94. Ben Lock: Visual Intelligence, AI Workflows and the Future of VFX

About this episode

Ben Lock discusses the impact of AI on the film industry and the future of VFX workflows.

What happens when a BAFTA winning VFX veteran walks away from the studio system to help reinvent the film pipeline with AI? In this episode, Alex is joined by Ben Lock, a producer with over 20 years in animation, VFX and virtual production, with credits including Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Rogue One and Ready Player One. After decades at Aardman, Lucasfilm and ILM, Ben is now Director of Production Strategy at Asteria Film and Moon Valley, where he is working on a new generation of ethical, AI driven workflows for film and animation. Ben shares why he believes the future of filmmaking lies in visual intelligence rather than prompt driven tools, and how rapid visualisation can transform pre production, VFX and animation. He explains how AI can reduce friction, keep artists closer to performance and story, and even help make high quality animated features in under a year. The conversation explores: - How AI is reshaping the production pipeline without replacing artists - Why Moon Valley is built around visual intelligence, not just language models - What a faster, more iterative animation and VFX workflow looks like in practice - How generative tools can support virtual…

People in this episode

Guest: Ben Lock

Topics covered

• VFX
• AI
• Film Production
• Animation
• Visual Intelligence

Keywords

• visual intelligence
• AI workflows
• animation
• VFX
• production pipeline
• generative tools
• independent filmmaking
• ethical AI

Mentioned in this episode

Products: Asteria Film, Moon Valley

Books & works: BAFTA, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Rogue One, Ready Player One

Places: Moon Valley, Europe, Asia, US, UK

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