SIGGRAPH Sets Production Sessions

SIGGRAPH has announced the complete lineup for this year’s Production Sessions program for its 42nd annual conference, set for Aug. 9-13 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

The conference will also present a special production event to celebrate Industrial Light & Magic’s 40th anniversary on Aug. 10.

The complete 2015 Production Session lineup includes:

• Building San Fransokyo: Creating The World Of Disney’s Big Hero 6 — Cinematography and technical supervisors from Walt Disney Animation Studios will be on the panel to explain the creation of the rich and vibrant metropolis of San Fransokyo. From art direction to final frames, the discussion will be around the new approaches to rendering to bring the detailed world in Big Hero 6 to life.
• Disney*Pixar’s Lava: Moving Mountains — Pixar Animation Studios will lead the panel discussion on Lava. A love letter to volcanoes and the beauty of tropical islands, Lava is a unique collaboration among Pixar’s artists. From designing the main character to integrating new lighting tools, the panelists will explain how Lava came to life and how each member was inspired to create this vision.
• Weta Digital Presents: Over 20 Years Of Creativity And Innovation — From the visual effects team behind The Hobbit trilogy, Weta Digital will examine the extraordinary undertaking of ground-breaking CG character development to battle sequences to fire and water effects. For more than 20 years, Weta Digital used creativity and innovation to achieve a new era of digital filmmaking.
• Double Negative Presents: The Visual Effects Of Interstellar — The epic science-fiction film Interstellar was a true collaboration of art and science. Double Negative will talk about all aspects of the visual effects work on the film, from the use of traditional, practical techniques to the role of how theoretical physics played in the design of the visual effects. Professor Emeritus Kip Thorne will be on-hand to explain how he and Double Negative developed a new renderer to work on the project where gravitationally warped space, a 4,000-foot wave and a virtual environment to represent higher spatial dimensions were created.
• Inside The Mind: The Making Of Disney*Pixar’s Inside Out — From concept art to the bright and vibrant animated world, this session will have Pixar Animation Studios describe the process of designing, building and bringing the world from inside a young girl’s mind to life. They will discuss the challenges of Inside Out, including turning emotions into characters and translating the mind into a set where adventure unfolds.
• From Post-It To Post Production, The Uncompromising Journey Of The Book Of Life — Award-winning director Jorge Gutierrez and the art, animation, CG and VFX leads behind the Golden Globe-nominated feature The Book of Life present a behind-the-scenes look at this visually inspiring film. From working with the Gutierrez’s unique artistic vision and translating it into 3D, the team at Reel FX Creative Studios will talk about the ideas behind the designs, innovative rigging and animation techniques, lighting and texture challenges, and maintaining the director’s vision.
• Image Engine Presents: Breathing Life Into CHAPPiE— The team behind director Neill Blomkamp’s sci-fi comedy, CHAPPiE, will discuss how a small production team brought CHAPPiE, a digitally created childlike robot, to life. Image Engine Design will present a behind-the-scenes look at the challenges, from concept design to final integration.
• DreamWorks Animation Presents: Home — Just Another Post-Apocalyptic-Alien-Invasion-Buddy-Road-Movie? — Director Tim Johnson and the creative team from the animated feature Home explains the complexity behind “simple” alien characters and the challenges behind a character who constantly changes hairstyles. The DreamWorks Animation SKG team will discuss their research, the technology and techniques behind this feature film.
• The Park Is Open: Journey To Jurassic World With Industrial Light & Magic — The Industrial Light & Magic team behind the worldwide blockbuster hit Jurassic World shares the on-set visualization tools used during production, as well as the new visual effects techniques developed for modeling and texturing, environment creation and advanced motion capture.
• Fix The Future: Industrial Light & Magic And Visual Effects Of Tomorrowland — The Industrial Light & Magic team behind the visual effects of Tomorrowland will talk about methodologies, the architecture behind the CG city. They will also open up about the production challenges and workflow solutions that were developed to deliver this first-ever, 4K release.
• The Peanuts Movie: From Comic Strip To Feature Film — Bringing the iconic characters of the beloved comic strip Peanuts to life was an exciting and unprecedented prospect for the team at Blue Sky Studios. The Blue Sky Studios team will share insight of their design and animation style, and how artistic and technical challenges brought the classic pen lines of Peanuts creator Charles Schulz to the big screen.
• The Making Of Marvel’s Ant-Man — The creative minds from Marvel Entertainment, Double Negative, Luma Pictures and Method Studios will be on hand for a behind-the-scenes session that explores the visual effects in the making of Ant-Man.
• The Making Of The Characters Of Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron — For the making of Avengers: Age of Ultron, the teams from Marvel Entertainment, Industrial Light & Magic and Lola VFX will discuss what went on behind-the-scenes, from animation to visual effects teams and the technologies and processes.