VIEW 2018 Announces Full Program: Keynotes By Hans Zimmer, Mireille Soria, Dennis Muren, Nora Twomey, And More

Diverse hardly begins to describe the group of industry speakers who will present at this year’s VIEW Conference, taking place October 22 through 26.

Now in its 19th year, VIEW takes a uniquely multidisciplinary approach to computer graphics and the creative arts, with an array of talks and workshops on 2d and 3d animation, vfx, vr and ar, gaming, digital cinema, music, and interactive techniques. The event, which I’ve had the pleasure of attending in the past, encourages a dialogue between these varied practices and their practitioners in a way that few other events manage to do. This year, over 35 guests — a high-powered assemblage of industry leaders, vfx supervisors, art directors, creative directors, storytellers, and musicians — will head to Turin, Italy to discuss their work.

VIEW 2018 recently published the full 2018 program on its website. The conference, which is moving to a larger venue this year – OGR (Officine Grandi Riparazioni) – is headlined by at least nine keynotes from some of the most prominent names in the digital arts community. The announced keynote speakers so far are:

• Hans Zimmer, composer and record producer known for integrating the electronic musical world with traditional orchestral arrangements, has composed scores for more than 150 films, won 120 awards (Oscar, BAFTA, Grammy, and more), and received 231 award nominations. He is currently working on Wonder Woman 1984, The Lion King, and X-Men: Dark Phoenix.
• Dennis Muren, creative director, Industrial Light & Magic and legendary senior visual effects supervisor, has received nine Academy Awards and 13 Oscar nominations for best visual effects, more than any other visual effects supervisor. He became a VES Fellow in 2010.
• Mireille Soria, president, Paramount Animation, formerly producer for DreamWorks’ Madagascar franchise, now leads Paramount’s animation division. In 2006, she was nominated for the Producer Guild of America’s outstanding producer award.
• Rob Bredow, senior vice president, executive creative director, and head of ILM, was a co-producer and overall visual effects supervisor for Solo: A Star Wars Story. He has received multiple VES award nominations and an Annie Award nomination.
• Dr. Donald Greenberg, the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Computer Graphics at Cornell University, continues to pioneer innovations in computer graphics and virtual reality with his students. He has received many honors including the highest honor in computer graphics, the Steven Anson Coons award.
• John Gaeta, senior vice president creative strategy at Magic Leap, which is developing mixed reality technology, is known for his work on the Matrix trilogy (Oscar and BAFTA award), and for co-founding Lucasfilm’s Immersive Entertainment divisionILMxLAB where he was executive creative director.
• Nora Twomey, director and co-founder of Cartoon Saloon, received Oscar, Annecy Cristal, and Annie Award nominations this year for the studio’s animated feature The Breadwinner. She previously won an audience award at Annecy for The Secret of Kells, which she co-directed.
• Jan Pinkava, creative director for Google Spotlight Stories, received an Oscar for directing the Pixar short animated film Geri’s Game, an Oscar nomination for writing the feature animation Ratatouille, and a 2018 Primetime Emmy nomination for Spotlight Stories’ interactive program Back to the Moon.
• Kim Davidson, founder and CEO of SideFX, received an Academy technical achievement award in 1998, and this year accepted, on behalf of SideFX, an Academy Award of Merit and Oscar statue for the creation and development of the Houdini visual effects and animation system.

Add to that impressive line-up dozens of other speakers who will speak on a wide range of topics. Here are just a few of the talks, workshops, and masterclasses that look to be worth checking out:

• Bill Watral, vfx supervisor of Incredibles 2 on “Visual Effects for Computer Animation: Walking the tightrope between realism and stylization”
• Mike Ford, vfx supervisor, Sony Imageworks on “Cartoon Reality: The Making of Hotel Transylvania 3″
• Character walks masterclass by Escape Studios head of animation Alex Williams
• Geoffrey Bauman, vfx supervisor, Marvel Studios on “The Visual Effects and Collaboration behind Black Panther”
• Vincent Morisset, founder and director of studio AATOAA, on “A Film that Feels Like a Video Game (or vice versa)”
• Cartoony cg animation masterclass by Aardman Animations director Simone Giampaolo
• Phil Rynda, director of kids and family, Netflix, on “Character Before Design.”
• Danielle Feinberg, director of photography – lighting, Pixar, on “Coco: Bringing Life to the Land of the Dead”
• Jan-Bart van Beek, studio art director, Guerilla Games on “Mind the Gap: Will games and movies ever converge?”
• Storyboarding masterclass by Laika’s Emanuela Cozzi
• Troy Saliba, animation director, Double Negative, on “A Graphic Look at Animation Posing and Staging”
• Karl Herbst, vfx supervisor, Sony Imageworks, on “Smallfoot: A Big Myth-Understanding Explained”
• Kane Lee, produce and head of story, Baobab on “The Next Generation of Animated Storytelling: Baobab Studio’s Journey in VR with Crow: The Legend”

For details on the full program and to register for the 2018 conference, visit VIEWConference.it.