Hear from more than 30 top professionals in the world of CG, visual effects and gaming about their work and the current conditions of the industry.
AWN-Autodesk SIGGRAPH 2011 Professional Interviews
Hal, Animation Director at ILM, talks about their first fully animated feature film, Gore Verbinski's Rango. Part 1 of 2.
Hal, Animation Director at ILM, talks about the immense pressure at the studio to make Rango a success and not bring everyone down with it, as well as the career path that led him from Will Vinton Studios to Pixar to ILM. Part 2 of 2.
Ben, VFX Supervisor at ILM, talks about their recent work on Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, including how he dealt with both design and technical challenges on the mermaid attack sequence. Part 1 of 3.
Ben, VFX Supervisor at ILM, discusses pipeline changes made to handle Pirates 4 and how the studio is always driven to create and deliver bigger and better visual effects. Part 3 of 3.
Ben, VFX Supervisor at ILM, discusses vfx production on Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, including specific challenges in lighting, workflow and stereoscopic 3-D. Part 2 of 3.
Sebastian, CTO of Weta Digital, discusses various aspects of Weta's advances in and uses of technology, as well as how technology by design must support the creative process. Part 1 of 2.
Sebastian, CTO at Weta Digital, discusses the challenges of stereoscopic 3-D, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and what got him started in the industry. Part 2 of 2.
Gavin, Co-head of 3D at Double Negative, talks about the challenges of coordinating production over several time zones and how the company meets the demands of a 24 hour work day. Part 1 of 3.
Gavin, Co-head of 3D at Double Negative, talks about enabling technology, what tools he'd like to see in the future, what new feature film projects he's working on and what he enjoys most about his job. Part 3 of 3.
Gavin, Co-head of 3D at Double Negative, talks about the technology and tools needed to stay competitive and the expanded use of stereoscopic-3D and previs in the future. Part 2 of 3.
Christian, Managing Director of Film at MPC, discusses the company's recent expansion and the challenges and benefits of building a global production pipeline. Part 1 of 4.
Christian, Managing Director of Film at MPC, talks about technology being the key to providing more efficient and less costly services, as well as some of the tools he'd like to see in the future. Part 2 of 4.
Christian, Managing Director of Film at MPC, talks about the need for proprietary software development, the future for stereoscopic 3-D and how it impacts the production pipeline. Part 3 of 4.
Christian, Managing Director of Film at MPC, explains the importance of community and the artist culture within the studio, as well as traces the career path that led him to MPC. Part 4 of 4.
Lee and Gautham, Head of Film and CTO of Rhythm & Hues Studios, discuss the development of their global production pipeline and how market pressures and technological change affect their business. Part 1 of 3.
Lee and Gautham, Head of Film and CTO of Rhythm & Hues Studios, discuss the challenges of managing a global pipeline, where they focus R&D resources and how they differentiate their business from competitors. Part 2 of 3.
Lee and Gautham, Head of Film and CTO of Rhythm & Hues Studios, talk about the impact of stereoscopic 3-D on their production pipeline and how their career paths led them to the company. Part 3 of 3.
Rob, CTO at Sony Pictures Imageworks, talks about advances in the creation of digital entertainment as well as their joint announcement with ILM of Alembic 1.0. Part 1 of 3.
Rob, CTO at Sony Pictures Imageworks, discusses the challenges of building and maintaining an integrated global production pipeline, the impact of stereoscopic 3-D on that pipeline as well as the move towards standards-based, commercially available production tools. Part 2 of 3.
Rob, CTO at Sony Pictures Imageworks, talks about recent technological advances at the studio, what innovations he'd like to see in the future as well as what he likes most about his job as CTO. Part 3 of 3.
Warren and Catherine, CEO and President, respectively, at Rainmaker, talk about the challenges of balancing creativity and technology and how production of their new short Luna dovetails with updates to Catherine's seminal book Producing Animation. Part 1 of 3.
Warren and Catherine, CEO and President, respectively, at Rainmaker, discuss trends and innovations in pipeline technology and how they impact the production business. Part 2 of 3.
Warren and Catherine, CEO and President, respectively, at Rainmaker, discuss trends in stereoscopic 3-D, how their studio stays competitive and how they assess the market for smaller budgeted animated feature films. Part 3 of 3.
Ron, Founder and Previs Supervisor at Proof, discusses previs, postvis and virtual production, their evolution, recent advances and how they affect traditional film production pipelines. Part 1 of 3.
Ron, Founder and Previs Supervisor at Proof, discusses the impact of stereoscopic 3-D on previs, how the use of previs is viewed by film crews and how on-set previs affects the filmmaking process. Part 2 of 3.
Ron, Founder and Previs Supervisor at Proof, talks about new previs tools he'd like to see, how they'd impact the previs process, how he got into the business and what about his work he enjoys the most. Part 3 of 3.
Richie, Animation Supervisor and Dan, Pipeline Supervisor at Lightstorm Entertainment discuss their work on Avatar, including virtual production, building a non-linear production pipeline and facing the constant challenges of filmmaking innovation. Part 1 of 2.
Richie, Animation Supervisor and Dan, Pipeline Supervisor at Lightstorm Entertainment discuss Avatar's impact on filmmaking today, pipeline advances they'd like to see, how flexibility in pipeline technology is needed to support the creative process and what they like most about their jobs. Part 2 of 2.
Chris, an Oscar-winning animation director, talks about his award-winning short films including Bingo and Ryan, his interest in facial animation and his teaching approach on how to observe and animate a character's face. Part 1 of 4.
Chris, an Oscar-winning animation director, talks about the use of technology in film as well as his hopes for more risk-taking in future films. Part 2 of 4.
Chris, an Oscar-winning animation director, talks about the current state of animation education and shares his hopes for darker, more adult animated feature films. Part 3 of 4.
Chris, an Oscar-winning animation director, describes the satisfaction he gets from teaching and hints about projects that he may soon be working on. Part 4 of 4.
Kevin, an executive producer and Enrico, a director and story artist at Pixar, discuss the origins and purpose of the short film program, how Enrico came to direct the short La Luna and what his work as a feature film story artist entails. Part 1 of 3.
Kevin, an executive producer and Enrico, a director and story artist at Pixar, explain the origins of the short film La Luna as well as how the decision was made to produce this particular story. Part 2 of 3.
Kevin, an executive producer and Enrico, a director and story artist at Pixar, discuss the challenges faced making the short La Luna, including voice casting, music scoring and visual effects, as well as moving staff in and out of the production based on their feature film work schedules. Part 3 of 3.
Marc, SVP of Media & Entertainment at Autodesk, discusses the challenges the company faces as it grows and evolves to meet customer needs for more enabling and cost-effective tools and production technologies.
Chris, CEO of The Third Floor, provides a detailed description of previsualization, including definitions of pitchvis, on-set previs, postvis and virtual production. Part 1 of 3.
Chris, CEO of The Third Floor, talks about the impact of stereoscopic 3-D on previs, how previs efforts are perceived by other key members of a film crew and some of the main tools being used by previs artists. Part 2 or 3.
Chris, CEO of The Third Floor, talks about the excitement of a director seeing their vision onscreen for the very first time as well as his plans to work more as a "production partner" helping films get funded based on early previs collaboration. Part 3 of 3.
Brad, partner and senior previs supervisor at Halon Entertainment, provides detailed definitions of previs, postvis and virtual production, discusses their origins and why they are becoming so popular with filmmakers. Part 1 of 4.