the grueling 70-hour weeks as a runner on CSI: Miami to the high-stakes visual effects world of Asylum and Terminator Salvation. We discuss the hard realization that being a "button pusher" in a massive pipeline is no longer a safe bet, and why the most vital work is now happening in the "weird stuff" between traditional film and immersive technology.
The future of storytelling belongs to the tactical generalists who are willing to build their own labs rather than wait for a studio to discover them. We look at how Markiplier bypassed the traditional, expensive studio marketing machine by leveraging his own fanbase to bring Iron Lung to life, and why artist-driven projects like Everything Everywhere All at Once have become the new blueprint for success. Andy breaks down his current mission in Santa Monica, where he is bypassing traditional distribution models to create "Loud Movies," an open-source medium that prioritizes human experience over corporate commodification. It is a deep dive into why the most important tool in your kit isn't a new piece of software, but the willingness to keep moving while the building collapses around you.
The CG Pro Show >
Andy Cochrane on LinkedIn >
Andy Cochrane on IMDB >
Mark Duplass: The Cavalry is not Coming > 
 
This episode is sponsored by:
Center Grid Virtual Studio
Kitbash 3D (Use promocode "cggarage" for 10% off)

The "good enough" era of streaming is hitting a wall, and a new rebellious streak in Hollywood is reclaiming the theater as the primal source of the cinematic experience. We are joined by two veterans navigating this shift: Rob Nederhorst, a VFX supervisor who has shaped the visceral worlds of John Wick 3 and The Conjuring, and Ben Hansford, a prolific commercial director now leading the charge in AI filmmaking at USC. They are not just talking about tech for tech's sake. They are discussing how to move past the "lens test" phase of AI, where everyone is just showing off what the tool can do, and getting back to the actual discipline of telling a story that makes an audience physically flinch.
The conversation pivots from the "all-or-nothing" marketing hype of AGI to the practical, gritty reality of modern production budgets. As Netflix-style algorithms push for "dumbed down" content designed for second-screen scrolling, these creators are using tools like VidViz (being championed by Monstrous Moonshine) to fight back. We explore how AI is fundamentally altering the landscape of what is affordable and accessible, allowing independent filmmakers to compete with massive studio footprints. Ultimately, it is a breakdown of why a $35 million set and a toilet paper roll prop are both just tools, and why the only metric that matters at the end of the day is finishing a film that carries a human fingerprint.
Monstrous Moonshine's VidViz for June July >
"Another" by Dave Clark | AI Horror Film - Rob Nederhorst, Producer and VFX Supervisor >
Ben Hansford's website >
Rob Nederhorst's website > 
Ben Hansford on IMDB >
Rob Nederhorst on IMDB >
 
This episode is sponsored by:
Center Grid Virtual Studio
Kitbash 3D (Use promocode "cggarage" for 10% off)