AEAF 2020 Speaker Program

AEAF Awards Online - Webinars 13 - 15 August

13 August
Luke Gravett  Animal Logic
Daniel Flood   UTS Animal Logic Academy

 14-Aug             
Ben Wiggs Dneg              
Alexis Wajsbrot Framestore                  
AEAF Awards              
                
 15-Aug        
Julien Héry Rodeo FX
Malte Sarnes  Rising Sun Pictures                         
Nelson Sepulveda-Fauser Industrial Light & Magic

AEAF Speakers 14 August

Ben Wiggs

Animation Supervisor
DNEG

Waking the Machine: The Animation of Westworld Season 3

In his talk titled 'Waking the Machine: The Animation of Westworld III', DNEG Animation Supervisor Ben Wiggs talks us through the challenge of breathing life into synthetic machinery and straddling the line between mechanical motion vs natural human behaviour in the TV series 'Westworld' Season 3.

Animation Supervisor at DNEG Ben Wiggs shares his excitement about developing and animating robots on 'Westworld' Season 3. He loves the dystopian, pre-apocalyptic theme and look of the series, and its dark, brooding tension. “For me, projects like this are why I do what I do,” he says. “We wanted to bring that same tone to our robots’ animation work, the same dynamic range from subtle to dramatic to high action.” Their challenge was to breathe life into the synthetic machinery of three mechanical robots – George, Harriet and the Delos Mech. As these machines lacked any recognisable facial features, the team needed to straddle the line between mechanical motion and natural anthropomorphic behaviour to turn them into believable, memorable characters. He gives a detailed description of their animation techniques, character development and the contrasting roles they play in the story.

Ben Wiggs

A perennial fixture at DNEG with seventeen years' industry experience, Ben Wiggs has established himself as one of DNEG's most creatively driven and versatile Animation Supervisors.

With Supervisor credits ranging from the blockbuster fare of 'Avengers: End Game', 'Avengers: Infinity War', 'Venom' and 'Wonder Woman', to more independent projects such as Gore Verbinski's 'A Cure For Wellness', Ben has steered animation on a wide range of films with a distinctive appetite for visual story-telling.

Starting out in the fast-paced world of TV Commercials in the early-2000's London freelance circuit (culminating in a VES award win at MPC Commercials), Ben made the jump to Film VFX, joining DNEG to animate on movies such as 'John Carter', 'Les Misérables' and 'Hercules: The Thracian Wars', and later as a Lead Animator on 'Ant-Man' and 'Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children'.

With his considerable experience driving projects across multiple international sites, Ben was recently chosen to bolster the DNEGTV team, overseeing a multi-national team across two continents for HBO's ‘West World III’.

Image Courtesy of DNEG © 2020 Home Box Office, Inc.

Alexis Wajsbrot
VFX Supervisor
Framestore

Spider-Man: Far From Home

Alexis will present Framestore's work on the ‘Illusion Battle,’ a mesmirising sequence in which Peter Parker’s worst fears come to life as psychedelic environments, freakish characters and an unnerving narrative. Framestore was also encouraged to come up with original and inventive ideas of their own for the work. Pre-production began with pre-vis as a jumping-off point, and went on to brainstorm more ideas, create storyboards and  concept art, finally delivering rapid prototypes.

The team at Framestore created the Illusion Battle for ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’. Unfolding inside a fantastical nightmarish world, Marvel handed them a huge amount of artistic freedom, which VFX Supervisor Alexis Wajsbrot describes as a lot of fun but also a lot of responsibility, especially with the extra pressure of production deadlines. He shows us the endless iterations the team went through to create the looks, and how they built on both their successes and occasional failures along the way. You will also have a chance to see extensive concept art they created, previs and reference material that led to the blockbuster movie result.

Peter is thrown into a series of conjured VR illusions aimed to panic him. Spider-Man is trapped in a snow globe featuring the New York skyline, held by a giant version of his enemy Mysterio. The sequence design was critical - eerie green smoke created in Houdini seeps into each environment, stylised to create a feeling of unease.  The scene was built with a forced perspective to unbalance the viewer. A Zombie version of Iron Man was also a design challenge, which the team concepted from scratch.

While tackling the shots in the studio, Framestore devised creative technical solutions for the production team shooting on set, as well. While most shots were full-CG, allowing the team to create whatever was needed in the frame, some plates were required especially when talent was involved. This meant that what was shot on-set was, in fact, the plate material the artists needed at Framestore, ‘It was a great example of how the VFX department can help to drive the shoot,’ said Alexis.

Alexis specialised in FX early on in his career, and joined Framestore in 2009 as a Lead FX TD on Mike Newell’s 'Prince of Persia', creating the infamous CG destruction of the ‘Sand Room’. He was a member of the core creative team on Alfonso Cuarón’s Academy-award winning 'Gravity', leading the FX team’s development and implementation of proprietary software. He has subsequently held the roles of CG Supervisor on Shane Black’s 'Iron Man III' and Doug Liman’s 'Edge of Tomorrow', overseeing the creation of Framestore’s biggest ever water simulations.

His love of cinema led him to co-direct the acclaimed horror film 'Don’t Hang Up', which premiered at the LA Film Festival. He is now bringing his skills as VFX Supervisor to the action-packed third act of Patty Jenkins’ upcoming 'Wonder Woman 1984'.