V-Ray Days SIGGRAPH—Summoning Thanos for a VFX Breakdown

A behind-the-scenes look at the making of Thanos (see image below) from the Avengers: Infinity War film will be just one of the big highlights at this year’s V-Ray Days at SIGGRAPH 2018 in Vancouver.

V-Ray Days at SIGGRAPH

Chaos Group has announced its lineup for V-Ray Days at SIGGRAPH 2018. There will be in-depth production talks on Black Panther, Deadpool 2, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Avengers: Infinity War. Additionally, Vlado Koylazov, CTO, and co-founder of Chaos Group, will be presenting the latest findings in V-Ray research and development.

The free two-day event will be held in the East Building of the Vancouver Convention Centre in Meeting Room 8; presentations begin Tuesday, August 14 at 10:00 a.m. While the V-Ray Days sessions are open to the public, seating is limited. Due to the exclusive content being shown, recording is not permitted.

Details on the VFX Breakdowns

Fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) will find a lot to love at V-Ray Days, including with a full breakdown of Digital Domain’s work on Thanos, Red Skull and The Hulk. Fernando Brandao, lighting & look-dev lead for the project, will walk attendees through his V-Ray process, explaining how the renderer interacted with other proprietary tools used to bring these digital characters to life. Method Studios will also showcase their work on Avengers: Infinity War and Deadpool 2, as well as the full slate of digi-doubles, vehicle designs and crowd shots created for the Black Panther climax. The famous waterfall fight sequence from Black Panther will then be dissected by Scanline VFX, a world leader in water simulation.

01 Theranos, the CGI character from the film “Avengers: Infinity War.”

The large-scale environments of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom will be explored by VFX pioneers, Industrial Light & Magic in a special talk designed to show how V-Ray helps bring out the details in incredibly complex designs. Dedicated presentations on game cinematics, digital humans, the new Lost in Space, and immersive theater can also be seen.

V-Ray Days Presentation Schedule

Tuesday 14 August

• “Ian Spriggs: The New Portrait,” by Ian Spriggs, 3D character artist – 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
• “Method Studios: Blockbuster Showcase” by Chris Ryan, CG supervisor; Jim McVay, lighting supervisor & Christian Emond, CG artist/lighter – 1:15 – 3:00 p.m.
• “FuseFX: Lost in Space – Flying Jellyfish & Alien Landscapes,” by Jon Cowley, senior VFX supervisor/head of production; Richard Greenwood, head of 2D & Mariusz Korczak, CG supervisor – 3:00 – 4:00 p.m.
• “Aaron Sims Creative: Character Design & VFX for the Big Screen & Immersive Theater,” by Michael Pecchia, executive producer & Justin Denton, director – 4:00 – 5:00 p.m.

Wednesday 15 August

• “RealtimeUK: Cinematic Worlds – A Holistic Overview of Creating Game Trailers,” by Stuart Bayley, art director – 10:00 – 11:00 a.m.

• “Digital Domain: How V-Ray Conquered Avengers: Infinity War,” by Fernando Brandao, lighting & look-dev lead  – 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
• “Chaos Group: Vlado in Renderland – 2018 Edition,” by Vlado Koylazov, co-founder and head of software development – 2:00 – 3:00 p.m.
• “ILM: Large Natural Environments Using V-Ray,” by Daniel Schmid, generalist supervisor – 3:00 – 4:00 p.m.
• “Scanline VFX: The VFX Powering Wakanda’s Warrior Falls,” by Ioan Boieriu, CG supervisor – 4:00 – 5:00 p.m.
• “Render Legion: Corona Renderer – Past, Present & Future,” by Ondra Karlík, CTO & main developer of Corona Renderer – 5:00 – 6:00 p.m.

Additional SIGGRAPH Presentations

In addition to V-Ray Days, Chaos Group staff and developers are set to present several talks to the SIGGRAPH community, highlighting new developments in V-Ray and Corona.

• “Realistic Rendering in Architecture and Product Visualization,” a panel featuring Jaroslav Křivánek, Ondra Karlík and Vlado Koylazov – August 14, 9:00 a.m. – 12:15 p.m., Ballroom A of the East Building.

• “Chaos Group: V-Ray Educators’ Breakfast,” featuring Albena Ivanova, education specialist & Lyudmil Vanev, CG specialist – August 14, 10:00 – 11:00 a.m., Meeting Room 8 of the East Building.

• “NVIDIA Presents: Exploring Realtime Raytracing with NVIDIA GPUs,” a panel featuring Vlado Koylazov – August 14, 2:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m., Room 220 of the West Building.
• “Bayesian Online Regression for Adaptive Direct Illumination Sampling,” featuring Petr Vevoda and Jaroslav Křivánek – August 15, 3:45 p.m. – 5:35 p.m., Ballroom C of the West Building.
• “Adaptive Environment Sampling for CPU and GPU,” featuring Asen Atanasov and Jaroslav Křivánek – August 16, 10:45 a.m. – 11:05 a.m., Ballroom A of the East Building.

About Chaos Group

Chaos Group is a worldwide leader in computer graphics technology, helping artists and designers create photorealistic imagery and animation for architecture, design, and visual effects. Chaos Group’s award-winning physically-based rendering and simulation software is used daily by top design studios, architectural firms, advertising agencies, and visual effects companies around the globe. Today, the company’s research and development in cloud rendering, material scanning, and virtual reality is shaping the future of creative storytelling and digital design. Founded in 1997, Chaos Group is privately owned with offices in Sofia, Los Angeles, Seoul, and Tokyo. For more information, visit: chaosgroup.com.