beloFX Takes The SIGGRAPH Stage!

27 Jul 2026

Our team lit the SIGGRAPH Production Session stage on fire last week.

beloFX Head of CG Zoe Cranley and Asset Supervisor Phil Bonner spent the session taking audiences deep behind the scenes of our Oscar-nominated VFX work on The Lost Bus — walking through the creative and technical decisions that shaped some of the film's most demanding sequences.

The talk began with an overview of the Unreal Engine previs and look development work untaken by our beloFX team — before the film was even greenlit! By building a large scale “digital twin” of Paradise, California, our team enabled virtual scouting and production planning to support director Paul Greengrass' vision from the earliest stages.

This part of the talk included a look behind-the-scenes at the interactive traffic system our team used to create one of the central challenges our heroes faced: getting out of Paradise. Additionally, our speakers explored beloFX's use of Unreal Engine's VCam to achieve the film's "Ember Cam" shots, wherein the camera moved as though it were part of the fire itself — achieving the director's vision of personifying the flames.

Following this, Zoe and Phil broke down the various technical and creative challenges that went into transforming this previs work to finals, from complex asset rigging, to major FX and finishing challenges.

Here's what our speakers had to say after the Production Session:

Zoe Cranley, Head of CG "I had such a great time presenting at our first ever SIGGRAPH Production Session. None of it would have been possible without the incredible team at belo. I'm proud of what we built together and grateful to have had the chance to show it off on that stage."

Phil Bonner, Asset Supervisor "It was a pleasure to show off our incredible team’s hard work and world class artistic chops at SIGGRAPH. It’s a rare honour to dig into the details of our craft with such a savvy group and who care as much about VFX as we do."

A huge thank you to SIGGRAPH 2026 for the opportunity, and for the great photos from the session. And to everyone who came out to support the team and learn more about our work — we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

Missed the talk? Watch our VFX Breakdown for The Lost Bus below:

Go Back