Keeping the Artist in the Loop: From Lab to Storytelling
Lessons from the NFB-NVIDIA Collaboration
What happens when researchers and storytellers work together to create the next generation of creative tools?
The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) and NVIDIA come from different worlds. One is driven by research, experimentation, and technological discovery. The other is grounded in storytelling, creative practice, and the demands of bringing stories to the screen. Yet both share a common goal: creating tools that empower creators.
This talk explores an ongoing collaboration between the two organizations and the lessons learned while bridging the gap between the laboratory and the studio. Rather than focusing on a specific technology, we will examine the collaborative process itself: how researchers, technical directors, and creators communicate across disciplines, how artistic needs can help shape technical exploration, and how ideas evolve when exposed to real creative workflows.
Through practical examples and candid reflections, we will touch on the communication and technical challenges that arise when working on emerging technologies across organization and geographic lines, and how we are working toward solving them in our ongoing collaboration.
More than a case study, this session is an invitation to rethink how creative technologies are conceived, developed, and refined. By keeping artists in the loop, researchers and creators can move beyond a traditional developer-user relationship and toward a more collaborative model of innovation, where discovery and creativity evolve together.
How can researchers and creators build better tools together?
Join Masha Shugrina (NVIDIA) and Eloi Champagne (NFB) for a behind-the-scenes look at an ongoing collaboration between a cutting-edge research lab and an innovative storytelling organization. Through lessons learned, challenges, and unexpected discoveries, they explore a more collaborative approach to designing and developing creative tools.
