In this talk, Sebastian Sylwan from Weta Digital shares some of the remarkable technology that goes into creating creatures for films like Avatar and King Kong — and shows us how art, science, and visual effects are combining to create new lenses for storytelling.

Sebastian Sylwan is the CTO of Weta Digital.

Before Weta, Sebastian served as Autodesk’s Senior Film Industry Manager, where he helped set the strategy for Autodesk’s products in the global film market, including the first steps into stereoscopic 3D.

Prior to that, Sylwan was Director of Technology at Digital Domain, an Academy Award-winning VFX facility. He successfully renewed Digital Domain’s technology infrastructure while maintaining the legacy value of over 13 years and helped it venture into new areas like the development of the facility’s first stereoscopic rendition of a CG animated film.

Sylwan has also served as Principal Technology Advisor at USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies where he led the Light Stage 6 project. In Italy, where he grew up, Sylwan designed, built, and acted as the CTO of Lumiq Studios, the country’s largest production, post-production and 3D character animation studio. Sylwan serves on numerous advisory boards and industry committees.

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