RE:VISION EFFECTS - Key Persons
Christophe has been working with RE:Vision since 2009 and now serves as Chief-Scientist and Head/Director of R&D. Christophe's areas of expertise include advanced image processing, computer vision and machine learning.
Early projects include working for Parallax, the creators of Matador a paint and animation application that became Avid Media Illusion and Softimage FxTree module. Christophe wrote the first point tracker, object stabilization and match moving modules. Christophe then joined Discreet Logic (now Autodesk), During his time there he was the primary architect of the product called RIOT, a set of film tools for color management, including film recorders and scanning. RIOT was a direct competitor to the Kodak's Cineon system. Christophe was part of the lead design team for Motion Builder that eventually was acquired by Autodesk. The original product called Filmbox was designed for 3d motion capture (and is the source of the FBX file format), and was developed by Kaydara which was later folded under Alias.
Christophe then focused on additional motion tracking tools, 2D and 3D integration algorithms. After leaving Kaydara, he moved back to France where he worked on retiming, stabilization and optical flow technology, and his company was acquired by Apple. A bit after, in 2002, Apple Computer acquired Nothing Real. A few months later, Shake version 2.5 was released, introducing Mac OS X compatibility. This was then the incentive for Christophe to move to Santa Monica to work on Shake, Final Cut Pro , Motion and other Apple products.
After Apple, he joined together with Arnaud Hervas (formerly of the company that invented Shake) and developed Pretend stereo 3D product. Other consultant and contract work included video playback tools for Unity. and recent areas of contracted R&D includes 3D, face animation and AR image processing.
Prior to partnering with Pierre Jasmin in 1998, Peter "Pete" Litwinowicz also worked at Mass Illusion and Interscope from 1997-1998 in Alameda, Ca. Prior to that, he worked in the Advanced Technology Group at Apple where he developed and patented many products, including image-warping software, and the user-interfaces for making them accessible to designers and animators. He also worked at Aurora Systems from 1987-1988 where he helped support and develop early digital paint and 3D animation systems.
He holds a Masters of Science in Computer Science from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a Bachelors of Science in Computer Engineering from Case Western Reserve University.
Over the years, Pete Litwinowicz has also been a regular author of academic papers, and has also presented many short films at SIGGRAPH, a prominent annual visual effects and animation trade show. See his list of publications and films. Through his varied career, Pete has developed skills that make him a world-class researcher and artist, as well as a practical developer who knows how to make cutting-edge techniques accessible and usable.
Job Titles:
- Co - Director of the OpenFX
Prior to co-founding RE:Vision Effects in the Fall of 1998, and forming an official partnership with Peter Litwinowicz, Pierre Jasmin worked for two years for Mass Illusion, first in Western Massachusetts then in the Bay Area. He worked on What Dreams May Come from creating visual demos to help the film get funded to the final day before the film release. While at Mass Illusion, Pierre also worked to deliver the initial bullet-time effect for "The Matrix" prior to the movie getting greenlight. Previously he also worked for Hybride Technology north of Montreal from 1994-1996 as a visual effects artist and software developer on numerous effects films.
Pierre came to Hybride from Discreet Logic (now Autodesk Media and Entertainment), a visual effects compositing software powerhouse in Montreal, where he was a start-up engineer that helped develop Eddie, the industry's first commercial nodal compositing application, as well as other software modules that evolved into the company's flagship products, including flame, flint, fire, and smoke.
Prior to joining Discreet Logic, he worked as a freelance image processing developer, 3D animator and technical director. At Taarna and Pyrate Animation, he animated 3D computer characters, and also wrote and supported shaders for their Renderman-compliant renderer (which eventually became 3Delight).
Pierre is also a co-director of the OpenFX association, the API standard for visual effects and video processing. He continues to regularly consult for special projects.