Animation and VFX Leaders Debate AI at View Conference Panel
Executives from Sony Pictures Imageworks, ILM and Skydance Animation spoke in Turin, where AI dominated the discussion.
Seven executives from animation, visual effects and visualization studios spoke on a panel at View Conference in Turin, Italy, on Wednesday evening, according to cartoonbrew.com.
The panel was moderated by Ian Failes, editor of befores & afters, and included Sony Pictures Imageworks president Michelle Grady, ILM senior vice president and general manager Janet Lewin, and Skydance Animation president Holly Edwards. The other panelists were Proof founder and CEO Ron Frankel, The Yard founder and creative director Laurens Ehrmann, Opsis Studio CEO Henrik Fett, and Cinesite Group COO of VFX and Image Engine general manager Shawn Walsh.
Generative AI was a recurring topic at the panel and at View Conference. Walsh said visual effects artists will be needed for the foreseeable future to manage the transition to new processes, while Ehrmann said AI can compress execution time but cannot compress taste. Lewin warned against expecting AI and machine learning to be a magic bullet.
Grady said Imageworks is pushing its Unreal Engine pipeline considerably further on Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, and that the filmmakers on the project experiment down to the last minute, an approach the new pipeline supports. Imageworks developed the pipeline around story camera, story performance and story lighting.
In October 2025, Grady said at the panel that Unreal Engine was initially employed on KPop Demon Hunters, expanded for Goat, and is now being pushed further on Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse.
Edwards said Skydance Animation remains focused on the creative potential of CG filmmaking.