Oscar-winning VFX supervisor Steve Preeg joins Chris Nichols for CG Garages 500th episode! From virtual production to real-time rendering and AI in filmmakinghow has VFX evolved? Lets dive in.Steve Preeg was one of the first guests interviewed for CG Garage, and it is fitting that he would return to celebrate the remarkable milestone of the podcasts 500th episode! To walk down memory lane, have a listen to episode 3 here. What has changed since the days of working on land usage cases, legal animation, Tupac holograms, and digital humans for films like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Tron: Legacy? Dive into the 500th episode recap to find out.Memories made and collected: Chris Nichols captures the artistic spirit of each CG Garage guest with the snap of a Polaroid.SummaryIn the past decade, Steve shares that the VFX industry has evolved with virtual production, broader use, but also greater audience scrutiny, making careful planning essential to enhancing storytelling.Real-time rendering enhances pre-vis and post-vis by creating a more polished look earlier in production, reducing reliance on render farms for background elements, and accelerating the animation approval process.AI is rapidly evolving in filmmaking, making tools more accessible and enabling individual creators to generate entire films, though authentic artistic storytelling will remain essential.Newcomers should embrace new technologies, understand filmmaking language, and ensure their visual effects work aligns with the directors vision and overall story.Career transition from Digital Domain to MPCVFX Supervisor Steve Preeg transitioned from Digital Domain to MPC following his work on Cats. He then worked on Call of the Wild before embracing Rescue Rangers for its ambitious script and extensive VFX, including 1,200 unique characters and a late-stage human-to-cartoon transformation.Visual effects: Changes in the last 10 yearsSteve reflects on how VFX was so challenging in the past that every shot had to be meticulously planned in advance. This is not the case nowadays. Of course, now, with virtual production, everyone is aware of its many advantages but forgets that it requires earlier decision-makinga critical step that many people dislike. In his view, poor decision-making and being rushed are essentially what affect the quality of visual effects. Weak storytelling also often leads to misplaced blame on the visual effects team.Weve given directors so much freedom that now they think, Lets not write the third act until were in post and realize how we want the movie to end.Steve Preeg, VFX SupervisorIn addition, audiences have become more critical of visual effects, often focusing on minor flaws instead of appreciating the overall story. Steve likens this to focusing on a single tree rather than being in awe of the entire forest.Todays audience is obsessed with picking apart pixels instead of watching the story. Nobody looked at Jason and the Argonauts and asked, Is that a real Cyclops? They just enjoyed the story.Steve Preeg, VFX SupervisorReal-time rendering in action: Use case examplesReal-time rendering can be utilized in both pre-visualization (pre-vis) and post-visualization (post-vis) to achieve a more polished appearance earlier in the production process. It offers valuable benefits, such as reducing the load on render farms by rendering background elements in real-time and significantly speeding up the animation approval process.With real-time rendering, you could have something that looks like a cohesive film all the way from pre-vis rather than having gray-shaded playblasts and post-vis that looks really funky. You could start crafting the film.Steve Preeg, VFX SupervisorSteve gives the example of a scene in Rescue Rangers where the director chose to edit first and animate later, a process he found unusual. After editing, the director saw the completed animation and realized the emotional depth it added made the scene feel overly drawn out when combined with music. This forced a late-stage edit, frustrating the VFX team. Steve highlights this as a challenge in filmmaking.Directors often lack a way to visualize animated performances fully early on, making it difficult to structure scenes confidently without second-guessing. He suggests that real-time rendering could help bridge this gap by providing a more accurate preview, reducing the need for last-minute adjustments.Whats fascinating is that the challenge of visualizing animations early on to prevent high costs isnt limited to just VFX. Brick Visual, a leader in archviz, has significantly reduced iteration times by embracing real-time rendering to create high-quality animations with real-time ray tracing. Their workflow is a great example of how real-time tools like Vantage enhance storytelling while maintaining visual fidelity.AI in filmmakingAI tools are advancing rapidly, and Steve acknowledges that they will likely play a significant role in the future of filmmaking. Their potential uses include making the filmmaking process and tools more accessible to creators worldwide and enabling individuals with great ideas to generate entire films on their own, much like what open-source filmmaking has done but on a whole other level.AI is coming. You can either embrace it or stand in front of the tidal wave and drown In a few years, people will be making entire movies with AI from their basements.Steve Preeg, VFX SupervisorDespite this, its important to note that film genres are ever-evolving, and new authentic stories are essentialartists dedicated to creating highly specific content will always be in demand.To learn more about how Chaos plans to implement ethically sound machine learning and AI in its future visualization projects, listen to CG Garage episode 473, in which Dan Ring, Senior Machine Learning Team Lead, goes into generative AI, Gaussian Splats, NeRFs, and more!Advice for newcomers to the industrySteves primary advice to aspiring VFX artists is to be open to learning and understanding the language of film and filmmaking. They should understand how their work fits into the overall story and try their best to grasp the directors vision and what is expected of them.Embrace new toolsets, even if you dont like thempull a Phil Tippett And more important than understanding VFX is understanding the language of film and storytelling.Steve Preeg, VFX SupervisorWhat does the future of VFX look like?When asked about the future of VFX and what the industry should focus on going forward, Steve shares that collaboration is key. Directors and DPs should have greater control over visual effects, and they should remember that VFX is a hammer, not a Swiss Army knife. We dont need to eliminate VFX, but we definitely need to reevaluate the way we use it and integrate it more intelligently.Virtual production is at your fingertips.Explore Chaos Arena.Learn more