The creation of the photorealistic world of Pandora for AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER

Wētā FX brought the photorealistic world of Pandora to life in AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER by basing their work on scientific fact. Pavani Rao Boddapati (VFX Supervisor), Sam Cole (Associate VFX Supervisor) and Stephen Clee (Animation Supervisor) will discuss Wētā’s return to Pandora from its beginnings in R&D and the development of new technology for on-set work to the final artistic touches of a shot, sharing behind-the-scenes looks, stories and exclusive moments with the FMX audience.

Stuart Adcock talks about Wētā’s “Anatomically Plausible Facial System”

Wētā FX’s new facial expression software, used on AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER, goes beyond the state of the art with a new set of controls to recreate actors’ facial expressions. Stuart Adcock, Head of Facial Motion at Wētā FX, talks about Wētā’s new Anatomically Plausible Facial System (APFS) and how it was used to create believable, emotional acting performances in James Cameron’s AVATAR sequel.

Visual effects and virtual production for ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA

Charmaine Chan (Associate VFX Supervisor) and Laurie Priest (CG Supervisor) from Industrial Light & Magic will talk about the visual effects and virtual production techniques used in Marvel’s hit film ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA. In particular, they will focus on the StageCraft shoot that Chan oversaw: StageCraft technology was used to project virtual backgrounds onto giant LED walls in real time, eliminating the need for green screens and creating the film’s unique locations. The actors were placed inside the immersive LED studio, where practical sets were combined with digital extensions on the walls. StageCraft was originally developed by ILM in 2018 for the first season of Lucasfilm’s hit Disney series THE MANDALORIAN.

Industry panel on the economics of virtual production techniques

The panel “The Economics of Virtual Production – ICVFX” will focus on the extent to which in-camera visual effects (ICVX) can contribute to the economic viability of virtual production. The panellists will consider real budgets and their share of the overall budget, as well as the schedule required to realise a project and the number of crew members needed for a successful production. Focusing on these factors – budgets, schedules and personnel – can lead to greater acceptance of virtual production techniques. The panel will also provide insights into the latest developments and innovative approaches to production business models. The panellists are James Thomas, Virtual Production Executive at Amazon Studios; Chris Bannister, Executive Producer of Virtual Production at Industrial Light & Magic; Lauren Paul, VP of Sales & Marketing at Lux Machina Consulting | NEP Virtual Studios and Paolo Tamburrino, Sr. Industry Strategy Manager, Autodesk & Executive Producer.

AI panel on art, archetypes and algorithms

Artificial intelligence (AI) has opened up whole new worlds in the fields of creativity and innovation, for example through large language models (LLMs) such as the chatbot ChatGPT and image generators that can produce authentic-looking, creative text and images from any input. However, these models also reflect the subconscious patterns and archetypes that permeate the data, which come from the collective unconscious of human culture – and which have been used to train these models. In this AI panel, artist Dave McKean; Sam Hodge, founder of Kognat; Andrew Cochrane, Immersive Content Creator at The AV Club Productions, Inc; and Scott Broock, founder of Totem Networks, LLC, will talk about how these models can be used to create entirely new myths that enrich our understanding of ourselves and the world. However, they will also discuss the ethical challenges and risks of AI applications that exploit these archetypes or stereotypes because they use them in the context of fake news for opinion- and emotion-mongering.

Forum News

Below you will find the latest announcements from the forum areas. Workshops: Cudo Compute, Nickelodeon, PixStone Images, Silverdraft, vrbn studios, Wacom.

Gold Partners Wētā FX and AMCRS are the two Gold Partners of this year’s FMX.

You can find more information here.

The post Countdown to the FMX! 2 weeks! first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.