Sony Pictures Imageworks, the award-winning digital production studio and innovator, is showcasing a diverse range of CG work and digital effects at SIGGRAPH 2007. The company is showing work from Spider-Man 3 and Surf’s Up, two vastly different projects, each with a distinct look and opportunity for breaking boundaries into new realms of visual effects and CG animation, and preview its upcoming work on Beowulf.
In addition to these critically acclaimed films, Imageworks executives also are on hand to discuss the company’s current slate of announced projects, which include I Am Legend, Hancock, Sony Pictures Animation’s Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs, and three recently announced Imagemotion performance capture films -- Maximum Ride, Neanderthals, and the untitled feature from Jerome Chen, the Academy Award-nominated visual effects supervisor on The Polar Express and Beowulf.
Imageworks is participating in virtually every aspect of the conference, including the prestigious Electronic Theater program, Animation Theater, panels, courses, and special sessions.
On the Show Floor
Imageworks presents its popular life-drawing class ,“Master Life Drawing and the Art of the Dynamic Pose,” with Karl Gnass, author of Spirit of the Pose: Sketchbook 1 in the Imageworks Booth 1414.
Electronic Theater
This year, Imageworks has been honored with three pieces for screening in the jury-selected Electronic Theater: “Spider-Man 3: VFX Highlights” (visual effects supervisor Scott Stokdyk), “Surf’s Up: A Practical Guide to Making Waves” (visual effects supervisor Rob Bredow), and “Beowulf” (visual effects supervisor Jerome Chen).
Animation Theater
“The Birth of Sandman” sequence from Spider-Man 3 is a featured presentation in this year’s Animation Theater program.
Special Session
“Spider-Man 3 – Triple Play”
Wednesday, August 8
1:45pm – 3:30pm (Room 6DE)
Digital effects supervisors Peter Nofz and Ken Hahn and animation supervisor Spencer Cook participate in a special session panel that discusses how for the first time Imageworks produced fully articulated, performing CG characters entirely from dynamically generated particles and fluids for Spider-Man 3. These digital characters, which embodied key-framed performance animation, interacted with each other and with live-action characters in real and synthetic environments throughout the film.
Sketches
“The Oasis”
Wednesday, August 8
8:30am – 10:15am (Room 6DE)
“Levelsets in Production: Spider-Man 3”
Daniel P. Ferreira
Jonathan M. Cohen
Doug Bloom
Chris Allen
Sho Hasegawa
Cory McMahon
“Effects for the Birth of Sandman”
Christoph Ammann
Doug Bloom
Jonathan M. Cohen
John Courte
Lucio Flores
Sho Hasegawa
Terrance Tornberg
Laurence Treweek
Bob Winter
Chris Yang
“Rendering Tons of Sand”
Chris Allen
Doug Bloom
Jonathan M. Cohen
Laurence Treweek
“How to Build a Sixty-Foot Man of Moving Sand”
Jamie Pilgrim
Terrance Tornberg
“Let’s Get Physical”
Wednesday, August 8
3:45pm – 5:30pm (Room 3)
“Dynamic Execution of Tracing of Physical Simulations”
Jonathan M. Cohen
“Bend and Stretch”
Thursday, August 9
8:30am – 10:15am (Room 1AB)
“Musculo-Skeletal Shape Skinning”
Erick Miller
Joe Harkins
“Go With The Flow”
Thursday, August 9
3:45pm – 6:00pm (Room 6DE)
“Wave Displacement Effects for Surf’s Up”
Deborah Carlson
“Surf’s Up Beach Break”
Tom Kluyskens
“Making Waves for Surf’s Up”
Erick Miller
Rob Bredow
Daniel Kramer
Matt Hausman
Deborah Carlson
Peter Shinners
John Clark
Sony Pictures Imageworks Inc.; www.imageworks.com