Presenter
Alex Nowotny
Biography
Alex is a multi-award winning Effects Supervisor who joined the Wētā FX camera department more than 20 years ago in 2003 to work on Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
Since then, Alex has worked on a long line of Wētā’s most iconic projects, including King Kong, James Cameron’s Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water, the first three The Planet of the Apes films and has most recently wrapped on the fourth – Wes Ball’s Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.
As the Effects Supervisor, Alex oversees and manages the work of a team of artists responsible for the FX simulations on a VFX project. Depending on the requirements, he drives the development of simulations for water, fire, plants and environmental effects, explosions and destruction and is responsible for delivering on time and budget.
Based on his work on Avatar: The Way of Water, Alex co-authored a SIGGRAPH paper on coupled simulation techniques between Wētā’s water and plant tools. He has been able to extrapolate and apply many of the same tools and techniques in his work on his sequences in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, such as the High Grass escape sequence and the river scenes.
Hailing from Gerolstein, near Cologne in Germany he was inspired in early life by the balance of creativity and technology in movies, and he admired Kraftwerk music videos as well as VFX classics such as Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
And although he never dreamed that he would one day be collaborating with Joe Letteri, Jurassic Park was also a strong catalyst for his career path.
Since then, Alex has worked on a long line of Wētā’s most iconic projects, including King Kong, James Cameron’s Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water, the first three The Planet of the Apes films and has most recently wrapped on the fourth – Wes Ball’s Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.
As the Effects Supervisor, Alex oversees and manages the work of a team of artists responsible for the FX simulations on a VFX project. Depending on the requirements, he drives the development of simulations for water, fire, plants and environmental effects, explosions and destruction and is responsible for delivering on time and budget.
Based on his work on Avatar: The Way of Water, Alex co-authored a SIGGRAPH paper on coupled simulation techniques between Wētā’s water and plant tools. He has been able to extrapolate and apply many of the same tools and techniques in his work on his sequences in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, such as the High Grass escape sequence and the river scenes.
Hailing from Gerolstein, near Cologne in Germany he was inspired in early life by the balance of creativity and technology in movies, and he admired Kraftwerk music videos as well as VFX classics such as Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
And although he never dreamed that he would one day be collaborating with Joe Letteri, Jurassic Park was also a strong catalyst for his career path.
Presentations
Talk
Not Livestreamed
Not Recorded
Full Conference
Full Conference Supporter
Virtual Access
Exhibitor Full Conference
Wednesday
