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Yining Karl Li

@yiningkarlli.bsky.social
1.5K followers 383 following 1.1K posts

Rendering Engineer at Disney Animation working on Disney's Hyperion Renderer. Previously at Pixar, Dreamworks, Cornell, Penn. Views here are my own. www.yiningkarlli.com mastodon.gamedev.place/@yiningkarlli

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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 22h
Sometime early in 2010 I found a TIGSource thread from a guy making some block game. I bought access to the "infdev" preview and subsequently went into like a fugue state for a week playing it. I don't remember anything from that week except blocks. Anyhow that was Minecraft.
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 23h
I own Factorio in my Steam library but have studiously and diligently avoided ever installing it or even downloading it and I am determined to never play it, because I know myself well enough to know that the moment I try it, I will disappear for like 3 months into that game.
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
The Phillies stave off elimination for one more day, on an Alec Bohm (of all people!) 10th inning opposite field home run. BRB, have to go fill out my Alec Bohm apology form...
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I think that if I were operating an in-demand restaurant, I would start prioritizing reservations not made using agents and put agent reservations at the bottom of the queue always, even below walk-ins. Actually I wouldn't be surprised if restaurants really started doing this.
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I'm surprised that World Labs is exiting this soon and at this price. The results from Atlas are super impressive and are ahead of anyone else doing 3D-native models; I would have expected an acquisition by a frontier lab or maybe a merger with Yann Lecun's lab. www.theverge.com/tech/1001749...
theverge.com
AMD is acquiring AI company World Labs in a deal worth more than $8 billion
Another big AI acquisition.
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Never thought we’d get an official new dimension in vanilla Minecraft before GTA VI.
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Every once in a while I think about how the Oakley Sunglasses guy sold his company for billions, but then instead of going into politics or whatevs, he did the irrational but utterly awesome thing of starting his own digital cinema camera company from scratch, which was RED.
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
No EVF is a huge mistake with this one. If it had a rangefinder-style corner EVF, this would have been an instant-buy for me. Instead, it has both no EVF and a worse LCD than the regular Z5II. For me it's back to considering the Fuji X-E5 or the Sony a7C II again. petapixel.com/2026/09/23/n...
petapixel.com
Nikon Z5 IIC Review: Smaller, Prettier, and Mostly Capable
Oh EVF, how we miss thee.
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
In everything I've watched/read by Terence Tao, I've always been struck by the patience/humility he shows. He wrote a great article years ago about how he almost failed his PhD quals and what that taught him about humility and working hard: www.ams.org/about-us/Liv... (page 96)
ams.org
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Huge correction: this photo is from Citywalk, not BFI! The photographer (as watermarked in the image) is Taylor Umphenour, who is the projectionist at Citywalk. I had mixed him up in my head with the BFI guy.
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I finally saw The Odyssey in 70mm IMAX. What an astounding piece of filmmaking. I think it's easily Nolan's best film to date. I can't reiterate enough just how amazing the 1.43:1 70mm film IMAX GT experience is. (Pic is from the BFI IMAX screen, but I saw it at Citywalk in LA)
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Here's a neat free procedural rock generator tool that got released earlier this week. This is very cool and very handy! Especially since I just happen to be modeling something at the moment for a hobby project that requires a lot of rocks. tools.kogus.dev/rockstone/
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I'm not a Leica guy personally, but I think it's super admirable how Leica offers servicing for every camera they've ever made going back 100+ years. Sure it might be super expensive, but at least they offer it at all. That's standing by your product! www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7dh...
youtube.com
Repairing a 100 Year Old Camera
YouTube video by Leica Camera
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
One really cool thing about this camera is that even though it is 30 years old, it is fully AI enabled. The AI on this camera makes it so much easier to use, and lets me get photos that don’t think I’d have gotten without AI assisting. (1/2)
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Update on this: I (somewhat irresponsibly) bought a Nikon F4 and I got it with the optional waist-level viewfinder module, and now I totally get it. This is super fun to use, and the F4's focus assist / autofocus makes it actually practical.
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
This week's Animation Obsessive has an interesting/thoughtful article about how modern releases of animated movies originally released on film should look. Should they look like the original cels/digital data, or like the film prints? (1/2) animationobsessive.substack.com/p/disneys-fi...
animationobsessive.substack.com
Disney’s Films Used to Look Different
Plus: news.
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Sigma just put out this video that is like... I guess an animated showcase of technical schematics for their lenses and cameras set to music? Anyhow I have no idea what it is for but boy does it look super cool and go way harder than it has any need to! www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvs9...
youtube.com
Light Assembly
YouTube video by SIGMA
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
I'm a bit disappointed that the (counter)proof of Navier Stokes smoothness did not take the form of Terence Tao's idea to build logic gates out of fluid and then build a Turing machine and convert the whole problem into a programming problem. That was a wildly creative idea.
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Back in college when I wrote a FLIP solver, I had to add dampening hacks to deal with cases where the sim would blow up due to bugs in my implementation that I couldn't figure out. But now I can just say "well Navier Stokes isn't guaranteed to always have smooth solutions". 🤣
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
…is it just me or does it feel like an overwhelming majority of photos shot using Cinestill 800T are just of gas stations at night?
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
If you’re someone like Elizabeth Holmes, I can’t even begin to fathom why you’d pick Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim of all people to make a documentary of you. “You Can See Everything” goes straight to the top of my most anticipated films of the year. www.vanityfair.com/story/nathan...
vanityfair.com
Nathan Fielder's Elizabeth Holmes Doc Met With Shock and Awe at Secret Screening
”I really am struggling to this day to understand exactly what I experienced,” says Fielder, who lived with the Theranos founder and her family in the days leading up to her imprisonment.
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Not going to lie I kind of super admire this and this sounds like I’m really going to like it. There’s something fun and wild about a museum that is just one guy’s voice and it’s just the stuff that he likes, damn whatever the critics think. Disclaimer: I have a Lucas Museum founding membership.
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
I feel like there are three things that are simultaneously true about GPT-6 Astra’s ability to use Blender and stuff: 1. It is very impressive 2. The results are still very far away from what human artists can do 3. What it can do is likely already enough for many applications
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
All of the superconductor experts that emerged two years ago with the LK99 stuff are now suddenly experts in Navier Stokes today. I sure wish I could become an expert in complicated stuff as quickly as them!
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
I somewhat accidentally got into the Apple TV Silo series. What an incredibly well made show! Super smart writing and pacing, fantastic acting, and amazing production design and cinematography work. Other mystery box shows should take note that this is how it should be done.
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
So on one hand I love the idea of waist-level viewfinders on film SLRs, but on the other hand... on a 35mm SLR, how does one get anywhere near to accurate manual focus with a waist-level viewfinder? Itseems too small to judge focus well unless you just shoot f/22 all day?
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
I can't help but wonder how things could have turned out if Disney hadn't sold the Angels in 2003 and had instead kept the team, built a new stadium in a corner of the current Angels lot, and used the rest of that giant piece of land for a third park in Anaheim.
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
I'm really looking forward to whatever technical presentations Rockstar hopefully will do about GTA VI rendering tech at GDC and SIGGRAPH next year. They really cooked with this one.
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
I watched the GTA VI extended look thing. As a professional rendering engineer, my opinion is: GTA VI has the most incredible realtime graphics I have ever seen, and by quite a margin. It's mind blowing that this is running on a PS5. Huge congrats to the Rockstar team!
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
M6 has not two but three CPU core types: super, perf, and efficiency cores. Hopefully that finally clears things up for folks who were under the misconception that super cores were just a rename from perf cores when they're really a different design. www.apple.com/newsroom/202...
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Every day I feel better and better at having gotten a M4 Mac Mini when it was still $499. The new M6 Mac Mini's base price is the highest base price I can remember for a Mac Mini.
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
I dusted off my dad’s old film SLR recently and gave shooting film a try for the first time, and unfortunately I really like it. Unfortunate because shooting film is a whole new rabbit hole to learn about when I’ve already got a zillion other rabbit holes going.
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
I still occasionally think about how half of Prometheus was a 11/10 high-concept sci-fi movie tackling super interesting themes but the other half was like a 4/10 Alien movie. It feels like two completely different movies superglued together.
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Michel Gagné is a living legend of traditional hand-drawn animation, and for the past 14 years he’s been solo animating a feature film. It looks amazing; the expressiveness of character animation and the spectacle of the FX work are a sight to behold! youtu.be/clVY3TacXWA?...
youtu.be
I Spent 14 Years Hand-Animating a Feature Film — THE SAGA OF REX | Official Trailer
YouTube video by Michel Gagne
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
It's interesting/alarming/saddening to see how a bunch of smart peers who have taken up hardcore anti and pro AI positions have become increasingly detached from reality. Both sides share nothing in common in terms of core beliefs, but are identical in how they spiral towards extremes. (1/4)
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
I’m sure the Bluey Movie is going to be great, but the CG art style is tripping me up a bit. The original show has a very distinctive and charming 2D style. Here’s a great article about the intentionally 2D design, art direction, and animation of Bluey. www.itsnicethat.com/features/how...
itsnicethat.com
How we built Bluey’s world: tales from original series art director, Catriona Drummond
Catriona walks us through the creation of the beloved cartoon’s scenery and backgrounds, from its dollhouse proportions and subtle doggy details, to its distinctly Brisbanite atmosphere.
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Kitbash3D acquires Artstation and Sketchfab from Epic Games. A pretty surprising move, but also, I think Kitbash3D is going to be a great steward for these. kitbash3d.com/pages/kitbas...
kitbash3d.com
KitBash Acquires Sketchfab and ArtStation | KitBash3D
Build extraordinary 3D worlds with over 20,000 premium 3D assets. Trusted by top film studios, game developers, and digital artists worldwide—and now available on Cargo—our Kits jumpstart your creativ...
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
I think the Oscars should add a MVP Award for whoever contributed the most at a consistently high level to every movie they worked on in that year, open to all categories. I also think the first MVP winner should be Robert Pattinson. youtu.be/_ngs24AMCo8?...
youtu.be
The weird thing every Robert Pattinson movie has in common
YouTube video by Archer Green
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
I've come to really dislike the "[Statement]. No [X]. No [Y]. No [Z]. Just [statement]" construction that a lot of AI generated text uses. It just doesn't sound like how any actual human I know writes or speaks.
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Reposted by Yining Karl Li
Todd Vaziri @tvaziri.com · 07/08/2026
just checking in with this BACKROOMS- tons of VFX OBSESSION- so many digital effects its VFX supervisor is presenting at View Conf. DEVIL/PRADA 2- 5 VFX shops MICHAEL- full CG animals interacting with humans, VFX concerts ODYSSEY- more VFX than people realize SPIDER-MAN- tons of VFX, huge hit
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
If you have a jailbroken M1/M2 iPad, you can now run honest to goodness full-blown modern macOS on it. Only catch is that it only works with iPadOS 16. 🤯 github.com/nfzerox/Virt...
github.com
GitHub - nfzerox/VirtualMacOniPad: People have dreamed of running macOS on iPad for more than a decade. Today, that dream comes true. With Virtual Mac, iPad finally breaks free from iPadOS, enabling p...
People have dreamed of running macOS on iPad for more than a decade. Today, that dream comes true. With Virtual Mac, iPad finally breaks free from iPadOS, enabling pro apps like Xcode and Terminal ...
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
They’re going to build a statue of Andrew Friedman in front of Dodger Stadium some day, and when they do it should be this pose.
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Another recent Animation Obsessive article that I really like: this one about Hayao Miyazaki's gorgeous image boards. Miyazaki's image boards aren't storyboards, but they're not fleshed out concept art either; they kind of sit somewhere in between. animationobsessive.substack.com/p/the-image-...
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
A huge part of the problem with big tech is that at the highest levels it's almost entirely run by people who would rather do this than just talk to their kids.
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
I wish Apple would make an option to pay to add additional seats to an iCloud Family Sharing plan beyond the max 6 members. That would make it so much easier for when you're the designated family person managing accounts across 3 generations of family or if you have a big family. I'd pay for this.
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Being a parent to a toddler has given me strong opinions about children's TV shows: * No TV at all: best option if possible * Mr Rogers: the gold standard * Bluey: very very good * Ms Rachel: acceptable * Coco Melon: from the depths of hell. Letting kids watch this is borderline child abuse.
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
I feel like at least 85% of why I want to get Halo: Campaign Evolved is for the sheer novelty of playing a Halo game on a PlayStation. Hell hath frozen over solid indeed.
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Oh well that's easy for me. I think I've seen Back to the Future like at least two dozen times. Back to the Future is pretty much as close to a perfect film as there is.
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
This week's issue of Animation Obsessive features a wonderful article about Studio Ghibli's color designer, Michiyo Yasuda. Her work was just gorgeous; I really admire how Ghibli films keep a more toned down natural palette without going muddy/murky. animationobsessive.substack.com/p/the-artist...
animationobsessive.substack.com
The Artist Who Colored Ghibli
Plus: news.
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Yining Karl Li @yiningkarlli.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Another SIGGRAPH/DigiPro thing I liked: Weta's new fire solver from Avatar 3. As usual for Alexey Stomakhin's work, this was astoundingly cool. Neat trick: to make the fire tornado spin, regular forces didn't work well, so they... spun the world instead. dl.acm.org/doi/epdf/10....
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