Conference Designing Spaces Shorts
ON SITE Meidinger-Saal Wednesday, May 06, 14:30

Reno - Exploring new realms in visual effects through sci-fi filmmaking

Video on demand

Lux Aeterna is known for its award-winning VFX work on productions including The Crown, Human and Our Universe. With RENO, the studio turned that expertise inward, producing an original sci-fi short film as a live testbed for virtual production and machine learning workflows.

This session breaks down the process behind RENO: how a traditionally post-driven VFX studio re-engineered its pipeline for a newly opened virtual production stage, how environments were designed for in-camera capture, and how tools such as Gaussian splat scanning, automated rotoscoping and marker removal streamlined production.

Across creative, technical and production perspectives, the team shares practical lessons from delivering a high-ambition project with a lean crew, demonstrating how craft and technology must evolve together.

 

Tav Flett

Tav Flett, Compositing Supervisor, Lux Aeterna

Tav Flett is VFX Supervisor at Lux Aeterna. Tav combines his work as a digital compositor/compositing supervisor with experience as an on-set VFX supervisor for studio, virtual production and location shoots, and has particular expertise working in Nuke pipelines. His experience encompasses feature film, television and advertising to corporate content and data visualisation, with credits including Solar System, The Crown, A Real Bug's Life and Star Wars: Visions.

 

Rob Hifle

Rob Hifle, Founder & Director, Lux Aeterna

Rob has more than 25 years of industry experience, and as Creative Director at Lux Aeterna, he runs large-scale teams working across cinema and television VFX. He has built up an impressive portfolio of work, particularly in drama recon, science and natural history, which have been recognised with BAFTA, Emmy, and Royal Television Society awards. Throughout his career, Rob has continually refined his ability to understand a project's technical requirements and combine them with highly creative solutions. This powerful combination has resulted in a body of groundbreaking visual work that combines CGI VFX with location direction. Rob’s recent credits include landmark Netflix series Our Universe and BBC Studios’ 8 Days: To the Moon and Back.

 

James Pollock

James Pollock, Creative Technologist, Lux Aeterna

James Pollock is Creative Technologist at Lux Aeterna. James's role involves investigating emerging technologies and their potential application within the studio's VFX workflows. Over the past few years, James has been actively researching and working with AI and machine learning models. This work has involved utilising such models for image creation and editing, training bespoke models, engaging with the thorny issues surrounding this tech, and working with clients to assist them in navigating this area.

Paul Silcox

Paul Silcox, VFX Director, Lux Aeterna

Paul has technical oversight of Lux Aeterna’s visual effects pipeline and provides creative direction to the VFX and CG supervisors. He is a skilled Houdini artist and VFX supervisor, pivotal in implementing the robust framework and VFX pipelines for diverse simulations and FX. Some of his credits include: Solar System, The Crown, Secrets of the Neanderthals, Our Universe, The Manhattan Alien Abduction and The Dinosaurs.