In the live-action remake of Aladdin, Industrial Light & Magic was tasked to bring Genie, one of the most iconic Disney characters, to life on the big screen. The talk will cover different topics: from state of the art facial performance capture used by the team to catch the subtleties of Will Smith's performance to the complex light design and choreography utilized in the iconic sequence "Friend Like Me".
Daniele Bigi joined Industrial Light & Magic in January 2015 as the Computer Graphics Supervisor on Marvel’s Ant-Man. His previous films as a CG Supervisor include Guardians of the Galaxy and Red 2 amongst others, as well as Doctor Strange at ILM.
Moving up into the role of Associate Visual Effects Supervisor Daniele worked on Ready Player One, for which he received the VES award for “Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in a Photo Real Project” for the work before taking on the role of Supervisor on Disney’s Aladdin.
Daniele studied Industrial Design in Milan where he developed his computer graphics skills helping to design automotive products. He has always been interested in film since childhood and once he realised that he could combine his passion for film with his interest in computer generated images he decided to work in the visual effects industry. Here he would combine his artistic vision with his strong technical background. Daniele first worked at a few small studios in Italy, before moving to Aardman Animation in England to work in their new 3D Department and then moved onto Framestore and MPC.
Originally from Lake Como, in Italy, Daniele is excited about the future of visual effects, and looks to push every film he works on into new and uncharted territories of visual excellence. When he is not pushing the envelope in visual effects, Daniele enjoys spending time riding his motorbike in the sun … whenever the English weather allows.
Daniele is currently Visual Effects Supervisor for JJ Abrams’ final instalment of the Skywalker saga, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.