📅Date and time: May 28, 2026, 13:30-14:30
📍Location: Room 214, 2nd Floor, Building 7, Faculty of Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
The 3rd Animāre Mini Talk invites Mr. Nicolas Nghiem to give an invited talk titled "Crowds in VFX: an introduction to the discipline, its toolset and its benefits". Learn more about Animāre here.
Crowds is a niche discipline in CG filmmaking. Originally created to handle huge scale animations such as the epic battles in Lord of the Rings, it slowly also became a cost-efficient alternative to pure keyframe animation for smaller-scale shots in many studios, offering a compromise between animation quality and efficiency.
The discipline embodies the strength and challenges of CG filmmaking: it thrives on re-use, controlled iterations and proceduralism, while facing the challenge of providing artist-friendly, yet granular controls for overly-parameterized systems. In this presentation we will see an overview of the philosophy and strength of the discipline, as well as some approaches used when making tools for its practitioners.
Nicolas Nghiem graduated from École polytechnique with a Master's in Applied Mathematics and Visual Computing, focusing on computational analysis of Motion Capture data. He now works as a Crowd/FX 3D Artist, currently serving as the Crowd Area Tech Lead for Industrial Light & Magic's London Studio.
His main interest revolves around providing user-friendly tools and workflows for the artists in his department. He focuses on reducing friction between artists and a continuously evolving toolset that must cater to the increasing scale and expectations of movie VFX productions while allowing artistic control and expression.
Please find the squared "104" icon in the campus map that points to Building 7 of the Faculty of Science.
Upon arriving at the building, please proceed to Room 214 on the 2nd floor.