Audrey Ferrera, having worked as a digital artist and then VFX supervisor in film, held a conference on 3D animation and AI on March 11. The event took place at the Méliès school campus in Orly, where she shared her experience, answered students' questions, and greeted her former teachers.
Audrey began her film career after studying at the Méliès school, as a "Digital artist" at the BUF company, doing 3D animation in CGI. It was here that she worked on her first professional feature film: Big City, directed by Djamel Bensalah and released in 2007. She continues to specialize in CGI, in compositing and creating environments (CG environment), holding the position of "Digital artist" on Avatar (2009), Thor (2011), and Prometheus (2012).
See this role as that of a painter who, before applying their various layers, constructs the architecture of their image, drawing the lines, shapes, and perspective. An artist who possesses a wide range of similar tools, measuring rules, brushes, used to create that famous illusion of reality. The major difference being that everything takes place on digital software, in a 3D environment simulated by the computer.
It is a precise and detailed job that must then allow the director to choose and calibrate their shot within the 3D environment. Of course, this is not exhaustive regarding all possible scenarios, as it is a dense and very varied job that requires a diverse set of technical and creative skills.
In 2010, on the 3rd installment of the Arthur and the Minimoys saga ("Arthur: The War of the Two Worlds"), Audrey was assigned for the first time the role of CG VFX lead. CG for "Computer Graphics" and VFX for "Visual Effects", otherwise known as Lead Artist in 3D visual effects. Her role consists of supervising, as the name suggests, the team creating the sets, underlayers, layers, and then animating the movements and movements of objects, humans, or creatures in 3D. It would be difficult, even impossible, to describe in a few words the range of tasks that 3D artists can perform, and even more so when it comes to their supervisor.
Nevertheless, for those who are interested, know that this role requires a great deal of versatility. Since the supervisor's skills range from creating 3D models, composing sets, to liaising with the instances and heads of production, along with knowledge of the context and production stakes of the project. It is therefore not just a simple supervisory job, but a profession requiring an awareness of the political and social implications that lie behind a feature film project.
After showing us some examples of her work and that of her team on the film Mufasa, Audrey talked to us about artificial intelligence.
This trendy term that adds 10 SEO points to every news article, regardless of whether it is uninteresting, reflects the incompetence of its author or is used opportunistically solely to earn the writing bonus (if not the combination of all three).
Speaking of touch, it is that many of these articles could be written with AI and paradoxically put those same writers on the bench, and if that is not yet the case, it is because societal organization comes into play. And this is how Audrey decided to talk to us about artificial intelligence. She invites us to see this technology as a tool, since that is how it was conceived.
I know you are surprised to have witnessed such a rapid transition between political discourse on journalism and generative AI in the field of 3D. Yet, this is precisely what is at stake.
A political choice on one hand, with the example of Christopher Nolan's films. A director who "sells his films as Live." As if they were naturalistic, filmed in real conditions, almost denying their virtual nature and the involvement of CGI animation. AI refocuses attention on these digital technologies and helps to enhance the place of 3D animation in cinema.
A subject that is widely debated because digital visual effects have long been seen as techniques that allow for job cuts, reducing the workload, in pure opposition to traditional techniques. On the other hand, through her work at the Academy Awards, she notes that VFX are seen as the ugly ducklings there. Indeed, a field that generates few articles outside of specialized presses whenever a certain film wins the award for best visual effects.
It is that artificial intelligence is a distinctly political tool that has revolutionized the industry and the way of creating, as motion capture did in the 2000s, or technicolor much earlier in the film industry. It is not to be considered that a single person can, with one prompt (instruction given to the AI), generate an entire film. Since cinema is an art of the real and collective. Because even when it comes to animation orchestrated in software, the physics engine based on the natural laws of our universe, procedural generation, the choice of production parameters, and many other elements are proof of the infinite possibilities that these tools offer.
This is what Audrey explains, it is necessary to make a choice, to decide on the axes, the editing, the lighting, the composition. Certainly, choices made within a logic of a unique vision, which must correspond to that of a director, but resulting in any case from multiple individual choices. What we also think is that the element of the unexpected, of chance during the process is an essential component of the film's rendering, the multiple errors and attempts leading to the final result are constructive. And it seems to me that here AI is conducive to that. The person who decides the result, even if it is just the placement of a rock in the scene, will be the one who freezes the proposed result even if initially suggested by the AI.
During this exchange, Audrey talks to us about optimization in the techniques of environmental composition, between simple models, re-projection of matte painting as in the series Arcane (2019), or CGI as in the film The Jungle Book (2016), she shows us an example of a 3D shot that she generated in just 2 days, compared to several weeks before the emergence of these latest technical advancements.
Technical progress has always allowed for raising the expectations of viewers and increasing the possibilities for creators, so we also hope that the talented ugly ducklings who create the effects for all our favorite blockbusters will manage to adapt, to train models on their style, to perfect them, and to see and create even bigger, precise, detailed, while maintaining their artistic vision.
Thus, their presence at the Méliès school alongside their former teachers and these new students proves two things to us.
The first is that traditional techniques are essential for understanding technological advancement as technical progress. Nothing better than sculpture to integrate the scale of volumes in space and to be able to shape them in a virtual environment.
The second is that the transmission of extensive knowledge is what forges adaptability. Shaping the versatility of the mind and skills through an educational curriculum is the best way to learn to adapt to new technologies, to not suffer progress, but to take ownership of it.
Knowledge that she was able to develop during her studies at Méliès and which allowed her to adapt throughout her journey to carve out a place for herself in the film industry.
Ending the conference on this optimistic note regarding the resilience of professions in this sector in the face of AI. Audrey invites students to tame AI, accompanied by another speaker, reminding that a producer alone will never be able to create a film with the sole help of artificial intelligence. A vision we share, a film is the product of collective creation.
Audrey began her film career after studying at the Méliès school, as a "Digital artist" at the BUF company, doing 3D animation in CGI. It was here that she worked on her first professional feature film: Big City, directed by Djamel Bensalah and released in 2007. She continues to specialize in CGI, in compositing and creating environments (CG environment), holding the position of "Digital artist" on Avatar (2009), Thor (2011), and Prometheus (2012).
See this role as that of a painter who, before applying their various layers, constructs the architecture of their image, drawing the lines, shapes, and perspective. An artist who possesses a wide range of similar tools, measuring rules, brushes, used to create that famous illusion of reality. The major difference being that everything takes place on digital software, in a 3D environment simulated by the computer.
It is a precise and detailed job that must then allow the director to choose and calibrate their shot within the 3D environment. Of course, this is not exhaustive regarding all possible scenarios, as it is a dense and very varied job that requires a diverse set of technical and creative skills.
In 2010, on the 3rd installment of the Arthur and the Minimoys saga ("Arthur: The War of the Two Worlds"), Audrey was assigned for the first time the role of CG VFX lead. CG for "Computer Graphics" and VFX for "Visual Effects", otherwise known as Lead Artist in 3D visual effects. Her role consists of supervising, as the name suggests, the team creating the sets, underlayers, layers, and then animating the movements and movements of objects, humans, or creatures in 3D. It would be difficult, even impossible, to describe in a few words the range of tasks that 3D artists can perform, and even more so when it comes to their supervisor.
Nevertheless, for those who are interested, know that this role requires a great deal of versatility. Since the supervisor's skills range from creating 3D models, composing sets, to liaising with the instances and heads of production, along with knowledge of the context and production stakes of the project. It is therefore not just a simple supervisory job, but a profession requiring an awareness of the political and social implications that lie behind a feature film project.
After showing us some examples of her work and that of her team on the film Mufasa, Audrey talked to us about artificial intelligence.
This trendy term that adds 10 SEO points to every news article, regardless of whether it is uninteresting, reflects the incompetence of its author or is used opportunistically solely to earn the writing bonus (if not the combination of all three).
Speaking of touch, it is that many of these articles could be written with AI and paradoxically put those same writers on the bench, and if that is not yet the case, it is because societal organization comes into play. And this is how Audrey decided to talk to us about artificial intelligence. She invites us to see this technology as a tool, since that is how it was conceived.
I know you are surprised to have witnessed such a rapid transition between political discourse on journalism and generative AI in the field of 3D. Yet, this is precisely what is at stake.
A political choice on one hand, with the example of Christopher Nolan's films. A director who "sells his films as Live." As if they were naturalistic, filmed in real conditions, almost denying their virtual nature and the involvement of CGI animation. AI refocuses attention on these digital technologies and helps to enhance the place of 3D animation in cinema.
A subject that is widely debated because digital visual effects have long been seen as techniques that allow for job cuts, reducing the workload, in pure opposition to traditional techniques. On the other hand, through her work at the Academy Awards, she notes that VFX are seen as the ugly ducklings there. Indeed, a field that generates few articles outside of specialized presses whenever a certain film wins the award for best visual effects.
It is that artificial intelligence is a distinctly political tool that has revolutionized the industry and the way of creating, as motion capture did in the 2000s, or technicolor much earlier in the film industry. It is not to be considered that a single person can, with one prompt (instruction given to the AI), generate an entire film. Since cinema is an art of the real and collective. Because even when it comes to animation orchestrated in software, the physics engine based on the natural laws of our universe, procedural generation, the choice of production parameters, and many other elements are proof of the infinite possibilities that these tools offer.
This is what Audrey explains, it is necessary to make a choice, to decide on the axes, the editing, the lighting, the composition. Certainly, choices made within a logic of a unique vision, which must correspond to that of a director, but resulting in any case from multiple individual choices. What we also think is that the element of the unexpected, of chance during the process is an essential component of the film's rendering, the multiple errors and attempts leading to the final result are constructive. And it seems to me that here AI is conducive to that. The person who decides the result, even if it is just the placement of a rock in the scene, will be the one who freezes the proposed result even if initially suggested by the AI.
During this exchange, Audrey talks to us about optimization in the techniques of environmental composition, between simple models, re-projection of matte painting as in the series Arcane (2019), or CGI as in the film The Jungle Book (2016), she shows us an example of a 3D shot that she generated in just 2 days, compared to several weeks before the emergence of these latest technical advancements.
Technical progress has always allowed for raising the expectations of viewers and increasing the possibilities for creators, so we also hope that the talented ugly ducklings who create the effects for all our favorite blockbusters will manage to adapt, to train models on their style, to perfect them, and to see and create even bigger, precise, detailed, while maintaining their artistic vision.
Thus, their presence at the Méliès school alongside their former teachers and these new students proves two things to us.
The first is that traditional techniques are essential for understanding technological advancement as technical progress. Nothing better than sculpture to integrate the scale of volumes in space and to be able to shape them in a virtual environment.
The second is that the transmission of extensive knowledge is what forges adaptability. Shaping the versatility of the mind and skills through an educational curriculum is the best way to learn to adapt to new technologies, to not suffer progress, but to take ownership of it.
Knowledge that she was able to develop during her studies at Méliès and which allowed her to adapt throughout her journey to carve out a place for herself in the film industry.
Ending the conference on this optimistic note regarding the resilience of professions in this sector in the face of AI. Audrey invites students to tame AI, accompanied by another speaker, reminding that a producer alone will never be able to create a film with the sole help of artificial intelligence. A vision we share, a film is the product of collective creation.