EXECUTIVE NOTE

Welcome to the Spring issue of VFX Voice!

We’re now in year four of publishing VFX Voice and we cannot thank you enough for your enthusiastic support as a part of our global community. Coming out of an exciting awards season, this issue shines a light on the 18th Annual VES Awards celebration and shares a profile of one of our honorees, acclaimed VFX supervisor Sheena Duggal, recipient of this year’s VES Award for Creative Excellence. Congratulations again to all of our outstanding nominees, winners and honorees!

Our cover feature takes a look at real-time-generated CG humans and their growing impact on film and TV. In the exploding field of television visual effects, we go inside Snowpiercer, The Mandalorian and The Witcher. We delve into the VR/AR/MR world with ILM’s Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Seriesand Walt Disney Animation’s Myth: A Frozen Tale, and go behind the scenes of family fantasy film Dolittle and animated elf tale Onward. On the tech and tools beat, we talk real-time previs, ray tracing and open source software. And continuing our review of VES worldwide, we highlight the VES Georgia Section, our 14th and newest regional hub. It’s all in here! As the definitive authority on all things VFX, we’re continuing to bring you exclusive stories between issues that are only available online at VFXVoice.com. You can also get VFX Voice and VES updates by following us on Twitter at @VFXSociety. Thank you for making VFX Voice a must-read publication worldwide.

Mike Chambers, Chair, VES Board of Directors

Eric Roth, VES Executive Director

[ CONTENTS ]

FEATURES

8 COVER: REAL-TIME CG HUMANS Synthetic characters are now more human and widespread.

14 TV: SNOWPIERCER A trainload of creative effects drive cult film to the small screen.

20 VR/AR/MR: VADER IMMORTAL ILM’s Darth Vader VR experience brings users into the story.

26 ANIMATION: ONWARD Pixar adopts old-school, stylized approach to character design.

32 PREVIS: REAL-TIME PREVIS New tools and techniques have made previs studios more nimble.

38 TV: THE MANDALORIAN Changing live-action TV VFX with virtual production efficiencies.

44 PROFILE: SHEENA DUGGAL Recipient of the 2020 VES Award for Creative Excellence.

50 THE 18TH ANNUAL VES AWARDS Celebrating the best in visual effects.

58 VES AWARD WINNERS Photo Gallery

64 TECH & TOOLS: NEW VFX TOOLS Four new tools for artists, and how pros use them in production.

68 TV: THE WITCHER Building a fantasy world of creatures, battles and magical effects.

DEPARTMENTS

2 EXEC UTIVE NOTE

92 VES SECTION SPOTLIGHT: GEORGIA

94 VES NEWS

96 FINAL FRAME: REAL-TIME

ON THE COVER:Meet Elbor, a digital character created by Doug Roble, Head of Software R&D for Digital Domain, and the Digital Human Group. (Image courtesy of Digital Domain)

72 TECH & TOOLS: RAY TRACING Maximizing the quality of surfaces and lighting in real-time.

80 FILM: DOLITTLE Advanced VFX helps connect humans and talking CG animals.

84 VR/AR/MR: MYTH: A FROZEN TALE Immersing users in the rich spirit world of Disney’s Frozen 2.

88 TECH & TOOLS: OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE Creating and maintaining free open source software for the industry.

WINNER OF THREE FOLIO AWARDS FOR PUBLISHING EXCELLENCE.

SPRING 2020 • VOL. 4, NO. 2

VFXVOICE Visit us online at vfxvoice.com

PUBLISHER Jim McCullaugh publisher@vfxvoice.com

EDITOR Ed Ochs editor@vfxvoice.com

CREATIVE Alpanian Design Group alan@alpanian.com

ADVERTISING VFXVoiceAds@gmail.com

SUPERVISOR Nancy Ward

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Ian Failes Naomi Goldman Trevor Hogg Chris McGowan

ADVISORY COMMITTEE David Bloom Andrew Bly Rob Bredow Mike Chambers Neil Corbould, VES Irena Cronin Paul Debevec, VES Debbie Denise Karen Dufilho Paul Franklin David Johnson Jim Morris, VES Dennis Muren, ASC, VES Sam Nicholson, ASC Lori H. Schwartz Eric Roth VISUAL EFFECTS SOCIETY Eric Roth, Executive Director

VES BOARD OF DIRECTORS

OFFICERS Mike Chambers, Chair Lisa Cooke, 1st Vice Chair Emma Clifton Perry, 2nd Vice Chair Laurie Blavin, Treasurer Rita Cahill, Secretary

DIRECTORS Brooke Breton, Kathryn Brillhart, Colin Campbell Bob Coleman, Dayne Cowan, Kim Davidson Rose Duignan, Richard Edlund, VES, Bryan Grill Dennis Hoffman, Pam Hogarth, Jeff Kleiser Suresh Kondareddy, Kim Lavery, VES Tim McGovern, Emma Clifton Perry Scott Ross, Jim Rygiel, Tim Sassoon Lisa Sepp-Wilson, Katie Stetson David Tanaka, Richard Winn Taylor II, VES Cat Thelia, Joe Weidenbach

ALTERNATES Andrew Bly, Gavin Graham, Charlie Iturriaga Andres Martinez, Dan Schrecker

Tom Atkin, Founder Allen Battino, VES Logo Design

Visual Effects Society 5805 Sepulveda Blvd., Suite 620 Sherman Oaks, CA 91411 Phone: (818) 981-7861 visualeffectssociety.com

VES STAFF Nancy Ward, Program & Development Director Chris McKittrick, Director of Operations Ben Schneider, Director of Membership Services Jeff Casper, Manager of Media & Graphics Colleen Kelly, Office Manager Debbie McBeth, Global Coordinator Jennifer Cabrera, Administrative Assistant P.J. Schumacher, Controller Naomi Goldman, Public Relations

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