Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1144183
22 SIGGRAPH 2019 Production Sessions 'First Man': Redefining In-Camera FX Thursday, 1 August, 10:45 am – 12:15 pm, West Hall B 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-be- fore-seen footage from NASA's archive to tell the story of Neil Armstrong's journey to the moon and back. Join VFX Producer Michelle Eisenreich and DNEG's Academy Award®-win- ning DFX Supervisor Tristan Myles as they share insights on how the "First Man" VFX crew were able to realize this by using one of the biggest LED screens ever built on a movie set. Panelists: 'Alita: Battle Angel' – The Art of Being Human Thursday, 1 August, 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm, West Hall B "Alita: Battle Angel" follows the young cyborg Alita as she unearths her extraordinary past. Her palpable humanness was key to the film's success, and her character represents a new standard of photoreal digital doubles and humanoid CG character realization. Eric Saindon and Mike Cozens will discuss how advances in performance capture, CG biology, and facial animation bought her story to life. Alita is a truly unique CG heroine that has the star power onscreen of a new actress in a breakthrough role. On-set, Rosa Salazar embodied a heartfelt and determined character, which Weta captured in unprecedented detail with their advanced performance capture sys- tem. Weta will touch on their development of performance capture technology since it was first conceived for "The Lord of the Rings," and how they have reached this latest milestone. The performance capture rig will be available for the audience to view after the presentation. Weta interpolated Alita's facial puppet through a digital model of Rosa to achieve heightened muscle accuracy. Animators had new depths of detail to work with and were able to read and animate subtleties down to an inferred state of emotion. Her distinctive big brown eyes were modeled using fibers for her iris that emulate a real eye — each of which contained more geometry than all of Gollum in "The Lord of the Rings." The task of creating Alita's world was manifold in its complexity. Iron City was designed as a light and colorful place, influenced by Latin America, with discordant layers of tex- tures and cultures to give it a dilapidated but energetic feel. Zalem hovers above like an unobtainable jewel. The live set was built on soundstages at Troublemaker Studios, and Weta completed the environment as a teeming world of reused technology populated by a mixed society of humans and cyborgs. Panelist: Nick Epstein, Weta Digital Michelle Eisenreich, DNEG Ian Hunter, New Deal Studios