brings together the world’s premier creators of digital visual effects, animation, and interactive experiences.
Scientists, engineers, artists, and producers share ideas, insights, and techniques that bring innovation to real-world production.
Unity Technologies
Eva received her B.Sc and M.Sc from Moscow State University in Physics with a focus on ionising radiation. Upon graduation she transitioned to Visual Effects, naturally gravitating towards simulation. She is self-taught in Nuke and Houdini and has juggled between technical and production roles most of her career. Her contributions to Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Edge of Tomorrow are among her most cherished accomplishments.
After her 12-year tenure in Canada, Eva worked in Chernobyl, focusing on researching radioactive decontamination methods and long term effects of radiation exposure on soft tissues.
Eva has now settled in Switzerland and has shifted her focus to bridging the gap between scientific research and industry needs, specifically in the fields of Computer Graphics and Machine Learning. She is currently finishing her third degree in Data Science at London School of Economics.
Sony Pictures Imageworks
Steven began his career sitting on a snowy chairlift in Lake Tahoe listening intently to another snowboarder explain what they did for work: visual effects for movies. A few weeks later, Steven met that same snowboarder at a small studio in San Francisco, watching an artist create swirling vortexes on a screen. At that moment, Steven knew that his career would fuse his love for creativity with collaboration across artistic, technical, and scientific disciplines.
Early in his career, Steven gained valuable experience working with a variety of applications, including Ligthwave, PRISMS, and Dynamation. He was an early adopter of Maya, and began teaching to students at the Academay of Art University in San Francisco. His first studio-side role in visual effects was with ESC Entertainment.
For nearly two decades, Steven has been at Sony Pictures Imageworks contributing to an incredibly diverse slate of films, ranging from the photorealistic to wildly stylized blockbusters. Today, he manages production technology, focusing on advancements in machine learning, simulation, rendering, and compositing.
Apple
Lee has been playing around in the world of computer graphics for over 25 years. Realizing, at Oxford University, that a career in visual effects would mean he wouldn’t have to wear a tie to work, Lee went to study for a MSc in Computer Animation at the National Center for Computer Animation at Bournemouth University.
Lee started work in London at The Moving Picture Company. Working on movies including Harry Potter : The Prisoner of Azkaban and Harry Potter : The Goblet of Fire. Lee then moved to California to work at Sony Pictures Imageworks where he contributed to more than a few different Spider-Man movies, starting out as a Shader Writer and ending up as a Pipeline Architect responsible for most things Look Development, Shading and Rendering. Lee is now a software engineer at Apple.
Lee’s motivations come from solving interesting technical problems, and helping artists achieve their creative visions. He is also actively involved in and contributes to multiple open source projects that support the visual effects and feature animation industry. Lee sits on the technical steering committee of both the Open Shading Language and MaterialX Academy Software Foundation projects, and is actively working to improve the open source computer graphics ecosystem.
Walt Disney Animation Studios
Maryann Simmons is a Senior Staff Software Engineer at Walt Disney Animation Studios. She received her B.A., M.S., and Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in Computer Science with a focus in Computer Graphics. After graduation, Maryann was a post-doctoral researcher in Computer Animation at UC Santa Cruz. She has been developing software tools for artists at WDAS since 2004 and is currently the Technical Lead for the studio’s suite of tools that the Look and TAnim/CFX artists use for Character asset and shot work. Maryann and her colleagues were recognized in 2021 with an Academy SciTech Award for the studio’s Hair Simulation System. Maryann’s film credits include all WDAS animated productions from Chicken Little through the latest release, Moana 2.
Maryann is active in the Computer Graphics research and production community, consistently serving as a reviewer and committee member for several conferences and organizations. Through a variety of outreach opportunities, Maryann is passionate about bringing exposure to opportunities in Animation, Computer Graphics, and Software Engineering to a wide audience of all ages. In all, Maryann has over 30 years of experience as a researcher and developer in the field of Computer Graphics.