Jon LeBrie, CTO, Weta Digital has been announced as keynote
of CMP Media’s 17th annual Game Developers Conference (GDC), March 4 –
8, 2003, San Jose, California.

LeBrie is the principal architect of the digital infrastructure used to
create the Academy Award-winning digital visual effects in “The Lord of
the Rings” trilogy. LeBrie’s keynote, “Fleshing out Middle Earth: Weta
Digital Creatures” discusses specific approaches to crowd animation, creature
setups, digital doubles, Ents, the specific challenges involved in bringing
Gollum to the screen, and how the concept of “creative iteration” informed
the development of one of the world’s largest digital visual effects infrastructures.

The GDC offers more than 300 sessions, which provide valuable information,
diverse perspectives and inspiration to all game developers. Attracting
more than 10,000 attendees annually, the GDC provides an independent forum
for developers from around the world to set the agenda for the next generation
of games.

For more information and a complete list of presenters, schedules and event
information, visit www.gdconf.com.