DNEG at SIGGRAPH 2019

SIGGRAPH 2019, featuring global innovators who are changing what’s possible in computer graphics, animation, VR, Gaming, and Emerging Technologies, is back in Los Angeles this summer between 28 July – 1 August.

DNEG will be attending the conference once again, and we are excited to be involved in many different tracks ranging from Production Sessions, Production Technology presentations, Foundry, Allegorithmic and SideFX talks to SIGGRAPH’s Diversity & Inclusion Summit and DNEG Networking events. Meet key DNEG staff from diverse disciplines, chat with our global talent acquisition teams and heads of departments, and make sure to check out our full SIGGRAPH program listed below. Watch this space for updates.

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.

DNEG Happy Hour & in-person Interviews

This year at SIGGRAPH you can find us at our Happy Hour and throughout two days of in-person interviews. Both events require advanced registration to meet the team.

Whether you’re looking for your next opportunity, building your network or you want to learn more about a career in VFX, be sure to register for our events, and come visit us while you’re at SIGGRAPH.

Register for our Happy Hour at Rosa Mexicano on Tuesday, July 30th from 6:30pm to 8:30pm here.

Register for a time to meet our team for an interview at Tom’s Urban on Tuesday, July 30th and Wednesday, July 31st here.

For more information about all of our roles, visit our careers page.

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And here is our programme for the week:

Talks, panels and courses

Sunday, July 28th

Diversity & Inclusion Summit , Zoe Cranley (Head of CG) – 8.40am to 5.30pm, Room 402 AB

Once again, ACM SIGGRAPH showcases how inclusion, diversity, equity, and access encourage leadership to make us a vibrant, innovative, collaborative, and strong community. The impact of diversity adds significant value to our communities and is encouraging us to make better decisions. The ACM SIGGRAPH Diversity and Inclusion Summit has a roster of informative and impactful speakers from a range of backgrounds and disciplines that demonstrate how our diversity makes us stronger. Join our DNEG representative Zoe Cranley, Head of CG, and many other inspiring panelists for captivating discussions as they examine the pressing issues and relevant topics facing the computer graphics and tech community.

OpenVDB, Nick Avramoussis (R&D Programmer) – 9.00-10.30am, Theatre 411

This course will cover the compact volume data structure and various tools available in the open source library OpenVDB. Last year, this open source project was the first to be adopted by the new Academy Software Foundation (ASWF) and the Linux Foundation.

From Comic Book to Movie Screen: Achieving Symbiosis Between Rigging and Creature Effects for “Venom”, Charlie Banks (R&D Lead) and William Gabriele (Lead Creature TD) – 9.40-10am Room 150/151

This talk is an insight into how DNEG achieved the creative vision for “Venom,” highlighting the cross-departmental nature of creature work and focusing on aspects such as rig modularity, pose space deformation, and tentacle rigging — all tied together by Pinocchio, DNEG’s proprietary automated rig-building system.

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The Visual Effects behind Godzilla: King of the Monsters , Rich Grande (Lead Compositor) – Foundry All Stars, 5pm-7pm, Petree Hall

Dive into a world of giant creatures and beautiful environments with DNEG Lead Compositor Rich Grande as he shares insights and his personal stories behind the making of ‘Godzilla: King of the Monsters’.

Monday, 29th July

Boosting VFX Production With Deep Learning, Simon Pabst (R&D Lead) – 4.45-5.05pm, Room 403AB

DNEG presents two deep learning solutions from our production pipeline. One removes compression artifacts from compressed movies. The other quickly locates color checker charts used for grading in a large set of images. We discuss the challenges of integrating deep learning within a VFX production pipeline from concept to implementation.

DNEG presents: Alita: Battle Angel – Substance and Complexity, David Crabtree (Build Lead) and Jesse Balodis (Senior Texture Artist)

Join David Crabtree and Jesse Balodis from DNEG’s ‘Alita: Battle Angel’ Build team as they will go through different workflows of dealing with assets that have a large number of UDIMs and geometric complexity within Substance Painter. They will also dive into topics such as sharing materials and tools and using Designer to generate tattoos.

Tuesday, 30th July

Streamlining IBL workflows with computer vision and USD Stefano Cieri (CG Lighting Supervisor), Alexander Schwank (R&D Programmer) 4.25-4.45pm, Room 403AB

This paper presents the iblManager: a semi-automated system to allow fast and artist-friendly extraction of numerous lights from HDR images (HDRIs) using computer vision. The system uses LightCache, a USD-based implementation of light descriptions, to allow cross-DCC usage and pipeline integration.

SIGGRAPH 2019 OPEN SOURCE DAY presented by the Academy Software Foundation, 9:00 am – 6:00 pm, JW Marriott, Diamond Ballroom 7-10

Join the ASWF for a full day of Birds of a Feather (BoF) sessions to learn about the latest updates to popular open source projects used for visual effects, animation, and image creation. You can also learn more about the progress the ASWF has made over the past year and their roadmap for the future.

Wednesday, July 31st

SPARK CG Society – Meet SIGGRAPH’s Vancouver Chapter and Zoe Cranley (DNEG Head of CG & SPARK CG Society Conference Chair 2020), 4.30pm

More details soon.

Thursday, August 1st

First Man: Redefining In-Camera FX , Michelle Eisenreich (VFX Producer, DNEG), Ian Hunter (Miniature Effects Supervisor, New Deal Studios) – 10.45am to 12.15pm, West Hall B

First Man: Redefining In-Camera FX As the lead VFX house, DNEG’s work on First Man was centered around trying to achieve some of the most realistic and immersive in-camera VFX shots ever seen. The team used a blend of cutting-edge in-camera VFX techniques, special effects, scale models, and never-before-seen footage from NASA’s archive to tell the story of Neil Armstrong’s journey to the Moon and back. Join Michelle Eisenreich, DNEG VFX Producer, and Academy Award winner Ian Hunter, Miniature Effects Supervisor, as they share insights on how the First Man VFX crew were able to realise this by using one of the biggest LED screens ever built on a movie set.

If you’d like to chat with Michelle and Ian in person, join the casual Meet & Greet right after their session from 12.15 – 12.45pm.

Directable Stadium Crowds From Image-Based Modeling for ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’,Ted Waine (R&D Supervisor), 2.00-2.20pm Room 408AB

“Bohemian Rhapsody” required DNEG to deliver CGI stadium crowds from video captures of individual performances by crowd extras. An image-based modeling approach was developed, allowing 70 hours of multi-view video footage to be converted into lightweight 3D sprites suitable for constructing a virtual crowd of 100,000 agents.

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‘Women in FX’ Panel presented by SideFX, 9:00 am – 6:00 pm, Houdini Hive, Room 402A

Join Lisa Nolan, DNEG FX Lead, and many other inspiring women as they discuss some of the unique challenges or impediments women face as they consider a career in FX, what changes they can see and how to encourage FX artists to make the department more accessible to women.

#DNEGatSIGGRAPH

Follow us on Instagram for live updates throughout the week, and on our other social media channels – Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin.

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Find out about career opportunities at DNEG & how to apply

Check out our careers page for more details on all of our open positions.