Wētā FX at SIGGRAPH 2023 - Los Angeles

Wētā FX attends SIGGRAPH 2023 in full force.

Come and say Hi at the recruitment booth and don't miss the talks and sessions at Digi Pro and the main SIGGRAPH conference - our full schedule below.

See you there!

Recruitment Booth

TUESDAY AUGUST 8TH 10:00 – 18:00 | West Hall, JF39

10:00 - 12:00

• Kristina Russo - Senior Head of Department - Assets
• Richard Frances Moore - Senior Head of Department - Motion
• Chris Dean - Effects Pipeline Engineer

11:30 -13:30

• Gerardo Aguilera - Head of Department - Effects
• Jo Davison - CG Supervisor
• Alex Klaricich - Lead Lighting TD

13:00 – 15:00

• Sam Cole - Compositing Supervisor
• Mathias Larserud - Head of Look Development
• Rahul Deshprabhu - Senior Effects TD

14:30 – 16:30

• Nicholas Ilingsworth - Effects Supervisor
• Marco Revelant - Pre Production Supervisor
• Stu Adcock - Head of Facial Motion Department

16:00 – 18:00

• Guy Williams - VFX Supervisor
• Paul Jenness - Models Supervisor

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 9TH 10:00 - 14:00 | West Hall, JF39

10:00 - 12:00

• Kristina Russo - Senior Head of Department - Assets
• Jed Wojtowicz - Senior Head of Department - Shots & Look Development
• Ryan Nolan-Hieb - Layout Technical Supervisor

11:30 -13:30

• Tim Forbes - Creature Supervisor
• Douglas McHale - Look Development Supervisor
• Tahl Niran - Lead Compositor

13:00 – 15:00

• Beck Veitch - Compositing Supervisor
• Stuart Adcock - Head of Facial Motion Department

Digi Pro | JW Marriott

SATURDAY AUGUST 5TH

9:55am – 10:40am

Technology And Innovation in Avatar: The Way of Water

• Joe Letteri – Senior VFX Supervisor

11:50AM - 12:10PM

How Much Cloud is Too Much Cloud?

• Andy Wright - Lead Software Engineer
• Graeme Demmocks - Senior Head of Technology

4:30PM - 4:55PM

Pahi: A Unified Water Pipeline and Toolset

• Alexey Stomakhin - Principal Researcher
• Steve Lesser - Head of Simulation Research
• Nicholas Illingworth - Effects Supervisor
• Douglas McHale - Look Development Supervisor
• Sean Flynn - Simulation Lead

SIGGRAPH | LA Convention Centre

SUNDAY AUGUST 6TH

9:44AM – 10:06AM - PETREE HALL C

Creation & Destruction of the Arête

• Beck Veitch – Compositing Supervisor

MONDAY AUGUST 7TH

11:15AM – 12:15PM - WEST HALL B

Wētā FX Presents Avatar: The Way of Water

• Joe Letteri - Senior VFX Supervisor
• Eric Saindon - Senior VFX Supervisor
• Marco Revelant - Pre-Production Supervisor
• Nicholas Illingworth - Effects Supervisor
• Richard Baneham - VFX Supervisor (Lightstorm Entertainment)
• SCHEDULE: SIGGRAPH

6:30PM - 7:40PM - WEST HALL B

SIGGRAPH Electonic Theatre

• Avatar: The Way of Water

TUESDAY AUGUST 8TH

11:00AM – 12:30PM - WEST HALL B

Retrospective Electronic Theatre - 30 Years of Wētā

3:00PM – 3:45PM - ROOM 404 A

AUTODESK VISION SERIES

No Sleep ‘Till Brooklyn: THAT Fight Sequence in Guardians Vol 3.

• Jo Davison - CG Supervisor

4:10PM – 4:30PM - ROOM: GEORGIA I

FOUNDRY KATANA SHOWCASE

Avatar Behind the Lens: A VFX Journey Through Pandora

• Sam Cole - Associate VFX Supervisor

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 9TH

9:00AM - 12:00PM - ROOM 515 B

USD in Production Course

• Paolo Selva - Principal Engineer

11:00AM – 11:45AM - ROOM 404 A

AUTODESK VISION SERIES

Capturing Emotion on Avatar: The Way of Water

• Stuart Adcock - Head of Facial Department
• Bex Leybourne - Lead Facial Motion Animator

11:15AM - 12:15PM - WEST HALL B

Road to Knowhere: The VFX Behind Guardians Vol. 3

• Guy Williams - VFX Supervisor
• Theo Bialek - VFX Supervisor (Sony Picture Imageworks)
• Alexis Wasjbrot - VFX Supervisor (Virtual - Framestore)
• Stephane Ceretti - VFX Supervisor (Joining for Q&A - Marvel)
• Stephane Nazé - VFX Supervisor (Virtual - Framestore)

2:00PM - 5:00PM - ROOM 404 AB

OpenVDB Course

• Nick Avramoussis - Senior Rendering Software Engineer

4:30PM - 5:15PM - HIVE THEATRE, ROOM 304 C

SIDE FX: HOUDINI CONNECT

The Way of Water: More Physics, Less tricks

• Nicholas Illingworth - Effects Supervisor

6:30PM - 7:40PM - WEST HALL B

SIGGRAPH Electonic Theatre*

Avatar: The Way of Water

THURSDAY AUGUST 10TH

10:45AM – 11:07PM - 411 THEATER

Simulation-aided Face Strain Extraction for ML Animation Systems

• Andrew Moffatt - Senior Technical Product Manager

10:45AM – 12:15PM - ROOM 408 AB

Avatar: The Way of Fluid Dynamics

10:45 - 11:07 - Fire & Explosions

• Alexey Stomakhin - Principal Researcher
• Rahul Deshrabhu - Senior Effects Technical Director

11:07 - 11:30 - Bodyopt: A Character Deformation Pipeline

• Christoph Sprenger - Principal Software Engineer
• Tobias Mack - Senior Software Engineer
• Alexey Stomakhin - Principal Researcher

11:30 - 11:52 - Cloth, Hair & Coupled Simulation

• Xiao Zhai - Senior Simulation Researcher
• Eston Shweickart - Lead Simulation Researcher
• Jefri Haryano - Senior Creature Technical Director
• Julian Butler - Senior Creature Technical Director

11:52 - 12:15 - Pandora in Motion: Plant Simulation

• Steve Lesser - Head of Simulation Research
• Christopher Dean - Effects Pipeline Engineer
• Eston Shweickart - Lead Simulation Researcher

2:00PM - 3:30PM - 515 B

An Introduction to Quantum Computing

• Andrew Glassner - Principal Researcher

2:00PM - 5:00PM - 408 B

Path Tracing in Production - The Path of Water

• Marc Droske - Head of Rendering Research
• Manuele Sabbadin - Researcher
• Jiří Vorba - Senior Rendering Researcher