Unity To Unveil Its Unity Weta Tools Division At SIGGRAPH 2023

Unity, the technology company whose real-time game engine powers countless video games, mobile games, and more and more frequently vfx and animation production, has announced that it will be debuting its new Unity Weta Tools division at SIGGRAPH 2023.

Unity first announced it was acquiring Weta Digital’s tools, pipeline, technology, and workforce back in 2021. This new division of Unity aims to deliver solutions for artists to collaborate and create 2d and cg content.

At SIGGRAPH, representatives will host a keynote session showcasing the latest additions and changes to what the company has to offer creators. The unit plans to demonstrate how creators can use its toolset to match creative briefs in any design language for animation and games. Among the tools that will be showcased at SIGGRAPH are Syncsketch, which facilitates smoother collaboration and provides real-time and async feedback for faster iteration, and Deep Compositing and Eddy, which enable creators to achieve greater depth and detail in production.

Unity Weta Tools reps will discuss how Ziva Real-Time and Wig were used in the development of the company’s new real-time digital human Samir. They will also host a discussion on the challenges involved in creating the characters of Netflix’s 2022 Oscar-nominated animated feature The Sea Beast, and how they were overcome using Ziva VFX.

Unity Weta Tools will also introduce attendees to its Deep Composting toolset and explain how users can combine cg renders, render more efficiently, reduce human error, and have more flexibility while planning scenes.

Allan Poore, senior VP of Unity Wētā Tools explained in a release:

Unity is investing significantly in research and development, supporting ongoing innovation, and driving the future of content creation. We are excited to showcase the work we are doing with high-end 3d artist tools, and we are looking to bring new innovations to help creators be successful, unleashing the creativity for 3d artists.”

Five-time Oscar-winning Wētā FX senior VFX supervisor Joe Letteri added:

Our focus has always been on helping filmmakers and part of that process is extending what is possible in visual effects. Deep compositing, Wig, and the integrated solver framework for Loki are all examples of how we took our experience with some of the largest and most complex projects and embedded the knowledge we acquired into the tools themselves.”