Friday,
February 25, 12:15 p.m. GIOS 101
Ron Henderson
DreamWorks Animation SKG
Art-Directed Reality: Tools for Animation and Visual Effects
Cells
Abstract
DreamWorks Animation produces family entertainment that is enjoyed by
audiences worldwide. It is a major consumer of technology, and employs
a skilled workforce of scientists and engineers working to advance the
state of the art in computer graphics for film production. This talk
is in three parts: an overview of how a large animation studio works,
a short discussion of our infrastructure, staffing and approach to
tool development, and a case study in the challenges we face in
creating great tools for animated visual effects.
Bio:
Ron Henderson manages the FX Tools group at DreamWorks Animation where
he is responsible for developing physical simulation and procedural
modeling tools. These systems have been used for key visual effects in
recent films such as "How To Train Your Dragon" and "Megamind". Prior
to joining DreamWorks in 2002 he was a Senior Scientist at Caltech
with a joint appointment to the Applied Math and Aeronautics
departments where he worked on efficient techniques for the direct
numerical simulation of fluid turbulence. He received a Ph.D. from
Princeton University in 1994 in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.
Contact info: Ron.Henderson@dreamworks.com
