In the coming decade, machine learning and artificial intelligence will transform all aspects of film production and game development.
There is a tremendous opportunity today to develop a community of artists and technicians who are skilled in new ways of creating powerful images...
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...alongside their machines.
The following is a description of a new kind of company that leverages machine learning to serve film and game production.
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We are developing specific processes that meet existing needs in these industries.

We are currently seeking to expand our engineering talent and to connect with industry partners who will love what we are building.
Incorporating machine learning into content production promises not only to reduce costs but also to improve quality while freeing filmmakers and designers from cumbersome limitations.
But this is not magic.
This company will train neural networks to do labor intensive tasks but it will also train human beings
to build, select and apply those networks in a creative process.
We are building
Neural Network Based Performance Capture
Both film and game production require systems that can capture an actors performance and transfer it to a computer generated character. Many of the existing methods for doing this create encumbrances that increase production costs as well as interfere with actors.

We are currently testing a method that can recognize and recreate individual performances using a combination of a novel algorithm for producing training data and speciallized neural network architectures that learn to produce valuable inferences from images of real actors.
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We believe the resulting captured performance will not only be easier to record but also potentially a better representation of the human nuance that can allow these characters to cross the “uncanny valley” in emotion and realism.

It will also reduce the cost of producing this information, in volume, by more than an order of magnitude.

In other words, the complete merger of game development and filmmaking is coming soon and this technology creates a bridge between the two.

This will not only fundamentally change the economics of these industries but also changes the type of creative content that is possible.
We Are Hiring
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We are currently growing our team of engineers and artists for an in person research and development effort at our Los Angeles headquarters.
Please send resumes and a description of how you fit this specific effort to ian@manifoldvalley.com
Machine Learning Engineers
A strong candidate has an advanced degree in sciene, mathematics or computer science as well as can demonstrate advanced knowledge of machine learning in the area machine vision.
Haskell/Futhark Developers
A strong candidate has an in depth knowledge of functional programming, compiler design and implementation, and full stack application development using domain specific languages implemented in Haskell as a host language.
Hardware Developers
A strong candidate has a background in electronics, firmware development, and/or precision time protocol networking.
CG Artists
A strong candidate has knowledge of Blender, Houdini, Unreal Engine and/or similar platforms. Experience with scanned asset acquisition and manipulation, character rigging, and animation.
Game Engine Developers
A strong candidate has a background in game development and 3d graphics programming on platforms such as Unreal Engine.
Data Collection Artists
A strong candidate has a background in film production and cinematography with an emphasis on visual effects and 3d production.
Who Are We
Ian Bloom
Founder / CEO / Lead Developer
Ian has a unique combination of skills. A computer programmer since childhood, his family home was also an engineering firm. He has continued to develop those skills but has worked as a cinematographer and serial entrepreneur in the film industry for most of his life.
Over the course of his career Ian filmed over a dozen feature films and countless commercials. He also started a small software company which pioneered 4K raw workflows and started a post production facility in New York. His work combines a deep respect for cinema with a knack for technology.
For the past several years Ian has been focused on applying the science of machine learning to film production. His most recent software project is a GPU based rendering engine capable of producing labelled images for neural network training.
Tyler Jackson
COO / Head of Production
A veteran film producer based in Los Angeles California, Tyler is frequently on buyers side of visual effects production. With over 11 feature film producing credits including "Dragged Across Concrete", "What They Had", "Rudderless" and countless other roles in film production and post-production, Tyler is an excellent source for getting our processes to market. Formerly a Canadian and currently a great dad.