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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

Francois has worked in the visual effects industry for 25 years during which he worked as a generalist 3D artist, technical director, set supervisor and CG supervisor. He also participated in the development of the USD pipeline as pipeline architect and then head of pipeline at RodeoFX. He is now a professor at the NAD school of digital arts and a consultant in USD pipeline and color management.

Following an international journey in visual effects from Spain to Australia and back again, Javier Roca joined Rodeo’s Montreal team as VFX Supervisor in 2021 where he tackled the challenging project of bringing the Stranger Things digital upside-down world to live audiences in Stranger Things The Experience. He has worked with some of the biggest directors in the industry such as Steven Spielberg and Luc Besson and has contributed to many award-winning projects like X-Men Jours d’un avenir passé (2014), L’impossible (2012), Seul sur Mars (2015), and Monde jurassique (2015).

Lisa Purisima is an American/French Canadian award-nominated VFX producer. Known for The Morning Show (2019), Big Little Lies (2019), Disenchanted (2022). Lisa has over a decade of experience producing for major studios including Lionsgate, HBO, Netflix, Disney, WB.

From her first moments in entertainment, when actor Steve Martin described her work as “flawless” in 2010, Lisa knew she had found her life’s calling. That is until she took a far more challenging and fulfilling role as a mother. Unwilling to choose between these two vocations, she approaches her demanding work and home environments with enthusiasm.

Robert Rioux, known as Blender Bob in the VFX industry, boasts over 25 years of experience in the field of visual effects. He has lent his skills to renowned companies such as Rhythm & Hues, Atomic Fiction, and Method Studios, garnering a wealth of knowledge and expertise. With over 30,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel, he has become a go-to source for VFX artists. Currently, he holds the position of Director of Innovation and Technology and CG Supervisor at Real by FAKE.

Graduated from UQAT with a Major in Visual Effects and a personalized Minor, as well as from the NAD Centre, Pierre has been working in the field of visual effects since 2009 and is also a lecturer at UQAT. As a passionate speaker about his profession, he knows how to captivate and convey his knowledge to his audience and students. Pierre has worked on several major productions in recent years and was nominated for a VES award in 2017 for Black Sails 3.

Étienne is a team manager and senior developer with established skills, rooted in a strong history of working in the VFX and animation industries. His particular focus is on innovation, providing quality code and development processes to strengthen the film, 3D and Animation pipelines.

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.

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.

Dylan Sisson is a digital artist with over two decades of experience in VFX and animation. He began his career animating commercials, creating game cinematics, and honing his skills with award-winning independent shorts. In 1999, Dylan joined Pixar and has been instrumental in the development of Pixar’s core rendering technology, RenderMan. Dylan is also the creator of the RenderMan Walking Teapot.

Aside from his work at Pixar, Dylan is constantly pushing the boundaries of digital art by exploring new frontiers in VR, AI, and 3D printing, and has made a name for himself as a creative innovator in the industry.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Jonathan Bouchard is currently serving as CTO of Reel FX, a studio specializing in animation, visual effects, and immersive experiences. Prior to joining Reel FX, he held leadership positions at several companies, including Mokko Studio and Digital District.

As CTO of Reel FX, Jonathan oversees the company’s technology strategy and drives innovation across its portfolio of projects.

Jonathan is an active member of the technology community, serving as a mentor to young engineers. He is also a member of several professional organizations, including the SIGGRAPH and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).

I wanted to be Batman, but because I’m not a rich boy with cool karate moves… I settle for the second-best job… Sr. VP, Real-Time Production at Reel FX! I have been implementing my “HOP” arsenal over 3 continents and for more than 25 Earth rotations around the sun. I love cartoons, people, planning, and solving problems and I love art and technology. So now, I am in charge of this brand-new Real-Time pipeline division at Reel FX.

Nathaniel Larouche is the son of steampunk magicians. (No, really.) This Canadian VFX Supervisor was born and raised near Montreal, where he enjoyed being the weird kid, filming everything in sight, and experimenting with editing and stop motion animation. He studied computer graphics in Toronto and realized that VFX was a medium that combined everything he enjoyed: artistry, creativity, and technical wizardry. Most recently, Nathaniel has supervised In-camera VFX for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Star Trek: Discovery, Becon 23…and a couple other productions he’s not allowed to talk about. (Sorry!)

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.

Marc-André is a veteran in the animation industry with over 35 years of experience. He has worked with TONIC for more than two decades on a variety of projects spanning from TV commercials, series, and feature films. His credits include Space Jam: A New Legacy, Apple TV+’s Central Park et Disney+ Disenchanted. Marc-André is proficient in many aspects of the animation industry, from stop motion, motion graphics, 2D, and 3D animation.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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’.

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.

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.

Olivier studied at the ATM – École supérieure en Arts et technologies des médias in Jonquière, Québec from 2008 to 2011. After completing his internship at Hybride, Olivier officially joined the team as an assistant in 2011. In 2014, he joined the compositing team and was promoted to Compositing Supervisor in 2020. Since then, Olivier has contributed to the success of numerous blockbusters and series such as The Mandalorian, Invasion, Jurassic World: Dominion and Andor, the latest series from the Star Wars universe now streaming on Disney+.

After completing his training at La Cité in 2008, David began his career as a 3D artist at the Coopérative de travail 1-20MÉDIA in 2009. He started teaching 3D Master Classes at La Cité in 2011 where he stayed for three and a half years, sharing knowledge on different techniques, methods and practical skills and fostering students’ ability to evolve in their artistic aesthetics. David joined the Hybride team as Senior Modeler in 2015, became Lead Modeler in 2020 and in 2022, he was promoted to Asset & Environnent Supervisor. He has contributed to the success of several film productions and series such as Jurassic World : Dominion, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Andor and Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan.

Ex-generalist who became highly interested in shaders and optical physics. Coming from a game marketing background, Maxime joined Framestore as a modeler and had the opportunity to push and explore the boundaries of lookdev and all its related workflows.

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’.

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.

Dylan Sisson is a digital artist with over two decades of experience in VFX and animation. He began his career animating commercials, creating game cinematics, and honing his skills with award-winning independent shorts. In 1999, Dylan joined Pixar and has been instrumental in the development of Pixar’s core rendering technology, RenderMan. Dylan is also the creator of the RenderMan Walking Teapot.

Aside from his work at Pixar, Dylan is constantly pushing the boundaries of digital art by exploring new frontiers in VR, AI, and 3D printing, and has made a name for himself as a creative innovator in the industry.

David has over 25 years of experience in the media and entertainment industry. He contributed to the Visual Effects Society community as an active board member for the past 10 years.

He started as a technical help and support at a software reseller and has since co-founded three companies related to the industry. During this period, he worked on a few movie productions .He also taught Maya in few schools and university in Montreal.

David helped found and grow the biggest Autodesk M&E partner in Canada, 3vis, and played a pivotal role in growing their M&E portfolio offering at Scalar after the 3vis acquisition. He is currently building a worldwide M&E strategic business for Hypertec.

Philipp Wolf is the Executive-In-Charge, Corporate Strategy at DNEG based in Montreal. He has worked on projects such as Dune and Glass Onion: A Knife’s Out Mystery. As a VFX Producer, Philipp has collaborated with directors such as Guy Ritchie, David Yates, and Shane Black. He is a Member of the VES Board of Directors, Co-Chair of the VES Health & Wellbeing committee, and Co-Chair of the Animation and VFX committee at the Producers Guild of America. Philipp started his career producing shorts, gained recognition with a VES Award nomination, and worked on notable projects such as Game of Thrones, The Mummy, and Godzilla.

As Founder and CEO of Gasolina Studios, Joe has collaborated in animated shows like Rick & Morty, Little Angel, and Carl’s Car Wash with companies like Bardel, Moonbug Entertainment, and Skyship Entertainment.

He is also the Executive Producer of My Brother the Monster and other shows on Gasolina Studios’ development slate. In addition, he has helped many creators worldwide bring their ideas to life.

Before founding Gasolina Studios in 2012, Joe developed video games and participated in live-action and theatre projects.

Jonathan Bouchard is currently serving as CTO of Reel FX, a studio specializing in animation, visual effects, and immersive experiences. Prior to joining Reel FX, he held leadership positions at several companies, including Mokko Studio and Digital District.

As CTO of Reel FX, Jonathan oversees the company’s technology strategy and drives innovation across its portfolio of projects.

Jonathan is an active member of the technology community, serving as a mentor to young engineers. He is also a member of several professional organizations, including the SIGGRAPH and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).

In addition to a Ph.D. in Film Studies (Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris), JP Flayeux also holds a minor in Anthropology from Indiana University. He then worked for over twenty years in the video game industry and film visual effects industry before becoming a professor at UQAT in Montréal. In addition to his technical and artistic expertise, he wishes to engage in academic research and theory. Developing caring team and leadership during students’ project is also one of his goal.

Francois has worked in the visual effects industry for 25 years during which he worked as a generalist 3D artist, technical director, set supervisor and CG supervisor. He also participated in the development of the USD pipeline as pipeline architect and then head of pipeline at RodeoFX. He is now a professor at the NAD school of digital arts and a consultant in USD pipeline and color management.

Martine Bertrand obtained her Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Ottawa in 2012. As an industrial research scientist, she then went on to tackle challenges in a number of areas including computational chemistry, natural language processing, medical imaging, and computer vision. In the last six years, she has developed an expertise in computational approaches falling under the large umbrella of Artificial Intelligence (AI). She also has a passion for science popularization which led her to teach the fundamentals of physics to future visual effects (VFX) artists and life scientists on multiple occasions. She joined DNEG as Senior AI Researcher in 2022 where she’s now exploring novel approaches to keep dazzling audiences around the world.

Jeremy Robert has 15 years of experience in visual effects and recently oversaw the work on NOPE, delivering 675 VFX shots. This included the alien, cloudscapes, and a new approach to converting plates shot during the day into night. ​

Prior to this, Jeremy was MPC’s VFX Supervisor on Steven Spielberg’s re-imagination of West Side Story.

Before joining MPC in 2019, Jeremy spent 12 years at BUF, where he worked on Blade Runner 2049, Shane Black’s The Predator, X-Men Apocalypse and the acclaimed TV Series American Gods. ​

His career began in 2006, working as a CG Generalist, before becoming an On-Set Supervisor.