[ad_1]
Paul Debevec, a longtime graphics researcher at USC and a recent member of the Google Research team, has joined Netflix as Director of Research, a newly created role within the streamer’s Data Science and Engineering team. .
Debevec will oversee R&D around new technologies in computer vision, computer graphics and machine learning with applications in several production areas, including visual effects, virtual production and animation. He’s also tasked with building a team that brings together data and expertise from Netflix productions around the world “to help creative partners develop new storytelling capabilities,” according to the company.
Debevec will continue to serve as an Assistant Research Professor of Computer Science at USC’s Viterbi School of Engineering in the Vision and Graphics Laboratory. He has worked at USC since 2000.
As a researcher at USC, Debevec pioneered techniques for illuminating computer-generated objects with real-world lighting measurements. The techniques of his research, known as HDRI and Image-Based Lighting, have been used in films such as the sequels to “The Matrix”, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”, “Terminator: Salvation”, ” District 9 “and” Avatar “by James Cameron. . Other films that have used his developments in computer imaging to create photorealistic digital actors include ‘The Avengers’, ‘Oblivion’, ‘Ender’s Game’, ‘Gravity’, ‘Maleficent’, ‘Spider-Man 3’ and “King Kong”.
Debevec worked at Google from 2016 to June 2021, most recently as a senior scientist for Google Research and previously as an engineer for Google VR.
He is a member of the Academy of Cinema Arts and Sciences and was a member of the Scientific and Technological Council of AMPAS from 2012 to 2018. He is a member of the Visual Effects Society and a member of ACM SIGGRAPH.
Debevec also worked with the Smithsonian Institution to digitize a 3D model of President Barack Obama in the White House. He holds degrees in mathematics and computer engineering from the University of Michigan and a doctorate in computer science from UC Berkeley.
His 1996 doctoral dissertation with Professor Jitendra Malik presented Façade, an image-based modeling system for creating virtual cinematography of architectural scenes using novel photogrammetry and image-based rendering techniques. Using Façade, Debevec performed a photorealistic overview of the Berkeley campus for his 1997 film, “The Campanile Movie,” whose techniques were then used to create the Oscar-winning virtual backgrounds in the shots ” bullet time ”from the first“ The film Matrix ”.
The hiring of Debevec by Netflix had previously been reported by THR.
[ad_2]
Source link
