Animation Meets Real-Time
WAR IS OVER! brings the classic John Lennon and Yoko Ono song to life in this highly stylized, Oscar-winning short animation. The Wētā FX team went to work crafting the unique aesthetic, blending the painterly visuals of the production design with the gritty realism of war. Visual Effects Supervisor Keith Miller will explore the art and technology employed across production, revealing insights into Wētā’s approach to leveraging the strengths and efficiencies of real-time filmmaking with Unreal Engine while integrating with their existing VFX and animation pipelines.
SPEAKERS
KEITH MILLER
Keith joined Wētā FX in 2005 to work on Peter Jackson’s King Kong. He currently works as Wētā FX’s Special Projects Creative Director, leveraging his experience as an award-winning Visual Effects Supervisor along with his expertise in developing interactive/immersive content for realtime systems. Having developed VR content for CAVE systems in the early 2000s, Keith’s passion for real-time spans more than two decades. Keith has recently wrapped on the Oscar-winning animated short WAR IS OVER! Inspired by the Music of John
and Yoko. In 2021 he was awarded the SIGGRAPH Jury Prize for Wētā’s Meerkat. Keith additionally lends his expertise to the virtual production team, developing XR filmmaking tools and processes alongside LED wall content for in-camera visual effects on film and streaming.
Keith was Visual Effects Supervisor for Grammy® Award winner Childish Gambino’s 2018 ‘Pharos’ concert and received a VES Award for the creation of the 360° real-time animated visuals and the VR prototyping tools for the show. Other memorable experiential and interactive projects include The Matrix Awakens (2021) video game and his work with Director Jon Favreau on King Louie: Cold Lairs (2016), a 360° VR experience.
Highlights as a Visual Effects Supervisor include the Academy award nominated films Jungle Book (2016) and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014). Other highlights include DC Extended Universe projects Wonder Woman (2017), Batman v Superman (2016) and Man of Steel (2013). Keith was nominated for a BAFTA for The Adventures of Tintin (2011).
