Thank You Cat Rodrigues
I wanted to give a big thank you to Cat Rodrigues, her talk helped me understand how expansive motion capture careers can be, especially hearing how she travels the world working with Sony and PlayStation Studios.
One of my biggest takeaways was learning about the scale of the technology, like the use of hundreds of cameras to capture precise movement and facial detail for video games. I was especially interested in the facial motion capture systems and how they translate subtle human emotion into digital performances.
As the motion capture director for the Humber Hawks soccer commercial, her insights felt directly connected to my own experience learning the technology and helped me see new possibilities within the field. It also inspired me to seriously consider pursuing opportunities in motion capture and virtual production moving forward.
Thank you, Cat Rodrigues for sharing your experience and giving such an insightful and motivating talk.
Thank You Dan Fill
One thing that stuck with me was how they were involved in parts of Heated Rivalry and made the decision to let the production use their tech at a lower cost, which ended up paying off big when the project blew up.
Another takeaway was how their approach to virtual production is not just about the tech, but about making it more accessible and actually usable for filmmakers, which is something I really connect with as a director. Hearing how their pipeline is constantly adapting also made me realize how important it is to stay flexible in this industry instead of locking into one way of working. Dan Fill, thank you for speaking to our class and sharing insight into Dark Slope’s growth and the real decisions behind it—it genuinely gave me a clearer picture of VP.
Thank You Jamie Hurcomb
I recently got the privilege of talking with Jamie Hurcomb.
One thing that stood out to me was hearing about the Epic MegaGrants that Epic offers for projects that use Unreal and also give something back to the 3D and Unreal community.
Thank you to Jamie Hurcomb for taking the time to speak with our class and for sharing real opportunities that us students can actually look into. Hearing her talk about starting in the film industry and then working with different media and entertainment programs across North America with unreal helped connect what we do in school to how Unreal is used in the industry. It's not just about knowing the program but being able to travel and advertise it as well. Overall, the talk we had made it clearer that learning Unreal is less about fully memorizing tools and more about understanding how real-time workflows fit into production.
Virtual Production Demo Reel
Nicholas Roses Meta Human
I really enjoyed the process of creating my MetaHuman, though I know I still have a long way to go. I attempted to scan my face, but it didn’t work well with my current devices, so I opted to create it manually.
Using mocap in Unreal Engine was fun, but I need more practice to make it run smoothly. My favorite part was designing weight, as I found it fascinating to see how everything moves together. The teeth felt a little unsettling, but I’m confident this will improve with future updates.
Thank You - Pif Edwards
CTO & Co-Founder of JALI Research Inc.
Hearing Pif Edwards speak about his work in Facial Animation and Speech Models was incredibly eye-opening, especially learning how JALI’s groundbreaking software transformed the animation pipeline for Cyberpunk 2077 by automating complex lip sync and facial movements.
Thank you, Pif, for sharing your insight, passion, and generosity with our class—your discussion truly sparked my curiosity about the future of facial animation and its place in film.