Creative Technologist · Gen AI Workflow · Virtual Production
Software engineer and cinematographer, working on set. I build the tools a production needs on the day — an AR previz app on iPad, a multi-camera witness system on iPhone, a six-camera volumetric rig, whatever the shot needs. Now focused on Gen AI workflow.
01 — Selected Work
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Season 3 — HBO
Built the AR application used on set to place a live 3D previz of the dragon into the shot in real time, giving the crew an in-camera reference for framing and eyeline before a single frame was rendered.
Read the full case study →02
HBO
Designed and built Apollo, an iOS witness camera system that drives up to fourteen iPhones from a single iPad — synchronised cameras, batteries on screen, files named to the slate before they exist. Every take uploads itself to a shared iCloud folder: nothing to rename, nothing to back up.
Read the full case study →03
HBO
Designed and built a six-camera Azure Kinect rig hidden inside the set, capturing an actress's performance as a point cloud live during the take — not in a capture volume afterwards. Calibrated in under sixty seconds, between takes.
Read the full case study →04
Sony Pictures Entertainment
Most recent position. R&D at the intersection of real-time engines, on-set capture and generative AI workflow — prototyping the tools that shorten the distance between what is shot and what is delivered.
02 — Cinematography
Lighting and lens tests built in Unreal Engine — one performer, one key light, and a top-down of every setup. Hover a frame to see the rig that made it.
More real-time and Unreal Engine work on ArtStation — Move AI Night Club Unreal × ComfyUI Daily log All projects ↗
03 — Gen AI
Anime sequences made for the FIFA World Cup 2026 — national rivalries staged as a sports saga, built with ComfyUI, Higgsfield, Seedance 2.0, GPT Image 2 and Nano Banana. The models render it. The shot list, the performances and the cut are the job.
04 — Capabilities
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05 — About
Hey — I'm Emal, a French coder with a love for art and cinema.
I started out in Paris at TBWA, building websites and iPhone and iPad apps for Nina Ricci, Chloé, Etam, OPI, SNCF and Air France. Then I moved to London, for apps built around gigs, events and sport — Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea FC, SSE Wembley Arena, The O2.
I was enjoying myself, but cinema and theatre had never gone away. I acted on stage and in a lot of short films, and worked camera and lighting on corporate shoots — so I know a set from both sides, and what the crew standing on it actually needs.
In September 2021 I took a call about building a volumetric capture rig for an HBO show, and that was the start of the VFX half of my career.
Five years later I'm focused on Gen AI workflow, and on building anything that helps a director, a DoP or a VFX supervisor do their job on the day.
06 — Contact
Based between Paris, Nice and London — open to work anywhere in France or the UK. I hold the right to work in both the UK and the EU, so there is no visa or sponsorship to arrange.
emal.vfx@gmail.com
