2016 marks the 17th anniversary of the VIEW conference, which brings top professionals in the animation, visual effects, game development, and overall computer graphics industry to Torino, Italy. Speakers at previous conferences have included Oscar winning directors, sound designers, screenwriters, game designers, musicians, visual effects supervisors, and researchers.
This year, we’re proud to announced that Byron Howard, director of Disney’s blockbuster animated film Zootopia will keynote the conference as will producer Brad Lewis, who will present the animated film Storks for the first time in Italy. In addition, Conrad Vernon, director of the surprise hit Sausage Party, and legendary computer graphics professor Dr. Donald Greenberg of Cornell University will give keynote addresses. Dr. Greenberg will address virtual reality, the hottest topic this year, in his keynote address.
VIEW is enormously proud that many other top professionals will also be speaking during the five-day conference. Audrey Ferrara from MPC in London is presenting The Jungle Book. Audrey led the team that created the jungle, which was entirely and always CG. VFX supervisor Steve Emerson and screenwriter Marc Haimes are coming from Laika studios to present the extraordinary Kubo and the Two Strings, one of the most beautiful stop motion films ever created. Sharon Calahan from Pixar, a director of photography and recent inductee into the cinematography branch of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences will share the visual design for the painterly realism in The Good Dinosaur in a talk and a workshop. Also from Pixar, John Halstead will introduce Hank the remarkable seven-legged CG octopus from the popular Disney/Pixar film Finding Dory to Italian audiences.
Especially exciting this year is VIEW’s exploration of the hottest area of computer graphics right now: Virtual Reality.
Dr. Greenberg, whose research is supported by Oculus, Pixar, DreamWorks, Microsoft, Intel, , Valve and Autodesk, and with government funding, has titled his keynote address, “VIRTUAL REALITY – What’s necessary to make it real?” Maureen Fan, CEO and Co-Founder of the well-funded Baobab Studios looks at storytelling in VR through her studio’s short film, “Invasion,” which has been accepted at traditional animation festivals. Lucasfilm CTO Rob Bredow shares Industrial Light & Magic’s adventures in immersive cinema through that studio’s VR research center, ILMxLAB. Brian Pullen, VR designer at Google introduces Daydream, Google’s new high-end mobile VR platform. Luke Youngman, executive producer and Felix Massie, director at Nexus bring Google Spotlight Stories to VIEW. Tuna Bora, production designer for Oscar winning Patrick Osborne’s Spotlight Story “Pearl,” talks about designing in this new medium. And, Pratik Shah, a research scientist at MIT’s Media Lab showcases the use of VR in medicine.
Other speakers at VIEW 2016 include David Freiss, director of Open Season: Scared Silly; Ryan Tudhope, vfx supervisor for Deadpool; Troy Saliba, animation supervisor on Alice Through the Looking Glass; Josh Holmes, Creative Director for 343 Industries, Chris Perry, short film director and associate professor at Hampshire College; Adam Gazzaley and Matt Omernick from Akili; Daryl Anselmo, art director at Zynga; Adam Orth, creative director at Three One Zero; Siobhan Reddy, studio director at Media Molecule; Barry Meade, co-founder of Fireproof Studios; Adam Volker, creative director a Moonbot Studios; Daniel Fountain, puzzle designer at State of Play, and others yet to be announced.
One of the things that makes the VIEW conference unique is the participation throughout the week by the speakers, whether keynote speakers or those giving talks. The conference is organized so that the speakers can attend most of the talks as an audience member, and they do, which provides a depth of interaction among speakers and audience members that’s unique. Plus, many speakers give attendees the opportunity to learn from them in interactive workshops. Keynote speakers Byron Howard, Conrad Vernon, and Dr. Greenberg, for example, are among those offering workshops, a rare chance for students and professionals to learn from such highly successful and in-demand professionals.
Adding to the list of workshops are those from speakers Sharon Calahan on storytelling with light, David Feiss on storyboarding, and Troy Saliba on animation posing and composition. J. C. Cornwell will offer portfolio reviews and Alex Williams, head of animation at Escape Studios will leads a 3D Animation “Taster.”
In addition to the program of talks and workshops, this year for the first time, VIEW has stepped into the world of start-up incubation by offering game developers the opportunity to accelerate their investment potential. Five applicants will be selected by a team of experts and investors to participate in a virtual two-week program leading to the VIEW conference where they will attend a four-day bootcamp ending with a “pitch party” to investors.
Leading into VIEW is the annual digital movie festival VIEWFest, showcases an exciting program of animated films and talks including the Italian premiere of Laika Animation’s Kubo and the Two Strings presented by visual effects supervisor Steve Emerson. SIGGRAPH 2016 Computer Animation Festival, Jason RM Smith will present the Italian premiere of the SIGGRAPH 2016 Traveling Electronic Theater. Also screening at VIEWFEST is Pixar’s animated short film “Piper,” Oscar-winner Patrick Osborne’s new VR short animation, “Pearl,” and Baobab’s VR short animated film, “Invasion!”
VIEWFEST takes place October 21 to 23 in Torino’s Cinema Massimo, the famous landmark, the Museo Nazionale del Cinema’s (Cinema Museum) theater.
VIEW Conference takes place October 24 to 28 in the city’s Torinoincontra, conference center.
Torino is the capital city of the Piedmont region, which is famous for Barolo wine and white truffles and is known as the heart of the slow food movement. Situated on the western bank of the Po River and in the foothills of the Alps, Torino is filled with beautiful baroque, rococo, neo-classical, and art nouveau buildings and arcaded walkways. Old cafes and chocolatiers line Torino’s boulevards and grand piazzas. Some of Italy’s best universities, colleges, and academic institutions are located here, as are numerous art galleries, churches, palaces, parks, gardens, and the most important Egyptian museum outside Egypt. Founded in the first century B.C. as a Roman colony, Torino is now ranked third after Rome and Milan for economic strength. It was Italy’s first capital city.
For more information about the VIEW Conference and VIEWFEST, please visit the website: http://www.viewconference.it
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