Tim Burton’s "Alice in Wonderland" is an epic 3D fantasy adventure. The idea of making a film in 3D was, for Burton, one of the main reasons he was drawn to directing "Alice in Wonderland" in the first place. “It gives you that kind of ‘out there’ feeling that was a very crucial element to the film,” he said. While the film was envisioned as a 3D stereo production almost from the start, the film was made in 2D and converted to 3D stereo. With more experience in 3D stereoscopic production than any other company to date, Sony Pictures Imageworks and stereographer Corey Turner dimensionalized close to 2000 visual effects and animation shots. Senior Visual Effects Supervisor Ken Ralston, animation director Dave Schaub and production schedule pending, stereograghers Corey Turner or Rob Engle will present an in-depth look at the making of "Alice in Wonderland" in 3D.

Ken Ralston serves as the creative leader at Sony Pictures Imageworks. His five Academy Awards® plus two additional Oscar® nominations attest to the respect Ralston has earned from peers and audiences alike for his unique insights into dramatic development and unparalleled mastery of visual effects technology. Often his input transcends traditional job titles, leading to his colleagues tagging him simply as visual effects guru. Ralston most recently served as the senior visual effects supervisor on director Tim Burton’s film, “Alice in Wonderland, for Disney. In this capacity he oversaw the extensive imagery and animation being produced at Imageworks. Ralston worked with senior visual effects supervisor Jerome Chen and director Robert Zemeckis on "Beowulf" and prior to that on "The Polar Express".

Sony Pictures Imageworks Inc. is the Academy Award® winning, state-of-the-art visual effects and animation unit of Sony Pictures Digital Productions. The Imageworks production environment supports live-action visual effects and character animation, all-CG animation, and Imageworks 3D stereoscopic. Imageworks’ most recently completed projects include “Alice in Wonderland”, "Cats and Dogs 2", " 2012", "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs", "G-Force", "Watchmen", "Valkyrie", "Body of Lies", "Eagle Eye", "Hancock", "Speed Racer", "Beowulf", and "I am Legend". The company is currently in production on "The Green Lantern", "Zookeeper", Aardman Animations "Arthur Christmas", Sony Pictures Animations "Hotel Transylvania", and the live-action/animation "Smurfs", in association with Columbia Pictures.

…”in the real world” means: NOT in a computer generated world and NOT in an ideal world… "The Eye 3D", a documentary about the strongest earthbound telescope to date, was shot in the middle of Chile’s Atacama Desert, a day’s journey from any human settlement, on a tight schedule, with real humans, real cameras and real glitches. The good news is: it can be done!

Niko Vialkowitsch is director and producer of "The Eye 3D".He has been 3D-enthusiast since his childhood and holds a university degree in psychology. He is filmmaker for the German Public Television Network since 1993 and founded parallax raumprojektion in 2004

parallax raumprojektion has produced several 3D shorts for well known institutions, such as the Center for Arts and Media Karlsruhe (ZKM), the Kunsthaus Zurich, or the German Aerospace Centre (DLR). "The Eye 3D", parallax’ first 3D cinema project, was successfully released to German theatres in October 2009 as an official Special Project of the UNESCO year of Astronomy. It was the first feature length 3D documentary produced in Germany.

The Institute of Animation’s Research and Development lab presents a series of applications based on the Frapper (Filmakademie Application Framework) platform:

The "Agent Framework" is a development platform for character-centric application prototyping. A dialogue system will demonstrate an early prototype of an interactive, personalized FMX conference guide.
“Splat” is a collection of non-photorealistic rendering algorithms combined with the real-time capabilities of the Frapper platform. It is suited for use in Filmmaking and real-time Agents.
The “Performance Solver” is part of the new Facial Animation Toolset 2.0 release and allows the analysis of complex motion capture data to drive parameterized facial animation rigs.
A most recent cooperation with HCI (Heidelberg Collaboratory for Image Processing) and Filmakademie focuses on the development of stereoscopic postproduction tools based on the Frapper and Charon Frameworks (Moros).

Frapper is released under the LGPL v2.1 open source license.

3D filming offers a variety of creative tools. Josef Kluger will have a close look on the potential of 3D from the directors point of view and will focus on the creative potential of 3D to enhance the way of storytelling. What are the expanded possibilities and what are the limitations? How can the manipulation of depth change the emotional impact? These aspects will be analyzed on the basis of realized 3D films.

Josef Kluger is director of international film projects for theme parks, science centers and world expos and uses all kind of special format production technologies such as 3D, multiscreen formats, 360° and motion ride techniques.

KUK Filmproduktion GmbH developed a high quality workflow for 3D film production. It has produced the most important German 3D films of the last years, e.g. a 3D film about the 24h race at the Nuerburgring. KUK Film is partner in the 3D4You and Muscade research projects, funded by the EU and in the German research project Prime funded by the German Ministry of Economics & Technology.

Golaem Behavior Pack manages predefined classic behaviors (find a path, navigate, look at, grasp…), and is adaptable both to the configuration of the digital mock-up and to the morphology of characters. Golaem Activity providing an authoring tool for human activity description situated in an informed environment, and a runtime engine processing activities described with this graphical language.

Stéphane Donikian has a PhD in computer science and an habilitation to direct research from the University of Rennes 1. He spent 15 years doing research successively at CNRS and INRIA on the following topics: individual and collective human behaviors, informed virtual environments, and interactive storytelling. He is the initiator, co-founder and CTO of Golaem S.A., a startup company valorizing several research results of his former team (Bunraku).
Contact him at stephane.donikian@golaem.com.

Golaem is editing software solutions for autonomous human-like characters able to perform realistic and complex actions in real time. We offer 3D business users, an unprecedented range of building blocks, as well as complete solutions, for simulations of individual and collective human behaviors in digital mock-ups. To reach this objective, Golaem is providing software components in a hierarchical and modular way, to propose a solution adapted to the complexity of each targeted simulation.

After the huge success of 3D computer graphic animated films, the stereoscopic technology is more and more used in live action. Diversification of stereoscopic (3D) tools for shooting, FX and post-production open the field to a variety of editorial approaches. Through two stereoscopic shooting experiences, "Gilles de Ray", a historical documentary, and "PINA", a feature film directed by Wim Wenders, we will study how 3D production workflow can be adapted to specific artistic needs.

François Garnier, CG pioneer since the mid eighties, has been exploring all the creative sides of the digital media. Film Director for Ex Machina from 1995, he designed and directed large formats and stereoscopic films for international shows, theme parks and events. In 2000 he co-founded AmaK, a studio specialized in stereoscopic film, and 3D real-time interactive installations. He is currently 3D Supervisor on the feature film "PINA" directed by Wim Wenders.

AmaK Studio designs and produces films, digital installations, and interactive projects, for theme parks, art and science museums, and international events. AmaK Studios is an European leader for stereoscopic films (Rides, 3D Imax theaters), specializing in large immersive films, and 3D real-time interactive installations. Contact: F.garnier@AmaK.fr

This presentation will focus on ongoing research at Disney Research Zurich related to 2D hand-drawn animation. I will present work aimed at improving the 2D animation pipeline used by the Walt Disney Animation Studio, including research on high-quality line vectorization and computer-assisted tight inbetweening of animation drawings. I will also show how we have brought some of the stylized techniques for depicting motion in hand-drawn animation into the realm of 3D graphics.

Dr. Robert W. Sumner is the associate director of Disney Research Zurich and leads the research group on animation and interactive graphics. He received a B.S. (1998) in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia and his M.S. (2001) and PhD (2005) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He spent three years as a postdoctoral researcher at ETH Zurich before joining Disney. Robert is an adjunct lecturer at ETH and currently teaches a course called the Game Programming Laboratory in which students work in small teams to design and implement novel video games.

Disney Research Zurich (DRZ) is an industrial research laboratory created by The Walt Disney Company and located in Zurich, Switzerland. DRZ conducts advanced application-oriented research in computer animation, interactive graphics, computational cinematography, computer vision, video processing, wireless communication, and related fields. After one year of growth, DRZ consists of 22 full-time researchers and 20 associated scientists working to ensure that Disney’s core businesses remain at the cutting edge of technology and innovation.

Jayme Wilkinson, Stereoscopic Supervisor at Blue Sky Studios, will discuss the strategies, challenges, and solutions he and his team brought to Blue Sky’s first ever stereoscopic 3D film effort, "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs".

Jayme Wilkinson has long had a passion for film and technology, having studied fine art at the Cleveland Institute of Art, Computer Science at the University of Akron, and Cinematography at Ohio State University Cranston Csuri Group (CCG). In his twenty-plus-year career, Jayme has worked at various postproduction companies, as an industrial designer for Telxon Corporation designing portable computer equipment- the precursor to today's personal digital assistants (PDAs), at Alias|Wavefront where he started using Autodesk® Maya® software while in its earliest stages, until finally landing in the animation world at Walt Disney Animation Studios where he contributed to "Lilo and Stitch", "Brother Bear", and "My Peoples" as CGI lead/Technical Coordinator. He continued his career in CG animation at Electronic Arts/Tiburon where he worked as CGI Supervisor/Technical Art Director on such projects as "Nascar" 2005 and "Nascar" 2006, "Madden" 2006, and the "Superman" titles.
In 2006, Jayme joined the talented team of artists at Blue Sky Studios where he worked as Technical Supervisor on their feature animation projects "Ice Age 2: The Meltdown", and "Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears A Who". Jayme then supervised the stereoscopic 3D effort on "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs", Blue Sky’s first stereoscopic 3D film. Currently he is working as Stereographer / Stereoscopic Supervisor on Blue Sky Studios’ upcoming film "Rio", which will be released summer 2011.

Film techniques such as rim lighting, backlighting, sophisticated camera animation, motion-captured animation and render output options can all be used in real-time within CryENGINE, to create a final product that rivals pre-rendered quality. Hannes will also discuss CryENGINE’s potential for film previz, as well as using a Maya CryENGINE previz pipeline.

Hannes Appell studied animation and visual effects at the Filmakademie Institute of Animation and Visual Effects in Baden Württemberg. Before that he worked as a games journalist, editor and post-pro/graphics artist for GIGA GAMES and NBC Europe in Düsseldorf. He is currently working in Crytek’s Visual Development Group as a cinematic artist, where he focuses on next-gen video game and film design.

Crytek GmbH is one of the world’s leading independent development studios for interactive entertainment. It is dedicated to creating high-quality video games for the PC and next-generation consoles, powered by their cutting-edge 3D-Game-Technology, CryENGINE®.

How do visual storytelling tools like color, lighting, lens choice and 3D combine to heighten the emotional impact of Pixar's stories? Using examples from "Up", "Toy Story" and "Toy Story 2", Bob Whitehill will explore the techniques used and their powerful effect on the films.

Bob Whitehill began his career at Pixar Animation Studios in April 2004. Brought on as a Layout Artist on the Golden Globe® winning "Cars", he continued in this role on Pixar’s animated short film "Lifted", and the Academy Award©-winning feature "WALL•E". Whitehill served as Layout Supervisor for Mater and Ghostlight and three Cars Toons, Rescue Squad Mater, El Materdor and Mater the Greater. Currently, Whitehill is working as Stereoscopic Supervisor on the 3D production of Disney•Pixar’s upcoming feature film "Toy Story 3". He was also the Stereographic Supervisor on Up and oversaw the 3D conversion of the original "Toy Story" and "Toy Story 2".

Pixar Animation Studios, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is an Academy Award®-winning film studio with world-renowned technical, creative and production capabilities in the art of computer animation. Creator of some of the most successful and beloved animated films of all time, including "Toy Story", "Finding Nemo", "The Incredibles", "Cars", "Ratatouille", "WALL•E" and most recently, "Up". The Northern California studio has won 21 Academy Awards® and its ten films have grossed more than $5 billion at the worldwide box office to date. The next film release from Disney•Pixar is "Toy Story 3".

A handcrafted feel, moody lighting, intricate detail and impossible perspectives are all easy to depict in concept art, but hard to achieve in real-time 3D. Hannes will show how using camera projection can help translating a piece of 2D concept art into real-time 3D while not only staying true to the original art, but also adding to its original mood and even saving time doing it.

Hannes studied animation and visual effects at the Filmakademie Institute of Animation and Visual Effects in Baden Württemberg. Before that he worked as a games journalist, editor and post-pro/graphics artist for GIGA GAMES and NBC Europe in Düsseldorf. He is currently working in Crytek’s Visual Development Group as a cinematic artist, where he focuses on next-gen video game and film design.

Crytek is one of the world’s leading independent development studios for interactive entertainment. It is dedicated to creating high-quality video games for the PC and next-generation consoles, powered by their cutting-edge 3D-Game-Technology, CryENGINE®.

How ImageMovers Digital reinvented the layout process so Director Robert Zemeckis could have complete creative control lensing Disney’s "A Christmas Carol". The process known as Director’s Layout (DLO), is redefining how directors of digital animation and performance capture movies can stage, light and communicate their vision. The virtual camerawork in Disney’s "A Christmas Caro"l was shot in several stages, each paying attention to the importance of camerawork and composition. The Director's Layout process allowed the film director and director of photography to freely explore the digital environments comprised of the character performances within low-resolution sets, all working in real-time. A director can change sets, edit/add performances, art direct nearly anything within the frame of the camera. The camera ultimately shows the final decisions of staging, composition and timing at any given time in the film, and the DLO process allows the director to truly find the film he wishes to share with the audience.

Anthony Shafer joined ImageMovers Digital shortly after it formed in 2007 to design and implement the real-time camera acquisition system, camera data-flow pipeline, and stereoscopic 3D production workflow at IMD. He worked extensively on the stereoscopic design and implementation of Disney’s "A Christmas Carol", and is currently in production on IMD’s upcoming features.
An alumnus of Industrial Light & Magic, Shafer most recently served as a sequence supervisor on such films as "Transformers", "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest" and the "Star Wars" prequels. As ILM’s Stereoscopic Lead for Tim Burton’s "Nightmare Before Christmas" 2D-to-3D conversion re-release, he designed and wrote a proprietary
application that was critical to finishing the show. Topics from this experience are the basis of his chapter on Stereoscopic 2D-to-3D Conversion for the upcoming industry publication The VES Handbook of Visual Effects.

In February 2007, The Walt Disney Studios joined forces with Academy Award-winning director Robert Zemeckis and his ImageMovers partners/producers Jack Rapke and Steve Starkey to form ImageMovers Digital. Academy Award-winning artist, production designer and author Doug Chiang joined to lead the new state of the art studio, devoted exclusively to the production of performance capture projects.

Stereoscape is co-producing "Moomins and the Comet Chase", which is used as a case example. The technical implementation of this multinational project and how depth script was utilised to guide 2D to 3D conversion work. Description of the challenges and how they were resolved.

With a background from telecommunications before entering 3D film production, Mr. Luostarinen has extensive experience in managing small companies and helping them to grow. He pursues to combine solid project management principles with artistic creativity to produce most memorable viewing experiences.

Stereoscape is one of the leading stereoscopic 3D production companies in Scandinavia. We are the stereoscopic producer of the first Nordic stereoscopic feature film “Moomins & the Comet Chase”. Our services include production services, 2D to 3D conversions and consulting.

We are in the throws of a revolution, where long-held divisions between prep, production and post are crumbling. Replacing those boundaries are new workflows that allow for greater creativity, collaboration and efficiency. Drawing from their current work on the feature film "Conan", Kevin Tod Haug and Ron Frankel will examine what this shift means for visual effects design and production. Central to their argument is the expanded role of visualization and how a combination of existing and new technologies can be used to drive design and story from the earliest moments of development through production and into post.

Visual Effects Designer Kevin Tod Haug specializes in assembling teams of freelancers and boutique vendors for films with a strong directorial vision. With 20 years of experience he is a champion of an independent, production-oriented VFX community. His film credits include "Quantum of Solace", "Kite Runner", "Stranger Than Fiction", "Stay", "Finding Neverland", "Panic Room", "The Cell", and "Fight Club." Kevin is also the author of "Manifxto", a VFX-related blog.

FX Cartel is a VFX production service that makes the resources and talent of the entire international VFX community available to directors and producers of projects of all sizes.

Ron Frankel, President and Founder of Proof, has been a pioneer in the development and integration of previsualization into the feature film production process. He was the first to introduce Directors such as Steven Spielberg, David Fincher and Darren Aronofsky to the use of previsualization as a combined technical and creative film-making tool.

Trixter will answer the “W” questions: Why What When Where
It is the evolution of filmmaking: silent movies got a voice, black and white got color and flat images get depth: the 3rd dimension. Today, an increasing number of films get produced in stereo 3D and inevitably, stereoscopic features will become tomorrow's standard. Theaters are replacing their 35mm with digital 3D projectors and the home entertainment is following closely. But 3D movies are not only visually three dimensional, the new technique opens up new ways of storytelling. During the last years Trixter developed an intelligent production pipeline to convert 2D material into 3D. As part of their VFX work, they where looking for ways to get the costs down in handling VFX for stereoscopic feature films, while focusing on creative flexibility and new possibilities of storytelling. Trixter is already in production of full-length feature film conversions.

Michael Coldewey (CEO)started his film career assisting Wolfgang Urchs' "Peter in Magicland". He lectured animation at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and at the Fachhochschule Augsburg. He directed the animated features "The Fearless Four" (Warner Bros.) and Kevin Eastman’s "Heavy Metal 2000" (Columbia Tristar). Michael founded Trixter in 1998 and produced the TV series "Lilly The Witch" and co-produced "Dragon Hunters" (Universum Film). He went on to produce the first Walt Disney live action movie "Lilly The Witch", and is currently in postproduction of the sequel. In 2008 Michael won the Bavarian TV Award, the German TV Award, and got nominated for the German Film Award for Best Family Entertainment in 2009. Michael served as President of the German Animation Association.

Georg Wieland (VFX Producer) is an engineer in the field of media technology and has worked as a 3D artist on international feature films for several years. He has been working as a visual effects producer since 2006, completing his profile with a Master of Business Administration. He is dedicated at Trixter for stereoscopic projects and international feature films such as "Ninja Assassin" and "Percy Jackson".

The New Art of Virtual Moviemaking digs deep into the technology and business trends that are shaping the entertainment industry of the future. For several years Autodesk has been developing real-time 3D technologies for previsualization and virtual moviemaking while innovative filmmakers like James Cameron have been pushing the limits of technology to shape new ways of creating entertainment. How will these trends play out in the coming years? What barriers remain? And what does it all mean to the digital artist and the creative team? This session looks at where we are today and where we might be tomorrow.

Maurice Patel is the industry and product marketing manager for Autodesk’s Media & Entertainment business. He is a frequent public speaker on topics ranging from virtual moviemaking to digital intermediates and has authored, co-authored and edited whitepapers on topics ranging from HDTV production to stereoscopy and virtual cinematography. A graduate of Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, UK, Maurice has worked in digital postproduction since 1995 when he joined Avid Technology as a product specialist. He joined Autodesk in 2001 to work on its visual effects and infrastructure products.

Autodesk Media & Entertainment provides end-to-end solutions for high-value, high-impact digital entertainment creation and visual communication. Autodesk products are widely used in the film, television/broadcast, game development and design visualization segments. The company offers visual effects, editing/finishing, color grading and 3D animation technology including Maya, 3ds Max, Softimage. Mudbox, MotionBuilder, Flame, Flint, Smoke and Lustre. Autodesk Media & Entertainment is based in Montreal, Canada.

ImageMovers Digital is a digital animation studio providing cinematic stereoscopic entertainment to audiences around the world. A virtual production environment provided us with the opportunity to develop a stereoscopic workflow that both accelerated the stereo process and redefined the stereoscopic experience as a narrative device. Stereo 3D production is inherently resource-intensive and known experience sufficiently informs this conclusion: Expenditure balloons as the stereo work is put off until the later parts of the production pipeline. Although some costs are unavoidable, the greatest expense results from an approach that offloads discovery of problems that are revealed late in the production. To encourage discovery and revision comparison, we developed methodologies that both encouraged a comfortable audience experience and redefined the approach to stereo 3D production.

Anthony Shafer joined ImageMovers Digital shortly after it formed in 2007 to design and implement the real-time camera acquisition system, camera data-flow pipeline, and stereoscopic3D production workflow at IMD. He worked extensively on the stereoscopic design and implementation of the film "Disney’s A Christmas Carol", and is currently in production on IMD’s upcoming features. An alumnus of Industrial Light & Magic, Shafer most recently served as a sequence supervisor on such films as "Transformers", "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest" and the "Star Wars" prequels. As ILM’s Stereoscopic Lead for Tim Burton’s "Nightmare Before Christmas" 2D-to-3D conversion re-release, he designed and wrote a proprietary application that was critical to finishing the show. Topics from this experience are the basis of his chapter on Stereoscopic 2D-to-3D Conversion for the upcoming industry publication "The VES Handbook of Visual Effects".

In February 2007, The Walt Disney Studios joined forces with Academy Award-winning director Robert Zemeckis and his ImageMovers partners/producers Jack Rapke and Steve Starkey to form ImageMovers Digital. Academy Award-winning artist, production designer and author Doug Chiang joined to lead the new state of the art studio, devoted exclusively to the production of performance capture projects.

Prime Focus has completed a ground breaking 2D to stereo 3D conversion on "Clash of the Titans". In this presentation you will see examples of the work, get an overview of the process and learn how to best prepare for 2D to stereo 3D conversions for feature film, commercials and broadcast projects.

Martin Hobbs has worked on a host of VFX heavy movies such as "Kingdom of Heaven", "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", "Harry Potter", "Cats and Dogs", "Sunshine", "The Wolfman" and "Mission Impossible" to name just a few. He has a wealth of VFX facility experience having been a Director of The Moving Picture Company, and held VFX Producer roles at both Mill Film and Cinesite. Most recently he has been charged with setting up a view-D facility for Prime Focus in London.

Prime Focus is a global Visual Entertainment Services group that provides creative and technical services to the film, broadcast, commercials, gaming, internet and media industries. The group offers a genuine end-to-end solution, from pre-production to final delivery, including previsualisation, visual effects, video and audio post-production, digital intermediate, digital asset management and distribution. It has state-of-the-art facilities throughout the key markets of North America, the UK and India.

Zaha Hadid Architect’s work revolves around Total Fluidity at all Scales, the seamless integration of environment and space, the search for a design language blurring the borders between dynamic environments and static systems. The conceptual interaction between designer, abstract models and the anticipated relation to the observer and the physical environment plays a key role in the process of developing the projects, drives the office’s formal language and is subject to ongoing development and change, forming the focus of the Zaha Hadid Computational Design Research Group CDRG’s work.

Nils Fischer is Associate at London-based Zaha Hadid Architects.
The focus of his work is in designing cultural facilities such as Operas, Performing Arts Centres and Museums. Besides his project work he founded and leads the computational design research group (CDRG) at Zaha Hadid Architects, a project independent team with a background in computer sciences exploring and developing next-generation technologies for form finding and rationalization. Nils’ Design Team works on avant garde concepts for large scale performance facilities such as the winning designs for the Abu Dhabi Performing Arts Centre or the Dubai Opera House as well as on museums such as the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum currently under construction in Michigan / USA.

Zaha Hadid, founding partner of Zaha Hadid Architects, was awarded the Pritzker Prize for Architecture in 2004 and is internationally known for both her theoretical and academic work. Each of her dynamic and innovative projects builds on over thirty years of revolutionary experimentation and research in the interrelated fields of urbanism, architecture and design. Working with her office partner Patrik Schumacher, Hadid's interest is in the rigorous interface between architecture, landscape, and geology as the Practice integrates natural topography and human-made systems that lead to experimentation with cutting-edge technologies. The office currently employs 330 Architects with offices in London, Rome, Hamburg and Beijing.

Based on the long experience in creating complex high end visualization Mackevision developed a unique pipeline enabling its artistic team to produce hundreds of high resolution images for automotive print campaigns in short term, while being able to use the same data for other asset productions like film and online. An example will be shown, which can be regarded as the current industry’s benchmark.

A natural born artist and visionary, Armin Pohl has been exploring innovative ways to fully express his ideas for as long as he can remember. Since taking the reigns as CEO of Mackevision in 1999, Armin's vision has been to bring an unsurpassed and enviable level of quality in 3D work to the global market.

Founded in 1994, Mackevision is an internationally established service provider for 3D visualization, animation, visual effects and post-production, focused on the automotive, architectural, pharmaceutical sectors and consumer products. The company headquarters are located in Stuttgart with subsidiaries in Munich and Detroit.

Over the past decade, architectural renderings have evolved into the ultimate real-estate marketing tool and have created a whole new industry of digital animation studios.
The lines between rendered photorealism and true reality become almost negligable. Today's architectural animations are often produced with the same expenses and technical skills as TV commercials or short movies, including a similar emotional message. This presentation will reflect the evolution and most recent works of this growing industry.

Marc Gruber-Laux studied Japanese at Trier University and afterwards Architecture at the University of Applied Sciences Berlin. In 2005 he worked as Art Director for Alpha Vision Group in Montréal and in 2006 he founded Pure Rendering GmbH (Pure).

Pure is a highly creative team with long-standing experience in architecture, product design and advertising.
In recent years, pure worked on many well known projects with many leading architects, developers and agencies

Online, multi-user virtual cities based on the VirtuoCity technology, are gaining increasingly success in a variety of applications, starting with supporting citizens participation in reconstruction projects. Nowadays they are also used to evaluate 3d models during design projects, for research projects and as virtual meeting places. This innovative approach has been recognized several times on a European level.

Mark Veth (40) gained experience with mission critical systems at TriOpsys, were he became responsible for internet-related business development. In 2007 he joined Cebra as director sales and marketing. Cebra is a spinoff of the Technical University Eindhoven and specialized in interactive communication systems in general and in the application of virtual worlds specifically for which it developed the VirtuoCity platform.

Cebra specializses in the application of virtual multi-user 3D world via broadband Internet using their own developed and unique VirtuoCity platform.

Traditionally Cloth and Hair have been a difficult problem to solve. In "Planet 51" the simulation had to be fast and cartoonish to match production needs and the style of the characters. We will show the process of cloth and hair simulation from the first designs to the final shot, and how to deal with cloth simulation within deadlines and production budget.

Juan Carlos Olmos started his career in CG in 1992. He specialized in modeling, working at Rem Infografica and Animaciones Imposibles as Modeling supervisor. He is currently working at Ilion Animation Studios as Cloth & Hair Supervisor where he combines his artistic and technical skills. He was responsible for developing the Cloth & Hair pipeline for "Planet 51".

Ilion Animation Studios was founded in 2002 to create state-of-the-art computer animated movies for worldwide theatrical release using its own purpose-built cutting-edge technology. Ilion Animation Studios and companies Zed and Pyro Studios, were founded and are run by Ignacio Perez Dolset and Javier Perez Dolset.

In this presentation, we will discuss the technical infrastructures we feel are essential for an animation studio to be able to produce animation feature films efficiently. To support our argument several successful use cases from "Planet 51" will be presented.

Alberto Arenas has over 10 years of professional experience in the field of CG, the last 6 of which were spent actively taking part in the creation of Ilion Animation Studios and the production of its first feature film, "Planet 51" . He spent his first 3 years at Ilion as a Render Developer, which gave him experience of production development. The last 3 years as Software Tools Supervisor have provided him with a firm grasp of how software/production work together.

Ilion Animation Studios was founded in 2002 to create state-of-the-art computer animated movies for worldwide theatrical release using its own purpose-built cutting-edge technology. Ilion Animation Studios and companies Zed and Pyro Studios, were founded and are run by Ignacio Perez Dolset and Javier Perez Dolset.

Exceeding expectations within the highly competitive VFX industry with its shrinking budgets, shorter timescales and the ever increasing complexity of work, requires studios to take their pipelines to the next level. This talk will outline MPC’s custom pipeline, describe some of its key principles, and conclude with insights into future development. It will use examples from MPC’s latest shows such as “The Wolfman” for character work, “Prince of Persia” for large scale environments, and “Percy Jackson” for the distributed sharing of work between MPC’s facilities.

Hannes Ricklefs joined MPC in 2005 where he holds the position of Head of Pipeline for MPC’s Film division. He has worked in R&D on shows such as “X-Men 3”, various “Harry Potters”, and “Narnia: Prince Caspian”. In addition, he has lead the development of core R&D projects including MPC’s lighting pipeline and asset management software.

MPC leads the world in visual effects for the Feature Film, Advertising, Digital and Television industries.

"Avatar" follows the journey of Jake Sully, a paraplegic former marine, recruited to help a strip-mining operation on an extraterrestrial moon. Through his eyes we witness the world of Pandora, harsh and beautiful rainforest densely filled with exotic vegetation and wildlife, glowing at night with bioluminescence.

To deliver "Avatar" Weta Digital created over 1800 stereoscopic, visual effects shots. They created an extremely complex photo-realistic world and digital characters that would convey all the subtleties of the performance of the actors, while being believable. While photo-real CG environments and animated characters are not necessarily novel, the scale, detail and complexity of "Avatar" proves that CG is at a point where we can create engaging characters to support the story and maintain the suspension of disbelief through an entire movie. Visual Effects Supervisor Stephen Rosenbaum will talk about new techniques in body and facial capture and discuss how it has led to a new industry phrase called Performance Capture.

Shawn Dunn has over 18 years of CG experience. He has most recently worked for almost four years on James Cameron's Avatar. Shawn has been with Weta Digital since 2003 when he worked on "Return of the King" followed by "King Kong" as the Animation Technical Supervisor. Prior to Weta Digital he worked for Alias|Wavefront, responsible for the development and delivery of educational material for Maya users.

Stephen Rosenbaum began his career in computer graphics more than 20 years ago. He has worked as an artist and supervisor on over 30 movie and commercial projects including six that have Academy Awards. Rosenbaum has won two Academy Awards for his work on "Forrest Gump" and most recently "Avatar". He has worked on such notable movies as "Jurassic Park", "Terminator 2", "The Abyss", "X-men 2", "I Robot", "Contact", and "The Perfect Storm". On "Avatar", Rosenbaum spent two years working with James Cameron and animation director Richie Baneham on Performance Capture and shooting live action. The final year was spent in Wellington supporting Senior Visual Effects Supervisor Joe Letteri and animation supervisor Andy Jones to help deliver the final work for the movie. He is now working as a Visual Effects Supervisor at Digital Domain.

Weta Digital is a leading visual effects company based in Wellington, New Zealand and is a world-leader in all areas of visual effects production, including animation, motion capture, crowd generation, modelling, compositing, and film scanning and recording.
Weta was formed in 1993 by a group of young New Zealand filmmakers including Peter Jackson, Richard Taylor and Jamie Selkirk. It later split into two specialised halves - Weta Digital (visual effects) and Weta Workshop (physical effects). Most recently Weta Digital has completed work on James Cameron’s Avatar. This involved using a new camera system and shooting on a virtual stage. New technologies were developed for supporting software and a new production pipeline in order to reach a new level of creative and technological excellence, delivering the film in 3D. Weta Digital has been nominated for five visual effects Oscars® and won four. Our reputation for creativity and delivery keeps us in high demand with some of the world’s leading film studios.

According to the U-DECIDE Initiative, 93% of traditional 2D gamers want game developers to support stereoscopic 3D (S-3D) gaming. At CES 2010, nearly every leading display manufacturer committed to producing 3D capable HDTVs, monitors, and notebook computers. Game developers are now pressured to capture this market, and artists need to separate 3D branding from quality control. What do S-3D gamers really look for in their titles? What qualifies as being "3D Ready"? How are games rated and reviewed effectively?

Answering these questions is Neil Schneider, Executive Director of The S-3D Gaming Alliance (s3dga.com). Non-profit and non-proprietary, some of S3DGA's top members include Blitz Games Studios, DDD, iZ3D, LG Electronics, Real D, and more.

Neil is also the President & CEO of Meant to be Seen (mtbs3D.com). Founded as an advocacy group for S-3D gaming in 2007, MTBS is the leading S-3D gaming community with millions of hits per month, and is considered the foremost authority group on what S-3D gamers want. Neil Schneider has been featured in Gameinformer, Joystiq, Gamesinudustry.biz, Wired, and more. In addition to giving an industry overview, Neil will discuss the process they go through to test and review games in stereoscopic 3D.

Ryan Tudhope, a Digital Effects Supervisor at Robert Zemeckis' ImageMovers Digital, will explain the creative and technical process artists at the studio embarked upon to bring the character of Ebenezer Scrooge to life for Disney's "A Christmas Carol". The presentation will dive into production design, actor surveys, modeling, rigging, and techniques utilized to achieve the look and lighting of the character. Q&A session follows.

Ryan Tudhope is a lifelong admirer of digital visual effects and storytelling, two passions that have earned him key creative credits on major independent and studio produced content for over a decade. He is currently Digital Effects Supervisor at ImageMovers Digital, a Walt Disney Company specializing in performance capture for feature entertainment. His recent credits include "A Christmas Carol", "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man´s Chest", "Superman Returns" and "Sin City".

In February 2007, The Walt Disney Studios joined forces with Academy Award-winning director Robert Zemeckis and his ImageMovers partners/producers Jack Rapke and Steve Starkey to form ImageMovers Digital. Academy Award-winning artist, production designer and author Doug Chiang joined to lead the new state of the art studio, devoted exclusively to the production of performance capture projects.

With ‘Avatar’ the movie breaking all box office records and 3DTVs starting to appear, it’s clear that people have an appetite for new digital 3D. This talk discusses why Blitz created the 3DTV game ‘Invincible Tiger: The Legend of Han Tao’ and the challenges it presented. It also explains how things have changed and why now is a great time to add 3DTV support to your console game, looking at what works well in 3D and what doesn’t.

Andrew Oliver is co-founder and co-owner of Blitz Games Studios and took on the role of CTO when he and his twin brother Philip started the company in 1990, after 10 years of writing many popular games for the UK games market. He is now responsible for all aspects of the company's cutting edge technology and game development direction as well as ensuring that the company's reputation for high quality standards and prompt delivery is maintained.

Blitz Games Studios is one of the most stable and respected development studios in the world. Currently boasting 5 distinct divisions, the company has come a long way from its roots as a well-known developer of 'family games'. Today, the different Blitz divisions are working on mature titles, serious games, downloadable games and games technology. In addition to our diversified portfolio of interests, we are also heavily involved in working with education and government for the long-term benefit of the UK games development industry.

Using a broad range of materials & techniques, MastersFX has been a leader in combining practical effects with visual effects for over two decades. To create all sorts of integrated magic, founder and President, Todd Masters outlines how his company found new ways to mix the mediums over the years. He will illustrate state of the art modern monster-making, by screening some of MFX’s current work from "Twilight: New Moon", "Fringe", "True Blood", as well as have practical pieces on display.

As the president and founder of Mastersfx, Todd Masters oversees talented and diverse teams of character and digital effects professionals, and has contributed to thousands of projects, including movies "Look Who's Talking", "Slither", "The Horse Whisperer", "Predator", and "Star Trek: First Contact"; television programs "Fringe", "Tales from the Crypt", and "Six Feet Under"; and well-known commercial icons the Michelin Man and Jack, for Jack in the Box. In addition to his work with Mastersfx, Masters has received awards for his directing, is a successful toy designer, and is a founding Board Member of the Visual Effects Society.

In 1987, after years spent honing his skills in optical effects, graphics and monster-building, Masters founded Mastersfx, a full-service prosthetics, animatronics, and character effects company. More than two decades later, Mastersfx is an internationally award-winning leader in motion picture & television effects, with studios in Los Angeles and Vancouver, Canada, whose work has been seen in hundreds of feature films, television programs and commercials, including "Twilight: New Moon", "True Blood", and "Turistas". With an in-house digital department integrating practical prosthetics and visual effects, Mastersfx constantly strives to evolve effects and their contribution to entertainment.

Let's dive in the 3rd dimension in this talk presenting a comprehensive technical and aesthetic overview of stereoscopy in computer graphics for technical artists and developers. After a complete introduction to stereoscopy technology and the considerations and various challenges to address, we will then explore deeper the new artistic space of effects and creativity offered by 3D stereo. Hopefully, the take away of this session should be a solid understanding of stereoscopy techniques and aesthetic concepts to achieve outstanding 3D stereo experiences.

Sam is a member of the Content & Technology Engineer group at NVIDIA, who spends his energy and creativity pushing pixels and teaching high-end, real-time computer graphics to Games, DCC, and CAD developers. Before that, he was enjoying the sun of Toulouse in France working in the virtual reality industry on extravagant visual simulations, navigation systems, showrooms and museum applications.

NVIDIA is the world leader in visual computing technologies and the inventor of the GPU.

How likely is it that one day we will have robot surrogates or robot avatars (robatars) representing us in the world? Sales of professional and personal service robots have risen sharply to an estimated 11.5 million by 2011. They harvest fruit, pump gasoline, assist doctors and surgeons, dispose of bombs, police us, entertain us, have sex with us and even kill us. Most of the service robots are not fully autonomous, they are tele-operated, sometimes from thousands of miles away. Some are beginning to be controlled by our nervous systems. They can have some autonomous function but the main decisions are often taken by the humans they represent. This talk will overview today's humanoids, actoids and service robots and then pose the question of how far down the line we are towards creating true robot substitutes

Noel Sharkey BA PhD FIET, FBCS CITP FRIN FRSA is a Professor of AI and Robotics and a Professor of Public Engagement at the University of Sheffield (Department of Computer Science) and a writer, broadcaster and journal editor. Noel has moved freely across academic disciplines, lecturing in engineering, philosophy, psychology, cognitive science, linguistics, artificial intelligence, computer science and robotics. He appears regularly on TV and is interviewed regularly on radio and in the press. As well as writing many academic articles, he also writes for the national newspapers and magazines and has been involved in thrilling robotics museum exhibitions and mechanical art installations. Noel has a passion for engaging the public in discussions about the ethical implications of new technologies.

Don Marinelli, Executive Producer, Carnegie Mellon University, Entertainment Technology Center, www.etc.cmu.edu

Donald Marinelli is a tenured Professor of Drama and Arts Management at Carnegie Mellon University and is also the Executive Producer of the Entertainment Technology Center. Professor Marinelli was integral in creating the first degree program in entertainment technology. Its emphasis is on bringing artists and technologists together to work on substantive, real-world projects combining the latest digital media technologies with myriad artistic, educational and entertainment efforts. The ETC has branch campuses in Silicon Valley, California and Osaka, Japan. It has dual degree arrangements with universities based in Australia, Korea, Mexico, Portugal, Singapore and Vietnam.

Dave Gibbons, Writer, Illustrator, davegibbonsfansite.com

Dave Gibbons has worked in comics since 1973. Cutting his teeth on undergrounds and fanzines, he became a frequent contributor to Britain’s 2000AD, illustrating "Harlem Heroes", "Dan Dare" and co-creating "Rogue Trooper". Since then, he has drawn and written for most comics publishers on both sides of the Atlantic. His work has encompassed "Dr Who", "Superman", "Batman", "Green Lantern", "Predator", "Aliens", the Hugo Award-winning "Watchmen" with writer Alan Moore, "Give Me Liberty" and "Martha Washington Goes To War" with Frank Miller. His semi-autobiographical "The Originals" won an Eisner Award in 2005. Recent work has involved consultancy on motion comics and game design.

Kevin Tod Haug, VFX Designer, FX Cartel, www.fxcartel.com

Visual Effects Designer Kevin Tod Haug specializes in assembling teams of freelancers and boutique vendors for films with a strong directorial vision. With 20 years of experience he is a champion of an independent, production-oriented VFX community. His film credits include "Quantum of Solace", "Kite Runner", "Stranger Than Fiction", "Stay", "Finding Neverland", "Panic Room", "The Cell", and "Fight Club." Kevin is also the author of Manifxto, a VFX-related blog.

Tali Krakowsky, Founder, Apologue, www.apologuestudio.com

Tali Krakowsky is the founder of Apologue, dedicated to the creation of immersive storytelling environments. Committed to a highly multidisciplinary and collaborative methodology, Tali has worked with clients such as the Museum of Modern Art, Frank Gehry, Airbus, IBM, the Grimaldi Forum, Victoria’s Secret and Van Cleef & Arpels. Throughout her career, Tali has led the conceptual and strategic development of projects that seamlessly integrate storytelling, new media and physical environments. She has published several articles on design, architecture and innovation through collaboration, and is a frequent speaker on the topic of design, emerging media and architecture. Tali is also a Founding Member of 5D: The Future of Immersive Design.

Already known for its stunning visuals, Crytek has added a new dimension to its cutting-edge graphics toolkit, CryENGINE3, with stereoscopic rendering. This enables new ways of creating virtual worlds that the player feels completely immersed in the action of the game. Attending this talk will give you some idea of how Crytek is working and playing with this new technology.

An award-winning Machinima maker and professional mathematician, Jens Schöbel, works as Technical Designer at Crytek. He received his M.Sc. in Mathematics in 2008 from the University of Heidelberg. He was responsible for the stereoscopic 3D visualization of fluid dynamics and streamline simulations at the Visualization and Numerical Geometry Group of the Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing.

Crytek GmbH is one of the world’s leading independent development studios for interactive entertainment. It is dedicated to creating high-quality video games for the PC and next-generation consoles, powered by their cutting-edge 3D-Game-Technology, CryENGINE®.

Thad Beier, Head of CG, Digital Domain, www.digitaldomain.com

Thad Beier joined Digital Domain in April 2009 as Head of CG, where he oversees production technology and long-term facility planning to ensure that artists across all feature productions can create the highest quality images efficiently and effectively. Beier is a twenty-five year veteran of the visual effects industry and served as a Visual Effects Supervisor on more than a dozen films. He recently supervised the creation of 1,150 + visual effects shots for "Fast and Furious", leading the work of twelve VFX studios around the world. In 1995 Beier co-founded Hammerhead Productions, where he spent fourteen years developing the company’s VFX production toolkit and supervising visual effects and he has been recognized with a Scientific & Technical Achievement Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (AMPAS). Beier holds a BA degree in Electrical Engineering/Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University and is a member of the AMPAS Science & Technology and Visual Effects Steering Committees.

Bruno Nicoletti, Chief Technical Officer, The Foundry , www.thefoundry.co.uk

Bruno Nicoletti gained a degree in computer science and mathematics from Sydney University in 1987. After graduation he wrote in-house software at XYZap productions, Australia's first computer animation company. Afterwards he freelanced as a developer for a range of visual effects and computer animation companies, including Animal Logic, Softimage (now part of Autodesk), Discreet Logic (now part of Autodesk) and The Computer Film Company (now Framestore). In 1996 he started The Foundry and is now the company's CTO and heads the HPC team there.

Christophe Héry, Look Development Supervisor, Image Movers Digital, www.imagemoversdigital.com

Christophe Hery joined ImageMovers Digital in January 2010 where he holds the position of Look Development Supervisor. Hery is responsible for overseeing the practices and technologies for texture painting, material designing, light rigging and rendering. An alumnus of Industrial Light & Magic, Hery previously served as a research and development lead, supporting the facility’s shaders and providing rendering guidance. He was first hired by ILM in 1993 as a senior technical director. In 2003, Hery was the recipient of a Technical Achievement Award for the development of practical methods for rendering skin and other translucent materials using subsurface scattering techniques.

Andy Lomas, Lead Engineer, The Foundry , www.thefoundry.co.uk

Andy Lomas is working as Lead Engineer, leading the development of look-development and lighting tools at The Foundry with responsibility for integrating core elements of the Katana technology acquired by The Foundry from Sony ImageWorks into their products. He was Head of Computer Graphics at Framestore before. Over the last 17 years he has been involved in a wide range of projects ranging from commercials and long form television to live action visual effects and CG feature animation. His credits include “The Matrix: Reloaded”, “The Matrix: Revolutions”, “Over the Hedge”, “Lost in Space”, “Fairy Tale: A True Story”, “The Odyssey”, “Alice in Wonderland”, “Arabian Nights”, “Jason and the Argonauts” and "The Tale of Despereaux". Most recently he has been working on Framestore's contribution to “Avatar”. He has won numerous awards, including Emmys for supervising the computer generated effects on “The Odyssey” and “Alice in Wonderland”. Andy is also an active digital artist, exploring the complex nature of forms that emerge from the digital simulation of growth systems.

David Taylor, Leader, Performing Arts Sector Americas, Arup, www.arup.com/performingarts

David Taylor is a theatre designer and planner who has led some of the most acclaimed arts building projects of the last decade, including the Kodak Theatre for the Oscars©, Disney¹s New Amsterdam and Hyperion Theatres, new halls for the orchestras in Philadelphia, Seattle, Kansas City and Miami Beach and new opera houses in Dallas and Kansas City. David now leads the Performing Arts Sector for Arup, the world’s leading sustainable design and engineering firm, where he sits on the Social Infrastructure Executive. He is currently designing new theatres for Baryshnikov and The Wooster Group, for Danspace Project and Toronto¹s Sony Centre and upgrades to the Sydney Opera House and the renowned Northrop Auditorium in Minneapolis.

Jason Bruges, Founder, Jason Bruges Studio , www.jasonbruges.com

Jason Bruges, founder of Jason Bruges Studio (2002) is a pioneer of the in-between space which mixes architecture and interactivity and has subsequently paved the way for a new genre of design studios, artists and designer makers who occupy the hybrid architecture, art and design space. The studio is renowned for its innovative installations, interventions and ground breaking works.

Maurice Patel, Industry Manager Media & Entertainment Solutions, Autodesk, www.autodesk.com

Maurice Patel is the industry and product marketing manager for Autodesk’s Media & Entertainment business. He is a frequent public speaker on topics ranging from virtual moviemaking to digital intermediates and has authored, co-authored and edited whitepapers on topics ranging from HDTV production to stereoscopy and virtual cinematography. A graduate of Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, UK, Maurice has worked in digital post production since 1995 when he joined Avid Technology as a product specialist. He joined Autodesk in 2001 to work on its visual effects and infrastructure products.

Nils Fischer, Associate, Zaha Hadid Architects, www.zaha-hadid.com

Nils Fischer is Associate at London-based Zaha Hadid Architects. The focus of his work is in designing cultural facilities such as Operas, Performing Arts Centres and Museums. Besides his project work he founded and leads the computational design research group (CDRG) at Zaha Hadid Architects, a project independent team with a background in computer sciences exploring and developing next-generation technologies for form finding and rationalization. Nils’ Design Team works on avant garde concepts for large scale performance facilities such as the winning designs for the Abu Dhabi Performing Arts Centre or the Dubai Opera House as well as on museums such as the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum currently under construction in Michigan / USA.

Ron Frankel, President, Proof, www.proof-inc.com

Ron Frankel, president and founder of Proof, has been a pioneer in the development and integration of previsualization into the feature film production process. He was the first to introduce directors such as Steven Spielberg, David Fincher and Darren Aronofsky to the use of previsualization as a combined technical and creative film-making tool.

Andrew Shoben, Founder, Greyworld , www.greyworld.org

Andrew Shoben is the founder of greyworld, a world renowned artists' collective who create art in public spaces. His work finds expression through the mediums of installation, sculpture and multiples. His primary objective is to create public art that involves the human in an urban context. Greyworld has created works in some hugely coveted locations across the world and they now have permanent installations in twelve countries. In 2004 he launched "The Source", a permanent installation for the London Stock Exchange that opens the markets every morning. It was unveiled by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and is watched by millions everyday on television around the world.

Andy Hendrickson, Chief Technology Officer, Walt Disney Animation Studios, www.disneyanimation.com

As Chief Technology Officer at Walt Disney Animation Studios, Andy Hendrickson is responsible for the strategy and direction of the technology used to create the variety of worlds in Disney's films. Equal measures of imagination, artistry, software and systems create the recipe that produces today's animated adventures. He began his career in motion pictures at Skywalker Sound in 1990, and has previously held senior posts at both PDI/Dreamworks and Industrial Light and Magic. He is a member of SMPTE and active in the area of technology for the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

Daljit Singh, Founder and Creative Director, Digit, www.digitlondon.com

Daljit Singh is the multi award winning creative director and founder of , one of the world’s longest established digital agencies. His creative philosophy has been based around the idea of simple human interaction, connecting people using technology. He also works with a set of interactive principles known as Feed that articulates the art and science of interaction. As founder and creative director Daljit has built relationships with the Design Museum, Institute of Contemporary Arts, BAFTA and the Royal College of Arts he frequently attends international symposiums and conferences discussing Digit’s approach and outlook on the future of the industry.

Frank Vitz, Senior Art Director, Electronic Arts, www.ea.com

T.H. Culhane, Solar Cities, www.facebook.com/l/716b2;solarcities.blogspot.com

T.H. Cullhane graduated from both Clown College and Harvard, studied theatre in Oxford and orangutans in the rainforests of Borneo. He spent a decade in Los Angeles ghetto schools teaching science through play using musical theatre, animation and multimedia. Admiring Disney’s original EPCOT, Culhane pursued his Masters/Ph.D. in Urban Planning at UCLA, doing research in Guatemalan and Egyptian slums. Culhane who now runs the NGO Solar CITIES with his German wife Sybille, is on a National Geographic Innovation grant to use new media and the principals of mammalian play to teach the poor how to create urban ecology technologies.

L’E.S.T. conducted in 2008/2009 a study on the photo-realistic and accurate 3D representation of an existing person. Deliberately restricted to the problematic of "Digital Double" in VFX, this research tackled to structure the methodological, legal and technical stakes associated to the 3D reproduction of actors appearance and performance. This process is illustrated by an experimental case study produced in collaboration with Mikros Image.

Cédric Guiard is specialized in Computer Graphics/Computer Vision collaboration technologies and applications. Expert in the 3D reconstruction and simulation of environments and characters, he develops innovative projects for production studios and industrials. He joined L'E.S.T in 2008 to lead the ADN project.

For ten years, L’E.S.T. has demonstrated its capacity to successfully achieve complex visual effects over more than 100 feature films. Centered on VFXs supervision, L’E.S.T. has always conducted a prospective approach. "L'Agence de Doublures Numériques" proceeds with this line and results in a concrete proposal for the film production.

Join the speakers from the Virtual Humans Forum for an informal Q&A session. In this session, the speakers will be able to talk more in depth about their topic, answer any questions you may have and maybe even show extra material that was not featured in the presentation.