Industry Giants 2008 - Industry Giants

Mike Anderson, supervising director for The Simpsons joins professionals from Sony Pictures Imageworks, Digital Doman, Rhythm & Hues and Radar Cartoons for the Industry Giants 2008: Drawing on Ideas! Visual Effects, Animation and Game Forum. The event takes place Friday, June 6 and Saturday, June 7, 2008 on the Spring Creek Campus of Collin County Community College, 2800 Spring Creek Parkway in Plano, Texas. It’s open to the public, students and industry professionals.

Hosted annually by Collin’s Applied Graphic Design Technology department and the computer graphics, animation, game development non-profit, A Bunch of Short Guys, Industry Giants 2008 features MasterClasses and a one-day forum and panel discussion. The event features a distinctive lineup of speakers working in all areas of animation and visual effects for film, television and games.

Mike B. Anderson

Mike B. Anderson, supervising director on The Simpsons, graduated from UCLA Film School in 1990 with an MFA degree in animation production. That same year he joined the The Simpsons crew as a Background Clean-up Artist. Working his way through the ranks, he did character layout, storyboarding, timing, assistant directing, and in 1996 graduated to directing. Between 1996 and 2007, Mike directed 22 episodes of The Simpsons as well as being a Storyboard Consultant and Artist Supervisor. In 2006, Mike was a sequence director on The Simpsons Movie and in 2007 was a supervising director on “The Simpsons Ride” at Universal Studios. Mike won Emmy awards for directing the episode, Homer’s Phobia (1997) and in 2001 for Hom’r. In 1997 he also won an Annie award for “Outstanding Achievement in Directing” and in 1998 the World Animation Celebration award for “Best Director of a Prime Time Series”.

Alan Chan

Alan Chan, senior technical director at Sony Pictures Imageworks, most recently completed environmental look development on Beowulf. Prior to Beowulf, Chan served as senior technical director on Open Season. Chan began working at Imageworks in 2001 as a technical director. His other credits include The Polar Express, Bad Boys 2, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and Sony Pictures Animation’s first animated short film and Oscar-winner for Best Animated Short Film in 2002, The Chubb Chubbs!. Prior to Imageworks, Chan was a digital artist at Digital Domain where he worked on Titanic. He began his career at Station X Studios as a visual effects supervisor for commercials. Chan received his B.A in Mass Communications from Phillips University.

Johnny Gibson

Johnny Gibson, digital effects supervisor with Digital Domain, has 14 years of experience in animation and visual effects, and has amassed an impressive body of work. Gibson’s most recent film is Speed Racer, which was directed by The Wachowski Brothers. Johnny previously served as technical director on the blockbuster film Transformers and as effects technical director on the sequel Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. His other credits include Stealth, Star Trek: Nemesis, The Time Machine, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, X-Men, O Brother Where Art Thou? and Titanic. Gibson also served as cg supervisor at Tippett Studios on The Matrix Revolutions. He was also a game developer and programmer at The Walt Disney Company, and Johnny’s first experience in animation was on the 1994 television series Iron Man.

Piyush Patel

Digital Tutors is an innovator and leader in video-based training for emerging digital artists. The award-winning educational solutions developed by the team of educators and industry professionals at Digital Tutors are currently being used by students, professionals, universities, and production companies worldwide. Artists from the top studios are utilizing Digital Tutors’ training solutions and services to assist in the creation of next generation feature films, commercials, video games, visual effects, and emerging media. Digital-Tutors maintains strategic relationships and partnerships with Autodesk, Softimage, Pixar, Next Limit, Side Effects, Pixologic, and Adobe in the development of the software and education materials. Learn more at: digitaltutors.com

Rita Street

Rita Street is the president of Radar Cartoons, a producer’s representation firm specializing in the development and sales of original animation content. Radar has placed numerous shows into development including Ruby Gloom for YTV and Nelvana, Frankenstein’s Cat for the BBC, France 3 and McKinnon & Saunders, and Hero: 108 for Gamania Digital Entertainment, Mike Young Productions and Cartoon Network Europe. Rita is working on her first animated short, Mock ‘n Boyd with Dainty Productions. Additional credits include work as publisher of Animation Magazine, editor of Film & Video Magazine and author of the Rockport Publisher hardback, Computer Animation: A Whole New World. Rita is the founder of the international non-profit organization, Women in Animation.

Farhez Rayani

Farhez Rayani is a Senior Lighting Technical Director at Rhythm & Hues, where he was involved in Look Development for Best Visual Effects Academy Award winner: The Golden Compass. A career spanning 12 years in visual effects, Farhez’s other credits include: The Incredible Hulk, Happy Feet, Superman Returns, Harry Potter 4 and Disney’sThe Wild. Prior to entering film production, Farhez was a member of the r+d team for Maya at Alias|Wavefront (now Autodesk), and also worked on the company’s other technologies: mental ray for Maya, Power Animator and Composer. He recently served as a consultant for Adobe during the development of Photoshop CS3 and is also a professional photographer.

David Schaub

David Schaub, animation director at Sony Pictures Imageworks, has worked in the animation and visual effects industry for more than 15 years. Recently, Schaub served as the animation supervisor on I Am Legend where he was responsible for overseeing all of the animated elements in the film. Previously, he served as animation director on Academy Award-nominated Surf’s Up, Sony Pictures Animation’s second all-CG feature-length animated film. The film also received two ANNIE awards, and was nominated for four VES awards. Other credits include The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, The Polar Express, Stuart Little 2, Evolution, Cast Away, Hollow Man, Stuart Little, and Patch Adams. Schaub has received two Accolade Awards as well as nominations by the American Film Institute and the Annual DVD Awards. He has presented his work through numerous publications and conferences around the world.

A Bunch of Short Guys would like to thank all of its sponsors over the years. Without you, Industry Giants could not happen.