The VFX Artist’s Job Is Changing - With Guest Victor Perez | Fix It In Prompt Ep. 008

AI VFX is getting more capable by the week, but Victor Perez makes the case that the real job is still curiosity, taste, and knowing what decision to make next.

This week on Fix It In Prompt, Alex Villabon and Doug Hogan are joined by VFX supervisor, director, and educator Victor Perez. They talk through Astra’s growing Blender capabilities, why artists should treat new tools as a creative paradigm shift rather than a magic button, and how the same playful experimentation that built a career in Nuke still matters now.

We get into Victor’s new AI for Film and VFX book, open versus closed models, workstation realities, DiffHDR’s LDR-to-HDR workflow, GPT Images 2.5’s more surgical edits, and the wonderfully janky Astra-in-Blender Rickroll. Along the way: pixels, proxies, heat, community, and why “Will Smith eating spaghetti” may have a new 3D benchmark.

💬 Where are you drawing the line between a stable production workflow and the newest AI experiment? Let us know in the comments.

📬 CONTACT

Email us: [email protected]

Find Doug:

ComfyUI & VFX website: https://www.doughogan.com

ComfyUI Workflows: https://comfyui.sjv.io/OYydOG

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

Find Alex:

VFX + AI newsletter: https://alexvillabon.substack.com/

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

🔗 LINKS MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE

OpenAI — Introducing ChatGPT Images 2.5:

https://openai.com/index/introducing-chatgpt-images-2-5/

Eyeline Labs, Netflix, and Texas A&M — DiffHDR: Re-Exposing LDR Videos with Video Diffusion Models:

https://eyeline-labs.github.io/DiffHDR/

Victor Perez — Generative AI for Film and VFX: From Creative Concepts to Studio-Ready Workflows:

https://www.routledge.com/Generative-AI-for-Film-and-VFX-From-Creative-Concepts-to-Studio-Ready-Workflows/Perez/p/book/9781041235927

GPT-6 Astra Rickroll recreated in Blender:

https://www.reddit.com/r/singularity/comments/1w9aeyk/gpt6_astra_rickroll_in_blender/

Will Smith eating spaghetti, made with Astra in Blender:

https://www.instagram.com/reels/DdABYePTpgK/

⏱️ TIMECODES

00:00 Welcome Victor Perez

02:47 Astra changes the conversation

07:00 Curiosity beats fear

10:01 Directing the tool instead of pressing a magic button

13:20 The Shake-to-Nuke transition—and learning the next tool

19:13 Artist first, technician second

22:02 Astra makes a ’90s sitcom starring Doug’s dog

27:03 Open weights, trust, and stable workflows

32:01 Victor’s production-minded AI VFX book

39:14 Future-proof ideas and AI-assisted editing

48:12 DiffHDR and inventing HDR data from LDR footage

57:15 GPT Images 2.5, precise edits, and Astra demand

01:05:04 Breaking realism to find new stories

01:10:33 Astra, Blender, Rickroll, and the next spaghetti benchmark

#DellProPrecision #DellProMax #DellTech #NVIDIA #AI #VFX #ComfyUI #Blender #Nuke #ChatGPTImages #DiffHDR #GenerativeAI #Filmmaking #VisualEffects