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What happens when technology becomes part of the creative palette?
In this episode of Advanced Insights, AMD CTO and EVP Mark Papermaster sits down with Kimball Thurston, Chief Technology Officer at Wētā FX, to explore how AI, rendering, simulation and heterogeneous computing are reshaping visual effects and the future of storytelling.
They discuss the extraordinary compute required to create massive digital worlds; why some of the most complex rendering workloads still rely heavily on CPUs; how Wētā FX is using AI to help artists find assets, automate production tasks and simulate details as subtle as the muscles behind a facial expression; and why the next generation of creative workflows will increasingly span CPUs, GPUs, local AI and the cloud.
The conversation also looks ahead to personal AI, agentic workflows, open-source tools and what Kimball calls a “world of models” — a future where technology gives artists new ways to create richer, more immersive experiences without losing sight of what matters most: the story.
00:00 Introduction
00:56 Meet Kimball Thurston
01:00 From Robotics to Visual Effects
02:04 Why AI Is a Creative Unlock
03:29 How AI Could Change Creative Jobs
04:16 The Scale of Wētā FX Productions
05:12 Half a Million Threads Rendering 24/7
06:01 Building and Searching Massive Asset Libraries
07:02 How Artists Build Consistent Digital Worlds
07:44 Bringing Agentic AI into VFX Workflows
08:43 Could Artists Become AI Orchestrators?
09:11 Building Custom AI Models for VFX
10:08 Physics, Simulation and Lifelike Digital Characters
10:53 Why Small Details Matter to Storytelling
11:26 Choosing the Right Compute Engine
12:18 Optimizing AI Across Local, Cloud, CPU and GPU
14:02 AMD and Wētā FX Co-Innovation
14:57 Running AI Agents Overnight
15:54 Lowering Latency and Expanding Local AI
16:16 Unified Memory for Larger AI Models
16:51 Why Wētā FX Is an Early Local AI Adopter
18:02 Open Source in the Visual Effects Industry
18:56 Protecting IP and Tracking Model Provenance
20:13 The Future of 3D Storytelling
20:42 From a World Model to a World of Models
21:32 The Sphere and Immersive Digital Experiences
21:55 AI, Restoration and Expanding the World of Oz
22:35 Dynamic and Personalized Storytelling
22:56 Looking Ahead
23:26 Mark’s Key Takeaways
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