Industry Giants 2004: Bringing Things to Life was the third annual Industry Giants forum highlighting the latest advancements in computer graphics, animation and visual effects.
Speakers included Oscar-winning visual effects innovator Hoyt Yeatman, Jr., animator and Emmy-winning storyboard artist Dan Kuenster, Sony Pictures Animation character animator Renato Dos Anjos, and Visual Effects Supervisor Scott Gordon with CafeFX.
These industry veterans represented the talent responsible for such films as E.T., Bladerunner, The Secret of NIMH, Polar Express, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, What Dreams May Come and many others. Rita Street, managing director of Radar Cartoons, served as panel discussion moderator for the first time.
2004 Speakers
Hoyt Yeatman
Hoyt Yeatman, Jr., is co-founder of the newly created animation company Whamaphram Productions. He has contributed to the conception, design, supervision and production of special effects for more than 100 motion picture, television and commercial projects. He was one of the founders of Dream Quest Images. Hoyt won an Oscar for Best Achievement in Visual Effects for the 1989 film The Abyss. His filmography includes: Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, E.T., Bladerunner, Crimson Tide, Kundun, Armageddon, Mighty Joe Young and many others.
Scott Gordon
Scott Gordon serves as Visual Effects Supervisor withCafeFX in Santa Maria, California. Has worked on Flight of the Phoenix. Gordon has contributed to other CafeFX projects including Hellboy, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and The Core. Prior to his work with CafeFX, Gordon worked with Disney as Digital
Effects Supervisor on films including The Kid, Soarin’ Over California and Mission to Mars. As CG Supervisor with Sony, he worked on the feature Ninth Gate and served as CG Supervisor for mass illusions on What
Dreams May Come, winner of the 1999 Academy Award for visual effects. Additional credits include Scooby-Doo?, Cosmic Voyage, An American Werewolf in Paris and the creation of numerous award-winning animations for ABC, CBS, NBC, David Letterman, Fine Line Films, Cinemax, Barbara Walters and many others
Dan Kuenster
Dan Kuenster is currently Vice President Creative Services at istation. His varied background in traditional and interactive animation and storyboarding over the last 26 years brings life to The Imagination
Station, an Internet-based reading skills program. In 1998, Dan co-founded Zoom Cartoons Entertainment where he worked on Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks, which is produced by Mike Young Productions, Inc. and airs on PBS. In April of 2004, the National Television Academy presented Dan with an Emmy for his Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation as a Storyboard Artist. Dan began his career at Disney and later joined Don Bluth Studios, where he worked as an animator on The Secret of NIMH, The Land Before Time and An American Tail before directing All Dogs Go to Heaven and Rock-A-Doodle. Kuenster explored interactive media at 7th Level where he designed and directed such award-winning CD-ROM series as Lil’ Howie’s Funhouse, Ace Ventura, Timon and Pumba’s Jungle Games, and others.
Renato dos Anjos
Renato dos Anjos is Senior Character Animator for Sony Pictures Animation. He began his career in animation in 1987 at the age of 14. In his 16 years of experience Renato has worked on more than one hundred TV commercials and several animated feature films. In recent years he worked as a Directing Animator for the feature film Titan A. E. and as a Lead Animator on the Academy Award nominated Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius, produced by Dallas-based DNA Productions. Since joining Sony Pictures Animation, Renato has worked on several projects including the winner of the 2002 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, The Chubb Chubbs. He has just finished animating on Disney’s The Haunted Mansion and is currently working on Warner’s Polar Express.
2004 Sponsors
