Render Lead
Pixar Animation Studios

Jessica McMackin arrived at Pixar Animation Studios in 2002, and has worked in a variety of key roles such as render support for the studio’s Render Pipeline Group, render Technical Director on Finding Nemo, and eventually secured the render lead role on the latest Disney presentation of a Pixar film, Cars.

While Jessica’s father has been a key influence in her career path, serving as guide, mentor and cheerleader, she cites her biggest influences as a visual learning exercise in kindergarten and a PBS television network show called Square One.
Jessica grew up on a farm in Woodbury, Connecticut, surrounded by cows, chickens and vegetable gardens. She graduated from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, and currently resides in San Francisco.

Pixar Animation Studios' Ratatouille: Technical Challenges and Achievements

In making the film Cars, Pixar reached new heights of visual and technical complexity. The studios’ compute complexity per frame was 300 times that of their first film, Toy Story. It was necessary to develop a system of production and render optimizations in order to complete the film.
During the making of Ratatouille, many of the optimization techniques which were developed for Cars were expanded and improved. Pixar increased optimization of assets, such as models and shaders, at all levels of the production pipeline. New techniques were developed for optimization of hair and reflections.
This presentation, conducted by Pixar Technical Director, Jessica McMackin, will cover technical optimization in Pixar production, comparing and contrasting Cars and Ratatouille, with a focus on technical challenges and achievements in the making of the film Ratatouille.