Netflix's Eyeline GenFX Chief James Rustad: Generative AI Expands VFX Options, But Artists Still Choose What Serves the Story

James Rustad, global head of GenFX at Eyeline — Netflix's in-house VFX studio — argued at Busan International Film Festival's InnoAsia session that generative AI widens the range of possible visual effects shots but does not replace the artist's judgment in selecting which results serve the narrative. He used Netflix's "Brazil '70: The Third Star," a series with more than 1,300 VFX shots (over 800 set on a soccer field), as a working example of Eyeline's hybrid approach, which blends generative tools with established effects techniques across a team of 45 artists.

Rustad outlined a four-stage generative AI shot workflow — setup, narrative, look, and delivery — placing an explicit narrative decision point between initial experimentation and visual finishing. Prompts and reference gathering surface the possibilities; artists then assess those outputs against story needs before moving into lighting refinement, period-accuracy checks, compositing, upscaling, and technical review. That middle step, he emphasized, is where human judgment remains essential: deciding which generated results should become finished shots.