Digital Domain Creates the Character Connection in ‘The Electric State’
Digital Domain contributed 61 robot builds and 859 shots to The Electric State, based on Simon Stålenhag’s graphic novel, developing the main characters and essential environments.
Industry veterans Sarah Essam and Jonny Vale join as Business Development Producer and Head of Marketing and Communications, building the studios’ reach and market presence.
Autodesk’s Media & Entertainment 2026 updates incorporate Golaem crowd tools, integrate AI and improve Flow-connected workflows for modelling, animation, FX and OpenUSD.
Nuke 16.0 has new features for compositing and review workflows that speed up review and reduce the time spent on repetitive tasks to make pipelines more efficient.
The new SynthEyes 2025 release adds AI masking for fast object isolation, customisable multiple-exports, a head mesh asset and a dedicated exporter for virtual production workflows.
Wētā FX has appointed VFX executive, Daniel Seah, as new CEO, after serving as CEO, Chairman and Executive Director of major VFX companies including Digital Domain for the past 12 years.
V-Ray 7 includes native support for ray-traced Gaussian Splats, and improves shading and texturing with OpenPBR compliance in Maya and Houdini’s new Volumetric Shader.
Zibra AI’s collaboration with SideFX Labs brings real-time volumetric compression to Houdini, optimising storage and bandwidth and enabling high quality VFX workflows.
Foundry has developed more USD-native workflows for Katana's look development and lighting environment, a new 2D Painting Mode in Mari and the Nuke 16.0 open beta with multishot workflows
The Winter Release of the Maxon One software suite includes new features in Cinema 4D, Redshift, ZBrush and ZBrush for iPad, and Red Giant for VFX and motion artists, animators and studios.
Digital Domain appointed Gabrielle Gourrier as Executive Vice President of VFX Business. In this role, Gabby will focus on expanding client partnerships and establishing strategic initiatives.
AEAF Sets Sights on a Perfect Day of Speakers and Awards
As AEAF approaches on 16 August, NOW is the time to BOOK TICKETS. The Speaker Line-up is in place for a perfect day, and the judges are hard at work on hundreds of beautiful entries. You will be surprised by the breadth and quality of work on show at the Awards, ranging from polished motion graphics to photoreal looks and FX in movies, and now new virtual worlds.
The 360/VR category launched last year has grown to such an extent that we have divided it into two separate categories – 360 VR and VR Experience. See the article in this Newsletter below to find out the details and learn about the entries.
Top Speakers – Don’t Miss Them
The full day of speakers coming to the event is terrific. AEAF is an opportunity to hear and see what is happening in your industry from some of the best artists in the world. Animation Director Rob Coleman from Animal Logic in Sydney, ILM’s Jeff Capogreco from Singapore, Anders Langlands of Weta Digital, Lindsay Adams at Iloura in Melbourne and motion artists from The Sequence Group in Vancouver and Melbourne are some highlights. PLUS MPC, Buck and Rotor Studios are all on the program. Don’t hesitate to BOOK TICKETS NOW or to INQUIRE about attending.
AEAF Awards
As always, the flow of Commercials projects has continued to the very end this year and reveals some highly original work, including creative use of environments, characters and motion design. This includes that specialised commercials category Games Trailers that attracts such huge talent.
The Awards have received a larger number of TV Series than ever. Studio restrictions prevent several of these projects from going online, but you will be able to see breakdowns of the work involved at the screening on Awards Night. The size of the category also prompted a separate category for Children’s TV, announced earlier, reflecting the different focus for production and post.
Most exciting of all is the Feature Film category, now grown to more than 20 entries from around the world. Looking at the breakdowns on 16 August will be a learning experience as well as inspiration for VFX and animation artists everywhere. www.aeaf.tv
AEAF Welcomes ILM’s VFX Supervisor Jeff Capogreco as Speaker
Visual Effects Supervisor Jeff Capogreco is coming to speak at AEAF 2017 from ILM Singapore, where he has been working since 2014 when he joined the company as an Associate VFX Supervisor on ‘Jurassic World’. Most recently, he supported the ILM team in 2016 on ‘The Great Wall’ also as Associate Visual Effects Supervisor and then became VFX Supervisor on ‘Kong: Skull Island’. He is now working on post for ‘Transformers: The Last Knight’, releasing in June 2017.
He has a post graduate diploma in Computer Animation from Sheridan College and a 10-plus year career producing imagery for top feature films. Prior to ILM he worked at WETA Digital as a VFX Sequence Supervisor on such films as the three Hobbit films, ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’, ‘The Adventures of Tintin’ and ‘Avatar’. www.ilm.com
The VES held the 14th Annual VES Awards, recognising visual effects artistry and innovation in film, animation, television, commercials, video games and special venues.
Paul Butterworth is one of Australia's most experienced Visual Effects Supervisors, now working at Animal Logic. He will be speaking at AEAF in Sydney in August.