Luke talks with Chris LeDoux in episode nine of Ask An Artist! Chris is the founder of Crafty Apes VFX, a widely successful FX studio producing high-quality FX. We talked not only about how you can scale in the FX business but also about the healthy culture while scaling. Chris shared his experiences working with different people from different fields, as well as the importance of taking care of your people, and a sneak peek of what’s next for him and the Crafty Apes.

Highlights

• How does Chris stay creative? How is it possible to balance creativity between all of his roles? - 3:44
• There should be a balance in the relationship between producers and artists. They need to understand more about each other. - 8:13
• Making a creative call. - 10:58
• Where he is sitting now, is it where his headspace was 10 years ago? - 20:08
• The one who gets on the mat the most wins in the end. - 21:58
• Having an innovative mindset and starting to move things around: Who we are isn’t going to take us to where we want to go. Our systems and processes that got us here aren’t going to get us to where we need to go. - 25:23
• To get to the next level, you have to try new things. - 35:49
• Movies and TVs have so much budget and corporate power behind them that they can’t afford to take a risk. Because if they fail, then there is massive punishment in financial loss. 36:54
• It’s such a level of healthy curiosity that leads to all the other discoveries of recognizing something. - 40:00
• We’re problem solvers. We’re finding new ways to do things. - 44:48
• The question might change people’s view of him for the rest of his life. - 50:00
• What’s next for Chris and the Crafty Apes. - 52:52

Episode Resources

• Connect with Luke Thompson
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luke-thompson-97281555/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lukethompsonfilm/?hl=en
• ActionVFX Instagram:
• https://www.instagram.com/actionvfxofficial/?hl=en
• https://www.actionvfx.com/blog?category=podcast
• https://www.actionvfx.com/
• Connect with Chris LeDoux
• https://www.craftyapes.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/crafty-apes-llc
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/craftyapesvfx/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/craftyapesvfx/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/CraftyApesVFX