State and future of hair in feature film and visual effects

Abstract

Computer generated hair has historically been a challenging element in the feature film and visual effects industry. Technology and workflow challenges in authoring, animation, simulation, shading, lighting and rendering have motivated studios and software companies to invest in tools and techniques to address the evergrowing creative appetite for hair to deliver captivating stylized and/or realistic characters. To deliver on the creative demand, some feature production studios have specialized hair production across multiple workflows-visual development, rigging, simulation, and lighting to name a few. Has this divided approach to solving a visually holistic challenge affected the tools choices and the way we invest in our toolsets? This panel will bring together engineers and artists representing various areas of expertise to provide a summary of their day to day relationship with hair. They will describe some of the big challenges and their solutions, as well as any issues still outstanding. From there we will dive into some of the commonalities and outliers to better understand how we have arrived at our current state and ultimately what the future is for CG hair, from a technology, workflow, and organizational points of view.