Description
Key Learnings
Speakers_many
- Leona FrankLeona Frank is a marketing enthusiast and passionate storyteller who has worked with global brands to build engaging content strategies. She leads Autodesk’s Infrastructure Marketing team and focuses on communicating the brand’s vision and leadership within the infrastructure industry. Leona holds a MA in International and Intercultural Communication.
- NTNikola TodorovicNikola Todorovic is the Co-Founder of Wonder Dynamics, an Autodesk Company. Entrepreneur, visual effects supervisor, and award-winning filmmaker Nikola spent most of his career working at the intersection of film and technology. This ultimately led him to dream up Wonder Dynamics with fellow co-founder and actor/producer Tye Sheridan. Together, they created the company's proprietary AI software, Wonder Studio, a cloud-based 3D animation and VFX platform that combines artificial intelligence (AI) with established tools, helping artists more easily animate, light, and compose 3D characters within live-action scenes.
- DHDan HermanDan Herman has been active in computer-graphics research, development and production for over 25 years. At DigitalFish, Dan leads a widely respected team developing new techniques for digital media and immersive content, with customers including many of the best-known media companies, production studios, technology leaders and consumer brands worldwide. At Pixar Animation Studios, Dan managed and led development on projects involving feature animation tools, special effects, autonomous characters, games, and production tracking systems. At DreamWorks Animation, Dan was a core contributor to the design and architecture of the Academy Award-winning "Premo" 3D animation system. Prior to his time at Pixar, Dan sailed in the 1995 America's Cup as navigator for the yacht Young America, where he also headed development of the extensive instrumentation system used onboard Young America and its support boats. His previous work in computer graphics centered on CAD/CAM and scientific visualization. He holds a Master's in Computer Science from Cornell University and a Bachelor's in Cognitive Psychology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and Cornell.
- JDJacoby DuBoseJacoby DuBose, a native of Darlington, South Carolina, is a pioneering Creative Engineer with a diverse background in Computer Science, Physics, and the Arts. A 2023 NAACP Humanitarian Award Winner and the 2023-2024 Distinguished Faculty & Top Lecturer Award Winner at Howard University, DuBose began his academic journey at Mayo High School for Math, Science, and Technology, followed by Howard University. Inspired by former General Motors executive Edward T. Welburn, DuBose shifted to Electronic Studio, merging his technical expertise with his passion for music and film. A former US Olympic Development Athlete, he transitioned to academia, teaching at institutions such as Old Dominion University, Hampton University, and NASA. His innovative teaching methods led him to the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he transformed virtual learning. At Howard University, DuBose teaches 3D Modeling, Animation, and Virtual Film Production. His collaboration with Marvel, Xbox, and Microsoft on "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" highlights his ability to fuse technology and creativity. DuBose's journey exemplifies how Creative Engineers can redefine traditional career paths.
PRESENTER: Welcome to the AU Theater. Please welcome your host, Leona Frank.
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LEONA FRANK: I believe that humans and stories are inseparable, and that storytelling may be the most powerful human force on Earth. Recently, I ran into Nick Cannon, CTO at Walt Disney Animation Studios. Pixar's Inside Out 2 had just become the highest grossing animation film in history, so I said, Nick, surely everyone at Disney must be excited about this success.
And I was thinking, he might point to the advances in character animation and how the movie pushes the boundaries of physically-based rendering. Or maybe even how render optimization helped address production inefficiency to make this movie such a success. But Nick's response surprised me. He simply said, it's a strong story, with no mention of technology. Even for a CTO, story was the most important part.
Storytelling is the uniquely human aspect that each of us brings to our work. It will never be replaced by any technology. We use technology to help us release the stories from our imagination into the world. Take Shogun, for example. It made history at this year's Emmy Awards, winning a record-breaking 18 accolades in just its first season.
Between the dramatic battles and emotional sacrifices, audiences were captivated by a compelling story that was elevated with beautiful visuals. Productions like Inside Out 2 and Shogun are raising the bar. It's quality over quantity. It's visual effects that let the story take center stage, stories that audiences can connect with on a deeper level. After all, isn't that why we all fall in love with movies, shows, and games in the first place?
Today we'll share with you how Autodesk is meeting the moment. We are lowering the barriers to good storytelling. We are connecting all parts of your pipeline with Autodesk Flow. And we are making it easier to go from script to screen with productivity-enhancing AI capabilities.
We are building our tools with one goal in mind, making you more efficient so you can focus on your creativity. We want to empower you to tell your story your way with tools that are faster and more intuitive than ever before. So let's look at some of these tools.
Whether you're a motion graphic artist, an animator, a producer, or an editor, we've got new features that should make everyone's life easier. Modelers, you are the storytellers behind the scenes. You create immersive worlds that not only define each narrative, but also make them memorable.
To help you create those designs with even greater speed, we've rolled out significant performance updates in 3ds Max. The Boolean modifier is now 50% faster, and the array modifier is now 200% faster. So no matter if you're crafting the busy streets of a Cyberpunk city, or the desert landscape of your next big racing game, you can achieve more in less time.
And our efficiency updates aren't just for modelers. For all the motion graphics or visualization artists out there, we've added support for SVG files in 3ds Max. This means no more manual, time-consuming conversion of vector graphics. Now if you're importing designs like a logo or 2D illustrations, they'll be ready for use in your scene the second they're loaded, freeing you up on valuable time.
We also continue to invest in open standards like OpenUSD by integrating them across our tools, so you can collaborate and manage productions more easily. OpenUSD pipelines are not just for the big studios. Smaller studios like [INAUDIBLE] Animation successfully brought open use into their pipelines to benefit from the efficiency gains too.
With our latest update, you can now use USD cameras in the 3ds Max viewport, bulk select, and edit prims in the Explorer, and manage USD data with new controllers. These will all help you handle complex scenes faster and more easily.
Another aspect that makes 3ds Max so popular isn't necessarily the updates we make to it. For years, the vibrant developer community has leveraged the flexible plugin architecture in 3ds Max to expand its capabilities. And that's precisely why we've built it this way, so that you can create your own customizations and share them with the rest of the community.
A prime example of this is tyFlow's tyDiffusion. It brings Stable Diffusion right inside of 3ds Max. You can explore different moods, artistic styles, and even apply those results directly to 3D objects. Eloi Andaluz Fulla is a professional VFX artist and a force in the 3ds Max community. He's tested it out for himself. And as you can see, he thinks it's a real game changer. "I love this, and I can't wait to see what you're going to build next."
Now to all the animators out there, we know the driving force behind the story well told. For those of you using Maya, we are introducing powerful features to help elevate your craft and save time along the way. We know that animation is all in the details. A subtle change in a character's expression, like a slight eyebrow raise can convey a thousand words.
The redesigned Dope Sheet in Maya makes refining those moments faster and more intuitive. Precision Mode lets you pose characters in just a few clicks, while Channel Sets brings customizable color palettes, and Visual Indicators to help you organize animation changes more easily. And yes, it's dope. So whether you're finetuning details or retiming an entire scene, you can respond to creative direction more quickly.
Another timesaving improvement is Maya's Advanced Motion Trails. They now support moving cameras and include new draw styles to visualize things like velocity in your scene. And here's the exciting part. They are now up to 100 times faster, freeing you up to do the work that matters to create stunning animations.
And when I think of eye-catching artistry, Mikros Animation comes to mind. They're a global studio at the forefront of innovation, pushing the boundaries of traditional animation. You probably know them from projects like the most recent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movie or the Paw Patrol film series. Let's hear how they defy conventional animation styles and elevate their work with the help of Autodesk tools.
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GASPARD ROCHE: Mikros is a French animation studio originally with three locations, one in Montreal, one in Paris, and one in Bangalore. We're using Autodesk Maya across our character pipeline, especially in character modeling, in grooming, and rigging.
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It's a software that is simple to use and very customizable. It actually allows us to have that creativity in our films. And if you take the example of TMNT, we were easily able to create stepped animation, to create those lines, to create hand-drawn lines, and even lines that were projected in a GC space.
Maya and Arnold allowed us to really go beyond what we've done before to actually create diverse projects and unleash our creativity through all the different creative styles that we have in our studio.
PRESENTER: I still remember growing up watching TMNT. I had the toys and everything. And I'm so excited that even today, audiences still connect to this story. Crafting great stories is one thing, but delivering them to audiences on schedule is also crucial. With if teams spread across various time zones, efficient collaboration is key to meeting deadlines and ensuring projects stay on course.
That's where our production management tools come in. Flow Production Tracking is designed to help dispersed teams effectively track projects and optimize resources. We all know the struggle. Deadlines move, budgets shrink, and team availabilities fluctuate. Wouldn't you want to take control of these changes and respond as quickly as they happen?
With Flow-generated scheduling powered by Autodesk AI, you can automate the creation of different scheduling scenarios and explore how they impact your production. It's connected with Flow Production Tracking and lets you make critical decisions in minutes.
Where Flow Production Tracking connects production and creative teams in post, Flow Capture, bridges the gap between production and post-production. It helps teams review footage seconds after capture and get immediate feedback from stakeholders during production.
This year, we reimagined Flow Capture's user experience, putting your media assets right where you need them. It is now much simpler to find, access, and review media all from one central place. And we'll be taking things a step further by building integrations to streamline the editing process.
Editors will find a Flow Capture panel directly in Avid, making importing dailies faster. No more dealing with servers or hard drives slowing you down. With a simple drag and drop, you'll be able to bring footage into Avid and easily pull cuts and timelines back into Flow Capture. This is something many of you have been asking for so we are so excited to be bringing it to you soon.
Earlier this year, we acquired PIX, a leading collaboration and asset-sharing service, and we've already built the first integration with Flow Capture, bringing together the best of both tools. By combining PIX's Executive Review experience with the power of Flow Capture, executives and other collaborators can keep a close eye on their projects with greater ease.
Good stories often focus on the simple things, but bringing them to life has become rather complicated. By adding timesaving features to our tools, we hope to make storytelling more imaginative and more streamlined for you.
But connecting those tools along with the others you use can still be a challenge. That's why we are on a mission to bring all the fragmented parts of your pipeline together on one integrated platform for more seamless workflows and better collaboration between teams. And to share how we're doing this with Flow, I'd like to introduce Maurice Patel, Vice President of M&E Strategy and a formidable storyteller himself to the stage. Welcome, Maurice.
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MAURICE PATEL: Let me tell you a story about Flow. At Autodesk, we're on a mission to move the industry forward. Breaking down the barriers to creativity that stand in your way one by one. You see, storytelling is what makes us human, but in any great story, there is always adversity, obstacles to overcome.
And we know that as storytellers, you face obstacles every day. Obstacles that slow you down, like keeping track of versions and iterations. Or using tools with different file formats. Or collaborating across teams and across time zones, just to name a few. And that is why we are building Flow.
Our industry cloud for media and entertainment. It is designed to connect people, workflows, and data across the entire production life cycle from earliest concept to final delivery. Now, some people ask me, is Flow ShotGrid? The answer is, no. ShotGrid, or as we now call it, Flow Production Tracking, is just one capability of Flow. To be clear, Flow is not just Flow Production Tracking or even Flow Capture. It is much more than that.
So what is Flow exactly? Well, at its heart is a data model, one that we can represent all of your data, and in a consistent way, so that can be shared throughout the entire production process, from onset, to editorial, to post. Or between applications, whether they're Autodesk's or a third party's. And on top of that asset-- on top of that data model is an asset management system, one that keeps track of your data no matter where it is or who is using it.
This is Flow. And we are connecting applications to it like Houdini and Maya. The applications you use every day. This is because we want you to bridge together all the parts of your pipeline, no matter what tools you want to use. Making your productions more efficient, and giving you more freedom to be creative.
Now as productions get bigger and more complex, it becomes harder for one part of the production to know what the other part is doing. Connecting different teams and artists is becoming much more important. Which is why with Flow we want to give artists more context on what is going on around them.
Today when animating in Maya, you can only see the shot you are working on. Now, wouldn't it be great if you could actually see what was happening before and after the shot you were working on and had more context? Well, with Animating in Context, a new Flow capability coming to Maya, you will be able to.
It works by connecting data from Avid to Maya, using Flow, with Flow Production Tracking the go-between. In Maya, you will see a timeline with the shots occurring before and after the one you are working on so that you have more context and less second-guessing. With this context, you can better fine tune your animation and keep it in sync with the surrounding shots.
This will help avoid continuity errors in the scene, which we know it never happens, right? No one has continuity errors. But by helping artists better understand the editor's creative intent, we make it easier for them to deliver higher quality content. All right.
So Flow will help connect existing workflows. But as Diana said earlier, it's just as important that Flow lets you build new workflows and new capabilities. The industry's been doing this for years with Maya and other popular tools, as well as their own in-house tech. And with Flow APIs, we are making sure that you can continue to do so, but much faster and in more flexible ways. Let me give you an example.
The Flow Graph Engine API lets developers run Bifrost graphs in the cloud and build custom compute capabilities on top of Flow to fit your studio's precise needs. We did so ourselves by building Flow Retopology on top of these APIs. Flow Retopology works by simplifying complex geometry. So the assets you create can either run in real time in a game engine or be sent for faster processing on the render farm.
But this computationally intensive task slows down the artist's workstation. Which is why the new service offloads these heavy calculations to the cloud, allowing to run multiple jobs simultaneously and get more meshes faster. All while continuing to work in either Maya or 3ds Max.
And if you're a Maya artist dealing with large-scale simulation workflows, Flow Wedging allows you to generate variations of your effects by submitting multiple Wedging setups all at once to the cloud. In a matter of minutes, you can compare a range of effects, each with different parameter settings, and then choose the one that works best for you all without having to leave your creative tool.
So the next time you're tasked with crafting the flames of a fire-breathing dragon or conjuring a cosmic vortex of an enchanted galaxy, you have more artistic freedom to explore. But Flow isn't just API first. It's an open ecosystem that allows anyone to build their own custom workflows on the APIs.
If you attended the general session this morning, you've already seen an example in action. DigitalFish is an innovative technology company focused on digital media and immersive content. They're bringing pre-visualization of effects on set right into the hands of the director using Apple's iOS and visionOS on top of the Flow Graph Engine API. So let's hear from them directly. Please welcome to the stage Dan Herman, the CEO of DigitalFish.
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DAN HERMAN: DigitalFish is a 20-year-old consultancy building solutions for digital production, content supply chains, immersive experiences, and XR. We come from film and game studios, including Pixar, Disney, and LucasArts. And media and entertainment companies represent about half the work we do today developing artist tools, pipelines and end-user experiences.
Outside of media and entertainment with companies like Apple and Meta, in consumer products with LEGO, all the way to aerospace with NASA, we draw on that M&E background to invent systems for creating, sharing, and experiencing content. Across that diverse base, we see a common thread of teams wanting to work in an agile way where they are, but always with the power of the cloud behind them.
Workers today are connected wherever they go. Whether it's a production set, a construction site, or even a space mission. And new devices are bringing new capabilities to those workers. A laser scanner in their hands with GPS, spatial video, and an augmented reality lens. We wanted to see what we could do with the device in your hand and the power of the cloud.
Onsite is a service for streamlined VFX production that connects are capable mobile devices with Flow, enabling live action virtual production in the field with minimal infrastructure. It offers to all content creators the high-end VFX simulation and compute capabilities previously available only to the largest studios. Let me show you how it works.
Using our apps for Apple iOS and visionOS, creators capture the scene and assets and upload to Flow. There, we use Graph Engine to generate a clean digital twin of the set. VFX artists on set can iterate on layouts and effects built on Graph Engine, run simulations, and review results collaboratively. The cinematographer can compose the best camera angles while the entire crew interacts with the digital scene together.
Our system was born from the simple idea that Graph Engine makes available studio-scale computing to any connected device. To bring that idea to life. We needed three key capabilities. The ability to define effects simulation within a familiar programming environment and access a library of available effects. Graph Engine lets us use Bifrost Graphs and OpenUSD content directly without complex porting or translation.
Second, we needed a scalable cloud service providing job scheduling, execution, storage, and status reporting. And we wanted this capability behind a convenient API so we could quickly build our services around it. We divided development into different teams.
The applications team implemented on-device LiDAR scanning, placement of effects and assets, simulation review, and live recording. Data interchange with the service and processing on-device are built around OpenUSD and Reality Kit, providing a seamless experience across Apple phones, tablets, and Vision Pro.
The services team built a backend to connect client devices with Graph Engine. The client authenticates to the service and uploads USD scene data, and invokes our workflow engine to send computations to Graph Engine, which performs the heavy lifting of simulation and processing.
The tech art team build assets and implemented the Point Cloud meshing operations and Fluid and Aerosol effects using Maya, Bifrost, and OpenUSD. With this clean separation Graph Engine let us get up and running quickly. From the start, simulation artists could work in Bifrost as usual, knowing that their work would perform as expected in this service.
Within the first two months, we had the service processing LiDAR point clouds and effect simulations with USD output. And after only five months of development from start to finish, despite the inherent challenges of working with new technology and devices, we're ready for pilot customers to begin using onsite.
At DigitalFish, we believe a system like this will enable every creator to access the computing power of a studio and that this workflow has crossover applications outside of M&E from architectural design, to construction, to defense, and aerospace, and beyond. I'll be around after if you want to ask me questions about our experience or how you might get started. Thank you.
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MAURICE PATEL: What an amazing tool. Its new applications like this built on Flow that put creative control back in the hands of the creators. Innovators like DigitalFish really make Flow shine. There's so much to be excited about, whether it's connecting workflows or teams, or building new capabilities, Flow will enhance your pipeline, making production more efficient and more collaborative.
Our goal is to make your lives just a little bit, if not a lot easier, by empowering you as storytellers. Another technology that will do just that is AI. Who better to talk about this than Rachel Appleton? Now, Rachael Appleton has a superpower, her ability to identify opportunities that bridge today's ecosystem to the next generation.
Not least of which is our recent acquisition of Wonder Dynamics. Rachel is senior director of media and entertainment strategy at Autodesk. Let's welcome her to the stage.
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RACHEL APPLETON: Artificial intelligence will change the way stories are told. Just think about all the advancements this industry has seen before, like going from silent to sound, black and white to color, or film to digital. Think about the rise of VFX in the 90s. Who remembers the movie "Death Becomes Her?"
It was made right when computer graphics took hold of the industry. And it was on the heels of films like The Abyss and Terminator 2, but this was a dark comedy. IOM was hired to deliver some of the wildest shots. I mean, who could forget Meryl Streep's head doing a full 360 twisting around like that. The press went bananas for it, and it won IOM the Oscar for Best VFX.
At the time, this work required huge computers that are practically the size of a refrigerator. And now we have all this power in our phones. And I would bet there's even a neck-twisting filter in some social media app that can do it in real time. It's easy to see that AI is positioned to drive even more advancement.
And what's exciting is it has the power to democratize storytelling by allowing more people to be part of the conversation. And we believe this will lead us to a richer, more diverse and more inclusive, creative landscape. But just like with any medium or tool, great storytelling will always require talent.
You need to be great to capture the hearts and minds of an audience. Because after all, not everyone with a paintbrush is a Picasso. You know this because you were at the top of your field, and we know it's more important now than ever for us to meet you where you are by building simple and practical AI capabilities into the products that you use.
So as an example, animators today can leverage the newly-released ML Deformer in Maya, which accelerates the display and interactivity of your characters. No more grinding your machine to a halt. When working on a character, the neural network learns how it moves and inference uses that trained neural network to approximate deformations. This means no more delays from slow calculations, giving you more time for creative work.
That's not all we've been up to. Golaem recently joined Autodesk, bringing along its artist-friendly cloud simulation capabilities. This team has been researching AI and developing solutions for years. Today, Golaem helps artists populate crowds, and it's so neat because all of the characters look different. From battleground scenes to a My Little Pony stampede-- OK, I watch a lot of stuff with my kids.
Whether a scene involves a few characters or hundreds of thousands, you can quickly populate backgrounds and mid grounds and minutes, which saves a lot of time. And we all know that time is money. Nobody understands this better than the Wonder Dynamics co-founders Nikola Todorovic and Tye Sheridan.
For years they've been working on an AI tool to accelerate VFX and animation, and I'm so thrilled they decided to join Autodesk. When I first met them a few years ago, Nikola and Tye were actually working on something more cognitive and interactive, and it was actually the tech in that space that inspired and led them to develop Wonder Studio.
Now, these are tools that expand how stories are told today while also setting a foundation for the future. To learn more about these incredible tools, let's hear from Corridor Crew, the famous creative team behind Corridor Digital. Corridor Digital is a production studio that takes general audiences behind the scenes of VFX. So let's take a look at how Wonder Studio helps them speed up their pipeline while leaving power in the hands of the artist.
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PRESENTER: Corridor Digital is a really cool studio. We've been around for over 10 years at this point. And we primarily focus on making action, comedy, VFX-based short films, and it's a lot of fun.
PRESENTER: We're constantly looking for ways to save time. We don't have the same deadlines as feature films, right? We're putting out videos every week.
PRESENTER: When I heard about wonder studio, I was like, this is amazing. You can fully film a short film the way you would normally and then just pipe it into the software, and it spits out a virtual character. You don't have to do all of that manual work of the tracking, and the mocap, and the clean plates, and everything. It lets you export the camera data, and the lighting, and the motion capture.
PRESENTER: The ability of Wonder Studio to play nice with all of the other tools that we have in our pipeline is, to me, the most exciting thing about it, and the most useful thing about it. Wonder Studio allows an artist to be an artist.
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RACHEL APPLETON: Cool. The behind the scenes from the behind the scenes. So Wonder Studio is not a classic computational tool like the ones we all know. It starts with a simple drag and drop of a CG character onto an actor in a live action scene, but then you can bring it into your 3D software of choice and finesse it to your final shot. That's why the Wonder Dynamics team is so great.
They're not here to tell you that your entire pipeline needs to be replaced. Their AI and machine-learning engineers have worked directly with people like you to come up with a tool that will fit within your existing workflows. Wonder Studio really enables a paradigm shift. This foundation for the future pulls together many machine learning and AI models to make out what is happening in a scene.
Internally, the team calls it, scene understanding, which makes sense, right? So let me explain how it evolves as new models are added. One of these key new models is Motion Prediction. Andrew showed you how it helps predict character poses, even when the view of an actor is obstructed by an object.
All right. So imagine you're sitting on a couch with your back to the camera. Motion Prediction is trained to better understand natural and lifelike movements. So in this example, it can accurately predict the position of your legs and your arms, even when they're hidden by the couch. Motion Prediction produces more natural poses, reducing shaking, twitching, and noise. And these new models, they pave the way for new capabilities.
In fact, the team is about to release a beta showcasing new underlying technology that will show us how new models, like Motion Prediction, enable entirely new workflows in Wonder Studio. So stay tuned for more announcements after AU.
Wonder Studio is exciting for industry veterans, but it might even be more interesting for people who are just starting out, like students or junior artists. In fact, many Wonder Studio users today are interacting with VFX in 3D elements for the first time. Wonder Studio gives them a clean plate, an alpha channel, a camera track, a character rig, and animation, all ready for use in their content-creation tool of choice.
Lowering the barrier to entry for this next generation of creatives is something that we feel very strongly about. Now, I would like to introduce two amazing changemakers and thought leaders when it comes to the future. So first, I'd like to welcome Jacoby DeBose, a media and entertainment production professor from Howard University, and Nikola Todorovic, CEO of Wonder Dynamics, which is now an Autodesk company.
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[INAUDIBLE]
All right. Thanks, guys, for being here today.
PRESENTERS: Thanks for having us. I'm going to set a little context on who these guys are to start. So, Jacoby, you have a super diverse background ranging from computer science to physics and the arts, and you're also a US Olympic development athlete, or you were, which is amazing.
JACOBY DUBOSE: Yes.
RACHEL APPLETON: I just had to call that out as well. You've taught at top institutions, including NASA, and you're currently a professor at Howard University, where you developed the first virtual production curriculum at a four-years university. Which we think is very cool. And you also collaborated on Black Panther, Wakanda Forever.
JACOBY DUBOSE: Yes.
RACHEL APPLETON: And I actually met Jacoby like a month ago at Pier 9 in San Francisco because he's also an Autodesk technology resident where he's working on an AI content collaboration tool called [? DubAI. ?]
JACOBY DUBOSE: Yes.
RACHEL APPLETON: Welcome, Jacoby.
JACOBY DUBOSE: Thank you. Thank you for having me.
RACHEL APPLETON: Of course.
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And Nikola is obviously the CEO of Wonder Dynamics, which means he's an entrepreneur. But you're also a filmmaker.
NIKOLA TODOROVIC: That's right.
RACHEL APPLETON: And a VFX supervisor, which leads you to work at that intersection of technology and film, which led you to dream up Wonder Dynamics with your co-founder, Tye Sheridan.
NIKOLA TODOROVIC: Right. Well, I think it's in the crowd.
RACHEL APPLETON: Tye? All right. OK, guys. Well, thanks. So, Nikola, would you just start by telling us a little bit about how you and Tye dreamed up Wonder Dynamics and how you anticipate it will really empower the next generation of creatives?
NIKOLA TODOROVIC: Yeah. I think, for us, it really started. I always say kind of selfishly. Tye and I met on a film set about 2013 and started writing together. And then we really wanted to make films that were always much deeper than our pockets. We were writing usually sci-fi, and as you know sci-fi with a lot of visual effects is really expensive.
So every time we put something on a paper, we realized, OK, this is a $50 to $100 million movie. As a first time filmmakers, it's very hard, almost impossible to get that big of a budget. And then, as you mentioned, we started looking a bit deeper into some robotics technology, some self-driving cars, and some of the first thing we build was more of an interactive nature.
And then we started digging deeper, and deeper, and called it visual AI at first, because there was no term generative AI. This is about 2018. And honestly, I remember we had one of the first conversation where we were saying to each other, OK, what's the worst thing that could happen? We would learn about future of filmmaking before everybody else. So let's just go for it.
And what we thought it's going to take a year to four years, as it usually is with these kind of new technologies. And about six months into development, we realized, OK, this is much bigger than just us and making films. Let's turn it into a platform, really put it in the hands of people. And the mission has always been the same.
I come from indie space. I worked as a VFX artist, and then a supervisor in indie productions. And usually indie productions, you stay away from visual effects because of the cost as much as you can. But I was always very attracted to visually big films.
And so our mission has always been, how do we enable these indie filmmakers to really do what traditionally only big studios could do? And that was really what led us into building Wonder Dynamics and Wonder Studio.
JACOBY DUBOSE: Wow.
RACHEL APPLETON: Very interesting. Thank you, Nikola. And Jacoby, you're the professor at Howard University, and you created the curriculum for the program at Howard Entertainment.
JACOBY DUBOSE: Yes.
RACHEL APPLETON: Is that right? So can you tell us just a little bit about that program and the curriculum that you've created?
JACOBY DUBOSE: Yeah. So I conceptualized it. My back was kind of against the wall. My former dean, Dean, Phylicia Rashad, and Assistant Dean, Denise Saunders Thompson, called me on New Year's day, and they said, hey, we want to nominate you for something. We need you to fill in and create two classes for Howard Entertainment.
And at that time, Howard Entertainment had births on the set of Gray's Anatomy. Our president had visited the set of Gray's Anatomy, and he saw how many opportunities were on a television set, but he didn't see people of color in those roles. So I was like, man, what can I do that's innovative?
And at that time, I had already been doing some virtual production stuff myself, so then I started to develop the curriculum for virtual production to release for Howard Entertainment. And now it's three years in and we're growing it in new ways. And I think today we'll talk about more things that we'll do using AI with it and going for it.
RACHEL APPLETON: Well, I'm actually curious about that because given that you're trying to teach students to operate in these real world environments, which is an absolutely the right thing to do. And you've chosen to implement virtual production, which can be super costly.
JACOBY DUBOSE: Yes.
RACHEL APPLETON: What are your thoughts around the fact that this opinion that AI can democratize storytelling.
JACOBY DUBOSE: Well, now we're in a pathway of giving power back to the artist. And in order to give power back to the artists, you've got to create access for them too. And one of the things that we ran into early on with virtual production is the astronomical cost. We don't have $50,000 a day to pay to be on a set that has LED walls and so on.
So AI definitely starts to solve some of those problems. And as we get more advanced, we'll be using tools from Autodesk, and even using Wonder Studios, that gives us the ability to not have to use that in our pipeline. It's great to teach it because it's used in the industry currently right now.
But we also can give students the access and creators the access to actually make high-quality productions right now without having to have millions of dollars in equipment. And you don't have to have an LED volume wall to actually create the production of your dreams.
RACHEL APPLETON: So, Nikola, if this is all true, and eventually AI--
NIKOLA TODOROVIC: Everything Jacoby says is true, usually.
RACHEL APPLETON: --AI will allow anyone to make and distribute something that's visually stunning, right? So if the barrier of entry is lowered to that extent, in the future, where will the value lie?
NIKOLA TODOROVIC: Yeah, I think same as today's story. The quality of story and the characters. You really watch films and listen to stories because of the characters. I personally always-- we're taught the most important thing in screenwriting is character-driven stories. So we've seen this shift in distribution happen with YouTube and TikToks of the world. Where it used to be, you can't just distribute thing.
You needed that permission to distribute something from a studio or distribution house. Obviously, YouTube changed that a lot. And I think we have so much content online, but the good stories or good quality content gets recognized. So I think that's going to happen same just because we have bigger access, which is a really good thing.
I think the quality of the story is really what people will pursue. Similarly also what happened with music, with Spotify. It's much easier now to get your album distributed, but that doesn't mean that everything we see out there is good.
JACOBY DUBOSE: Right.
NIKOLA TODOROVIC: So I do think we'll find those talents quicker. But again, the quality of story is going to matter.
RACHEL APPLETON: Let's do a little thought experiment. So imagine that You're both 10 years from now, in the future, and you have the opportunity to come back to this room or to folks that are watching digitally, and gives give them some advice. Folks that are looking to break into the industry or folks that are looking to do more interesting stuff on a lower budget. If you could go back and give them some advice from the future, with Jacoby first, what would that be?
JACOBY DUBOSE: You know, I would start by telling them that, no matter what year you're in, no matter where you start, this world is your canvas. And the hardware that we're creating, the software that we're creating, the AI's that we're building, those are your paint brushes. And you just need to start to create. Use those paint brushes to your advantage and master those paint brushes.
What I see a lot of people run into is that intimidation factor right now. And you have to start to embrace what's current and the changes that are to come. And if you can start to embrace those and use it, you don't have to be afraid of AI. It can't replace talent. It can't replace if you don't allow it to. But it can definitely augment everything that you do. It can also make a lot of things a lot easier.
I'm pretty sure 30 years ago, or 40 years ago, no one would have imagined that we'd have laptops in our backpacks and we carry them everywhere. And then we have touchscreen tablets, and those types of things. So I definitely was really focused on showing them that the world is their canvas. And all of these paint brushes are in our hands right now, and you just got to use them.
RACHEL APPLETON: OK.
NIKOLA TODOROVIC: Yeah, I'll just add to that. I meet a lot of filmmakers that are just starting off. And usually what I see-- usually people, creatives in general, me being one of them, we tend to wait for perfect environment. I'm going to get that perfect working space. I'm going to finally get a job that I wanted in this studio. And you're going to hope to get that perfect opportunity.
I had a mentor that always said, don't be sitting on a bench and waiting for those opportunities. I think a lot of people make mistakes. And they're really creative in making something, but they're not as creative as approaching it from a business standpoint. So my advice would be, don't wait for someone to give you permission to tell your stories.
I think the exciting thing about these tools is that you can tell your stories now, even if it's a small pitch of two minutes, then you can take somewhere and really show your skill. So I would say-- I would say, practice and create as much as you can. That perfect opportunity or perfect setting for you to do it, is not going to come, on that side.
And then the other one I would add is I'm a big believer in mentors. I've really surrounded myself with a lot of mentors. I always say, if you look at life like a video game, and you're 30-something like, I'm 36, why wouldn't I find someone who's 65 who's been through these things, and I can really pick.
And I think people in their 20s, young kids in their 20s, don't realize how many people in our industry that are very successful who want to transfer that knowledge, and they want to get their legacy that way. So I would definitely find out what you're really good at and the things you're not great at, find out two or three mentors that can really help you in that role.
Because it is a very hard industry to break through. And so it's a hard industry to be successful in, so it is important to surround yourself with people that can help you.
RACHEL APPLETON: Yeah, I couldn't agree with that more. In fact, I had an opportunity to speak with somebody who's a director at Autodesk in diversity and inclusion. And she said something that struck me about your career. She said that your career is a composite of all of the things that people do for you over time, and I just think that couldn't be truer. So thank you.
NIKOLA TODOROVIC: Absolutely.
RACHEL APPLETON: All right, guys. Well, thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you for your insights.
PRESENTERS: Thank you for having us.
RACHEL APPLETON: Journey to the future. Yeah, thank you so much.
JACOBY DUBOSE: Thank you, [INAUDIBLE].
RACHEL APPLETON: Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
All right. Now, please join me in welcoming Leona back to the stage to close on this story.
[UPBEAT MUSIC]
LEONA FRANK: So you see, storytelling is at the heart of everything we do. It's what drives you to create, push boundaries, and connect with audiences. But bringing those ideas to life takes more than passion. It takes the right tools.
And that's why we are committed to empowering you by strengthening our tools so you can work more efficiently. By building Flow to eliminate the creative barriers that stand in your way. And by enhancing your workflows with AI so you can take control to do less of what slows you down and more of what you love.
The legendary James Earl Jones once said, "The goal wasn't to be a millionaire, or to be a Hollywood star. To be a part of good storytelling, the goal was about ¡that. And I think we can all relate. So with passion and innovation at our side, let's continue to create stories that leave a lasting impression on audiences worldwide. Thank you.
[APPLAUSE, CHEERING]
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