Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1545821
24 cgw a p r i l • m ay • j u n e 2 0 2 6 n early everyone in the entertainment industry can pinpoint a moment that sparked their interest in the field and subse- quent career journey. Like so many in our industry, that was watching the larger-than-life dinosaurs walk across the the- ater screen in Jurassic Park. While the film was certainly a technical achievement, what I remember most is how it made me feel. Proj- ects that evoke emotion oen withstand the test of time, because even the most dazzling visuals are only as impactful as the narrative they support. It's easier than ever to create just about anything you can imagine today. Traditional barriers no longer limit us, and generative AI mod- els can output stills or video in minutes or seconds. While these tools pose new opportunities, artists should continue leading with tech- nical knowledge and techniques, rooted in traditional visual effects workflows to protect their creative vision. Compositing in context In content creation, compositing is where the visual ingredients be- come fully baked scenes. Human artistry is essential at this step. AI can be extremely beneficial in many aspects of content production, but over reliance on the technology can skew visuals into reading fake. At Foundry we understand the production realities and pain points creatives face and let it guide our development. We build tools that empower artists — from ideation to final output — by accelerating tasks and enabling new workflows, while retaining complete creative control. I recently spoke with creative technologists Ben Abergel and Fred- dy Chavez Olmos about their experience with AI in production, how the technology has impacted their approach to compositing, and where they think the industry is headed next. Experimenting on the cutting-edge at ETC The University of Southern California (USC) Entertainment Technol- ogy Center (ETC) is driving filmmaking forward through exploration and experimentation with emerging technologies. Its work has led to groundbreaking virtual and cloud-based productions. Currently, the center is working on a pair of AI-assisted short films, with Abergel serving as the Head of AI Technology and Production for the hybrid live action production project. Embracing many traditional VFX processes, the production team films actors on a green screen stage, brings tracking data from those shoots into a virtual environment, and uses AI to retexture the back- ground. Additionally, they're leveraging AI to help extract all the VFX passes and assist with relighting. Deploying AI on projects like these allows for a small production team to move faster, and then they can refine outputs in compositing. In Nuke, the team retextures back- grounds or retracks on-set footage if the captured data is imperfect. It's also helpful for adjusting scene parallax. For Abergel, his background in traditional VFX, such as rotoscop- ing and compositing, has been essential to working with AI. He says planning has also been key to achieving the desired result faster, though he thinks there's much to learn by embracing the chaos that comes with AI. Abergel believes that AI acceleration will free up time that could be reallocated to pushing the creative envelope and bring teams together earlier for improved efficiency. Above all, he stresses that maintaining artistic control is non-ne- gotiable, and notes that control is broader than ever. Artists are no longer working on one small element of a shot, but rather, the entire shot so they need to ensure everything ties together. This oen re- quires connecting disparate pieces, despite tool limitations. In this regard, problem-solving is a vital skill for AI-supported production. Recognizing AI-powered opportunity Olmos, a multidisciplinary creative, filmmaker, and VFX artist, was first intrigued by AI's VFX potential with the release of Beeble's Switchlight model, which generates physically based rendering (PBR) passes from video. Implementing it on the television series Superman & Lois, he was able to speed up the relighting process and give the production's compositors a tool for creative, interactive lighting and other effects that would have been too time-consuming or expensive to execute otherwise. In his view, the fundamentals of VFX and filmmaking are impera- SHOWCASE COMPOSITING IN THE AGE OF AI-ENABLED VFX BY MATHIEU MAZEROLLE SPONSORED CONTENT