On prior shows, we used a low quality render to determine an object's visibility per shot. However, even a shot-level removal of the geometry limited the artist's turnaround times. To address this, we developed a new two pass algorithm that aggressively culls geometry on a per frame-level, while maintaining accurate visibility. In addition to our implementation that uses a software renderer, we developed a GPU version that allows immediate geometry removal.
Paper (PDF)
Additional materials: [visibilityCullingOnBrave.mov]
Available as Pixar Technical Memo #13-05