13th April 2021

Machine Learning in VFX Voice

Framestore Senior Creative Technologist Johannes Saam and VFX Supervisor Theo Jones spoke to VFX Voice about the future of machine learning, its potential to facilitate pipeline efficiency and support art direction.

Our team partnered with software developers Weightshift for a research project designed to shorten the animation process and minimize time-consuming tasks, the benefit of which can be seen in the photoreal creatures of Lady and the Tramp and His Dark Materials.

Jones notes: “One of the things that brought me into the industry and has kept me here for so long and satisfied is the talent of the people I work with. We’re a long way off of machines replacing that talent. There are certainly more low-level tasks, the grunt work of getting through the shots and work that machine learning is having quite an impact on.”

Machine learning can also help with AI casting, as Saam explains: “What that means is we can take pictures of different famous or nonfamous people, feed them into a system, and mix and match them in a way that is smarter than putting them in Photoshop and blending them together.”