2020 TRACKS
Panel discussion
USD in the context of real-time
George ElKoura
Universal Scene Description (USD) is an open standard developed by Pixar to facilitate large-scale collaborative workflows in creative fields. It has made large inroads in many of the world’s leading visual effects and feature film production facilities, as well as in some real-time and gaming workflows. It has been used as both an interchange technology as well as in runtimes that use some of its features in delivered products. This panel invites leaders and innovators from a wide spectrum of experiences to discuss USD’s applicability to real-time focused pipelines, what benefits it can already bring and what benefits it could bring in the future.
Personal Profile
George ElKoura
Senior Software Engineering Lead – Pixar Animation Studios
Linkedin
George ElKoura began at Pixar Animation Studios in 2006. In his first role at the studio, George started working on what would eventually become Presto, the studio’s internal animation, layout, rigging and simulation tool. ElKoura has been involved in every film since “Brave” where Presto (originally called Menv30) was first deployed. He worked on optimizing Presto to make the rigs and animation tools run as fast as possible to give the animators and layout artists a smooth experience when working with production quality rigs. In his current role as Senior Software Engineering Lead, George oversees and participates in the development of Presto’s internal architecture, as well as open source projects USD, Hydra and OpenSubdiv. Prior to Pixar, George was working with SideFX on their flagship product, Houdini. George grew up in Ottawa, Canada. He did his undergraduate studies at the University of Waterloo, and his graduate work at the University of Toronto.
Panelists
Mark Tucker
Senior Software Developer – SideFX
Shawn Dunn
Senior Technical Program Manager – Epic Games
Davide Pesare
Head of 3D & Immersive Labs – Adobe
Michael Kass
Distinguished Engineer – NVIDIA