Happy Friday Workshops
You might have noticed that this year’s Irish VFX + Animation Summit is spanning three full days. This year, with the support of the Animation Skillnet and Screen Training Ireland, we’ve prepared a line up of dedicated workshops for registered attendees to give them a chance to really dive into topics like procedural effects work, animation and animation pipelines, anatomy for animation, graphic design and storytelling for film, comics and animation. Wait ’til you see who’s giving the workshops…
Andrew Schlussel
Global Head of Learning and Training: MPC
There are many pressing issues around training in visual effects both for academia and business. In this talk, Andrew Schlussel will lay out the various choices being faced, with examples from his experience in education at Pixar, DreamWorks, MPC and various colleges and universities around the world, both on-ground and on-line. From this talk, you will gain an understanding of the trade-offs that individuals, institutions and industry face when deciding on training strategies. This will help you determine your own strategy to move forward, whether for yourself, your business or your learning institution.
About Andrew
Andrew Schlussel applies his experience in filmmaking, animation, and visual effects to his career in education. He is the Global Head of Training and Development at The Moving Picture Company (MPC) in London, where he leads and creates strategy for all training at their studios around the world. He has taught classes and written curriculum for animation and VFX over the past 20 years in colleges, universities, companies and non-profits internationally as well as online. He has worked as an artist in visual effects for film, video games, iPad apps, music videos and was the cinematographer on an independent feature. Teaching classes at Pixar helped lead him to his role as education manager at DreamWorks Animation prior to his role at MPC.
Stuart Sumida
Professor of Biology at California State University San Bernardino
This half day workshop/masterclass will focus on Animal Anatomy and Locomotion for Animators and VFX Artists. Using examples from dozens of animated and VFX projects, Stuart will provide an overview of shape, structure, and locomotion biomechanics of animated characters. Key model animals will be chosen that best cover the widest range of possible animation applications. This workshop is an intensive review similar to workshops developed for DreamWorks Animation, Walt Disney Feature Animation, MPC London and Vancouver, Double Negative, and Framestore.
About Stuart
Stuart Sumida is a Professor of Biology at California State University San Bernardino. He was named CSU System-wide Wang Professor of the Year in 2008, and Carnegie Institute of Washington California Professor of the Year in 2011. He is a vertebrate palaeontologist with over 60 peer-reviewed publications, and is the most sought-after animal anatomy consultant in the animation and visual effects industries, having worked on over 60 films, video games, and theme park rides. His film credits range from Lion King, and Tarzan, to How to Train Your Dragon. Recent work includes Life of Pi, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and Guardians of the Galaxy, as well as the upcoming Zootopia with Disney Feature Animation, The Good Dinosaur for Pixar, Mrs. Peregrine’s School for Peculiar Children with Double Negative, and projects with DreamWorks, and MPC.
Register here.
Alex Williams
Head of Animation: Escape Studios, London
This half day 3D animation workshop will look at how animators create memorable and original 3D Characters? The topics that will be covered are:
- Introduction
- The Creative Process
• Spotting an original idea and avoiding cliché
• What makes a character memorable? - Design In Animation
• Clarity and contrast
• Good vs Bad design - Character Performance
• Body language, gesture and expressions
• Mime and pantomime
• Acting
About Alex
Alex Williams is a cartoonist and animator whose film credits include Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, The Lion King, The Iron Giant, the three latest Harry Potter films, and The Chronicles of Narnia. He has worked for many Studios including Disney, DreamWorks, Fox, Warner Bros, and Sony.
Alex is also the Head of Animation at Escape Studios in London, and is the founder of the online animation school animationapprentice.org. He also draws the weekly cartoon strip Queen’s Counsel which appears on Thursdays in The Times.
Register here.
Karl Erlandsen
Animator: Framestore, London
Based on a training session that Karl has given internally at Framestore, this session will give a behind-the-scenes look at the workings of Framestore’s animation department and the technology that supports it. Karl will use his experience from working on both the technical and the artistic sides of feature film production to explain what Framestore’s animators do, how they do it, how Framestore’s technology supports them, and where Framestore’s animation team fits into the overall VFX pipeline. Giving examples from the productions he’s worked on, he’ll explain what animators need to know to be able to fit into a modern VFX pipeline, and what other departments need to know to keep their animators as productive as possible.
About Karl
Karl Erlandsen is a strange breed of animator that enjoys both coding and keyframing. He’s been at Framestore since 2006 as a TD and as an animator, and has worked on a number of films including Avatar, Gravity, Robocop, Guardians of the Galaxy, Paddington, and most recently was a lead animator on Ridley Scott’s The Martian.
When not animating, Karl can often be found reporting bugs or developing tools to help his fellow animators. He has run a number of Python and PyQt training sessions over the years for artists at Framestore, and has also acted as a mentor in Framestore’s internal training program for aspiring animators.
Karl studied at the NCCA in Bournemouth University, and later at Animation Mentor. In his spare time Karl enjoys playing the piano, paragliding, mountain trekking or curling up in a corner with a good book.
Register here.
Paul Timpson
Senior Houdini Technical Director
Paul will be delving into the delights of destruction in Houdini. He will start with the basics of creating fractured chaos in bullet and how to tweak the sim, then he will dig deeper into such topics as effective glue networks and shattering techniques. Once the major sections of the toolbox are clear, he will then focus on more recent additions such as finite elements and when to use them. Throughout the workshop there will be invaluable tips and gotcha warnings. It’s going to be a blast!
About Paul
Paul is a veteran of the VFX industry. He has worked in companies such as MPC, The Jim Henson Company, Framestore and Dreamworks on features such as Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix, Robocop, 47 Ronin, Shrek 4 and Megamind. Paul has worked in Animation andVFX on three continents and VFX Summit team is delighted to have him as a speaker this year not only to avail of his FX experience but his insight into the industry as whole.
Register for your place here.
Annie Atkins & Brendan McCarthy
The session will comprise of two masterclasses that will offer perspectives of how design interacts with live action filmmaking and animation.
Annie Atkins
Graphic Designer Annie Atkins discusses the art and process of graphic design for film, and multidisciplinary collaboration on projects such as her Oscar-winning work on The Grand Budapest Hotel and her work with Laika Studios on Boxtrolls.
Annie specializes in graphic design for filmmaking. As well as creating contemporary artwork for movie posters, she also designs and makes any graphic pieces outlined by a period film script: like prison escape maps and telegrams to help create Wes Anderson’s fictional State of Zubrowka; or neon shopfront signs and fake passports for Spielberg’s new Cold War spy thriller.
Last year Annie designed the graphics for two Oscar-nominated films, the animated feature The Boxtrolls and The Grand Budapest Hotel — the latter went on to win the Academy Award for Best Production Design.
Brendan McCarthy
Brendan McCarthy studied Painting and Film at Chelsea school of Art under the celebrated British Pop Artist Patrick Caulfield.
Brendan is one of the UK’s most gifted graphic novelists. His ground-breaking comics of the early 80s (Strange Days, Skin, Rogan Gosh) as part of ‘The British Invasion’ paved the way for comics’ increasing popularity in Hollywood.
He was also one of the pioneers of computer animation, creating the visuals for the 90s computer animated TV series ReBoot, the first long-form digital narrative that preceded Pixar and Dreamworks’ later successes. He has spent more than 20 years working in Hollywood, and is the co-writer and a designer on Mad Max Fury Road.
More recently, Brendan has created new graphic novels including Spider-Man Fever (for Marvel), Solo (for DC Comics) and Swimini Purpose, The Zaucer of Zilk and Dream Gang for independent US publishers. A best-selling retrospective collection of his classic comic book work was released last year, The Best of Milligan & McCarthy.
Register for this workshop here.
