Naty Hoffman

Real-Time Graphics Specialist (Retired)

[Kostas Anagnostou @KostasAAA]

The Minimal Retroreflective Microfacet Model https://t.co/VTC5NzFsSK

[Industrial Light & Magic @ILMVFX]

Punch it! Pedro Pascal, Sigourney Weaver, Jon Favreau, and Dave Filoni take a ride on the new mission of Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run. With Visual Effects by Industrial Light & Magic.

On May 22nd, join the Mandalorian and Grogu on Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland and Walt Disney World, and see Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu only in theaters and IMAX!

[I3D Symposium @I3DCONF]

Next keynote is on!

Kayvon Fatahalian from Stanford University and Roblox takes the I3D 2026 stage for a talk about Interactive 3D Worlds and Designing Great Interactions

[I3D Symposium @I3DCONF]

Next keynote is on!

Dor Verbin from Google DeepMind takes the I3D 2026 stage for a look at generative models, physical priors, and the future of 3D reconstruction.

[I3D Symposium @I3DCONF]

Day 2 is underway at I3D 2026!
We’re back for another full day of graphics, games, and great conversations as we continue celebrating I3D’s 40th anniversary.
Follow along for more highlights from the symposium!

[I3D Symposium @I3DCONF]

Papers Session 3: Model glow ups is in progress!

Find the full paper details here:

https://t.co/Qpghp5256a

#I3D2026

[Naty Hoffman @renderwonk]

@g_Schellenbaum I don’t disagree with anything you’ve written. Until we have a better model then all these things are worth doing. Separately from that, I have a strong feeling that a better model is out there and we should be spending more effort on finding it.

[Naty Hoffman @renderwonk]

This might be the most important paper on surface shading to come out in years. TL;DR: microfacet models are wrong and proposed wave-based or hybrid alternatives are wrong too. This is an exciting opportunity for new research! https://t.co/ZTtvzicabz

[Naty Hoffman @renderwonk]

@tonyblu331 @g_Schellenbaum I meant the directional error term specifically - it only works when you have a massive calibrated database of photo references to analyze. It’s not the kind of thing that an artist could paint from scratch when creating a surface from a concept sketch.

[Naty Hoffman @renderwonk]

@g_Schellenbaum TCP is a great example of a practical production solution. But it doesn’t replace the need for a model which is robust, artist-controllable and *also* (unlike current models) matches the real world; if anything it shows the need for such a model.

[Naty Hoffman @renderwonk]

Instead of “are wrong” I should have said “are a poor match to real-world surfaces”. As George E. P. Box taught us, all models are wrong anyway 🙂

[I3D Symposium @I3DCONF]

We’re excited to welcome Blake Taylor as a keynote speaker at I3D 2026.

More details: https://t.co/Gv7n5gOhQ2

Register here: https://t.co/Dcb3E78laQ

#I3D2026

[I3D Symposium @I3DCONF]

We’re excited to welcome Naty Hoffman as a keynote speaker at I3D 2026.

More details: https://t.co/OYYfPgmW3Y

Register here: https://t.co/Dcb3E77Nli

#I3D2026

[Arseny Kapoulkine 🇺🇦 @zeuxcg]

New blog post!

In "Quantizing tangent frames", we look at various established methods to represent tangent frames in the vertex data, squeeze a few variants into 32 bits per vertex and look at the resulting precision.

https://t.co/ZsDeImK0Ls

Retweet, like and subscribe!

[Awni Hannun @awnihannun]

Adopting Claude speak in my regular life, episode 1:

Partner: Did you do the dishes tonight?
Me: Yes they're done.
Partner: Why are they still dirty?
Me: You're right to push back. I didn't actually do them.

[Kostas Anagnostou @KostasAAA]

Ultra-fast Screen-Space Refractions and Caustics via Newton’s Method https://t.co/VrvmrGbhUM

[I3D Symposium @I3DCONF]

The early registration deadline for I3D 2026 at Lucasfilm (May 13-15th) is fast approaching, with only one week left!
Early registration deadline is: 17 April 2026
Register now to secure your spot: https://t.co/Dcb3E77Nli

#I3D2026

[Ignacio Castaño @castano]

I've been reverse engineering Apple's, ARM's, and ImgTec's hardware image compression formats. ARM's AFRC is the clear winner, but does native hardware compression make real-time texture encoding obsolete?

https://t.co/goDn1E5U27

[Athenaeum Book Club @athenaeumbc]

G. K. Chesterton explains that reading gives a man more lives than he was born with:

“A man who has read a thousand books is armed for life; a man who has read none is easy prey. The man who has read a thousand books has lived a thousand lives. He has seen cities he has never visited, spoken to men who died centuries ago, and walked in worlds that no longer exist. Reading does not merely inform him; it enlarges him. It stretches the boundaries of his own experience until he becomes something more than himself.”

[Naty Hoffman @renderwonk]

@SebAaltonen Since the AO solution you need is long-distance / low-frequency only (backed up by SSAO for the high-frequency stuff) couldn’t you bake or compute it at an extremely low spatial frequency? Wouldn’t that take care of the storage / memory / compute resource issues?