Speaking Engagements

Whether the topic is digital compositing, visual effects, or digital intermediate, Steve always delivers a lively and informative presentation and is a frequent speaker at trade shows, seminars, and universities. His unique ability to explain technical issues to a lay audience makes the complex seem simple and the obtuse mundane. Here are the highlights and venues of Steve's many speaking engagements.

Digital Circus is a large school of communication arts in Raleigh, North Carolina, specializing in animation, filmmaking and digital media. Steve was invited to deliver a series of talks to the staff and student body over a two-day period on the current state of compositing visual effects. The topics covered included the techniques of rendering multi-pass cgi layers that are then blended in compositing as well as the new trend towards 3D compositing. Students were also given advice on building demo reels, creating shot breakdowns, and tips on how to find jobs once they graduate from school.

The Digital Cinema Society invited Steve to speak to the assembled group on the subject of shooting bluescreens and greenscreens as seen from the compositing point of view. Steve first delivered a Power Point presentation citing proper technique of lighting the backing and the talent, then listed tips on the actual photography. Next came a series of film scans demonstrating the problems introduced when not properly shot and what the compositor must do to cope. Many in the audience were cinematographers and videographers that were very glad to get the information and a chance to do Q&A with Steve. Watch the streaming video event on the DCS website. Scroll down the page until you see the event and click on the QuickTime link below.

Steve delivers a bluescreen compositing presentation to the enraptured throng at the Orange County Fair 2008 Animation Celebration. Forty-one schools participated in the event and Steve delivered three presentations in one evening on “Movie Magic – Bluescreen Compositing”. Several bluescreen shots were demonstrated along with explanations of the process, what can go wrong, and fascinating movie production “war stories”. 

Steve was invited for a return engagement as a guest speaker at Syracuse University to deliver another talk to their budding filmmakers. His thesis: Technical, creative and economic pressures will combine to force the feature film industry into an all-digital future within the next 10 years. The history of the digitization of the feature film industry was traced from its origins with the first off-line editing system through today’s digital cinema projection technology and projected to the future of digital capture. One unusual aspect of this talk was that it was delivered remotely from Los Angeles to New York over the internet.

Every year for the last 10 years a hardy group of video gaming enthusiasts have assembled themselves together for an Expo in celebration of the early days of video gaming. Classic video games are the first generation of video games featuring the sprite-based 2D systems of the Atari 2600, Matell Intellivision, Nintendo, and others that were produced in the early 80's. As a game programmer for Atari early in his career, Steve was invited to be a speaker on the Atari 2600 game developers panel to talk about the early days of video game development at Atari. Questions from the surprisingly large audience ranged from technical aspects of the game chips and development stations to corporate strategies and the inevitable "what were they thinking?" questions. After the panel, Steve engaged in some autograph signing for some real hard-core enthusiasts.

Steve was invited to Syracuse University by professor Pat Longstaff to speak to her advanced class on Communications Management on the subject of the future of filmmaking. Steve first delivered a brief overview of the impacting technologies of digital capture, digital dailies, color management, computer animation, and digital intermediate, then the floor was thrown open for questions and discussion. Of particular interest to the students was the impact of the trend of the migration of powerful digital production technologies to an ever broader user base.

Visual Computing Labs is the feature film visual effects division of Tata Elxsi, the engineering and software development division of Tata Group, India's largest multi-national corporation. The Digital Intermediate process is new to India so the "Bollywood" filmmakers were all hungry for information on the process. Steve was asked to give a two hour talk to standing room only crowd of the biggest DP's (Directors of Photography) in Bollywood to explain how the process works, their creative options in the process, and what problems can be encountered. The talk was followed by a rousing Q&A session.

Steve was invited to the Rochester Institute of Technology by professor Charles Bandla and the Rochester Chapter of SMPTE to address an auditorium of entertainment media students on digital compositing techniques using the Shake compositing software. Steve demonstrated several advanced matte extraction techniques as well as motion tracking, morphing, and image stitching available in the latest version of Shake, Apple's renown compositing software. Following the Shake demonstrations a power point talk was presented on the Digital Intermediate film finishing process now sweeping through Hollywood filmmaking.

Creativecow.net

As keynote speaker, Steve addressed the subject of the rapidly expanding role of HiDef video in television production and its impact on digital effects. HiDef is rapidly emerging as the delivery medium of choice for the HBO and the networks and understanding the 24P frame rate, aspect ratios, image sizes, and the fact that the pixels are, at last, square. The impact of all this and its differences with interlaced Standard Definition video to videographers, producers, and digital artist are described and strategies for coping with the differences are revealed.

For a review of Steve's talk by a reporter from the webzine EmediaLive.com click here.

For an overview of the Creative Cow West 2003 Expo click here.

www.ihollywoodforum.com

As keynote speaker, Steve gave an in-depth look at the Digital Intermediate process and how it has been enabled by recent technological breakthroughs. Comparisons with conventional lab processing and color timing with the trade-offs for creative control, schedule, and budget. There was also a revealing discussion of the all important 24P master.

To read a press release about the (then) upcoming Forum click here.

For an overview of the iHollywood Forum Digital Studio Conference click here. 

Speaking to a group of educators in the Rochester, NY film production community, Steve described the modern process of digital effects production. He described how and why film was digitized at 4k resolution then down-rez'd to 2k for digital compositing. There were illustrations of digital keying and despill techniques, 2D transformations, and motion vector based speed changes (retimers). Finishing with a detailed explanation of recording the finished digital effects shot back out to film using laser film recorders.

"Infinity" is a 2 minute 70mm IMAX piece directed by Ron Fricke and featuring Arthur C. Clarke as the host of a mind boggling trip through the Mandelbrot set of fractals as a visualization of the concept of mathematical infinity. Stunning colors and a dizzying plunge into the psychedelic depths of the fractal landscape zooming in by literally a factor of billions was accompanied by a pulsing musical score that left the mind reeling.

To read a description of the Infinity piece in the Siggraph 2001 Electronic Theatre listing click here and scroll down to "Infinity". Click on the white "Infinity" name to see the credit list. The trailer download is 8 MB in size.

The LFCA is an association of film producers that specialize in IMAX and 70mm large film formats. Steve was a speaker in the "Content Creation" forum to describe his experiences producing digital effects shots for IMAX. The project in question was the "Infinity" IMAX piece that was shown at Siggraph (above).

To read a Millimeter article by Ellen Wolff click here. The coverage of the "Infinity" project begins four paragraphs from the bottom of the first page.

The Electronic Schoolhouse was a one day seminar for teachers and trainers to introduce them to digital effects. Steve's talk addressed the principles of 3D animation, 2D compositing, and morphing with supporting visuals and animations.

To see the Siggraph 1999 schedule describing the event click here.

When NATPE decided to host an "animation FX" (Anifx) conference they invited UCLA Extension to present their "Digital Backlot" to address the emerging digital aspects of the animation industry. As the Digital Backlot's most digital speaker, Steve was invited to make the presentation.

You can read a short article on the NATPE Anifx conference in Variety by clicking here.

UCLA Extension periodically put on their "Digital Backlot", which was a one day seminar for students and professionals in the digital effects industry. Steve was one of the regular speakers introducing the principles of digital effects for film and television.

• Sept. 23, 1995 - UCLA
• Mar. 30, 1996 - DGA
• July 13, 1996 - UCLA
• Sept. 28, 1996 - DGA
• Jan. 25, 1997 - DGA
• May 3, 1997 - UCLA
• July 12, 1997 - Raleigh Studios
• Apr. 18, 1998 - Sony Pictures Imageworks

Steve was a member of this Siggraph panel that revealed the technological and artistic innovations in the animated feature film "FernGully:The Last Rainforest". When released it was the highest grossing non-Disney animated film at that time. Steve displayed and discussed the digital ink and paint system he developed and how it was used with the Pixar computer to create ground breaking digital effects for this animated feature film years before digital effects became common in animated films. Click here to see Siggraph's course description of the panel.

Steve was invited to Paris to deliver a talk entitled "Image Processing for Mind, Body & Soul" to the 7th International Conference as a Plenary Opening Session speaker. His talk was an overview of state-of-the-art image processing techniques applied to medical imaging, satellite earth studies, and 2D computer animation for cartooning and how 3D machine technology was being modified to be used in the world of entertainment.