Member Profile: Vincent Maurer
1. What do you do, and how long have you been doing it?
I’m a Technical Director specializing in lighting for animation and visual effects at the indie games studio kaleidoscube in Stuttgart, Germany. I’ve been working in this field since my first internship in 2017, right after finishing secondary school.
2. What was your first job?
My first role was as a 3D Generalist intern at an advertising/VFX studio in Nuremberg. There, I had the opportunity to work on a variety of projects, from advertisements to short films and even a feature film. During a gap year in my studies, I also had incredible opportunities to work at Sony Pictures Imageworks and Industrial Light & Magic in Vancouver.
3. Where did you complete your formal education?
I studied animation with a specialization in technical directing at the Animationsinstitut of Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. My graduation included the short film ‘A Sparrow’s Song’ and my research project on capturing lens flares.
4. How did you first get involved with ACM SIGGRAPH?
I’ve always been fascinated by the bleeding-edge research presented at SIGGRAPH each year. Early in my studies, I dreamt of attending the conference one day. Luckily, when I was working and living in Vancouver in 2022, SIGGRAPH was conveniently located across the street from Imageworks. So, I got to visit it for the first time with my co-workers!
5. What is your favorite memory of a SIGGRAPH conference?
Attending SIGGRAPH Asia 2024 in Tokyo left me with many fantastic memories! One of my favorites is definitely presenting my diploma research project on capturing lens flares. This led to wonderful conversations with people who, like me, were not only interested in lens flares but also in color management and all sorts of other nerdy topics. I spent some great time with them there and connected with many interesting and knowledgeable individuals!
6. Describe a project that you would like to share with the ACM SIGGRAPH community.
I developed a system to capture real lens flares using a cinema camera mounted on a motion-control robot. The goal was to create a tool for visual effects artists that reproduces realistic flares based on actual measured lenses, rather than simulations. I recorded how light interacts with different lenses in a dark studio environment, then processed the data to make it usable in compositing software like Nuke. The technique combines image interpolation, machine learning, and convolution filters to generate photorealistic flares. It began as a solution for a student film and evolved into something more substantial, and was presented in my paper “Capturing Light with Robots: A Novel Workflow for Reproducing Realistic Lens Flares” at SIGGRAPH Asia 2024.
7. If you could have dinner with one living or non-living person, who would it be and why?
There are so many interesting people I’d love to talk to, from artists like Picasso or Van Gogh to scientists like Einstein and various musicians. Maybe we could have a big dinner with all of them! If I had to choose just two, I’d pick Georges Méliès and Greig Fraser. Méliès laid the foundation for visual effects and did some great work and magic with just a strip of film. Fraser’s cinematography, especially in Dune and The Batman, really impresses me! I love how lenses, light, and modern technology can be used to create beautiful imagery.
8. What is something most people don’t know about you?
Even though I am quite a technical person, I have a deep appreciation for the analog world! I love making music, especially playing the saxophone, and analog photography. I even have a small darkroom at home to develop and print my photos! Additionally, in a way connected to VFX, I’m also a magician on the side. I’m thrilled to be building a career out of “magic,” even if it’s a slightly different kind!
9. From which single individual have you learned the most in your life? What did they teach you?
Without a doubt, it’s my parents! They are both teachers, so they naturally taught me a lot. They supported me from the curious three-year-old who never stopped asking “Warum?” (why) – even when the answer was sometimes just “Darum” (because) – to giving me my first camera and letting me animate Lego stop motion over the summer break. And, most importantly, they supported my journey into the wonderfully weird and fascinating world of filmmaking.
10. Is there someone in particular who has influenced your decision to work with ACM SIGGRAPH?
I wouldn’t say there’s a single individual, but rather many different people I’ve met over the years. This includes the volunteers who helped me find the talks I really wanted to see, and the speakers I got to talk to after their presentations!
11. What can you point to in your career as your proudest moment?
I have a few! I think one of my proudest moments must be the days (or rather nights here in Germany) when I received my offers to work at Sony Pictures Imageworks and ILM! And then, after returning to Germany and watching my work on Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse at the cinema together with my friends was very special. More recently, it’s our nomination for the BAFTA Student Awards for our graduation film, which will have its premiere at SIGGRAPH 2025!