Produced By - Hollywood Meets AI: Inside the Making of Tomorrow’s Creative Tools | #115: Jiri Kilevnik

Episode Date: August 25, 2025

Jiri Kilevnik is a Creative Director and AI VFX Pipeline Architect at Runway, where he helps build the next generation of creative tools for filmmakers and video creators. Before joining Runway, he spent years as a Visual Effects Supervisor at Framestore and Rodeo FX, working on projects like Deadpool and Wolverine, Loki, The Fall Guy and Snow White. He also teaches at NYU, helping students combine AI with real-world production pipelines.In this episode, Jiri shares how he went from studying to become an electrician in a small Czech town to supervising blockbuster films and building cutting-edge tools at one of the world’s most innovative AI startups. You’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at working in an industry where progress happens faster than ever, along with real advice for anyone aiming to break into VFX, AI or the new wave of creative tech.Connect with JIri:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jiri-kilevnik-48a0584b/https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8945630/https://www.jirikilevnik.com/Timestamps:00:00 – How AI is changing filmmaking01:00 – Podcast intro and guest welcome02:27 – From Star Wars fan to VFX artist04:45 – First projects: ads and shampoo labels05:08 – Why Jiri never went to film school06:55 – Learning Maya and Shake from manuals08:40 – How learning VFX has changed since the 2000s10:14 – Breaking into film after years of rejection13:44 – Freelancing abroad: London and Barcelona15:30 – Working on Game of Thrones in Croatia17:26 – Persistence, failure, and staying motivated21:13 – Why filmmakers must learn AI now23:51 – How fast AI is changing VFX workflows25:42 – Moving from film to AI development29:14 – Building The Weeknd’s AI avatar for Spotify33:01 – Using AI for Marvel movies37:36 – Why advertising adopted AI faster than film40:33 – Joining Runway as Creative Director42:45 – What Jiri actually does at Runway45:46 – How he accidentally became popular on LinkedIn47:58 – Balancing work, family, and side projects49:26 – Book and film recommendations (sci-fi favourites)52:19 – Where to find Jiri online54:19 – Why sharing failures matters in tech56:47 – Podcast closing and thank you  Connect with Tomas:X: https://x.com/TomasLoucky⁠⁠⁠Stan: https://stan.store/TommenLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomasloucky/⁠⁠Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisistommen/⁠⁠Unproduced:Newsletter: https://unproduced.substack.comYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@unproducednotesSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033Ddo8ibDlLYoaP7FFLIWMore:Links: https://linktr.ee/produced_by⁠⁠⁠Newsletter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://producednewsletter.substack.com/⁠The Podcast Club: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/25420030/Tools & gear that support the show:Metricool: https://f.mtr.cool/HRJBZKRiverside: https://riverside.sjv.io/vDnDodFavikon: https://www.favikon.com?fpr=tommenRa Optics: https://ra-optics.myshopify.com/discount/TOMMEN?rfsn=8803777.591d19JamX: https://jamx.ai/podcasters-offer?ref_id=e02d48af-ef66-4e76-b804-c2e8d282a8bfSome links are affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. If you find them useful, using these links helps keep the podcast running. Thank you!  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Now you can actually produce a movie or you can show your idea. So that's actually amazing. Now it's the best time to actually start a film. You can kind of skip like all of those difficult steps that was there before to learn to spend so many years to learn a software. Like it's even really tough to think like what's going to be in like three years because since now I'm working on those tools, sometimes you just even asking like what's going to be in the next three months, not three years. You know that when you see what you already have in the hands that's like not publicly out yet. And then you're thinking like, oh, okay.

I'm on this one and I don't want to even think what's going to be in three years. I'm wondering like if in three months like what people's going to do and then what's super interesting is like when you release like those things like to see what the other people do, right, that they show their creativity and how they use the tools. That's amazing. You see how many people you helped with to actually get into when they can start social media, for example, and start doing their own small series, podcasts. And suddenly everything's kind of professional.

And that's amazing to see how people are using that. Before we dive into today's episode, please hit that subscribe button. Your support helps us grow and inspire more people on their journeys. Thank you. Hello, Yuri. Thank you for our journalists today and welcome to the show. Hey, Thomas, thank you for invitation. So, Yuri, for those who don't know you, can you please introduce yourself?

Yes, so my name is Yuri. I work as an AI developer now for the company Runway. way in the past I worked as visual effects supervisor for companies like FramStore Rodeo effects I worked for clients like Marvel Studios Netflix HBO etc and yeah my background is mostly advertising episodic and movies and now I switched like into really like a deep AI development tools for filmmakers video Yep. And before we discuss this chapter of you working in AI, can you tell us more about what does it like working in film? Maybe I know there must be like a long and exciting journey,

but maybe how did you get interested in this in the first place and briefly tell us about your experience because as we spoke before, you work in multiple companies, multiple countries, exciting projects. So can you tell us a bit more about your journey? Yes. So I think I have to be a lot of your journey. I get like into visual effects it was like probably many people I saw the I saw the Star Wars for the first time right I mean I saw the the original ones the it was episode four and I remember I was six years old I was at the hospital and there was like you know it was there on the in the TV and I was like watching it and then you know I was asking they're like people how they can fly

in the spaceship you know and because I was like you know you're keeping it so you believe that it's kind of real or it's like an attraction or whatever and then then somebody like I told me there oh it's special effects it's fake right and then I was like I want to know more about it right so then and you know I'm originally like you from from Czech Republic so at the time there was really like a nothing that you could find like magazines or no internet so it was very very tough to find like any information like pictures you know how those things was made like when I found out

when I moved to US I and I see what they had here at the time I'm like that's crazy they had everything here you know like any magazine you have been mine it was here but yeah in Czech like it was nearly impossible so I don't remember what I got but it was some kind of film

magazine where it was like you know three four pictures from like making off like before before the special effect was done And this kind of like, you know, really inspired me probably to go that way, but you know, I was like too young. So of course, I kind of forgot about that, but still kind of had it in mind. So when I was like growing up, I was like trying to do like some paper animations, you know, stuff like that when you just make a photo and do stuff with the paper and just understand how animation works. And yeah, then I somehow, it's like stayed with me.

It became a hobby and I really knew I want to do this in life. And yeah, that was kind of my way into it. And I started in Prague, like working in advertising agencies, in advertising studios, mostly, you know, it was like kind of simple work, like you're replacing an etiquettes on the shampoos, for example, you know, for multiple markets. So you get like, I don't know, a Hungarian product,

and then they ask you now change it to be Czech and slow walk, for example. So I was first doing, like, those things before I even touch a movie. So it was like a pretty long time before I, I got into it. But yeah, this was kind of the spark, you know, how I got into visual effects. So you didn't study like film or BFX? You went through the...

No, I actually didn't study anything because I'm not even from Prague. I'm from city called Radis Kravavale. And, you know, there was like no like a film school or anything like that or even close to it. And, you know, it was like expensive and you wanted to move to Prague. You know, it was like a kind of based on your family if they could sponsor you or not. It wasn't really my case. So, yeah, I was what I was studying.

I was studying like an electrician. You know, just like to have a paper. Yeah, you know, just to have a paper that you're not totally dumb, but you can at least have like some school exam paper that you finished at least like some school. So yeah, I did electrician. But you know, I must say for me personally, it was useful in the way that I was like pretty pretty bad like manually like very bad you know so it is like a teach me like something that I can do a few things like at home myself yeah so at least for

that was it was useful but to be honest I never ever used in my life the paper from the school what I mean sorry once at the immigration because they wanted just like they want every document kind of you have but otherwise yeah I don't have any school on that so yeah I It was like, I self-taught myself. And it was a bit difficult because, as I said, it was really not really access to the internet, no tutorials at that time. So I was buying, like, those books or I was reading actually the manuals to the software. You know, when you get, like, those thick books with the manual, that was kind of the only material you could find. And do you remember back in the day what was, like, the software that was being used?

Oh, yeah. I remember I started on like the first version of Maya. It was I think it was Alias Maya at the time. And there was the first time I tried like to do some 3D. And I remember that I actually read the whole Maya book and was doing like everything that was in there, you know, as a tutorials. And this kind of shows me like, okay, 3D is probably not my favorite part. But at least, you know, I kind of was able to work in it. do some like basic stuff and then i tried shake which was compositing software from apple at the time

because somebody told me yeah star wars actually was made in shake the newer ones so like okay of course i want to want to shake so i was training shake it was like a mostly trying because for that software i really didn't find any any books any tutorial and it was two-decompositing so i kind of find out i like more 2D compositing world as like what I would like to do

so yeah I was mostly training training that so then I then I specialize like even later in in compositing and like more 2D work

instead of 3D I wanted to say firstly that something I didn't know is that you actually study this electrician and if you

consider your position now I think it's just impressive even what you did before like working on such impressive projects that we will discuss later on. And secondly, I think it must be really hard to imagine for people that

these days you've got so many tutorials, resources, and basically everything on YouTube, like when it comes to learning the software. And the fact that you actually studied from books, I think that people just cannot imagine. So it's super cool. Yeah, like, I feel that today's everything is way, way easier. And I see it myself, right, I'm still like studying something you're never done. you never you never know everything and especially I know we will get there

but you know in the in the AI world it's changing like every two weeks you know like in visual effects like those softwares you know there was like

an update every year which is like kind of classic timeline for the software to do updates like every year and you know there wasn't like much changes in that they okay

they add like a one two features and then updated some bucks and that was it. So you know, you just like, it took a day to just study what's new and that's it. But like in AI, it's like every two weeks, like it's totally different. So that's like you feel you never stop learning. Yeah, I can see it like on LinkedIn or something because I don't really have, I don't know, time or I don't follow it as much, but I follow people who post regularly about AI.

That's basically my source of information. And you can see like literature regularly, breaking news. there is this update. It's from this tool and the other tool and something next. I'm like, oh my God, it's like hard to keep up. Yeah, and it is hard to keep up. Yeah. And the thing is that I'm watching just most like my industry,

which is like multimedia, film, commercials, like kind of video world. But the AI is now such a broad, right? It can be for anyone like accountant's architect. Yeah. And just to come back, because I'm pretty sure that many people, would be curious to know and me too.

What was like the step or like a moment when you transition from working in advertisement or previous work to actually film industry? Well, yeah, that was pretty tough because, you know, when you're applying like for a film role like to working on the movies, they usually want to see your film background. They don't care about your advertising background. And that was mostly like my problem. At any time I applied, I got constantly. refused and maybe I was applying like four years in a row you know any studio just like

yeah yeah yeah it really was like a long so I mean I started working when I was 18 19 something like that so this was the time and I actually moved to Prague and start working in the in the advertising you know as I told you like those kind of shampoos commercial all its papers commercial but yeah we have to start somewhere and uh you know, from there, you kind of doing like this thing. So you know that this is not even really close to the film work. You know, when you see like Jurassic Park or those big movies, you see like it's like totally high end compared to what you do with your toilet paper commercial.

But then, you know, it's very hard to get somewhere like where you learn like it's such a high end visual effects work. So one thing was I was trying to do like my personal project, which also will like anything special and try to. to build like demo, demoreal because the companies want to see your work. So you're demo real. So actually show the shots that you work on. But if you don't have them, that is pretty hard to get there. So then I try to work on more like advanced or more high, high end advertising.

Because you have like some advertising like for big brands like Nike's or Coca-Cola, Pepsi. And sometimes they're doing like a more like a better, better advertising that's more close to like a movie look. you know there's like a lot of 3D which now is becoming kind of normal so I was trying to do those so I was you know of course like traveling between between studios and I was really like a selecting the project that would actually help me to grow and yeah of course I failed like many times you know that for example they they weren't happy with my work because I wasn't that skilled but I know that I just just the time that I spend there is enough for me to learn a bit more you know to be better so you just have to like assemble like all of the skills that you can talk with the people there look under their hands how they work and then you start learning like professionally more how to actually do it and then you know when they fire you which of course it happened to me as well then you then you try to go somewhere else like more like what you like but still it was this advertising world and you know like from the previous studio you got fired you still bring with you like some better job that you did so you still have like a something better job that you did so you still have like a something bad

letter to show. So you're kind of growing. And then I start freelancing in London and Barcelona, which was great because I also found when I did this such a huge change in the people's mentality. And then I found that like the best thing I did probably in my life was to leave Czech Republic. Because it was really how the people treat you. It's, you know, suddenly when I moved to, first of all, like to Barcelona, where I did like a few, few commercials there. And then they offer me for it because they had the headquarters. in London. They actually asked me like, could you move to London because it's easier for us. We have more work there. So if you open. So of course I said yes. So then I was going freelancing to

London. And sorry, can you name the company? One was MPC, which doesn't exist anymore. And the second little glassworks. Like a both really, really good companies. They did like a really nice, nice work. And you know, they kind of, what I liked on them, but they kind of analyze you, like your skills are you know where you're strong and where you're weak kind of and they don't judge you for that you know they just like kind of like a find a project that fits you the best kind of not always of course sometimes you get something that you struggle but that's what you need to to push yourself forward you need to struggle and suffer to get better but you know even if you fail there they never was like oh you're like so bad let's fire you no they tell you this was bad because of this

this, this. So what you need now, we will help you to fix this one. And they let you to kind of work on yourself to get better. And that's what kind of happened there.

And then I came back to check because I was freelancing, so it wasn't like there like a full time. So of course it was like weeks or maximum month. And then I came back to check again and I tried to work and check, which I totally hated it.

You know, I was like, I just cannot live here because I just don't like it. And suddenly I got an offer from a company that was doing a project. And they asked me like, oh, you're actually in Europe and you have European passport. I was like, yeah, of course. Czech Republic is in EU. I was like, okay, great. We want you to go to Croatia and Slovenia for shooting, for a project.

And then we would love if you can go to Canada after that. That they will make me a paperwork and everything. And I was like, oh, wow, okay. So suddenly like some breakthrough, right? And then I signed like everything, like NDAs and all of that stuff. And then I went to Croatia and I found like it was Game of Thrones. So then you are like, oh. Was it actually in Dubrovnik?

It was in Dubrovnik, yeah. But I was also, it was also in Slovenia because there was also the team was from Slovenia. So I was also like in Lublana. doing, I was like a, doing mostly like a textures, you know, like a, most like a photo, photographs and collecting the data, doing like HDRIs for, for 3D artists, stuff like that. And then, yeah, then I came back to, I actually moved to Montreal. And you know, it was just like a short term contract. They just asked me, like, we need just three months from you.

And, you know, it was like, okay, whatever. It's like, still like a great experience. And, you know, Everything worked fine. They were happy. And then they offered me like, oh, you actually have another project if you would like to stay with us. And then the project was, I think was Star Wars at the time. I was like, yeah.

And then, you know, like everything like starts like paying back, you know, like all of that effort you did before, like this jumping between companies and teaching, teaching and falling. You know, suddenly you see how it started like paying back like years later. It really took six years. years before, like, actually I get there. But it kind of shows me, like, it's very, very important to don't surrender. You know, just, like, still keep going. Because at someone, you will get there. You just need to find your way.

So that's also what taught me is, like, you should have, like, a real listen. Opinions, like, when somebody's telling you, like, oh, you shouldn't even do that, which is, like, very often in check, you know, like, I would say 90% of people was telling me, Like, oh, it doesn't make sense. Oh, you're not that good. You will never get there. I would use you. They have enough, like, good people there.

And, you know, it kind of makes you to believe it that you feel like, oh, they actually right. Why would I do it? Like, I have pretty good place here. You know, it's not bad. But yeah, I never was like that. So I still was like, okay, whatever, I'm going. There was actually one of my questions I was about to ask what was, like, people's

free action back in Czech Republic, like when you told them that you want to be a filmmaker or you wouldn't work on Hollywood films, if they, Oh my support. I can tell you all about that. Anytime I said that, and I remember it started at school, right, when the teachers like asking kids, like, so what do you want to do in life? And it was like, I mean,

we're wearing like a kid. It was like already on a like an end of elementary school where we are like 15. And then, you know, during the high school where you are like around 17, 18. So you're not a kid anymore. You kind of, it's more like a serious what you say, what you want to do. And of course, there was like people who were saying, like, the classic professions, right? Oh, I want to be a doctor.

I want to be, I don't know, chef, stuff like that. So, yeah, it's everything that's fine. And then I remember I always said, like, I want to work on Hollywood movies. I want to move to Hollywood or I want to move to U.S. I literally every time, everyone was like a laughing, like, I'm stupid. I'm crazy. Like, and, you know, everybody was always, like, taking you, like, oh, this guy is just like from another planet. He's moron.

You know, it was like always, like, in the mean way. You know, that the teachers usually. should like a support you, I feel. That's why going to school. They should like, at least maybe tell you like, okay, great, you want to do this. What's your plan? Or like maybe, you know, okay, you want to do art.

So maybe we should more focus that you don't need to study that much like a math. Of course you need to know something. You just go through the class. But maybe let you focus on, I don't know, art at school. Or like maybe recommend you some solution that maybe, oh, there is like a school that you can. go because that can maybe help you to get where you want to go. But instead of that, they're just like a laugh at you and telling you that you're kind of

stupid and that your parents should think about themselves like what they're raising. And that's like my experience. That's why, you know, I'm like, I would never let my kids, I mean, my kid like to study and check because, yeah, probably universities could be great. I don't know. But you know, when like now she's studying in US and it's totally different. Like whatever the kids like a feel they want to do, they're just helping them from like when they're like a small

nobody's like judging you doesn't matter what you want to be and really like a supporting you with like every step that you want to do and I thought it was even in Canada because like she studied like the school in in Canada and yeah there was as well like this

kind of mentality that nobody puts you down for what you think what you want to be and that's like super important you know like when you I feel when you when you grow but I think I had like the big advantage that I never took this personally because I kind of, I don't know, build that thing that I don't really care what people thinks about me. So this kind of helped me, you know, like all of the negative

things kind of just like give me more and more energy just to go. So they just kind of like, you know, like when somebody's pushing you so much at the end, you say, okay, I'm going. Although I've never been to the US, but I heard it so many times that the mindset is so much different when it comes to a lot of different. Yeah. It's very, very America compared to Europe. It is very, very different, yes, yes. And you said like a few points before, but what we just discussed, what would be like your piece of advice or some tips for people who want to pursue such a career as well? It will be ambitious work on films like this.

From your experience, what would you recommend people to, I don't know, keep in mind, to focus on or what do you think is the most important? You know, that's like a very, very good question because I would recommend now, learn AI as much as you can. If you're starting now, just, yes, get like some basic information how the industry works, how the department works, like 3D, 2D. But you don't really need to learn it, like really go fuely to AI because that's like where it goes.

And there is so many people that are afraid of that. There are so many people who don't want to learn it just because of some, I don't know, some internal things they have that they just they're just against it because they just hate it and they feel like

this is not art but you know the thing is your employer will not ask you if you like art or not that's not how it works so yes

if you work for yourself that you like some kind of an artist who I don't know drawing images and you're successful amazing amazing for you

but if you want to be like in this industry like in the movies work for the studios I 100% recommend to go fully on AI, learn how you can utilize it. Because it was also great about it that it really democratize what you can do. Like, you know, when I was like 15 like that, I'll be so happy if there is a tool like we have now

that you can actually do your own movie. You know, that you write it and you just go and do it. Like, you know, I'm now like a company like runway, but it like allows you to generate stuff. but not just like generate you can be yourself like an actor you can take a friend who will do the kind of like the motion for you so you can do motion capture and transfer the character into a robot or whatever you want so you can do sci-fi that was like just two years ago it was impossible you need always like those huge budget so when you've been doing something like indie like

independent it has to be like always like extremely like no visual effects just like everything on camera but now you can actually produce a movie or you can show your idea so that's actually amazing now is the best time to actually start in a film you kind of skip like all of those difficult steps that was there before

to learn, you know, to spend so many years to learn a software yeah I mean I can only agree there have been such a big progress for example in past two years I cannot imagine what it's going to be like in next two years this like conversation is going to be outdated

after two years. Yeah, exactly. Like, it's, it's, it's, it's even really tough to think, like, what's going to be in, like, three years, because since now, like, I'm working on those tools, it's like sometimes you just even asking, like, what's going to be in next three months? Not three years.

You know, when you, like, I see, like, what you already have in the hands that's, like, not publicly out yet. And then you're thinking, like, oh, okay, so now on this one. And I don't want to even think what's going to be in three years. I'm wondering, like, if in three months, like, what people's going to do?

And like, you know, then what's super interesting is like when you release like those things, like you see like what the other people do, right, that they like show their creativity and how they use the tools that you're building. That's amazing. You know, you see how many people like or how many people you helped with to actually get into when they can start a social media, for example, and start doing their own small series, you know, podcast. And suddenly everything looks kind of professional.

And that's amazing to see how people are using that. Yeah, it's true. I agree. Are you struggling to stay consistent on LinkedIn? Fanpost helps you create high quality posts in minutes. So you can write faster, show up more, and stress way less. Built by creators for creators is the easiest way to grow your presents without burning out. Try it free at fanpost.com.

And as you are just discussing that, what was, I mean, of course, we could be talking about films for much longer, but how did you transition then from movies to AI to runway, where you are now? Yes, so this one was, I would say, it was interesting because it was 2019, I think, and it was like way, way before the AI was popular or like, I think. Back then I didn't even know what it is. All right. You know, that's only fine, because me too. I was the same. I had no idea that something like that exists.

And at the time, it was called machine learning, right? So you couldn't actually even Google AI. If Google AI, you'll probably find you a sci-fi movie. Terminator. Because everything was called like a deep vision, machine learning, big data. That was like the official names of those tools. And it actually started like really like early. I don't know, but it was some, I have fucking thinking.

it was already in 90s where there was like a first test of machine learnings. Anyway, we've been working on the movie. I think it was with Twin Diesel. And we've been doing like a 3D body of him. It was for a sci-fi movie. And, you know, there was a scene like where he, there's like some explosion. And then he like started like a, you know, revealing himself back like from those particles or those tiny nano robots or what it was.

And, you know, like, of course those things are CG, right? That you have like a CG characters. Fiji face and everything. And I saw like how much time it took, you know, it was like, it's like a month of work to do like shot like that. To look everything like a reel. You need to do the scan. You need to do like, you know, the modeling, texturing, like all of that stuff.

And I was always like kind of like try to think like how to speed up those things, make them like just faster, better, you know, like kind of skip all of those boring steps like for me was boring. And then I saw, you know, like somehow, I don't know, randomly I found like in GIF image with like somebody swapped the face of someone and said like it was machine learning. And I think it was I think it was Sylvester Stallone to Arnold Schwarzenegger or other way around. I remember. And it looked like so real. And I was like, holy moly, what's machine learning? So then I started like a Googling, right?

Like a browsing. And then I found like, okay, there's some website that's called GitHub. at like every developer knows but you know since you're in visual effect it's not really your thing and then there was like a tons of like a code and stuff like that so i i remember i kind of like a sit down and i was like now i will learn like coding like how to do it how to build models and i build like first of course i didn't build it from the ground up i downloaded like some codes from github right like at the as a base because it takes time and then i start tweaking it and then i just presented it at work like look I just did a first like a face swap for a movie we're doing and yeah the

resolution was the time 256 by 256 pixels so you know of course everybody was like yeah it's great but what we're gonna do with that it's just like it's just like extremely low-rise and I was like no no but just like see the future in it now it's two 56 pixels but maybe I don't know I can play with it more and I will maybe double yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever, right? I was like, okay, I'll not listen to that. I'm going home and I will just make it like triple at least to like 1,000 pixels.

And I had like one producer who saw it as well and he was kind of like, interesting. He didn't like say like it's useless. He was kind of the only one who didn't say it's useless. And then he came to me and he was like, hey, I got contacted by a guy. He's a singer. He's called himself The Weekend.

And he wants to do like avatar of himself that will be talking with people through Spotify. Because they have some deal with Spotify. And I was like, man, I just literally just try to facewap myself with someone else. And now you want me to build it. I have no idea how to do it. It was like, oh, too bad. I just signed a contract. We have three weeks to do it.

And I was like, now I'm really fucked because like, I have no idea. I didn't know really coding, right? I was like playing with that few months. And then the thing was that like, you know, when you opened his album on Spotify, he appeared there and say like, hey Thomas, thanks that you're listening to me.

So even like I call you your name and like those things. And I'm like, I have no idea how those things like even works. Anyway, I was kind of stressed, which I'm usually, I'm not really stressed. Almost never,

but this time I was. And I started like at a building. And of course, like the first prototype. I was like, crap, low rest, and like, it was barely looking like him. But, you know, I was like, I keep going, keep going. And, like, the second week, I somehow, like, cracked the formula, like, how to make it look real. And then I presented to them, like, his team.

And they were like, oh, it's actually great. But there's two things we don't like. One thing is his teeth. And the second thing is his shoulders. I was like, okay, what's wrong with his teeth? And I mean like, he just like a, he just like has like a, you know, some tweaks in his like appearance because I don't know, this guy like I looked every year kind of like a different image. So you want to like a change. I was like, okay, so it's just like an image change like how it looks like.

Okay, so I just like I retrain everything and remade that like and I also did like a script that was like a fixing also the whole body. So suddenly you could like move. I couldn't do like everybody walking while I can do like when you're standing, you know, and moving. like this. It worked pretty well. So we finished it and then I feel that we finished like the first ever AI avatar and it was released on Spotify. It was super popular. It won like I think six calm lions and like tons of awards we got for that. And was it work only by yourself or did you work with anyone else on it? No, it was just me. That's why I was so stressed. And like even at no time

You know like for even experiments I was like I need to test it first Like how to even do it and then It's not just for some random person It's for the weekend right Kind of yeah you will be like Okay if it fails it fails like whatever

But you know They've been kind of like also like You know if it fails like They didn't have like a high expectation Because nobody kind of did that before at the time So it was just like If it works, great. If it doesn't, well, we tried.

But it worked. And it was like extremely popular. And since the time, I was like, hmm, maybe I should really refocus. And then also, of course, those guys I was showing them those 256 pixels videos been like, hmm. So how you did it? Because we delivered like suddenly it was, I think, 720p like quality, which was perfect for, you know, for app. It's great. You don't need bigger than that.

I got another offer, but like an ask from, from Marvel. I guess they saw it. They did doing a movie and they would like to try it like on the movie. And then I was like, you know, for like a saying. And look, the movie, it's like it's a 4K data linear. The one what I was doing is like Rex709, you know, like kind of something that you shoot on your phone, quality. And this one is like a cinematic release. And, you know, everything is like extremely, extremely.

The quality is like somewhere else. it's like the cinematic one. And they be like, no, no, it's okay. Just try it. If it doesn't work, you'll just go to the classic approach, right? You know, the 3D pipeline and everything. So I actually asked them, okay, so let's make it fast.

Send me the hardest shot that you have close up when maybe the person's touching himself. So I at least, like, you figure it out. Because if you give me easy one and it's success and then you do it and you fail on the other ones, it's bad. So I was like, give me the hardest one. at least we will see right away if it works. And then I kind of figure it out like pretty fast. Like even the quality,

so I was able to deliver like, you know, 4K data in linear color space. So which means it was like in the cinematic color space. Just I don't know how to really explain it. But it's like, you know, the workflow that you're using when you work on like a visual effects

you're using. There are like a different different color spaces and stuff like that. You know, like when you're shooting, let's say, on the film camera, Usually you get like a logarithmic data, which are like those gray data, but then you convert it into linear. So it's just like a more how you work with the curve that's like controlling the gamma curve. So like linear is linear curve.

So it's easy to work. It's like easy math because one plus one is two, right? But if you work in like the different color spaces, then one plus one is not two. So it's hard to work with it. It's hard to explain. But anyway, it's not important. But it's always like a big deal for the client. and they always want to deliver like in this kind of format and the quality and everything.

So that was like the biggest struggle because, you know, at the time the machine learning was wasn't built for anything. It was just really everything was extremely experimental. And then at the end I delivered for the market two episodics and one movie for Marvel. And so was it Shang-Chi? Or can you say which one of it? It was Shang-Chi. It was Shang-Chi was one division, Locky.

See, I remember I went to cinema to watch Shang Chi back in Czech Republic. I would never expect to discuss it now. It's pretty cool. It was probably my most favorite project ever. They've been like so nice. You know, I remember there was like so many people complaining about to do the work for them because there was a lot of overtime. So I remember and I was like, I actually almost never did an overtime. I was like, everybody was nice to me.

He had like a really nice relationship with the clients, you know, with the different. director with everybody. And, you know, they really just, like, put kind of a trust like in me that, like, yeah, we believe you can do it because we like the hardest shot it just worked. And of course, there was some struggle. It wasn't, like, smoothed, like, oh, suddenly everything was great. No, it was, there was, like, a suddenly shot that you feel like, oh, this one will be easy and then it, like, became a nightmare because you couldn't figure it out, like, let's say,

some difficulties. in those. But yeah, of course, it's like it's a process. So I finished that. I was also the only one on those type of shots because at the time it was hard to find someone who was doing any, like a machine learning because it was too early. Or you had like a developers for like a tech, but those people are in like Nvidia and Microsoft and that. So it's hard to even find the, which today is like way, way easier. And yeah, so I deliver like those projects and, you know, just like again, like a confirm me I really should stay in the space, like in AI. And then it started like still have it growing.

Like suddenly there was the boom, I don't know, 2022 probably. Like I remember I was using even runway like before they even did like what they're doing now. They remember at the time they had like an app that you can install and you can like run models from GitHub. And to me it was like amazing because I was like, oh, that's actually great because I don't have to always like download everything, prepare the script, just test it out different. it even works. I could do it through their app. So it was great. And then suddenly the app disappeared. And they launched,

I think it was Gen 1 at the time, the video model, and they kind of started it. So it was like I really looking like very long time at that company, like what they do. I really like their vision. And I didn't really think that I would work there because I didn't think they would be like interested like in my skills because they've been more.

more like tech, right? They're like developing the tool and and it's actually like the research. But more I was like in it, then I moved again back to, to advertising. And it was mostly because advertising is more like willing to use those AI tools.

It's like it's just easier. You know what I mean? It's like in the movies, it's like so picky like for the quality and everything, which advertising is like easier. So I move back to advertising. And then so I kind of been doing like an 80% advertising, 20%

an episodic and sometimes I just use I help like on movies rarely I think the last I did was snow white and that I just did like I know three three shots so you usually don't even get credited like if you do just like two three weeks on that there's like also a I mean to get credited in the movie like to be in the credits they have always like some rules so for example you need to work at least a month so you know if you work I say three weeks they don't put you to the credits Yeah, so as I moved to advertising, did this episodic as well, sometimes a tiny bit of movies. And I was more like a developing actually the machine learning pipeline for advertising and, you know, doing more experimental work, like how we can make things faster, also cheaper, like for the clients because, you know, the demands, like, was getting higher in a way on the cost, you know. Like any time you put CG into the commercial, it's like the cost that grows appropriately.

and that was usually the problem, right? Because you still need to stay competitive with the others. So I was like I was looking for like workflows, how we can like make those things like a hybrid. So, you know, let's say the 3D artist is like three times faster with those tools. So I was building like setups for that. You know, it was like car brands and like kind of anything can imagine

from the advertising world, from cans. I think I can get some. toilet paper commercial actually. I will never get rid of those 30s paper commercials. What it's like. I'm sure it will come again at some point. Oh, of course. And yes, I was like a developing pipelines for that and I found I was slowly like becoming more like a researcher than artist. You more like a building developing but just still like as staying within the field and then I think that was the time where I feel like okay now I can actually transition

into the company like Runway and that I can bring actually something that they could use that they can benefit like of my skills. So we somehow like get in touch with the CEO of runway and of course I did like a test for them. It wasn't like a straightforward

like, okay come here. No, it was like you still have to show like that you actually can do what you said that you can do. And yeah we kind of feel that we like enjoy to work together that it worked. And then yeah, they did they ask me like if I would like to join full time.

And I was thinking like, yeah, that's anyway what I'm doing. And it'll be actually great to be like in the company who's doing this like 100%. And I just like, before I was like 50, 50 kind of like 50 research, 50 like still do the classic work. Because company, you know, needs to, needs to still do the actual work. Not just some research. But this one was just like, okay, come and let's just develop those things like the best as we can. And yeah, it was like, sure, let's do it. And now I'm there.

And it's really great because I also like I learned, learn a lot. And suddenly you see like, it's more like, again, difference in the mindset, in the mentality. And I kind of like more this startup thinking, more like we have to sprint. We have to rush. We just have to, you know, do everything like yesterday was late. I know like advertising's are like that. But this is like a very, very different because you're actually building something that like, people use that like the huge community use and that's amazing and then you're actually like it changing

the world yeah and especially when it comes to AI field because as we discussed before it changes so quickly exactly so you really like see like how you shaping like things that you know we do like something then we release and then you see like the internet like talking about it and people like you know like i always like those those comments like Hollywood is dead right, it's like the classic thing when really something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, you know, it's just like a... Very nice to watch.

Yeah, I'm just going to say if you can tell us more like about your specific position and kind of introduce, like, what's your daily work like? I assume that it's probably differs or you can generalize, like every day is the same, but just to get an idea what does your day look like at work. Yeah, that's what I kind of like. that the everyday is actually not the same at all. And this is the first time kind of in my life, career ones,

that the things are not the same at work. You know, like I know when you're working on the movies, every movie is different. But at the end is the same. Like, you're still doing the same kind of thing. But this one, so my position is I'm creative director. I'm doing like a research. So what that means is I'm creating like the video content for runway. I'm also like the AI VFX architect.

So I'm also building like the pipeline, like how actually the film studios can use the tool to building workflows for them. So, you know, you have some specific needs. I don't know, you need like a crowd tool, for example. So I try to build like the crowd tool like within the AI with our like a runway tool that we have. So the studio suddenly can just like select the spot

and say I want to have these kinds of people there and I want millions of them. And you get it in like 30 seconds instead of, you know, weeks. Of course, it still needs like a lot of, a lot of research. But my work is mostly there to finding the workflows, making it all the time better and better, because as I said, it's changing, like, almost every two weeks. There's like a big push.

So my thing is still, you know, still pushing those tools, like, as further as possible. And yeah, that's mostly it. And why it's like a very different, it's like, as you can see on the internet, when like in the AI world, like the tools are every few weeks new or different. And then suddenly the approach is a bit different. So that's why, like I would say, the work is never the same because the tool that you're doing is always a bit different. Sometimes, you know, you're doing like what we did recently. It was the act two that you can use yourself as a driver for your generated character or animated character.

And you're using your face, your body, and then you're working on this tool. And suddenly, you know, suddenly before, like, when we've rebuilding, like, the Gen 4 model. So, you know, you're trying to build, like, the workflows within this model. And it's a totally different thing. And then you're going, like, another thing that's, like, totally different. So that's, like, what's very, very, very interesting about that. You kind of see, like, how everything's changing so fast and that you'll pull. part of it and it's amazing.

Yeah, and like the stuff that is coming and the progress, it must be like super exciting, I agree. And as you mentioned, like the stuff that you work on there and also something that I wanted to ask you because, of course, we cannot miss this topic, our favorite part from LinkedIn. I saw that sometimes you share some content on LinkedIn. I don't know how you do it, but I saw you had some like super popular posts with like engagement

over thousand how did you do that how did that happen well you know to be honest I don't know because I'm if I'm somewhere like extremely bad it's like a social media I don't understand that at all so I don't know if you

you said you tried to just just Google me and then you found out I have nothing I just put LinkedIn you know I like why I have LinkedIn is just because it works great as a CV right it's like your TV page with your profile that if anyone is interested in you or in your experience, then you just copy page the LinkedIn.

And it's like kind of industry standard for recruiters, I feel. And it's just for me, like, easy to, you know, exactly to keep like your career progress. So if anyone's interested, I just share the LinkedIn. You wouldn't share Instagram with anyone like recruiting wise, right? Or like Facebook or anything like that. I mean, I don't know. I guess I wouldn't because everybody's asking you for resume and. those kinds of things, which I feel, that's what you have on LinkedIn.

So, yeah, I always had, like, LinkedIn, like, I don't know when I started it, but a long time ago, I remember the time when I was applying, like, to those film companies and I got always rejected. So it's probably, I don't know, could be 15 years, maybe I have a LinkedIn, if it even exists that long. Yeah. So very long time. And it's kind of became my only, like, a social media, so I was like, oh, it'll be nice to post it somewhere. Oh, I actually have a LinkedIn. I can try. And I just posted it there. And then, yeah, then I get like a thousands of people interested. And I remember I posted it. And some other day,

I was just like, I have more than 700 messages. I was like, oh, wow, well, I'm supposed to do with that. They never receive so many messages. I cannot even read that if I don't spend like, you know, like a week on that. And then I'm like, oh, it's like, it's sad that I can at least like answer those people because they, they sent the nice messages, right? And I'm really not like a, a social media person. I really don't know why it happened, I think, just because maybe it was interesting. And I'm trying to do things like at my work. Yirri, before we finish, I have just a few lighter questions. So can you tell us what is it that you like to do in your free time or what are some of your hobbies?

Well, I don't have much free time. But what I do is almost spending time with a family, especially with it, with the, with, my kid and wife, I'm sure they would still complain that it's not enough that I'm more working than spending time with them. So I think if you ask them, you'll probably hear the exact opposite answer. But yeah, my thing is that even if I have like some more free time, I'm still working on some other like personal projects. I know I think I'm like a really like a workaholic person, but I guess it's just because I love what I do and it's really like my hobby as well. So if I'm not working, I'm working on something.

something else like for myself or like you know try to push like some other things that we don't do so yeah i think i can i just cannot stop really working because it's just what i love to do but yeah otherwise of course i'm going like for swimming running gym so like yeah still keeping at least in in shape so i i can move when i'm a bit older but yeah and like yeah i we try like to more now to travel like in in u.s to like just see more so but yeah there is not much of a free time yeah no i completely understand and when it comes to reading do you read books and if so have you got any recommendations or some books that have been impactful to you well i really enjoyed i read that they also preparing a movie that hail mary

it's a really good book it's from the guy who wrote martian i really enjoyed that i feel it's my my most favorite book from him. I read all of them that he wrote, but Hail Mary is really good. Then I try to read, I just forget the name of the author, but she wrote that TV, the murder bot, it was a TV series just made on Apple. So I read, but I read about it recently, yeah. So those ones are pretty good, but I wasn't like so, so excited, but it was okay. I liked Ready Player 1, Ready Player 2, that's a pretty good book. So yeah, I'm mostly like a real like sci-fi and I really like dark comedies.

So I of course I like The Boys but which is comics is not actually a book. But that's I would say my favorite. And when it comes to films I assume that there will be a long list but maybe outside of Star Wars what are your favorite ones? Oh outside of Star Wars? I actually really like the TV series The Boys as well. well. So that's like something I love.

But one of the most favorite is like the old Mortal Kombat. You know, I played like those games like on the, from I think 91 or something. It's like, you know, like arcade machines. And then there was in 95 or 96. I think 95 there was a movie from the Anderson, the director is the name. So yeah, I really like the Mortal Kombat. And now they're doing like the second one. So that's my favorite kind of thing.

It's like a really like a B thing. Of course, I like movies like Interstellar and everything from Nolan. But yeah, I would say I also don't have like a much time to watch movies. It's just like too long to spend like two and a half hours to watch something. So I'm now like to be honest, I prefer more like those short TV series which are like up to 30 minutes. So you know, I watch like maybe an episode a day. For example, when I just commuting because it's like a cool that I can take a ferry here. So I'm like on the boat going to the office.

And it's like 20 minutes. ride if I go like midtown New York and you know so then I have like a time to watch something but you know usually sometimes I just like I just like a look out from the boat and just looking around listen to water it's like more satisfying because in like when you're working on that like you see like the screen like all the time you're looking into the screen all the time it's you just feel like you want to unplug yourself you know just do not watch anything. Yeah.

And Erie, before we finish, can you summarize or mention where people can find you and follow you? I assume that it's going to be LinkedIn only, but maybe there are any other link? It's LinkedIn only because I really don't use anything else. LinkedIn and email. And, you know, usually like in US,

like everybody's using the, like I message. So I'm usually on that. Or yeah, LinkedIn is my only. only social media. Like, you know, you can also find me on Instagram, but I don't use that. I just, I just using it for the cooking recipes to watch.

So I just made an account so I can actually access them and save them into like a favorite or how is it there. Yeah, but I'm pretty sure that you become or you maybe get overtime more active on LinkedIn. So I encourage people to. I'm pretty active there. I mean, you know, I'm mostly like a watching. You know, the thing is I'm not like,

the guy who will post like every day something even if I had like something to post I just feel like why would I do that who's even interested in that you know I'm more thinking like that it's I know like usually people would post whatever but I'm just like I just don't like like a spamming so I'm if I'm posting something it just mean like oh I think this one could be cool just maybe someone can maybe just get inspired by that quality over quantity I guess so yeah in this way yes but I think when people visit your profile and they see the engagement that you've got on your post so they will they will see the quality i mean i'm trying i'm trying it's it's hard to to keep up because like you always have to do something better

than before right or at least there's always like me trying to always do something better and then you do something and then it's not better you need to be careful to set the bar too high yeah but that's what we do we try like to be like the highest possible and keep it there and still go faster and faster and better. So it's like a race, you know. It's like in the head. Kind of like try to be perfect all the time. But I really like, as I said before,

that startup kind of mentality where you have to sprint like all the time. That's great. It's pushing you really forward. You know, you don't really have time like to think. You just do it. That's what's amazing about that. Usually, you know, because even sometimes before,

like when you have like a too much, like a free time, you spend it more like a thinking and then you realize like maybe this is not that good. Instead of now, it's like, oh, just do it. And if it's just not good, it's just not good. It's fine. Just do another one and another one. So then, you know, you're learning like way, way faster and you're iterating faster. So you have like an answer for your thoughts that you're thinking, is it good or not?

Yes, you can look at it and, oh, okay, it was a bad idea. Good. But it's also good for, you know, I like to see also like a failures because it's failures at pushing you. forward, not the successful things. Success is just like, you know, it's fine, but the failures that you have, that's pushing you to make it better to fix things and to work more.

So that's also why it's important to share, sometimes even the failures, because it's great when you share the successful videos, you know, and people are like, oh, wow, it's amazing, it actually worked. But I like to show, like, the case that it actually doesn't work

where there's like a really a lot of space to improve that. So maybe the others get inspired, actually, oh, I have somebody else is like a great idea how to make it way better. And it's great, you know, to see that, that other people adding more skills into,

yeah. I like it and I agree because those people who share failures or when something didn't work out, always stand out to me because you can see, for example, on social media or LinkedIn that everyone shares successes when something goes, okay but as we know it's not always like that there's even negative side and the more behind the

seeds that people don't really know so i i agree yeah yeah yeah exactly and that's important because sometimes you know we just want to do something like a project and then you have like in mind like okay i will use this and that tool for that because i feel it's great i saw so many demos that look great but it's great like when you see the demo that doesn't work it can kind of just give you an idea like oh okay it's not that straightforward I have to think more how to improve this part of my project or maybe use another tool for that because

I saw the failures or it gives me ideas what to fix so that's why I like to see them as well I agree and I like it I think it's the perfect note to finish with I apologize for a bit of technical difficulties

I really enjoyed it I think that when it comes to films we could be talking for much longer and when it comes to AI I think it's the same and we haven't discussed much LinkedIn in the end but of course we can do SQL anytime in the future so I just want to say a big thank you I really enjoyed it I think you've got a great mindset great stuff which are working on so I'll be following supporting and thank you very much for joining well thank you very much to it was it was great so thanks for the for the invitation and yeah I hope it was helpful that I

said something that make a bit sense Yeah, thank you very much. It was great. Thanks for listening to Produce By with Tomen. Check the show notes for all the links. And don't forget to subscribe, like and share your feedback. Speak soon.