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Behind The Worlds

Ahmed Ahres

Behind the Worlds is a podcast about the people who build the worlds we escape to.

From video games and films to VFX, animation, and immersive virtual spaces, each episode goes deep with the creators shaping modern culture. We explore the ideas, failures, rules, and breakthroughs behind the worlds that make us feel something, and the builders who dared to imagine them.

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  • 7 episodes
  • Avg 51 min
  • English

Episodes 7

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  • S1 · E7
    April 15 · 1 hr 17 min

    Avatar. Matrix Revolutions. Life of Pi. The Untold Story of the Man Who Made Them Real.

    Kenneth Nakada has spent his career building the worlds you thought were real. He painted environments for The Matrix. He designed worlds for Avatar. He helped make the ocean, the tiger and the sky in Life of Pi look so real that the film won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. He built one of the largest LED volume stages in North America. And he showed up to every job knowing something most people never learn — that the magic isn't in the technology, it's in knowing what looks right before you touch a single tool.Now he's leading AI filmmaking at Amazon MGM Studios, and he believes AI won't replace creative people. It'll make them five times themselves.In this episode, we explore what it actually takes to build worlds that millions of people never question, what James Cameron is really like when he hands back your work on a Friday night, and why Ken thinks the craftspeople who embrace AI will be the ones who define the next era of filmmaking.We dive into:00:00 Introduction00:40 Growing Up: Kinesiology, Medical Research and Following Fun04:00 Minimum Wage Graveyard Shift and Learning From Masters05:00 What Matte Painting Actually Is09:00 The Foundation That Stayed Through 15 Studios14:00 How Avatar Actually Gets Made17:00 James Cameron Handed Back All His Designs on a Friday Night20:00 Being Hired for Taste Not Just Technical Ability25:00 Working Across 100 Movies and What Sets Actually Feel Like27:00 Virtual Production vs Visual Effects: What's Actually Different31:00 The Most Memorable Shot of His Career: Gonzo and the Storm35:00 Terminator. Fast and Furious. The Shot Nobody Else Touched.37:00 Life of Pi: The Entire Movie Was Green Screen40:00 How Long It Takes to Animate a Tiger45:00 Twilight and the Invisible Effects Nobody Notices49:00 AI in Hollywood: What It Can Do and What It Absolutely Cannot53:00 The Model Builder Analogy and Why Craftspeople Should Embrace AI56:00 AI Is a Power Up Button. Not a Replacement.59:00 The Pixar CTO Story and What Hollywood Actually Wants From AI01:09:00 You Can't Yell at Traffic. AI Is Here.01:12:00 Advice: Follow Fun. There Are No Barriers Anymore.This conversation spans thirty years of Hollywood world building, the craft behind some of the most iconic films ever made, and the deeply human question of what happens when the tools get out of the way and all that's left is the person holding them. If you've ever watched a movie and wondered what was actually real, this is the episode for you.

  • #6
    March 25 · 57 min

    Inside Harry Potter, Family Guy and Dead Space. One Producer Tells Everything.

    Andrew Green has spent his career inside the rooms most people never get access to. He negotiated the Harry Potter mobile license when no one had ever extended J.K. Rowling's universe without her writing it herself. He worked with Matt Groening and the original Futurama cast to create brand new content for a mobile game. He voice directed Arnold Schwarzenegger in his guest house, Benedict Cumberbatch on his way to dinner, and got kicked out of a recording session by LeVar Burton. He helped build games that did hundreds of millions of dollars. He became a partner at a16z and backed companies like Roblox. Then he left one of the most prestigious VC firms in the world to build a collaborative storytelling platform for webcomics. In this episode, we explore what it actually takes to license the world's biggest IP, why the games industry is broken and what comes next, and why Andrew believes the future of entertainment belongs to the people who just stop thinking and go do. We dive into: 00:00 Introduction 00:40 Growing Up on Media: DVDs, Games and Storytelling 02:10 How He Got the Harry Potter Mobile License 03:00 The Art of IP Licensing 07:00 Pitching the CEO of Warner Brothers at a16z 09:00 Why J.K. Rowling Was Ready to Open Up the Universe 12:00 Too Many Cooks: WB, Jam City, Netmarble and JK Rowling in One Kitchen 14:30 Creative Control and the Eye of Sauron 18:00 Why the Indie Realm Is Where Everything Has to Happen Now 19:30 Voice Directing Arnold Schwarzenegger, Benedict Cumberbatch and Bruce Willis 27:00 Getting Kicked Out of a Recording Session by LeVar Burton 32:00 Working With Matt Groening and the Futurama Cast 35:30 Neil deGrasse Tyson, Stephen Hawking, George Takei and Bill Nye in One Animated Spot 37:30 The Future of Entertainment and Why He's Optimistic 39:00 Why There's Too Much of Everything and What Comes Next 49:00 Community-Driven Franchises and the Dream of Studio Scale IP by Individuals 54:00 Advice: Just Stop Thinking and Go Do It This conversation spans Hollywood licensing, the collapse and reinvention of the games industry, and the deeply human question of what happens when creativity finally gets freed from the machine. If you've ever wondered what goes on behind the world's biggest franchises, this is the episode for you.

  • #5
    March 11 · 57 min

    Warcraft. StarCraft. VRChat. Nilo. Blizzard's 5th Employee Finally Tells His Story.

    Ron Millar (also known at Ron the Alien) is one of the most influential people in the history of gaming. He was among the first 5 employees at a small company called Silicon & Synapse, which you know today as Blizzard Entertainment. He helped turn Warcraft from a military strategy game into orcs and humans. He was the original lead designer of StarCraft. Then he left, started his own company, and was quietly removed from the credits of one of the biggest games ever made. Years later, he walked into a three-person startup called VRChat and helped grow it from a handful of users to millions. As Chief Creative Officer, he spent 6,000 hours inside virtual reality, building one of the most chaotic, creative and human platforms the internet has ever seen. Now he's working on AI-powered game creation at Nilo (https://www.nilo.xyz/), and he showed up to this interview as a fox, an alien, a flying lizard and a taco. In this episode, we explore what it was really like to be inside Blizzard when Warcraft was born, why he was erased from the StarCraft credits, and what he believes the metaverse was always supposed to be. We dive into: 00:00 Introduction 00:04 Why Ron Showed Up as a Fox 03:30 One of the First Five People at Blizzard 04:30 How It All Started: Bulletin Boards and Virgin Games 10:00 How Blizzard Got Its Name From a Half-Erased Drawing 14:00 Warcraft Was Almost a Military Game 17:00 How World of Warcraft Was Born 21:00 Pushing Diablo From Turn-Based to Real-Time 21:30 The $2 Alien Avatar He's Famous For 24:30 The Original Lead Designer of StarCraft 31:00 Being Removed From the Credits 33:30 Andy Weir, Ants and Warcraft 2 36:00 How Ron Found VRChat 42:00 From 3 People to Millions of Users 45:00 The Japanese Underground Nightclub Nobody Planned 47:00 Taking a Year Off After 35 Years of Building 51:00 What Nilo Is and Why AI Excites Him 55:00 The Future of Game Development This conversation spans the entire history of modern gaming, virtual worlds, and the deeply personal question of what it means to build something that outlives you, and not always get the credit for it. If you've ever played Warcraft, StarCraft or spent a night lost in VRChat, this is the episode for you.

  • #4
    March 4 · 39 min

    Why Pokémon Go is NOT Augmented Reality (And the Future of AR)

    Willem Helmet Pickleman is a creative technologist who has spent his career living at the intersection of art and technology. He taught himself to code on YouTube, pushed augmented reality into advertising agencies that had no idea what it was, and ended up at Snapchat building AR tools used by millions, selling watches on wrists that weren't really there, and solving problems nobody had solved before. Now he's building multiplayer worlds out of colored blobs that you can actually walk through together. In this episode, we explore why Pokemon Go is not actually an AR game, what augmented reality can do that most people have never imagined, and why immersive technology might be the most powerful empathy machine ever built. We dive into: 00:00 Introduction 00:46 Growing Up Between Art Galleries and Video Games 02:26 Teaching Himself to Code on YouTube 03:21 Being the AR Guy Nobody Listened To 05:50 How Snapchat Used AR to Sell 80% More Watches 07:12 What Most People Get Wrong About Augmented Reality 09:11 Why Pokemon Go Is NOT an Augmented Reality Game 11:14 AR and VR Are Not Two Things, They Are One Continuum 12:00 The Trough of Disillusionment and Where We Are Now 15:42 The Dream Sandbox He Had as a Kid 16:32 What He Is Most Excited About 18:37 Why Good Storytelling Will Never Be Replaced 20:13 World Labs, Gaussian Splatting and Building Multiplayer Worlds 23:23 Hanging Out in a 3D Version of His Apartment 25:18 Reliving Memories and Visiting Places That Only Exist in Your Imagination 27:03 VR as the Greatest Empathy Machine 27:33 Bringing Refugee Camps to the UN in Virtual Reality 30:41 How VR Can Reduce Physical Pain 32:03 Why We Need More Immersive Content and What AI Can Do About It 34:32 English Is Not Enough, The Future of Building Worlds 37:06 Build Small, Ship Fast, Do Reps This conversation spans augmented reality, immersive technology, AI, and the deeply human question of what it means to build worlds that people can actually live in. If you've ever wondered what AR and VR can really do beyond games and filters, this is the episode for you.

  • #3
    February 25 · 43 min

    Inside Pixar: What It Really Takes to Build a World

    Shubha Jagannatha is a builder who has always lived between two worlds: engineering and art. She spent three years at Pixar as a technical director, working on Turning Red, Lightyear, and Elemental, fixing individual pixels in films watched by tens of millions, watching orchestras score movies live, and seeing firsthand what happens when a film gets quietly shut down after years of work. Then she left it all to found her own company. In this episode, we explore what it actually looks like inside Pixar, why she felt like a creative plumber at her dream job, and her obsession with helping people find what she calls their own world. We dive into: Introduction From Introverted Kid to Pixar What a Technical Director Actually Does Fixing Pixels in Films Seen by Millions The Pressure of Working at Pixar Watching the Orchestra Score a Film Live When Pixar Cancels a Movie After Years of Work Every Pixar Movie Starts With a Question Inside the Pixar Campus Why She Left Her Dream Job What Is Shubha World? Founding Figment Injecting Your Voice Into Your Creations One Belief About Storytelling She Will Carry Forever Advice for Anyone Who Wants to Work at Pixar or Start a Company This conversation spans animation, creativity, engineering, and the deeply personal question of what it means to build something that is truly yours. If you've ever wondered what goes on behind the magic of a Pixar film, this is the episode for you.

  • #2
    February 18 · 44 min

    From NASA's Moon Mission to Building the Future of Immersive Worlds

    Rylan Pozniak Daniels is a world builder in the truest sense. He's designing augmented reality interfaces for NASA astronauts returning to the Moon, creating apps for Apple Vision Pro, and reimagining the future of immersive storytelling. In this episode, we explore what immersive media lets us express that flat screens never will. Rylan shares the moment he met Shigeru Miyamoto (creator of Super Mario) as a 10-year-old and asked him where gaming was heading. The answer, VR and AR, changed the trajectory of his life. We dive into: - Introduction - Getting Started in VR/AR - Immersive Media vs Flat Screens - NASA & Space Exploration - Apple Vision Pro - Language Learning in VR - Building for New Platforms - Snapchat AR Hackathon - AI in Gaming - Open World Games & AI - The Ultimate Vision - Advice for Creators - Closing Thoughts This conversation spans space exploration, game design, AI-generated worlds, and the philosophy of human storytelling. If you've ever wondered what comes after flat screens, this is the episode for you.

  • #1
    February 10 · 40 min

    The Fortnite Developer Who Made Parents Rethink Gaming

    Nuno Leiria spent 15 years building games for 100M+ players such as Fortnite and Fable . Now he's built something that's flipping the gaming industry upside down. In this episode, we dive into: • Why game development took 15 years to learn (and 15 seconds now) • The surprising moment parents BEGGED their kids to keep playing • How AI is enabling teenagers to build at "the speed of culture" • What happens when a 10-year-old can create 3D games with just their voice • Why the future of gaming is about building more than just playing. Nuno shares his journey from a small village in Portugal to working on some of the world's biggest games, and why he's now on a mission to give that power to everyone.

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