Maker Episodes

Nuno Leiria, founder and CEO of Nilo and former performance lead for Unreal Engine 5 and Fortnite at Epic Games, breaks down how Nilo lets anyone build playable 3D worlds in the browser in minutes without complex #GameEngines. He explains the sketch to #3D pipeline, where #AI handles modelling, rigging, animation, and starter code, and why latency is the key design constraint. We dig into real-time co-creation, remixable templates, and “creative generation” that assembles complex scenes from pri...

Olli Huttunen is an entrepreneur, video editor, 3D specialist, software developer and a real authority when it comes to Gaussian Splatting. I got to know Olli thanks to his Youtube channel, a priceless resource for anybody who wants to dive into this new 3D paradigm and today we take a deep dive into the world of Gaussian splatting: Olli explains why PostShot is his favorite tool and how to make the most out of it He shares best practices to minimize file sizes He tells us abou...

Marcus Ernst is Project Manager at MACK One, one of the drivers behind the AUREA Award community and a member of the MACK Research Team. He has been instrumental in creating attractions that have been the first immersive experience for hundreds of thousands of visitors in Europa Park the second largest theme park in Europe! In this conversation, we take a deep dive into: The successes and failures along this journey What is the most important KPI when operating at this scale ...

Ernest Spicer is a data scientist, game developer, and technology executive developing new immersive learning and gaming experiences in AR powered by AI, and I don’t say that lightly because Ernest and his team were the first to deploy AI on the new Snap Spectacles. In this conversation, we will dive into His experience when developing for various smart glasses How as a special Olympic coach he sees AR helping neurodivergent athletes We talk about the future of wearable AI ...

Subscribe to XR AI Spotlight weekly newsletter 👉 https://xraispotlight.substack.com/ Avi Bar-Zeev has been at the forefront of Spatial Computing for over 30 years. He co-invented the Hololens AR headset in 2010, helped define Amazon Echo Frames in 2015, and he is going to share some of his thoughts and experience from leading the Experience Prototyping team for Apple's Vision Pro from 2016 to 2019 (Snippet 1). We discuss about: - The mistakes he has seen companies like Apple, Microsoft and...

Charlie Fink is a Producer, Podcaster, Author, Professor, and Forbes columnist, covering AI, XR, and the Metaverse. In this interview, we discuss: The current state of XR How AR might not be the perfect match for AI as we all might think Some of the similarities and differences between the rise of the internet and the rise of AI The impact AI is having on teachers and students How AI will take people’s jobs… even his own Subscribe to XR AI Spotlight weekly ...

Matt is the Sr. community programs manager at Mozilla: the non-profit behind Firefox that empowers people to shape a healthier digital world. He has built from scratch several online communities for users and developers and in this conversation he shares with us the complete handbook to get started and grow a healthy community around a common mission. We talk about: Resources to define the strategy and ROI metrics for your community effort Load of practical tips around discovery, a...

You’ve just heard Will Eastcott, CEO of PlayCanvas, one of the most popular open-source 3D engines for the web. Before founding PlayCanvas, Will worked at major game studios like EA, Sony, and Activision, contributing to titles such as GTA, Call of Duty, and Max Payne. Today PlayCanvas' mission is to make web app development more accessible and collaborative. In this episode, Will shares invaluable insights and the game-changing tools he has built to help developers through their journey. We wil...

Jelmer Althuis is the founder of Sphere of Sound, a company dedicated to crafting cutting-edge audio solutions that redefine immersive experiences. He also serves as the Audio Director at VRelax, where he specializes in designing therapeutic audio landscapes that enhance mental well-being through virtual reality. He is a true expert and through this conversation we start defining the real fundamentals of what makes sound sound real We look at the production workflow including the reco...

Quanetin Valenbois is an XR Developer, Teacher, Content Creator and CEO at Valem Studio. He has been working professionally in VR since 2017 he soon realized there was a lack of quality content developers people could rely on. This is why he decided to create not one but two channels to inspire and educate developers to get started and master XR development… until AI came. That’s the moment he decided to answer a question many devs are asking right now: Can AI take over my job? Today we will ...

Oskar Stålberg is an established indie Game Developer, and a real authority when it comes to procedural content generation. He has worked on Tom Clancy's The Division and later focused on his own titles like Bad North and Townscaper, both acclaimed successes by the gaming community. Oskar has also ported Townscaper to Meta Quest and keeps finding new and creative ways to leverage procedural generation for innovative and unconventional game ideas. Join this episode to learn: -How he found t...

Sachin is an artist and creative tech entrepreneur. As the co-founder of AI Lemon Academy he has trained hundreds of professionals including teams at Amazon, to use AI in their daily creative workflow. From initial concepting to refined prompting to generate specific visuals he runs bootcamps for leaders & professionals in the creative industry and he is a relentless explorer of the latest and greatest tools and workflows. We will dive deep into the world of AI-generated images and will cover...

Matteo and Paride are the co-founders of Pijama Kasama, an Amsterdam-based studio creating custom experiences and games for brands on platforms like Spatial, Roblox and Fortnite. They have been working with brands like Absolute, BMW, NASA and they recently launched their game based on their own IP called “Kasama the Awakening” which is without a doubt one of the best-looking web-based games you can try right now. We will dive into their journey and how they captured the learnings to create and l...

Alex Karim is a technology leader focusing on the convergence of the physical and digital world. As a Mixed Reality pioneer, Alex was the first person to deploy HoloLens 2 in Formula 1 at McLaren. In 2021 Alex joined Microsoft and in his current role he consults some of the world’s largest organizations supporting their AI transformations and today we will learn from him: What are the biggest barriers to the adoption of XR and AI in big organizations How to capture the value from earl...

Tommy Thompson works as a consultant in artificial intelligence with a primary focus on the video games industry. He is the mind behind “AI and games”, a YouTube channel with over 200K subscribers dedicated to increasing awareness of AI research and development within games. As a result of his academic, and professional experience he took on the role of advisor during the GDC AI summit. By listening to this episode you will learn: - How AI is still finding its way into game development ...

Michael Potts teaches XR worldbuilding at UCLA Extension, has been working with XR technology for the past 28 years and is the CEO of Polycount, An award-winning agency that for the past 24 years has been building digital worlds and immersive experiences for some of the largest companies in the world. By listening to this episode you will learn: How to build virtual worlds on less or more known platforms like Roblox or Fornite How the team uses AI in their workflow The incre...

Alex de Vries is a PhD candidate at the VU Amsterdam School of Business and Economics and the founder of Digiconomist, a research company dedicated to exposing the unintended consequences of digital trends. His research focuses on the environmental impact of emerging technologies and has played a major role in the global discussion regarding the sustainability of blockchain technology and AI. By listening to this episode you will learn: The real challenges when trying to quantify the envi...

Subscribe to XR AI Spotlight weekly newsletter 👉 https://xraispotlight.substack.com/ Lucas Rizzotto is a viral innovator founder and mad scientist… and I am not exaggerating. His creations span everything from XR to AI and have been seen by hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Some of these projects include a killer Microwave powered by AI, a VR time machine to relieve your memories, a way for astronauts to communicate with children on Earth, and recently Pillow, a mixedreality app that ...

Alexandra Magaard is a storyteller, strategist, policy wonk and the former Head of Tech Policy at iconomy in Berlin, a capacity builder organization for the European tech ecosystem. She advised multiple startups and scaleups - from deep tech to ad tech to travel tech - helping them navigate the increasingly complex field of tech regulations, and discover how many of the EU’s latest regulations, like the Digital Markets Act, aren’t simply new compliance burdens but opportunities for startups to e...

Jussi Kemppainen, has over 24 years of experience as game designer, director, 3D and VFX artist and has embarked on a journey to create a full game with the help of AI: Echos of Somewhere, now available as a demo on the project website and coming soon to steam. From environments to characters he has been sharing his workflows and journey publicly triggering excitement and skepticism on the future of AI-assited game development. Stay with us to learn: How he approaches the discovery of ...

Suza Vos is a digital fashion pioneer. During the beginning of her career at the Fabricant she had the chance to work with renowned brands like Off White, Adidas, Puma, Star Atlas and Ubisoft. She has now become an independent digital fashion artist, shown her work at Amsterdam Fashion Week and MET AMS and is now actively exploring how XR and AI can improve and disrupt the fashion industry and her design process. Listen to this episode to learn: Meaningful ways in which digital fashion ca...

Michael Rubloff is a leader in neural radiance fields (also known as. NeRF), a technology that turns 2D images into photorealistic three-dimensional scenes. He established the largest independent Discord server for radiance field creators radiancefields.com, to follow closely the rapid evolution of this technology. He collaborated with leading companies like NVIDIA and Shutterstock and shared his expertise at prestigious events like SIGGRAPH 2023. Listen to this episode to learn: The d...

As Sr. director of innovation at Media Monks Funs Jacobs focuses on helping companies navigate this shift in brand building. Media Monk has been named the AI Agency of the Year by Adweek, for demonstrating “exceptional talent, creativity, and ingenuity in the application of generative AI in both internal operations and client work” It is a pleasure to have Funs here on the show and get a look at the behind-scenes of this success By listening to this episode you will learn: How brands c...

Markus Edgar Hormes is the Co-Founder of WorkPlayExperience, a German service innovation consultancy helping organizations of all sizes to tackle complex business problems. He is a co-author of the top-selling book, “This is Service Design Doing” and he has dived into how AI can augment the design process with a focus on emerging team dynamics and how these new tools can be used during workshops and design sprints effectively. Listen to this episode to learn: 1- How AI can be used in cu...