• Robert Bredow, Sony Picture Imageworks

• Andrew Pearce, DreamWorks Animation

• Bill Polson, Pixar Animation Studios

• Ton Roosendaal, Blender Foundation

• Kevin Gambrel, Disney Animation Studios

The Visual Effects of Marvel’s ‘Iron Man 3’
Wednesday, 7/24, 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM

In Marvel's “Iron Man 3,” from Director Shane Black, brash-but-brilliant industrialist Tony Stark/Iron Man goes on a harrowing quest to find the enemy who has destroyed his personal world. Marvel Studios, Digital Domain, Scanline VFX, and Weta Digital take SIGGRAPH audiences through their VFX journey as they created some of the movie’s most heart-stopping moments – the house attack sequence, the dramatic ‘barrel of monkeys’ sky rescue and the climactic final battle.
 
Panelists:

• Victoria Alonso, EVP of Visual Effects and Post Production, Marvel Studios / Executive Producer Iron Man 3

• Chris Townsend, VFX Supervisor, ‘Iron Man 3’

• Guy Williams, VFX Supervisor, Weta Digital

• Geoff Baumann, CG Supervisor, Digital Domain

• Bryan Grill, VFX Supervisor, Scanline VFX

Image Credit: Marvel's "Iron Man 3" still photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2013 Marvel

DreamWorks Animation Presents: A Journey to the Croodaceous
Wednesday, 7/24, 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM

A behind-the-scenes look at DreamWorks Animation's hit film "The Croods" directed by Chris Sanders and Kirk DeMicco. The session explores the artistic and technical challenges of bringing uniquely designed, appealing, gritty and at times dangerous prehistoric characters, creatures and environments to life, all with the ultimate goal of delivering an insightful emotional family journey set against a pending natural disaster. The artistic leadership of the film will talk about the aesthetic decisions made along with the technical and workflow innovations necessary to accomplish the film.

Panelists:

• Chris Sanders, Director

• Matt Baer, Head of Effects

• Mark Edwards, Head of Lighting

• Damon Crowe, Character Effects Supervisor

Copyright: © 2013 DreamWorks Animation. All Rights Reserved.

Walt Disney Animation Studios Presents "Frozen": The Craft of Character and Cold
Tuesday, 7/23, 10:45 AM - 12:15 PM

The team from Walt Disney Animation Studios gives a first-time, behind-the-scenes look at the their November 27, 2013 film, "Frozen." Attendees will learn how the team of artists and technologists created the film's characters through visual development, rigging, animation and advanced rendering tools and discover how the elements of cold - ice, snow and frost - were brought to life through new simulation techniques.

Copyright/ImageCredit: © 2012 Disney

OLM Digital Presents the Anime Spirit: From Pokémon, Pac-Man to live action films
Wednesday, 7/24, 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM

Anime has gained great popularity in the world for its unique expressiveness in contrast to western animation. OLM Digital, a digital production company in Tokyo, keeps trying new anime styles, making the Pokémon movies over 15 years. This session presents the company’s various works in 2D/3D hybrid anime, 3DCG, S3D anime and live action films. The showcase focuses on how the anime spirit of OLM Digital is put into various visual forms. The brand-new Pac-Man animated TV series, which is a collaborative work with Sprite Animation Studios, is also one of the highlights of this session.

Paneli sts: 

• Yasuhiro Mikami, CGI Director OLM Digital

• Masashi Kobayashi, CGI Producer OLM Digital

• Moto Sakakibara, CEO and Creative Director Sprite Animation Studios

• Ken Anjyo, R&D supervisor OLM Digital

Image Copyrights:

©Nintendo·Creatures·GAME FREAK·TV Tokyo·ShoPro·JR Kikaku ©Pokémon ©2012 PIKACHU PROJECT
©2012 NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc.
©2012 CAPCOM / "Ace Attorney" FILM PARTNERS
 
LAIKA Presents: The Seamless Fusion of Stop-Motion and Visual Effects Technologies in LAIKA's Feature Films
Wednesday, 7/24, 10:45 AM - 12:15 PM

LAIKA, the Oregon-based animation studio behind the remarkable features ParaNorman (2012), Coraline (2009) and The Boxtrolls (in theaters 26 September 2014) has inspired audiences -- and industry professionals -- with an unprecedented visual artistry. Animators breathe life into meticulously hand-crafted puppets while visual effects artists seamlessly enhance the performance with cutting-edge technologies. This unparalleled fusion of stop- motion and computer graphics has garnered the studio two Oscar nominations and worldwide acclaim. In this session, Georgina Hayns and Brian McLean address the key interdependent and collaborative relationships between these uniquely different but critically important departments.
 
The presentation will address the following:

• The use of Maya and Zbrush to enhance practical sculpts;

• 3D Printed material and subsurface scattering to allow puppet builders to break free of previous design limitations;

• The advancements in color 3D printing and the enabling of puppet builders to evolve beyond prior design limitations;

• The use of in-house developed silicones which enable character performance previously unseen in stop-motion animation;

• The utilization of 3D Printers to pre-vis puppet construction issues and control how practical materials perform;

• The use of laser cutting fabrics to enhance the design and functionality of the puppets costumes.

• Production puppets will be displayed during the presentation.

Panelists:

• Georgina Hayns, Creative Supervisor, Puppet Fabrication

• Brian McLean, Director of Rapid Prototype.

 Image Credit: LAIKA, Inc.

Sony Pictures Imageworks Presents: Take a Journey Down the Yellow Brick Road
Tuesday, 7/23, 10:45 AM - 12:15 PM

Sony Pictures Imageworks, under the direction of VFX supervisor Scott Stokdyk, created the majority of the visual effects for Disney's OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL. As a cinematic prequel to L. Frank Baum’s first book “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” the film explores the backstory of the wizard character. The goal of the film was to create a beautiful stylized environment for the land of Oz and bring to life computer graphics characters that accompany Oz on his journey, including Finley the monkey, the porcelain China Girl, and various creatures that surprise them along the way.
 
© 2013 Disney Enterprises Inc

Walt Disney Animation and Pixar Animation Presents: Scare School 101: The Making of "Monsters University"
Thursday, 7/25, 12:45 PM - 2:15 PM

The filmmaking team will guide attendees through the production process of the summer 2013 Disney•Pixar film, "Monsters University." Twelve years after the original film, see how creators rebuilt the Monster world; updated familiar characters into college-age versions of themselves; designed, built and lit a campus fit for a monster; and populated the university with a student body of diverse, unique and terrifying monster types.