From Close Encounters to Virtual Production And History of High End VFX with Scott Squires Ep 20

As a director, Scott Squires has done national commercials for HP, Intel and many other high profile companies. Scott has also directed specialty ride films, VR films, music videos and shorts. One of Scott’s commercials was selected by SHOOT Magazine as Best Work You May Never See. Scott Squires is always thinking of story and how to make the most of visuals and humor.

Squires has always been interested in pushing creative and technical boundaries. Scott co-founded Pixvana, a company that specializes in Virtual Reality. As CTO Scott prototyped most of our processes and tools, including using Unity and Unreal to explore VR interactions. He is listed on the 3 patents for video developments done there.

Join us in this episode as Scott Squires as he shows us the massive progress of Virtual Production over the years and how it can benefit you.

Highlights of the Episode:

1:11 - The inspiration to do visual effects
3:02 - What practical effects and old methods were like
6:46 - Developing a trained eye
8:37 - How films still hold up
11:06 - The ability to look outside of the problem
12:51 - The imbalance with modern CG
14:13 - Committing to your work process
16:15 - The base skill set needed for visual effects 
18:46 - Getting an idea of the process before going in
20:34 - How virtual production opened up more specializations
21:36 - How people get exposed to more high level skills
24:00 - Transitioning to digital
31:14 - Most memorable ways to invent a shot
38:47 - Solving problems as a jack of all trades
40:42 - The interest in real time production
49:15 - The future of virtual production 
50:43 - The inspiration to go independent

 Quotes:

11:32 “When I’m looking at a problem I can say okay, we’ll go this other old fashioned route just to simplify something and make it look better, faster and easier.” - Scott Squires

1:03:41 “When it works well, it’s incredible. Both the 3D aspects, and even the 360 aspects. The only thing that’s related to that is light fields.” - Scott Squires

Connecting with the Guest:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottsquires/

Connecting with CG Pro:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/becomecgpro
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/becomecgpro/
Website: https://www.becomecgpro.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BecomeCGPro