WIND SUN SKY SPOTLIGHT: PAUL FURMINGER

A Q&A WITH

PAUL FURMINGER

JOIN US AS WE SPOTLIGHT SOME OF THE

INCREDIBLE TEAM WHO WORK AT WIND SUN SKY

all the future chicken characters holding up the earth

Hey there! My name is Paul Furminger, Studio Supervising Director at Wind Sun Sky Entertainment.

Fun fact: My surname comes from Old French “fromagier” or “formagier,” meaning ‘maker or seller of cheese.

When I first met my wife, I convinced her that it was Old French for “feu manger” meaning Fire Eater, it sounded cooler…

but she soon found out about the origin. Luckily, she loves cheese!

How did you get started at Wind Sun Sky?

I joined WSS just over 8 years ago, starting on a short film based on the massive MSM game Summoners War. After the film completed, I had the opportunity to direct several episodes and oversee the CGI for groundbreaking series Invincible Season 1.

This was a groundbreaking project, blending 80% hand-drawn animation with 20% CG to create its distinctive style.

My role as CG Director was to make sure the two mediums worked seamlessly together – in addition I was able to direct a few episodes.

As Invincible goes into Season 3, I’m proud to see how the series continues to evolve and push boundaries.

what are you working on at the moment?

My role at WSS is a lot of fun!

It’s multi-faceted and gives me the opportunity to inspire our team to innovate and push the boundaries of creativity.

Like, setting up our live animation pipeline, to supporting the adaptation and development of our wide slate of genre projects, to leading the production on our multi-platform universe Future Chicken.

Future Chicken was launched to empower children when it comes to the climate conversation.

Currently, one of our most challenging and interesting projects is in partnership with Vancouver’s Langara College Early Childhood Education department.

Together, we are creating a Virtual Reality App that uses AI to drive virtual digital children characters intended to support the training of ECE students on how to effectively interact and work with young children prior to graduating the program.

The project is unique, it combines so many new technologies including; sentiment analysis, AI training, automated emotion, and natural language processing.

One of the exciting aspects of this project for WSS and myself, are the potential entertainment applications we are also testing in parallel.

all the future chicken characters holding up the earth

What have been some career highlights?

I’ve been in the industry since 2002, so there’s a lot! Here at WSS I would say Psi Cops as we created a brand new 2D/3D pipeline (and a little Easter Egg, “Old Man” was based on me! Can you see the similarities?)

As well as  Invincible was a great directing opportunity, I won a Leo for Best Direction in an Animated Series for Season 1 Ep 2. 

My first job was running dailies at Rainmaker, before moving to editorial and finally, making it to directing.

Over the years, I’ve worked across the industry – from film and TV to games! I’ve worked on many iconic projects over the last 20+ years, one of the cooler ones was The Da Vinci Code.  It was a great technical challenge as the real church didn’t allow filming for the Rose Line scene, so our team recreated the interior of Saint-Sulpice Church entirely in CG using photogrammetry,

Directing the trailers for Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, and Prototype 2 were also amazing experiences, blending storytelling with cutting-edge tools like real-time rendering and virtual cameras. It truly feels like magic.

Do you have any industry tips or tools that you like to use?

Don’t be intimidated by new software! It’s all designed to be understood, and there’s a wealth of free resources like YouTube to help.

Tools I love: the entire Adobe Creative Suite, from Photoshop to Premiere to After Effects. It has become easier than ever to be an auteur, to direct every aspect of the filmmaking process, and now you can do it without a large team.

What are you even doing reading this? Go make a movie right now!

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What do you do outside of work?

Outside of work, I host regular board game nights and D&D sessions.

D&D, especially, fuels my love for storytelling and imagination.

At the moment I’m playing a Druid: Circle Moon and enjoying very much turning into a large toad and swallowing NPC’s whole.

Can you share some Workplace memories?

While being an apprentice at Rainmaker, I saw a team struggling with a brand-new Mac.

They didn’t know how to turn it on since the power buttons had been placed in the keyboards for these macs.

Luckily, I had a mac at home and knew the secret. I walked to the front of the group and confidently turned the power on.

They must’ve thought I was a pro because I was offered a job as a VFX editor shortly after.

It was definitely one of those opportunities where you agree now and learn on the go… while a little intimidating at the time –

it all worked out in the end.

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What advice would you give to someone looking to get into your field?

My biggest advice would be – stay curious and adaptable. Never stop learning!

Technology evolves quickly, but every new tool or workflow is a chance to tell better stories.

To that end, at WSS we are pushing the boundaries whenever possible with AI and game engine technologies. For Future Chicken and The Camp McCarty’s we have been integrating the Unreal engine into our animation pipeline, which has enabled us to create traditional long-form content, quick turnaround shorts, and even live events at a level of quality and timeline previously unheard of.

For me the efficiency and creativity unlocked by virtual production is truly astounding and we are just at the starting line…

It’s exciting to think about how much learning I have ahead around the immersive storytelling will evolve with advancements like Gaussian Splatting and real-time physics-based rendering.