When you want to know, ‘How it was made?’

Sep 01

When you want to know, ‘How it was made?’

UPDATE: Russell Earl from ILM is now attending VIEW, to break down his studio’s huge vfx work in Captain America: Civil War (remember that airport sequence?). And the directors of Dreamworks Animation’s Trolls, Mike Mitchell and Walt Dohrn, will both be there too.

Last week I wrote about Turin, Italy. The city has had a big effect on me ever since attending VIEW Conference there last year. And so did the conference, itself. There aren’t many places you can find out the latest in visual effects, animation and computer graphics AND actually interact with some of the biggest names in those industries.

But at VIEW, you can.

That’s because VIEW is different from your normal visual effects and animation conference. The big guns from places like Disney, Pixar, Warner Bros., Lucasfilm and Sony Pictures will be there, but they don’t get whisked away after their presentations. They’re around to talk to, to learn from.

Last year, The Little Prince director Mark Osborne was one of the speakers. He talked about his film and how it was made with stop-motion and CG animation. But what he also talked about was how he has carved out a career in animation, what struggles he faced and what advice he would give to new people in the industry. It was one of the best industry talks I’ve ever seen.

How big are we talking?

Big.

People like Byron Howard, who co-directed Zootopia. Or Conrad Vernon who co-directed Sausage Party. There’s also ILM’s Roger Guyett, the visual effects supervisor for The Force Awakens, and, if you want to find out more about exactly how Marvel films are made, their VP Victoria Alonso who is also in charge of VFX at the studio, will be at VIEW too.

What happens when people like this present at VIEW is you get more information – more insight – than you might read in an article or watch on a DVD extra. If you’re like me, I’ll see a film and just want to find out as much as I can, immediately, about how it was made.

But sometimes I have to wait until events like VIEW to find out.

Which is actually OK, because VIEW’s line-up doesn’t stop with those films above. There are speakers presenting on Finding Dory, Storks, Kubo and the Two Strings, The Good Dinosaur, Deadpool, Alice Through The Looking Glass and The Jungle Book.

I’m concentrating on films here, but VIEW is so much more. Head there early and you can participate in several workshops (Byron Howard is doing one about Disney animated characters, for example). There’s also the VIEW Awards and a games developer ‘bootcamp’.

VIEW has for so many years been showcasing what has just happened and what is coming up in the industry, and right now that is definitely VR. So there are presentations by places like ILMxLAB from Rob Bredow, and from studios that have made Google Spotlight Stories. That’s a good way to find out what your career might be in the next few years.

And did I mention how awesome Turin is?

My advice is to start exploring the VIEW website – http://www.viewconference.it – it’s there that you can find out more on the speakers and presentations and about how to get there and how much it costs (it starts at 90 EUR for students).

I’ll be there – be great to say hi to anyone into vfx and animation.

No Responses to “When you want to know, ‘How it was made?’”

Hasta La Motion!