SPEAKERS

Joseph has spent most of his career at Hybride. Shortly after his training at NAD, Joseph began his career at Hybride in 1997 as a 3D generalist on the film Mimic by director Guillermo del Toro. Twenty-six years and over 70 films later, Joseph has left his mark on numerous renowned Hollywood productions, including Avatar, Arrival, Jurassic World: Dominion, the last six installments of the Star Wars franchise and the high-end TV series Jack Ryan, The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett and Andor broadcast by Disney+.
A skilled communicator, Joseph is one of Hybride’s primary spokespersons at conventions, conferences as well as for other corporate events.

Sylvain Theroux has been with Raynault since its inception in 2011. He has been responsible for pipeline development as well as technical supervision on numerous features and episodics and is particularly proud of the balance the company maintains between boutique environment and cutting edge technology.

A childhood passion for Legos and drawing architecture – especially space stations — clearly foreshadowed his work on such films as Arrival, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Thor: Love and Thunder and Free Guy.

Inspired by characters, musicians and artists noted for their appreciation of beauty, devotion, and inspiration, Sylvain thrives when the vfx serves the story purpose.

For over 25 years, Yanick has worked on high-profile projects at ILM, Lucasfilm, and Weta Digital. Yanick has an elite reputation as an Art Director that can effectively realize a director’s vision. In 2012, he was handpicked by JJ Abrams to be part of the dedicated, ongoing Star Wars Art Direction Team, and he has continued in that role since Episode VII: The Force Awakens. He is the recipient of numerous accolades and awards including the VES award for “Outstanding Created Environment in a Photoreal Feature” on Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015 and “Outstanding Matte Painting in a Motion Picture” in 2004 for his work on Pirates of the Caribbean. He was also part of the Oscar winning VFX team for What Dreams May Come in 1999.

Motivated to bring his passion for vfx to a team he could help inspire and take pride in knowing that his input has direct influence on its success, Yanick joined Raynault in early 2018.

Kelsey Wagner is a Supervising Animator at Sony Pictures Imageworks currently completing work on the highly anticipated Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

Previously, Wagner served as Supervising Animator on numerous features including: the Academy Award®-nominated The Mitchells vs. the Machines, Hotel Transylvania: Transformania, Hotel Transylvania 3, The Meg and The Angry Birds Movie and The Angry Birds Movie 2.

With over two decades of industry experience, Wagner’s additional animation credits include: The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Ratchet & Clank, Escape from Planet Earth, Arthur Christmas and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2.

Wagner attended Trinity Western University and the University of Victoria.

Alan Chen is a Look Dev. Supervisor at Sony Pictures Imageworks with two decades of experience working on live-action and animated features. He most recently completed work on the visually innovative Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

Previously, Chen served as Lead Look Dev. TD on features including: the Academy Award®-winning Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Over the Moon.

Chen joined Imageworks in 2004 and his additional credits include: Hotel Transylvania 2, Captain America, both Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs films, and Surf’s Up.

Chen received a bachelor of arts degree in computer science from William &  Mary and a masters degree in computer animation from Georgia Institute of Technology.

Katherine Pursey is the Operations Manager for DNEG Montreal having moved there from the London office. She has been in the industry since 2007, spending half her career on the artist side as an FX TD and Lead. She transitioned into an Artist Manager role in DNEG London as she took a keen interest in people’s career development and job satisfaction. She had the opportunity to move to Montreal to help establish the new office in 2018.

Zoe started her career at DNEG London in 2005, progressing through a variety of roles such as Matchmove Artist, Generalist TD, Lighting TD, and Lighting Lead. She subsequently moved to the Singapore studio as CG Sequence Supervisor before moving to British Columbia to help set up the Vancouver Studio in 2014. From then, Zoe took on the role of CG Supervisor, Head of Build, and finally Head of CG before joining beloFX as Head of CG Canada in 2021. Zoe’s creative credits include titles such as The Dark Knight, John Carter, Godzilla, Alice through the Looking Glass, and Wonder Woman.

Simulation artist, CG supervisor, VFX supervisor and, finally, Co-Head of CG, Louis-Philippe has had the opportunity to play a number of roles in the visual effects industry. A skilled communicator, he is passionate about sharing his expertise, helping practitioners acquire new skills and knowledge in the classroom and in the workplace. He has also contributed his many talents to great films such as Sympathy for the Devil and Just a Breath Away, for which he won two Iris (Quebec Cinema Awards).

As COO of Cinesite’s Montreal division, Graham heads up one of the largest independent entertainment service studios in Canada. Cinesite’s recent deliveries include; the Apple film Tetris, the Universal film Strays, and the Marvel film Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and the Disney movie Peter Pan and Wendy.

Graham was previously a guest lecturer of Creative Industries Management at Sheridan College. He also held leading management positions at Canadian creative studios Rocket Science and Mr. X.

Frederic Servant is a Director of Engineering at Autodesk and is based in London, where he looks after the Arnold, Bifrost, look development and color management development teams scattered around the globe. Previously in charge of the Arnold team, he once was the main developer of the Arnold integration in Houdini. Prior to working on Arnold, Frederic worked as an R&D Engineer at The Mill in London and La Maison in Paris.

Damien Fagnou is vice president, of software at NVIDIA, working on NVIDIA Omniverse, where he brings together his expertise in software and VFX production to help build Omniverse Kit and Omniverse Code. Previously, Damien was the senior vice president of technology for Technicolor, where he oversaw technology and software strategy for the VFX group, as well as CTO for MPC Film, working on Oscar-winning films The Jungle Book and 1917. During that time, MPC also created the VFX for the groundbreaking Lion King remake. With almost 20 years of experience in VFX, Damien looks forward to contributing to the future of graphics software at NVIDIA.

Now Senior Head of 3D at Rodeo FX, François Couette joined the company in 2016 as a Lighting Artist then moved to Lighting Supervisor and eventually department supervisor for a few years. Versatile and experienced, in his short time with Rodeo, he’s contributed to many areas of company growth such as animation, compositing, and lighting. His impressive roster of projects includes season 4 of Stranger Things, the film Zombieland, Amazon’s The Aeronauts, Marvel’s Ant-Man and The Wasp, and HBO’s Game of Thrones season 7 among many others.

Adam Lauwers is an Artist Manager and People Experience Business Partner at Scanline VFX in Montreal, Canada. He began his career in San Diego, California in 2010 as an artist before moving up to Toronto and making the transition into the people side of the industry. He has worked at multiple studios across Canada, including Method, Zoic and DNEG. Adam is passionate about the lives and experiences of those working within the industry and partners with team members on community outreach projects, mental health initiatives, and shaping/implementing policies that impact employees.

Proud of three years as a solutions architect / Technical Account Manager at Epic Games Montreal and now Mocap Supervisor at Squeeze Studios, David Hurtubise had the chance to present two Tech Talk to Siggraph with Epic Games. He has helped many companies such as Netflix, DNEG, Rodeo FX and Moment Factory. He worked as HOD in Virtual Production for Rodeo FX and Director of Technology in virtual production at MELS Studios. And on films such as Transformer 7 and Beau Is Afraid. He completed is master’s degree at NAD / UQAC. And is now starting is Doctorate in Computer Science.

Nick Marshall is a DFX Supervisor at DNEG. He has over a decade of experience in the industry, beginning his VFX career at DNEG London in 2009 as a Runner. Nick went on to spend the majority of his career as an Environments Artist and in 2015, when DNEG’s Vancouver studio opened, he made the move to North America. Shortly after, he stepped into the role of Head of Department for Environments and Generalists, overseeing work on blockbuster films including Dune and Uncharted. Nick made the move back into show supervision in 2021 as DFX Supervisor on HBO’s hit series ‘The Last of Us’. He is currently DFX Supervisor on an upcoming sci-fi sequel.

Edward Luong has been a software engineer at Pixar Animation Studios for 12 years. He has worked on developing tools for sets/environment artists as well as integrating USD into various third-party packages in the pipeline.

With over two decades of experience in animation, visual effects, and character design, Stephan Kozak is the Principal Investigator and Lead of CG, Animation, and VFX at SIRT, a nationally-funded research and technology access center situated at Pinewood Studios Toronto. His extensive knowledge of production pipelines helps production teams innovate and democratize technology throughout the screen industries. He has two patents for character pipelines and contributed to creating the first AI digital human to receive citizenship. His research centers on digital humans and immersive environments, providing the screen industry with solutions for pipelines, rendering, AI, and ML integration.

Pierre Perifel is a french film director, head of animation, character designer and storyboarder who’s spent most of his career working for DreamWorks animation. An alumnus of Gobelins, l’Ecole de l’image, he’s best known for directing the feature film The Bad Guys and the award winning short films Bilby and Le Building. Nominated for three Annie Awards and winning one, he’s started as an animator both for traditional and CG projects, before leading animation teams and taking bigger roles within DreamWorks. The Bad Guys is his feature directorial debut and is slated to release in April 2022. His work is heavily influenced by the iconography of French of graphic novels and european films, and blends the simplification of illustrative animation with the sophistication of live action staging.

Melaina Mace is a CG Supervisor at DNEG with more than a decade of experience in feature film and television VFX. With a background in digital matte painting and CG environments, Melaina is passionate about creating new worlds and enjoys the technical and creative process involved in visual storytelling. She has contributed to over 40 projects, from feature film blockbusters including ‘Wonder Woman’, ‘Deadpool 2’, and ‘The Matrix Resurrections’, to award-winning films and television series ‘Blade Runner 2049’, ‘Game of Thrones’, and ‘Foundation’.

As a CG Environment Generalist Supervisor on ‘Foundation’, Melaina received a VES Award nomination for ‘Outstanding Created Environment in an Episode, Commercial or Real-Time Project’. Melaina was CG Supervisor on the HBO hit series ‘The Last of Us’.

JP Sans, is currently a Co-Director. He most recently served as Head of Character Animation on DreamWorks Animation’s latest hit film, The Bad Guys. He made his co-directing debut at DreamWorks Animation on the animated short film Bilby, which received numerous industry accolades and awards.

Other notable projects and credits include Trolls World Tour, Rio, Rise of the Guardians and the Ice Age Franchise. Born in Venezuela and raised in Florida his love of art and acting started from a young age. This led him to pursue a career in animation achieving his degree in Computer Animation from Miami International University of Art & Design. To this day, his favorite part of animation is the unique ability to connect with audiences through acting and performance.