Weekly Seminar: Youxi Woo
April 08, 2024
When: April 11th @ 11am
Where: TMCB 1170
Talk Title: Kung Fu Panda 4: Building the World of Yin and Yang
As we enter the fourth installment in the Kung Fu Panda franchise, Po is faced with a new challenge of growth, his promotion to the spiritual leader of the Valley of Peace. We accompany Po as he visits both familiar and new locales where he meets new friends and a dangerous villain. But in order to become the spiritual leader, he must understand what it means to have the balance of Yin and Yang. This seminar will explore how the filmmakers kept balance at the forefront of their design and technology decisions; landscape and architecture reflecting opposite emotions, the use of real time game engines to build out and discover new worlds, the innovative new FX techniques for transforming animated characters, the various threads of the story - good vs evil, familiar vs new, heart vs action.
A native of Northern California, Youxi has explored the CG world for 20 years, traveling in the realms of Feature Animation, live action VFX, Indie shorts, video games and various other medias. He has been a featured speaker at Sundance Film Festival, SIGGRAPH and a number of universities and media companies. With credits including How To Train Your Dragon, Star Trek: Beyond and the video game, Mech Commander, he's been a Visual Effects Supervisor, Producer, FX Developer, Aerospace Engineer, just finished Kung Fu Panda 4 as the Head of Locations and is currently on an unannounced DreamWorks film as Digital Supervisor.