SPEAKERS

Jay Mark Caplan is a Creative Strategist at Tonic DNA. He comes to animation from a career in advertising in the Asia Pacific region, where he was planning director for clients such as Coca-Cola, LEGO, WildAID, H&M, and L’Oreal. He worked on large scale and award-winning campaigns for the China market, including Faces of the City for Coca-Cola (one of the first from China to be adapted globally) and helped develop a global communications planning framework for McCann New York. He is also an experienced market researcher, copywriter, and designer.

Howard Huxham joined the team in 1991, taking the well-known studio outside of the boundaries of Quebec. He introduced the studio’s high quality 2D animation services to Toronto, New York and Chicago. The studio quickly became a leading player in these markets and won a New York Festival Award and a Mobius Award in Chicago the first years. Howard became a partner in 2003.

Bernard Lajoie co-founded Tonic DNA in 1983, in Montreal. His passion for animation and strong stories lead him to associate with one of-a kind artists like Alexander Petrov, who won the Oscar for best animated movie in 2000. In 1996, he collaborated with Sylvain Chomet on La Vieille Dame et les Pigeons, winning a BAFTA and an award at Annecy Festival for best animated short movie.

Stefanie Bitton joined the studio in 2005 and has overseen development and international work ever since. Over the years, her passion for animation and production has influenced the studio’s growth and evolution through the discovery of talented directors and innovative styles and techniques of animation.
In 2015,  Stefanie Bitton became a partner and ran the company , serving as an Executive Producer. Her achievements include expanding the studio’s presence in various markets, such as Latin America, USA, Canada and Europe, as well as producing a number of prestigious local and international campaigns.

3D Animation Supervisor, has been with TONIC DNA since 2022.

3D Generalist, has been with TONIC DNA since 2017. Has worked on campaigns for McDonalds and Kellogg’s Canada, among others.

3D Animation Supervisor, has been with TONIC DNA since 2022. Previously worked on Sausage Party and The Addams Family.

Rob joined Union in 2020 as Head of CG.
Rob started his VFX career wrangling on Captain Scarlet in 2003 before landing a job at DNEG in their pipeline team.
Stints at BFC in Berlin and Framestore in London followed before he joined the FX team at MPC in 2006.
In 2012 he relocated to Vancouver rejoining MPC to work on Maleficent, Godzilla and Guardians of the Galaxy before returning to London to take up the position of Head of FX.  In this role, he worked on many notable projects including The Jungle Book (winner of the BAFTA and Oscar for Visual Effects and the VES Award for Outstanding Effects Simulations in a Photoreal Feature in 2017) and The Lion King which received nominations for Visual Effects at both the BAFTAs and Oscars and won an HPA award.

Creative Director Simon Hughes joined Union in 2012, bringing with him a rare breadth of knowledge gained from nearly two decades of experience with studios in both the UK and Canada.
Hughes embarked upon his visual-effects career in 1997, when he joined the leading London visual-effects facility Cinesite. He worked his way through Cinesite’s editorial, scanning and recording, and compositing departments before moving on to take progressively more responsible compositing roles at Double Negative, Clear Film and CIS/Rainmaker.

Scott Carroll began his feature film career 20 years ago as an Animator at Industrial Light and Magic. In 2005, he moved to Blue Sky Studios, where he animated on the Ice Age films, Horton Hears a Who, Epic and many others. After eight films, Scott became a Supervising Animator, spearheading the animation for The Peanuts Movie (2015), Ferdinand (2017) and Nimona (unreleased). In 2021, he became the Global Head of Animation at Mikros Animation where he oversees all aspects of character performance at their studios in Montreal, Paris, and Bangalore.

After 7 years as a tech artist in the game and animation industry, Julien joined CDRIN to push his curiosity further. He now holds a position as Research and Innovation Advisor, that allows him to be in contact with the innovations of the sector and to allow the industry to push the limits. Julien is passionate about new technologies, art, cinema and IT.

Chloë Grysole is an Emmy-nominated VFX expert, boasting over 25 years of experience as a visual effects producer and business manager, having worked on critically acclaimed projects such as the Harry Potter franchise, HBO Film’s Into the Storm, Skyfall, and Edge of Tomorrow. In her current role as Managing Director of Framestore Canada, Film & Episodic, Chloë is leading a dynamic growth phase, managing a packed schedule of upcoming projects in Montreal and Vancouver. Her extensive production management experience and passion for fostering excellence will be used to uphold the creative studio’s high standards across an increasingly diverse portfolio of work.

With a rich experience as an international TV & event presenter and producer, Eric is passionate about the creative industries, in which he evolves between Paris, Abidjan and Montreal.
Holder of a “VFX and Animation Project Manager” certificate acquired at the prestigious NAD school in Montreal, Eric co-founded Afro VFX in 2022, an initiative aiming to develop a VFX and Animation ecosystem in French-speaking Africa, capable of meeting local and international demand, by relying on the expertise of the Montreal industry.

Josée Chapdelaine started in the VFX industry a bit later than most. Though she began her academic career in French Literature, she went back to get a Bachelor in Interior Design and discovered a passion for 3D software in creating interior renderings. After graduation, she went right back to school to get a Bachelor in 3D Animation then promptly got hired by Oblique FX in Montreal where she was mainly doing FX and rigging. With the studio being small, she ended up touching a bit of everything and after 5 years there, she got a job at Rodeo FX, first as a CFX artist, then as a CFX lead, then as a CG Supervisor. Since the beginning of 2021, she’s been back on the CFX side as Head of the Creature FX Department and loving every minute of it.
Josée has worked on well-known productions in the past few years such as Lovecraft Country (nominated for a Creative Arts Emmy Award), The Aeronauts, Paddington 2, Resident Evil, and the upcoming The Little Mermaid.

Vincent is a multidisciplinary artist. Having worked in the past as a director, editor, and writer, he now focuses on visual effects work. A member of the AA Studios team since 2018, Vincent played a key role in the production of Megantic as he was the one who designed the look of the fire and the digital explosions.

Marc is the founder and VFX supervisor of A.A. Studios, a Montreal-based visual effects studio specializing in large-scale local productions. Marc has been working in the visual effects field since 1999 and has been actively involved in over 1000 productions as an artist and then as a VFX supervisor. Today, Marc is proud to accompany local talent throughout their creative process and deliver international quality visual effects for their ever exciting projects.

Sedelle is Global Head of Operations based at our Montreal studio. She helps drive internal business processes and strategy, overseeing operation teams across our global sites to ensure policies and processes are consistent, standardised and aligned. Sedelle comes from a background of collaborating with talent in both the music and film industry. After working alongside creative teams such as Adele, One Direction and Calvin Harris at Sony Music in London, she moved into the animation and VFX industry. Her film credits in both Production and Artist Management include projects such as ‘Dune’, ‘Peter Rabbit’ and ‘Foundation’.

Corey Smith is ReDefine’s Senior Vice President of Creative Operations, where he plays a leading part in the studio’s creative direction, providing guidance, oversight and support across ReDefine’s global projects. Corey joined ReDefine from DNEG, where he spent several years as a VFX Supervisor before being promoted to Head of CG in Montreal. As VFX Supervisor, Corey was part of the DNEG Feature Animation Division in London. Before joining DNEG, Corey spent many years at Walt Disney Animation Studios, working on projects such as ‘Dinosaur’, ‘Chicken Little’, and ‘Meet the Robinsons’, and was VFX Supervisor on ‘Gnomeo and Juliet’.

Armed with a degree from the NAD Center, Mathieu joined Hybride team 2002 as Lighting TD, Texture Painter, and Matte Painter. After moving to California, he joined the Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) team in 2006, where he collaborated on Hollywood franchises such as Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, Terminator and Transformers.

Mathieu’s feature animation experience from his work on Rango and Happy feet, two Academy Awards winners in the Best Animated Feature category, makes him an asset to his team and his extended industry know-how is valued by his peers. Mathieu came back to Hybride in 2017 and has now taken on the role of Vice President of Operations.