Innovative Solutions for Impossible Problems

Alberto Menache is a visual effects and animation pioneer. He is a highly experienced visual effects and animation supervisor, gaming developer, technology consultant and corporate advisor, and has contributed founding technology across the entertainment industry. His expertise spans Performance Capture, Virtual Production, Remote Collaboration, Real-time Rendering, Facial Animation, Machine Vision, and Artificial Intelligence. Alberto not only has been Digital Effects Supervisor on films like “The Polar Express” and “Superman Returns”. His developments have been used in major films, such as the “Avatar” series, “Spiderman I, II & III”, “Shrek”, “Harry Potter I”, and many others. He also developed technology for major video games, such as FIFA, Madden NFL, NHL, Mass Effect, The Last of Us, Anthem, and many others. Some of Alberto’s developments include the first solver for optical motion capture (at Tsi), the first real-time virtual production toolset that leveraged game-engine real-time technology (at House of Moves), the first feather simulation system (at PDI/DreamWorks for “Shrek”), the Sony Pictures Animation pipeline, a muscle based facial system and human muscle deformation system (at Sony Pictures Imageworks), and many more. More recently, Alberto has held a variety of consulting and advisory roles including with Lightstorm Entertainment where he developed an AI markerless facial tracker suitable for underwater and many other tools for “Avatar: The Way of Water”; Electronic Arts; Meta; Verizon Media; Method Studios; Saatchi & Saatchi; Lucasfilm; Microsoft and many others. Alberto has written several books including “Understanding Motion Capture for Computer Animation and Video Games” which is the primary text for motion capture technology in many universities around the world. He is is responsible for multiple patents: his developments in virtual production, digital characters and motion capture are widely used across the entertainment industry. Alberto, who holds a degree in mechanical/electrical engineering from the National Autonomous University of Mexico and a Master of Science in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Miami, is based in Los Angeles, California.

J.J. Blumenkranz is a veteran creative supervisor in animation and visual effects for film, television, games, virtual, and other applications in both the entertainment and technology industries. He has made foundational contributions to animation production with a focus in Character Technology. He has extensive experience in Rigging, Workflow, Process and Pipeline as an artist, a developer, and a supervisor; he is an expert in general digital production concentrating on animation and visual effects. While at UCLA School of Medicine, J.J. designed a small motion capture lab for gait analysis with very early technology; that motion capture experience made for a natural jump to animation and visual effects. He went on to work for entertainment and technology leaders including Google, YouTube, Meta, Sony Pictures and PDI/DreamWorks on many ground-breaking projects. J.J.’s film credits include many Oscar winning and nominated films such as “Monster House”, “The Polar Express”, “Stuart Little 2”, “Spider-Man”, “The Chubb-Chubbs!”, “Shrek”, “Babe”, “Pig in the City”, and “Titanic”. J.J., who is based in Burbank, California, holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from UCLA. Over the course of his career, he has made significant technical contributions that have received industry recognition. He was twice considered for an AMPAS Science and Technology award, and in 2009, was invited to join the Short Films and Feature Animation branch of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and currently serves on the Executive Committee. He also serves on the Board of Directors for the ASIFA-Hollywood animation society.