Metaphysic has appointed hyperreal AI (artificial intelligence) and VFX creator Sam Head (publicly known as Shamook) as the company’s senior AI model artist, AI and compositing supervisor Thomas Salama, AI compositing lead Scott Bourne and AI innovation lead Matteo Olivieri Dancey. All four of them will report to Metaphysic chief innovation officer Jo Plaete.
Head, Salama, Bourne and Olivieri-Dancey arrived from Industrial Light & Magic, where they collectively led de-aging and hyperreal content for ABBA: Voyage concert experience, The Book of Boba Fett, and more.
Metaphysic is a technology company that develops hyperreal, photorealistic content for TV, film and beyond. It helps production houses and studios produce real-time, realistic enactments. Global film and television studio Miramax recently tapped the company as its official generative AI partner for the major motion picture Here.
Metaphysic has also entered into a strategic partnership with entertainment and sports agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA). The entertainment industry took note of Metaphysic following a history-making run on America’s Got Talent. They created live hyperreal performances of Elvis Presley, bringing generative AI to TV for the first time ever and effectively changing the future of entertainment.
Metaphysic co-founder and CEO Thomas Graham said, “As we enter into new partnerships and projects to shape the future of entertainment, we are thrilled to be joined by the AI and compositing spaces’ brightest minds.”
Hyperreal content artist Sam Head rose to fame for creating hyper realistic avatars of iconic movie scenes on YouTube, including reimaging Tom Holland within previous portrayals of Spiderman, inserting Mel Gibson in Mad Max Fury Road, and de-aging avatars of Luke Skywalker and Han Solo. The videos garnered millions of views and drew critical acclaim for the artist’s work reimagining young Luke Skywalker in the Mandalorian. Head’s work caught the attention of Lucasfilms, and in 2021 he was hired as senior facial capture artist to help lead the company’s technological capabilities to achieve photorealistic de-aging.
“As a visual artist, my goal is to surprise and delight the viewer, recreating or completely reimagining iconic scenes and moments in entertainment. …I am thrilled to join this incredibly talented team,” said Head.
Visual effects veteran Thomas Salama joins Metaphysic after spending over a decade leading visual effects and animation efforts for companies including ILM and Oscar-winning VFX company DNEG. In his role as lead compositor at ILM, Salama worked closely with visual effects artists and digital compositors Scott Bourne and Matteo Olivieri-Dancey.
Salama, Bourne and Olivieri-Dancey possess a shared resume of developing the VFX and imagery for Oscar-winning feature films including Interstellar and Blade Runner 2049, and film franchises like Star Wars and Jurassic World.
The new hires will work in close concert with Metaphysic’s team of AI and VFX experts to continue to create cutting-edge technologies revolutionising how film and television are made.