We’re thrilled to announce our programme of talks and appearances at SIGGRAPH 2018, which takes place in Vancouver from 12 to 16 August.
During the five-day event, our speakers will share insights into how we contributed to many of Hollywood’s most visually creative moments from the past 18 months. This includes a look at our work on Blade Runner 2049, Ant-man and the Wasp, Deadpool 2 and Pacific Rim Uprising.
Plus, we’re 20 this year! So, to mark this special occasion, we’re giving SIGGRAPH delegates an exclusive opportunity to hear Peter Chiang, our Co-Founder and Overall VFX Supervisor on Pacific Rim Uprising, talk about his highlights from the past 20 years – from Pitch Black through to some of our latest projects.
Take a look below for full details of all of our talks and appearances.
Visit the SIGGRAPH website for tickets and more details about the conference.
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Discover new job opportunities in Film VFX, TV VFX, Feature Animation and more…
The SIGGRAPH Job Fair is a must for anyone looking for their next role and we’re delighted to be participating in this event, once again.
We’re always looking for talented artists and VFX experts to join our teams and we currently have many exciting opportunities covering a wide variety of roles at our facilities across the world.
Whether you’re looking for your next opportunity, building your network or you simply want to learn more about a career in VFX (film and television), feature animation or immersive storytelling, be sure to stop by our booth, while you’re at SIGGRAPH.
For more information about all of our roles, visit our careers page.
Find out more about our VIP Mixer on Sunday, August 12th here. To register your interest in meeting for an interview check out this page.
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Talks
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Production Junction: DNEG at 20 – Creative Milestones
Monday 13th August: 3.45pm-5.15pm
West Building, Ballroom C
In this exclusive presentation, our Co-Founder and Senior VFX Supervisor Peter Chiang shares an overview of our creative milestones over the past 20 years – from Pitch Black to Pacific Rim Uprising. This talk will highlight some of the most interesting and pivotal moments in our history with reference to the shows and directors that inspired them.
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Effects Blender: Pacific Rim: Uprising – Developing the Mega Kaiju Transformation
Monday 13th August 9am-10.30am
West Building, Ballroom C
Aaron Gilman, Animation Director, and Supporting Speaker Russell Bowen, CG Supervisor, delve into the complexities of constructing the complex Mega Kaiju Transformation scene from Pacific Rim Uprising. This presentation illustrates the production workflows we used to plan and execute a series of shots where three Kaiju merge into a single massive Mega Kaiju during the film’s intense third act.
Starting with pre-visualisations and beautifully constructed concept art animatics, all post-production departments were required to work very closely with one another because there were so many complex artistic and technical interdependencies in each shot. The sequence needed to be approached in a non-literal abstract fashion, as far as storytelling is concerned, to ensure the work was manageable within a limited post-production schedule and that it created a sense of mystery and suspense in the anticipation of the monstrosity that forms before our eyes. |
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DNEG, Framestore, and MPC Present: The Visual Effects of Blade Runner 2049
Monday 13th August: 10.45am – 12.15pm
West Building, Ballroom A/B
35 years after the release of the original Blade Runner film, the visual effects teams behind Blade Runner 2049 were tasked with the challenge of crafting a dystopian world for the next phase of one of the most-beloved sci-fi films of all time.
Set 30 years after the first film, the sequel follows a new blade runner as he unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what’s left of society into chaos. From the creation of the LA cityscapes, Las Vegas, and Trash Mesa environments to the development of a holographic Joi and the return of Rachael, join DNEG’s Chris McLaughlin, CG Supervisor, and his contemporaries from Framestore, and the Moving Picture Company, as they discuss their Academy-Award winning work that paid tribute to the original picture while creating a film of the future.
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En Masse: Taming the Swarm: Rippers on Pacific Rim Uprising
Sunday 12 August: 3.45pm – 5.15pm
West Building, Room 211-214
Martin Prazák, R&D Programmer, talks about his work on Pacific Rim Uprising key sequences, where swarms of Rippers flow through the streets of Tokyo to stitch together the Mega-Kaiju.
Martin will run through the creative solutions developed to allow the Rippers swarm to flow in a dynamic way whilst also being art direct-able, and to allow artists to blend between the complex animations of the ripper. He will also give an overview of the rendering solutions that were implemented in order to produce shots with thousands of rippers. |
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Birds of a Feather: OpenColorIO
Tuesday 14 August: 1pm – 2pm
ACM SIGGRAPH, East Building, Room 13
Sean Cooper, Colour Scientist, will talk about the OpenColorIO (OCIO), which is the open standard for cross-platform DCC-agnostic colour management used throughout the Visual Effects and Computer Graphics industry. Originally developed by Sony Imageworks in 2003, DNEG and a large number of visual effects facilities have joined the development community making it a truly cross-facility collaboration. The community of developers is now looking towards OCIO’s next major release with additional contributions from Autodesk’s SynColor team. Join the conversation and help shape the next vision of OCIO.
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ACM SIGGRAPH Diversity and Inclusion Summit
Sunday 12 August: 9am – 5pm
Vancouver Convention Center, East, Room 11
The Diversity and Inclusion Summit will examine the concepts of diversity and inclusion to include interactive presentations and panels. We will examine what D&I really means and we will examine the concept of unconscious bias and how our brains work. We will help attendees understand how a focus on diversity and inclusion in their workplaces can lead to more productive and engaged employees.
PANEL: BREAKING BIAS AND BARRIERS
Sunday 12 August: 1pm – 2.15pm
Moderated by Zoe Cranley (Conference Chair, Spark CG Society & Head of Build, DNEG), this panel will bring together a group of successful women in the SIGGRAPH community that will discuss how they are ‘Breaking Bias and Barriers’. We’d focus on where the women are now and have they experienced bias in their careers. Were there obstacles along the way and any lessons learned on their journey? Where are they seeing change today and possibly into the future? What can we do as women to expose the bias not just of others but ourselves too? Where do we hold ourselves back? How do we influence a younger generation? This panel will explore some of these questions and more in an effort to shed light on the issues of women in the community but more importantly to assist the SIGGRAPH community in striving for inclusivity.
Moderator: Zoe Cranley (Conference Chair, Spark CG Society & Head of Build, DNEG)
Panelists: Kate Bergel, Clara Chan, Rachel Rose, Trina Roy, Andrea Chlebak, Sarah Matthews |
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PANEL: Creative BC – Inclusive Recruiting
Thursday 16 August: 9am – 11am
ACM SIGGRAPH, Theater, West Building, Room 102
Also moderated by Zoe Cranley (Conference Chair, Spark CG Society & Head of Build, DNEG), this panel brings together experts to discuss diversity in studio environments to promote a culture of inclusion and engagement. It will explore the innovative approaches studios are taking to increase diversity in the workplace and how they foster a sense of belonging and community.
Keynote: Danielle Costa, VP Visual Effects, Marvel Studios
Panelists:
Victoria Long, Talent Acquisition Manager, DNEG
Colin Beadle, HR Manager, Atomic Cartoons
Lorraine Rozon, Recruitment Manager, ILM
Natali Altshuler, Vice President – Head of Development, EA Sports Vancouver
The session will be followed by a networking session at the International Center, from 11am to 12pm. |
Other talks and panels
We’re also teaming up with some of our software providers and partners to share more stories and insight from recent projects we’ve contributed to.
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Deadpool 2: R Rated FX
DNEG & SideFX
Tuesday 14 August at 3-4pm
SIGGRAPH, Houdini HIVE Rooms 208-209
Jiayin Wang, FX Lead, and Shaun Roth, Head of FX, will talk about the challenges working on Deadpool 2 created for the FX team and how Houdini software helped them create procedural effects for bespoke looks.
They will also walk through what working in an R rated film is like or, more appropriately, how much fun it is to make gore in Houdini! |
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Micro to Macro: FX on Ant-Man and the Wasp
DNEG & SideFX
Tuesday 14 August at 3-4pm
SIGGRAPH, Houdini HIVE Rooms 208-209
Gero Grimm, FX Lead, and Shaun Roth, Head of FX, will talk about how immensely helpful Houdini was in handling more than 500 shots on Ant-man and the Wasp and the techniques used to handle a large volume of shots. Using Houdini’s biggest strength – proceduralism – they will give a breakdown of the wide variety of effects starting with Ant-Man’s micro world and the challenges this incurred. Gero will also elaborate on what techniques helped on the more abstract effects such as fritzing on the antagonist Ghost and how to deal with an exploding Quantum Tunnel. |
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Panel: Generations of Houdini in films
DNEG & SideFX
Wednesday 15 August at 3:45pm – 5:15pm
SIGGRAPH, West Ballroom AB
For more than 20 years, Houdini artists have been pushing boundaries in films, TV and games. This panel features some of the best film professionals, including our Global Head of FX, Mark Hodgkins. |
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DNEG Does Deadpool 2
DNEG & Isotropix
Tuesday 14 August: 12:10 pm
Wednesday 15 August: 4:40 pm
Thursday Aug 16: 12:40 pm
SIGGRAPH, Isotropix booth #1009
Our CG Supervisor, Frederik Lillelund will delve into the creative and technical aspects behind DNEG’s work on this summer’s blockbuster: Deadpool 2. Focusing on the tools and artistry we used in Isotropix Clarisse software to create dynamic sequences in VFX for the film. |
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Clarisse at DNEG – Creative lighting on
Avengers: Infinity War
DNEG & Isotropix
Tuesday 14 August: 4:40 pm
Wednesday 15 August: 3:20 pm
Thursday 16 August: 11:20 am
SIGGRAPH, Isotropix booth #1009
Lighting Supervisor, Malcolm Neailey, shares insight about how Clarisse was used on Avengers: Infinity War at DNEG. Learn about templates and techniques used on several sequences in the film to help optimise repetitive tasks and increase creativity. |
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The MARVELous Compositing of Ant-Man and the Wasp
DNEG & The Foundry
Sunday 12 August: 5pm
Foundry All Stars event, downtown Vancouver
Jennifer Meire, 2D Compositing Supervisor, explains how to reproduce the tiny macro world in Ant-Man and the Wasp. She will talk about the tools and techniques we used in Nuke to create camera based depth of field, lens diffraction and the use of particle systems to add atmospheric FX as a last touch.
This talk is part of the Foundry All Stars event, which celebrates the best in VFX. For more details visit: https://www.foundry.com/events/all-stars-2018 |
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Pacific Rim Uprising and DNEG: A matter of Substance?
DNEG & Substance Day
Monday 13 August: 3:15pm
SIGGRAPH, Convention Center, Meeting Room 1 – East Building
Marc Austin will talk through the Surfacing Pipeline used on Pacific Rim Uprising. He will walk the audience through how we tackled the gigantic task of building the Jaegers with the help of Allegorithmic’s Substance Designer. Marc will guide delegates through the process – start to finish – and talk about how we tackled UDIMS. |
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Elements of VFX – Earth
DNEG & Side FX
Tuesday 14 August at 2pm
SIGGRAPH, Houdini HIVE Rooms 208-209
SideFX’s ‘Elements of VFX’ series features segments on Water, Fire, Earth, Wood, and Metal, each presented by a different Houdini expert who will bring their own experience and wisdom to the topic.
In this session, DNEG’s destruction specialist Keith Kamholz presents a compelling Earth FX example, incorporating a combination of terrain generation tools, crowds, RBD destruction, and more.
Creative Destruction Techniques
DNEG & Side FX
Tuesday 14 August at 10:30am
SIGGRAPH, Houdini HIVE Rooms 208-209
In this talk, destruction specialist Keith Kamholz discusses various challenges that this type of work presents, and how he approaches those challenges to determine the best technique for the job. The presentation includes examples from his work on various projects. |