Datasheet

■ Interview: Dorne Huebler, Industrial Light & Magic, San Francisco 35
(At the time of this writing, ILM was transitioning from Sabre, a modified version of
Flame/Inferno, to Nuke.)
LL: You’ve been involved with visual effects work for close to 30 years—long before the
term digital compositing was used. Can you describe the route you took to ILM?
DH: While at school at Cal Arts, I was doing graphics for commercials and titles with visual
effects.… I didn’t run an optical printer. I was prepping [work] for optical printers and art
directing [work] with optical printers. So that was my focus in the early 1980s—art direction
and design along with animation and film graphics, really. Initially, I was just freelancing for
[small companies] in L.A. [T]he first big studio I worked for was Dream Quest Images in the
late 1980s. My first feature film was Superman IV. I also worked at a place called Chandler
Group on Pee Wee’s Playhouse. I worked for Universal Studios on feature film trailer titles,
which was kind of a niche at that point. In the early 1990s, I joined Buena Vista Visual Effects
(the early digital effects division of Walt Disney Studios)—that was the real transition into
digital compositing. And I worked there until I came to ILM [11 years ago].
LL: Approximately, how many compositors are at ILM at any given time?
DH: It fluctuates based on [the number of] shows that we’re working on at once. We might
have three to five big shows at once going through here at any time.… The size of the crew
will expand and contract based on that. [W]hen I got here in 1998, there were around
20 staff compositors. At present, I’m guessing that there are around 60 to 70 (including
freelancers).
LL: Since you joined ILM, you’ve served as a compositing supervisor. How many composi-
tors would you work with on one project?
DH: I was compositing supervisor for Star Wars: Episode II. At one point, we had close to
35 compositors in my group. [A] smaller show may only need 6 to 10 people.… A lot of the
times, there are technical directors who will do their own compositing, so you’ll work with
them as well.
LL: Do you prefer working with the proprietary compositing software or off-the-shelf com-
positing software?
DH: What I’ve found is, with every package I use, [I] always find things that I just love.…
[E]very package also has idiosyncrasies—like, this is the one thing that bugs me about it.
So I think that it’s really about the type of work you’re doing, [and whether] one program
might be more efficient than another. It really depends on what you’re up to.…
LL: ILM helped popularize the use of HD digital video for feature film work. What has
been your own experience with HD in comparison to film?
DH: I’m actually trying to think about the last time I worked on an HD show. I mean, we’ll
have elements that are shot in HD and it can be really convenient because you don’t have
to get a film scan. I think it’s been three or four years since I’ve worked on an all-HD show.
When you’re working with HD, you’re going to deal with different green [channel] struc-
ture, for instance. It can present challenges for [greenscreen] extractions. But, overall, it’s
pretty seamless. At the beginning of a show, you think, “Oh my God—it’s HD! It’s all going
to be different!” And then, once you’re working, you realize that it’s the same as working in
film. It’s pretty much invisible.…
Additional Resources: The Full Interview
To read the full interview with Dorne Huebler, see the Interviews folder on the DVD.
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