Luca Fascione
Head of Rendering Research, Weta Digital
Title: Rendering Research at Weta Digital
The company culture at Weta Digital calls for artists to push scene complexity and image quality to their limits with each new production. It’s the job of the rendering research team to make sure the rendering resources and technology enable, support and often invite this passionate pursuit of perfection. Head of Rendering Research Luca Fascione will cover the inspiration, advancements and occasional missteps over the last decade that led to the creation of Weta’s new path-tracing production renderer Manuka. He’ll also give some insight into some of the open challenges that are currently being pursued as well as a few future ones.
BIO:
Luca Fascione is Head of Rendering Research at Weta Digital, where he leads the activity of research around rendering algorithms and material modeling. He joined Weta in 2004 and has also worked for Pixar Animation Studios. The rendering group's software, including PantaRay and Manuka, has been supporting the realization of large scale productions such as Avatar, The Adventures of Tintin, the Planet of the Apes films and the Hobbit trilogy.