RTVFX Podcast

Speed Up Your Simulations with Nicholas Seavert

March 26, 2020 Travis McCallum Season 1 Episode 3
RTVFX Podcast
Speed Up Your Simulations with Nicholas Seavert
Show Notes Transcript

Today’s interview is with Nick Seavert.  He is the founder of JangaFX, a studio behind some of the VFX industries latest tech with products like VectorRayGen and EmberGen, a real-time fluid simulation program. Nick has been hard at work investing education and tools to make real-time artists more efficient in their roles.  

JANGA FX - https://jangafx.com/
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtRjzr2QlxJcoQQ2c74dJpw
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholasseavert/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/JangaFX

Michele:   0:00
Hello. I'm Michelle Gang. Me and you are listening to the real time visual effects podcast where wizards reside.

Travis:   0:12
You have a gift. You have a passion for creation. There's something inside you that wants to express itself and that something has led you to explore the world of visual effects, a place where magic happens and the only limitation is your imagination. All the greatest artists in the world started somewhere learning and growing into the people they are today. You being here is the first step to building your legacy as an artist. Third, for the best and brightest in the real time visual effects community. Sharpen your skills and be your best self. Today's interview is with Nick Seibert. He's the founder of Jenga FX, a studio behind some of the VFX industry's latest tech products, like Victory Jen and M. Bridgette, a real time fluid simulation program, Nick has been hard at work investing, education and tools to make real time artists more efficient in their roles. I'm super excited to talk with him. So without further ado, let's jump into the interview.

Michele:   1:05
Here is your host, Travis. Mick, Calum. Hey, everybody, this is Travis and I have Nick Sieverts. He's an entrepreneur, founder of Jenga FX and of the FX artists that's worked at studios like one Kong voiced Interactive and Cyrus studios. Nick, how you doing, man?

Nick:   1:24
Hey, I'm doing pretty good. I am. Ah, just chilling in my room today.

Travis:   1:29
Yeah, we were just talking. You're playing some legends bring Terra early

Nick:   1:34
plants, some legends of room terror, seeing all the effects, which is jury that people are talking about, and, uh, it's pretty cool game. You guys should check it out there doing great work over there. Riot.

Travis:   1:43
So before we start jumping into your current and Avery's with Jenga FX, I wanted to open the floor and ask, How did you get started? And visual effects?

Nick:   1:52
Eso whatever. I get started in visual effects. It was back in 2006 on I was actually messing around with the Half Life two source code and they had some heart coated particle systems in there, and I wanted more sparks and blood and stuff like that. And so I started. Couldn't, and playing around with that as a young wee lad contract drawn Ahmad Half Life two. And then in 2007 They came out with the source engine particle editor. And with that, it was a whole new world of editing particles of the facts. And at the end of it, I think I was, like, one off, you know, just a handful of people, two or three people who knew how to use the source Injun particle out here. And with that, every mod team wanted me and and all that kind of stuff. And so I just took on his many minds I could work on. And I have quite a lot of minds under my belt at this point. Yeah, So I did a lot of visual effects for mountain s sewing at my start

Travis:   2:39
of the mods that you did. Was there any that stood out to you that were your favorites?

Nick:   2:44
Oh, for sure. No more room in health. I don't know how many downloads has gotten, but I think it's got over, like five million downloads or something. It might even be there's something even more ridiculous than that. We were one of the 1st 10 games on steam. Green Light just has 1/2 life. Two full total conversion. Mod and I did all of the effects for it. And it went really well. We got featured in PC magazine, and all kinds of crazy stuff is that that was like, my first big thing that have actually happened. It's like, Oh, you know, lots and lots of people have seen this thing. And so it was a good success for me, made me really proud. I'm still proud of it today.

Travis:   3:16
For those of us that have never seen gnome or at hell, can you kind of describe to us what it's about?

Nick:   3:21
Yes. So no more room in hell it's Ah, it's Ah, really hardcore zombie survival game, You know, No one bite your dead type thing and you know, it's all about, you know, doing objectives and all that stuff. So I had two explosions and headshot blood and all kinds of gore and just lots of stuff. It was fun. One thing that

Travis:   3:40
we're cool, man, it's cool. So we know all about visual effects, but one area that we don't know much about it some real time visual effects, and I wanted to kind of hear from you in your own words. What Israel time visual effects me do you?

Nick:   3:53
I think that the real time visual effects means that it is official effects that's running right there in front of you. You know, 30 frames a second or more, hopefully, and typically it's well within a game, right? Yes, it's real time. Visual effects. Ellis is a hard thing to describe, but I guess if you're sitting there waiting for renders, that is not real time. And if if you're viewing it, you know right there, right in front of you, you know, it's it's just like every single time. It's different story of staying. Then I would say that's probably real time. So a video game definitely encompasses Realtor of the effects.

Travis:   4:24
Cool. So when you started off in the industry, what were some things that you wish you had known? Starting out in visual effects?

Nick:   4:31
I wish I had known how Thio make textures, that that was the big thing. Like whenever I was modeling and stuff, you know, almost relying on valves, textures and things like that. And even once I started getting into, like, you know, some paid freelance stuff, you know, they might have had, like, a little library of things or whatever. I mean, I just sucked it textures. So I wish that starting out that I had put more time and effort into that. But since I had a whole library available to me, I didn't put much effort into it for years and years. So it eventually called out with me.

Travis:   5:00
So now that you know, textures air really important what you've done toe really kind of learn how to do textures,

Nick:   5:06
I guess I'm just look up, you know, affects textures or whatever on on Google images, and then figure out how to paint that kind of thing and just spend time in photo shop. That's that's about it. Just spending time in photo shop and just trying to figure out Hey, how did they paint this? How did they make this? And, uh, yeah,

Travis:   5:24
okay. Cool man. Right now, what do you most curious about? What do you, uh, checking out in the world? It doesn't have to be visual effects, but

Nick:   5:33
yeah, I think that what I'm most curious about in the general world s it is a two part question for me. So in the world, uh, probably bow making right. So making long bows out of wood, so bending sticks and making inflicting Eros. That's my That's my low tech thing that I'm really curious about right now. And so it helps me get off the computer because I'm on it all day long. And so that's what I'm really curious about. I'm in in terms of visual effects. I'm really curious about seeing where we can take volumetric stuff, right volumetric effects and how we can integrate that into the real time pipeline. As you may know, that is our specialty at Jenga Effects. So we're trying to figure out how to get that stuff in a game. And that's what I'm most curious about, to see how we can do it.

Travis:   6:18
And for those of us that don't really know what volumetric means, as opposed to, I guess, non volumetric. What is it? What's the difference

Nick:   6:26
in general, if you have particle effects in the game, it's typically placed on a sprite. You know, a to D plane. That plane is facing the camera and you spawn a couple those in three D space, and it looks you kind of fake the depth of the particle and things like that. And if you go into it, you can probably see that. It's just, you know, to de planes. There's no depth, real depth to that effect. But with Volumetrics, you know, it's actually a three d You know, I don't want to object, but we'll just say object is a three D volume, right? Is what you read tricks with it within that scene and you can go inside of it, right? It can, you know, occlude objects and, you know, just do things that Tootie Sprite can't. That's a bit of a tough question. Even though I'm dealing with it all day long. I don't really think about what is a volumetric. Not that's the best way to describe it is our sloughed actual clouds that you're flying through an airplane. That's a volumetric

Travis:   7:19
cool man. Cool. So obviously, you've gone through good times and bad times, and we always seem to learn from our failures. So I'm just curious what something that maybe you failed at and how did you handle that? But it happened,

Nick:   7:31
uh, something that I have failed at. I would probably say that that's a that's a difficult when I think that just in general, failing at making the right particle effects or whatever. I guess I can. Something This whiskey, right? I really, really suck at wispy type effects, you know? And I would say that that is definitely something I found out whenever I was working at a certain studio, right? I don't know if I could perfectly say it, So we'll just take a studio that was working at a studio. They required some some wispy effects and stuff, and I just could not get it right. You know, the art directors like a man. This thing, you know, it's cool, but it's not what exactly we're looking for, and I I just couldn't do it. I tried and tried and tried, and by that time I was like, OK, I've got other stuff to do. Sorry, we'll have to figure something else for this. That's one thing about felt that in like a production setting. It's just wispy type things and ethereal stuff. It's a big bad point for me.

Travis:   8:26
So it was a learning experience from that. Did you just kind of find these are my strengths from the facts I enjoy and do best at making curses. The other ones

Nick:   8:35
Yeah, and so I think that I'm that with that. I definitely found out that I move better at you. No more realistic stuff and, you know, explosions and all that kind of thing, you know, and just stuff like that. But like whenever it comes, the magic and ethereal stuff. Not really. My strong point is something that I really should practice more. And I mean, I guess the thing that I did learn is how not to paint ethereal stuffer. Hell, not the generate textures and stuff for it. So that goes back to what I wish I had learned that way Back win is learning how to make these textures. So

Travis:   9:04
So what? You're looking at your own work or maybe the work of others. What are some of the things that you're looking for?

Nick:   9:10
I would say that that the two most important things to me when I'm looking at my own work or someone else's work is color and time or timing. Rather, you know, making sure that the effects feel powerful when strong, based on, you know, whatever the effect is trying to convey to the player. And then the color, you know, is it a good thing that I'm near This thing isn't a bad thing that I'm near this thing. So definitely timing and color of the two most important things that look for no shape shape is kind of important. But, you know, whatever. I'm dealing with realistic effects. I don't really care too much about shape. I just wanted to blow up, but yeah, definitely. Color and timing of the two most important things we look for because if your timing is off, it's just gonna suck.

Travis:   9:51
Yes, it may be an example of an effect that you've had Thio basically Gates that off of

Nick:   9:57
a specific effect with timing, there was a an effect that I did for a game called Infra. And there was this fireball that you that you had to run from that was chasing you down this tunnel. So there's this gas leak and there's a big fireball. And the timing was extremely important for that effect to make sure that in most cases the player could run away from it and then make sure that the player is not in the fire and living right. And so we had the time. That effect really well, and you know, the ignition and all that stuff. It had to look good, right? The player had to say, Oh, crap. Because this thing is blown, I've got to get out of here. And so it just had to be a really nice, cohesive experience for the player. There was a big pivotal moment in the game, so ah, at this definitely were. Timing comes in and then, you know, another example is just a grenade. If you throw a grenade, I mean, it needs to be snappy, snappy and explosive. And as soon as you see enemies dying or getting hurt and rag dolling or whatever, you know that explosion needs to have already encompassed them. So definitely, definitely

Travis:   10:52
absolutely, Man, so kind of looking at the macro scale here, outside, just kind of the particles themselves in the visual effects industry, specifically for real time. What are some of the big trends that you're seeing out there in the market right now?

Nick:   11:06
I think that some of the trends that I'm seeing are probably on the tools end. Right? Things were getting more technical. Things were getting more complex, you know, both unreal immunity that are both competing against each other with near the VFX graph in Niagara. They're trying to give MME or Technical Hook in points for code and things like that and making the effects more integrated within the game. Tree falls down, and then it knows that it hits the certain rocks if it needs to crack the rock and 1/2 or whatever and you know, just stuff like that to make, you know, Effects Maur integrated into the world, I think that it's gonna be a big trend dealing with player interactions and being able to make more complex effects. I think that's definitely a trend. And so I think we're gonna have to, ah, grow our brains, figure out, you know, and keep up with this next generation stuff. I definitely see that. That's one of the big trends.

Travis:   11:55
So jumping over to Jenga FX, you started your own company. Can you tell me a little bit about it?

Nick:   12:02
Yeah, so, you know, I'm the founder and CEO of Jenga Effects. We have ah team of six people, and at this point, we're making tools for real time. The effects artists and I started this company because I was just angry at all the third party tools out there. No bad feelings, for for all the tools out there, I won't name them. But you know who they are? All the big dogs out there. And I mean, I like their tools. And I thought they were great, but they were too slow for me. Or if I'm making visual effects that need to be fast and any quick it oration time. Well, I don't want to wait 12 hours for a render on. So in this case, our flagship product, I would call it is in Virgin. And it allows you to simulate and render explosions, fire, smoke all that stuff in real time. And, I mean, within just a couple hours, you can have tested, you know, 2030 40 flip book. It orations where it would have taken you weeks to do that in other software. And so the big problem that we're solving is Oh, no. Let me singling and render this thing for 12 hours, and then you do it. And then you say, Holy crap, This looks like garbage in my game. You have to do it again. And then it's another 12 office another 12 hours on 12 hours. And so the other thing is that you're using tools for the made for the film industry, right? And so you haven't been all these tools to your will to fit, you know, into flip books and spreadsheets and all that stuff. And it's not really work for this built for real time, the effects. And so we're just trying to streamline the process. And we're one of the first companies out there to really trained hone in on the real time aspect of creation and get that kind of stuff out there for everybody.

Travis:   13:33
You make a really great point saving time for artists. I know I've been in my ER or three D s. Max and I had to render for hours on end, sometimes just go grab a cup of Joe and come back. But I'm curious. The word Jenga. Where did that come from? What's what's the start of the back story behind that?

Nick:   13:50
So back in my wee lad days, I think it's like 2006. YouTube had come out and I had noticed it was like I want to make an account on this thing and I randomly type Jenga moment as a name. That was just the name that stuck with me. I'll throw out my teenage years, and one day somebody was like, Hey, man, you should just, like, call yourselves Jenga effects cause no Jenga, short for General Oaf and in effect says that's what you do. So just do that. And I thought about the alias for a while, and those, like, You know what? I'm gonna make a company called that because I don't know what else to call this thing. No real meaning behind it. It has nothing to do with the game. Jenga, which a lot of people that actually try and stall her name that way, typed into Google. So luckily, Google knows what they're trying to search for.

Travis:   14:32
Yeah, man. So deal do actual visual FX at your company.

Nick:   14:37
The only actual visual effects that we do like in terms of in game stuff. It's just cinematics that we make to show off our tools. Note. No studio contacts. Essences. Hey, Well, they do contact us, but we turned him down way. Say okay, we don't actually do visual effects. We just sell the tools to do it. So, yeah, we'll try and keep up with the trends and stuff like that. And we're you know, we're learning Niagara and the VFX, crafting all that to make sure that our tools work with it and stay within the circle of knowledge another that we don't really do any visual effects other than just what we need to do to make some promo material and stuff like that.

Travis:   15:08
So tell me if I'm stepping on any toes, But I was just curious if you could kind of run me through what your visual effects process is kind of from inception to completion, One of those steps, like maybe in your personal work, Or maybe how you went through the pipeline at your previous studios?

Nick:   15:24
Yes, so I can talk from just say, like, actual studio production experience. I don't know if this is the same for every studio because I was the sole vfx artist at this studio, so I had to make up my own process. And so that just was the, you know, the designers. They say, Hey, we want to make this thing. And so, for example, let's just say it, you know, you've got a player and he's casting some kind of ice spell from this hand or something towards the enemies. And so then from their designers, they would say, OK, this is what we want. Make us some mock up just crap. First of throwing here and get the hook ups for you. I'm so I would make some, you know, just garbage effects. It's okay, here we go. This is good enough for now and then from there, The art director. If they were capable and they had the time to divvy it out, the concept artists I would try and get some kind of concept art behind that. So none of the shapes and the colors that they're looking for, and at the very least, I would just try and get a color palette that they were looking for. Whenever I was working here, we didn't have a style guy because I didn't have time to make one. It was just Go, go, go, go, go. But in this case, after I got just the initial thoughts behind it, if I couldn't get concept are of a scheduling meeting and say, Okay, you know what we want. What's the radius on this kind of thing, and we'd sit in with designers and talk about the effect. And so then after that, I would actually start working on the effect. And so the first thing is Okay, well, I need to create some textures if I don't have him. So, you know, start painting the textures and, you know, say okay and then, you know, kind of break down. What air? The core components off this ice spell coming from the player's hand. Okay, well, you've got some stuff on the hand, so I'm probably going to need to, you know, make a shader to change the player's hand to some icy thing, right? Do some kind of projection mapping or something on the player's hand. And then I'm gonna need and maybe some warm up particles for this ice effect. You know, pre cast stuff. Then we need the actual cast. No animation from animators on. Then I need to time my effects with that kind of thing, knowing the animation sequence, sir. And then, you know, I need the maybe that projectile or the stuff that is going towards the characters on dhe. Then from there, we've got, like, the head impact. And so you just kind of break it down into, like what the particles are, which is part of this. This may be neither here or there, because you might have done some of it with the designers and with the mock up stuff that you made for the designers and they hooked it all up. But in general, that's kind of the workflow inside from there, you're just making the particle effects and tweaking and making sure they're hooked up. And, you know, hopefully you have animations by this point from the character people. But if you don't just do do its best you can with what you got and just refined and refined and refined and refined. And, you know, the art director eventually, once ready, you say, Hey, man, you know, come check this thing out and they'll say either like it or I don't. And you just keep Iterating until they're happy. And then sometimes if they're not happy, But you are, just make that call yourself and go with it anyway. Now that was what I did.

Travis:   18:05
So on average, like, for instance, that ice attack, How many hours or weeks does it take to put together just one effect for production ready because eventually you got to say enough is enough, right?

Nick:   18:15
Eventually have to say enough is enough. Just depends on what's on your plate during your particular sprint, if that's what you'll do at your studio. But with me, you know I would try and get it knocked out within a couple of days because I I just had so much on my plate. You know, some things like, say, if it's Lincoln Ultimate or something, right? I mean, it's like the big thing for a certain character in this case that we're talking about a magic game or whatever. Like the ultimate limit thing could take a week, two weeks, three weeks to get right. Hopefully, studios could give you that much fun because it's the big, pivotal moment for a certain character for a fight or whatever. It's like. This is the most awesome part of the whole game as the ultimate and so you know, you need to spend a lot of time on that, and then they expect a color and and, you know, shape and timing and all that stuff and that stuff. It just takes a while to get right, and it takes a while to get to know everything you know, fitting with the environments and all that stuff. And so it's just a huge editor of process. And that's where you know, having tools that help you do this stuff faster. It's going to come into play here in the future just because, you know, if you're sitting around messing with, you know, whatever. And maybe you're trying to render some kind of icy thing or whatever your stake in 12 hours. I mean, it just extends the amount of time that it takes to do this effect. If you need it in three days, then that's a problem. Whatever your tools suck. So if

Travis:   19:30
your man and a lot of us beginning artists are still learning a lot of us being self taught and speaking of being self taught, YouTube's a great resource to go out there and watch tutorials and to really become better artists and just lining the crafts, and you're pretty popular on YouTube, you think some really amazing tutorials, one of them being your fireball and your blood tutorials that you did an UN riel and I was just wondering if you could maybe talk a little bit about why you made those. Are there more coming

Nick:   19:59
in terms of arm or tutorials coming? Hopefully, if time permits, I really hope that I can unleash some more of my knowledge and put it out there on YouTube. Videos have been quite successful. And if you guys don't know what you two generalist is, Jang effects software in tutorials to search that in YouTube and you can find it. So, yeah, I mean, definitely. I created him because they're just There's not enough tutorials out there. Some of the tutorials that are out there, they're not made by VFX artists, and a lot of it might not be the best way to do things or whatever it is. I feel like there's a gigantic void into Toral's. Whenever I got started, way back when there was nothing you know, 2010 in 2012 within 14 nothing, nothing on the Internet that I ever found, and it was just editorials. And so you know that there was some cool stuff that you could find typically, and I can't say there wasn't anything because there was on view effects, but it was unique, a specific, and it didn't really help me with source engine. But it was good to see you know what? Someone who's had a lot of production experience could do. So yeah, so So that's why I created it just because I had knowledge and I just want to help people and teach people and just give them the resource is that they need to succeed. And even if there are tutorials out there on, you know, making these particle effects, they often don't cover the material creation side and the texture painting side. And that goes back to what I wish I had known is I wish I knew texture stuff. And so once I figured out, you know, the slightest I'm nowhere near as good as most vfx artist. But I was like I knew enough to make something look good. So let me share that knowledge with somebody, and so that's why I created it

Travis:   21:29
right? And I recently heard from somebody I can remember which vfx artist this was. They said, like 90% of the work that you do in a particle effect is actually the material and the texture of those really interesting.

Nick:   21:42
That is so true.

Travis:   21:43
So recently you've moved from doing visual effects, as you said more to being an entrepreneur and a manager and managing a team. So I'm just curious what that transition's been like and how it's changed your way of

Nick:   21:55
working. So, uh, I mean, it's a huge, gigantic jump from, you know, working in the studio and, you know, having a safe paycheck and all that stuff. But it was a risk that I was willing to take. And, you know, Jang Effects has been my baby for years this point and it's finally off the ground and we've met, you know, studios purchasing. And I said, You know, I think it's time to go full time into the company and bring our people on full time and that kind of stuff. And so, you know, I just pulled the trigger on it and didn't think twice. And yeah, and then from there, you know, managing a team, it is hard and just, you know, trying to conveying vision and, you know, conveying timelines and deadlines and stuff like that. One of the big things is as you have a timeline for something, and it is almost never met. And that's not to say that programmers are bad or artists or bad or whatever they stuck in the job order. It's just things take longer than you think they do. It's the same way in the game industry. That's why games you're delayed all the time because this kind of stuff creative work, it's just takes so much time. And we often underestimate how much time is going to be spent on it. And so that makes management really hard and makes predicting, you know, when updates are coming out and all that kind of stuff really difficult. So I haven't really mastered it yet, and then, you know, more like the business side of things. Managing a business is just It's just difficult as well. There's just so much crap that comes your way and you know, taxes and this and that and, you know, maybe an audit every now and then and just all kinds of crap. So it's It's a really, really risky, but I like it. Enjoy it. I enjoy the challenge, and one of the other big things is having to watch out for competing software and stuff like that and being more in tune with the industry and things. So it's definitely a huge change from I'm just making visual effects. And then I go home and enjoy some games and stuff, too. Oh, well, now my full time thing is trying to pay for everyone else's paychecks and in all that stuff. So it's like all my decisions affect the down line of everybody, right? And so at first, you know, when I was working in studios like Oh, you know, the CDO should just do this. And now that I'm in the position, I'm like, Oh, and now I know why they did those things and, you know, it's just it's really daunting whenever you whenever your decisions are affecting 20 or 30 mouths on the down line with Children and all that stuff and whatnot. So with all your employees, it's scary with good.

Travis:   24:14
Only for a little while now. I'm curious. Do you have any advice, sir? Insight that you could offer to maybe first time entrepreneurs or people looking to start their own game company or they're a visual effects studio. Just how to get started?

Nick:   24:27
Well, I think that the best way to get started is just to put one foot in front of the other. You know, just don't stop. If you've got an idea, just roll with it. Just go with it. And, you know, with me, I'm not really a Let me plan my business. It's well, let me just do some stuff and then we'll come up with a plan later if it starts working and, you know, just put all your effort into it and just go for it. I mean, that's what I did with my particular company. And, you know, it was a big struggle for a couple of years and, you know, our 1st 2 away. It performed, okay. And, you know, had some big studios adopted him. What? Nine. That was cool. A little bit of a taste of success. Then I figured, Hey, we kind of need to pivot and offer a new product and really, really make an impact on the industry and make some way of since I was like, Well, can we do to do that? So, yeah, but that's my advice is just keep going. Just don't quit. If you if you're starting something or you make a game on the side or whatever like you. You just have to keep going. I mean that the point. Whenever you want to quit, that is the point where everyone else qu'est ce and that's when you have to just keep on doing it. And you gotta push through the grind. And and then eventually, you know, on the other hand, you've got a nice, shiny golden egg thing. You throw it. It's steam in the epic game store and all that stuff sells like hotcakes. Yeah.

Travis:   25:35
All right, Nick, We are going into the lightning round questions now. Fast and easy. Just like visual effects getting you off the ground. Are you ready? Yep. I'm ready. What is a perfect one day get away And Cary North Carolina or the surrounding area

Nick:   25:51
s o carries where I live. And I think that the perfect one day get all right is going for a hike. A pretty big hike it instead. Park is a really nice hiking area. And and then, after getting lunch at Danes, chicken and waffles, the best fried chicken and waffles on this planet.

Travis:   26:10
Your hands down my mouth, Saliva eating. Now Yeah, it's awesome. That's the best getaway. So what's video game or app are using on your phone? That is most fun,

Nick:   26:21
So I don't really play any things on my phone. In particular, I think that probably the thing is, is I think it's called like the calm app where you do meditation and that kind of stuff. I think that's probably probably my number one man. And there's also another one. I think it's what waking up with with Sam Harris. That's another good mind coming at this party where I spend most looks to my time on my phone. If I'm there,

Travis:   26:43
I will the invitation app. So me and my girlfriend do it every the other night. So it really helps us kind of forget about what happened that day and de stress. So we go to bed with the

Nick:   26:53
clear. Exactly, exactly. I was recommended. What was the name of the App again? Is waking up with Sam Harris? It might just be called waking up on the APP store, but it's pretty good.

Travis:   27:04
Okay, what is your favorite thing to cook or eat?

Nick:   27:08
My favorite thing to cook. It's probably spaghetti. I mean, I just had that they actually spaghetti and garlic bread. Definitely, definitely my top favorite meat sauce. All that stuff is really good. And that's the best.

Travis:   27:21
You're not half Italian, are you? Nope. Not have Italian. What is your favorite book or podcast you've listened to recently in terms

Nick:   27:30
of favorite book? Probably the three body problem. I would totally butcher the artist's name. It's a Chinese name, so I won't even try and say it. But you have three. Body problem was my favorite book, and my favorite podcast is probably pin Sunday school. It's a great comedic type show, and I just really enjoy Listen to It's probably let my go to for podcasts.

Travis:   27:52
The three body problem is Ah, you six in C I X. I am. Is that it? Yeah. Yeah, that's it. Yeah, I get you a Chinese Chinese name.

Nick:   28:04
Don't know it. You know what? It is really good, but really, really deserve like v r and stuff. So it's it's really cool. Book.

Travis:   28:10
So what is your favorite video game? Visual effects. You're jealous off that is not your own

Nick:   28:15
in half life. Two Episode two There was a scene where the big adviser worm thing through you and Alex against these polls, and it just ripped this barn apart. I mean, it was probably one of the most incredible moments that I had ever seen in a video game and just all the destruction, the effects of some. I mean, it was just so, so good. I am so jealous, said Jealous. But that's not my effect. It was great.

Travis:   28:38
Cool, man. I still definitely 1/2 life fan here. The new PR games coming out soon. So get your headset ready.

Nick:   28:45
I got one. I'm ready.

Travis:   28:48
Best advice for first time visual effects artist or people looking to get into the industry. Try and

Nick:   28:54
download Paragon assets or download Half Life two Episode two and you know, installed the tool kits and stuff like that and dissect the work of professionals. That is how I learned. I think that, of course, you can learn the editorials and stuff, but, you know, looking through the work of an actual professional in the industry and there are games out there that let you view that kind of stuff, you know, just go do that, look at how they did it and tweak the parameters and try and figure out. You know why this looks good And what the components of this effect darn things like that, especially the Paragon assets with un riel. I mean, there's just so many incredible things you can learn, and a lot of it is even over my head. And so it's a bit overwhelming. But I mean, if you go in there and just try and make stuff and you mishmash particles together, you'll learn much faster than you probably could from a tutorial with is very linear and focus towards one thing s so so that that's my advice is go, go pick apart. Professional work.

Travis:   29:47
Yeah, and we could get those on the unreal marketplace and it's completely free to which is the best part. Guys, go in there and download them, Jack. Now what is the thing you're most excited about for the future of real time visual effects?

Nick:   30:00
Um, I think that the thing that I'm most excited about I mean, it's it's a bit biased on my end, but just just real time tools, I mean, And then not only that, but expanding what's possible in game. So you know they're fully volumetric three D explosions and just things that are just engulfing buildings and just full on destruction and just more power and more blowing up stuff that that's definitely one thing and getting things closer to real life. I mean, that is what I am most excited about, and I hope we can get there. I hope Jeep years are powerful enough eventually to handle all this stuff. But we've got tight budgets right now, but definitely that's what I'm most excited. Well, it's just progressing, you know? How much can we push? You know, our graphics cards and stuff that really excites me.

Travis:   30:43
Hey, I'll never say no to more explosions. Exactly what question do you never get asked that you wish you were asked more often,

Nick:   30:52
I guess. Probably. Just stuff about my about my business. You like What's my story? I don't really get people asking me about it. I guess I just wish more people to ask because I love to tell people about it. Are you know why I did what I did in that kind of thing? People just like Oh, okay. I mean, everybody likes to talk about themselves, so I wish that someone would ask

Travis:   31:11
Nikki, got any final thoughts or things to plug anything you want to share?

Nick:   31:15
Definitely. My plug is on our tools on our website, so Jenga fx dot com. So that's J A N g E a. F the letter f then x dot com Surging affects dot com and we have a tool called Emergen. It allows you to simulate explosions and fire and smoke and magic and just all kinds of cool stuff on. Then I'll put this texture straight to a game, you know, within seconds. And so it's definitely the future, and so go check it out. Go check out our tools and let us know your thoughts on it. We want your feedback, and so try it that

Travis:   31:47
I appreciate you taking the time to chat with us today. I was a real pleasure. Make sure having

Nick:   31:52
me on here, Travis. I really appreciate it.

Travis:   31:55
Hey, guys, thanks for listening to this interview with Nick's. Evert

Nick:   31:58
is such a smart guy who's making huge advancements for the VFX community. If you want to support him, go ahead and try some of the tools he and his team are making it. Jenga FX dot com. I'll be sure to leave some links in the show description. As always, I'm open to collect feedback from you guys. I'm seriously looking for some interesting topic ideas that you want to hear about. Go ahead and email me any questions. You may have a Travis McCall 86 at gmail dot com. I promise. I read every e mail and respond back within a day or two. Our next episode is an interview with meals. Do it a really talented VFX artist working in Japan. Right now, you'll get to hear about what it's like to move across the world in a different culture and adapting your work in lifestyle. The match until next time rock on.