Jonathan Swartz joined the High-Fidelity Physics team as an engineer focused on the intersection of Machine Learning and Simulation in 2022. Before joining NVIDIA, Jonathan worked in the visual effects industry for 16 years at Wētā Digital and Sony Pictures Imageworks as both a craftsperson in the simulation and lighting/shading realms creating imagery for feature films as well as an engineering lead working on lighting and machine learning technology. He has contributed to over two dozen live-action and animated films including Avatar, The Hobbit Trilogy, The Avengers and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Jonathan has a passion for the meeting places between art and science and is excited to be working on the next generation of simulation and deep-learning technology at NVIDIA.

While at Wētā Digital, Jonathan’s work inventing the Wētā Face Fabrication System was recognized with an Entertainment Technology Lumiere Award from the Advanced Imaging Society for producing the first fully neural-rendered digital human faces ever used by Wētā Digital as final imagery in a film. Before switching to this focus as a machine learning practitioner, Jonathan pitched and lead a cross-company effort to re-architect the lighting pipeline at Wētā Digital to focus on massive-scale shot production, non-destructive scenegraph processing workflows and artist-friendly procedural pipelines.