TyRuben Ellingson was a conceptual designer on Avatar, Jurassic Park, Star Wars: A New Hope and numerous other impressive credits. Currently, he’s an Associate Professor in VCU’s Communition Arts and the Program Director of VCU’s Cinema program. Here are some of the things we discuss:

– The origin of his unique first name

– Discovering cinema and special effects

– How he got his job at ILM

– Designing for Avatar

– A Pacific Rim disappointment

– His early VR design, including his father’s paintings

– The future of effects using CGI and AI

– Teaching at VCU

LINKS
TyRuben’s website
Light & Magic, the Disney doc on ILM

AI art websites
Mid Journey
Dall-e 2
Stable Diffusion

Shows we discussed
Reservation Dogs
Our Flag Means Death
What We Do in the Shadows