Todd Vaziri on Ian Failes' Befores & Afters Podcast

"Transformers" (2007), City Fight shot CF630, visual effects by ILM

I was lucky to chat with the premier visual effects journalist working today, Ian Failes, for his Befores & Afters Podcast. Listen in Apple Podcasts or Overcast.

Ian wrapped up his ILM series which also featured John Knoll, Dennis Muren, Janet Lewin, David Vickery, Ben Morris, Rachel Rose, Rob Bredow, Ben Snow and Hayden Landis talking about ILM's history. Ian recently wrote the book Industrial Light & Magic: 50 Years of Innovation, which is terrific.

For the episode, Ian and I dug deep into ILM history and culture and even got into the weeds on certain shots, like one particular shot from "Transformers" (2007), where I talk about the collaborative spirit of how we make visual effects. We had a lot of fun, and I think you'll enjoy the discussion.

Since I spoke so much about that one "Transformers" shot, I thought I'd print the full credits for the shot here. Visual effects and filmmaking is a team sport, and each one of these people (not to mention the amazing camera, stunt and physical effects teams) brought their creativity and innovation to this lovely shot.

SHOT: CITY FIGHT CF630

Layout by Keith Johnson

Animation by Derrick Carlin

Creature Dev/Transformation by Keiji Yamaguchi

Lighting by Jeff White

Rotoscoping and Paint by Michael Honrada

Compositing by Noll Linsangan

City Fight/End Battle Sequence Supervisors Nigel Sumner (lighting), David Hisanaga (FX), Todd Vaziri (compositing)

Visual effects and animation by Industrial Light & Magic, A Lucasfilm Ltd. Company, San Francisco, California

VFX Supervisor Scott Farrar, Animation Supervisor Scott Benza, Associate VFX Supervisor Russell Earl, Digital Production Supervisor Jeff White, Compositing Supervisor Patrick Tubach, Lighting Supervisor Hilmar Koch

Full ILM Credits: http://www.vfxhq.com/tvaziri/transcredits.html