Co-Director “ Shrek the Third ” (Hong Kong, San Francisco)

For over 15 years, Raman Hui has been a major force at PDI/DreamWorks, guiding the animation team from commercials and shorts to feature films.

He started at the studio in 1989 working on various commercials and award-winning short films, which led to his position as Lead Character Designer/Supervising Animator on PDI/DreamWorks’ first full-length computer-animated feature film, “Antz.” From there he went on to serve as Supervising Animator on the Academy Award®-winning blockbuster “Shrek” , as well as the follow up Universal Studios theme park attraction “Shrek 4D.” He also went on to serve as one of the Supervising Animators on the blockbuster sequel, “Shrek 2,” which went on to become the highest grossing animated film of all time. For a brief time he served as Director of Animation on DreamWorks Television & NBC’s prime-time animated comedy “Father of the Pride.” He recently completed his first co-directing debut on “Shrek the Third” and is now working on the studio’s Kung Fu Panda animated short, “The Secrets of the Furious Five”.

During the past decade at PDI/DreamWorks, Hui has worked on a variety of 3D characters, including a CG Mickey Mouse for Jim Henson’s “Muppetvision”, the first CG Pillsbury Doughboy and a helmeted Martian who interacts with a live-action earthling for Hanna-Barbera’s television special, “The Last Halloween”. Hui also directed, wrote and produced the celebrated PDI/DreamWorks short film, “Sleepy Guy”, which has received awards at the London Animation Festival, the US International Film & Video Festival and won first place at Imagina in 1995. His latest in-house short, “Fat Cat on a Diet”, has been screened at many festivals and conferences, including the London Effects and Animation Festival (LEAF), Anima Mundi and the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival.

Hui began his animation career in Hong Kong at Quantum Studio where he worked as a cel animator. Later, he moved to Canada to study computer animation at Sheridan College.

Dr. Michael B. Johnson leads the Moving Pictures Group at Pixar Animation Studios. His group is responsible for the design, implementation and support of the pre-production pipeline for Pixar features and shorts.

This includes Story, Editorial, Art and the review process. His team works directly with the directors, editors, producers, production designers, art directors, artists and production folks who help begin the process of bringing Pixar stories to the screen.

Dr. Johnson has been at Pixar since 1993. He started off doing R&D for its (now defunct) Interactive Division, and has been working directly on feature films since A Bug's Life. He has written tools for all of Pixar's feature films, including pre-viz, animation, layout, modeling, lighting, rendering, as well as storyboarding and editorial pipeline tools.

Prior to Pixar, Michael attended the University of Illinois where he earned his undergraduate degree. He studied abroad for a year and Swansea, Wales and also worked for NCSA, Thinking Machines, IBM and MIT’s Media Lab.

He did his PhD at the MIT Media Lab, where Dr. Ed Catmull (founder of Pixar) was on his thesis committee.

Duncan Brinsmead is a principal scientist with Autodesk. He is the creator of Maya Paint Effects, Maya Hair, and Maya Toon, and received an academy award in 2008 for contribution to Maya Fluids.

More recently he has been working on Maya’s latest nCloth and the new Nucleus Dynamics solver framework.

Duncan began working at Alias in 1990 and developed the Power Animator shading user interface, digi optiFX and particle system. Much of the work he has done since then has been focused on rendering and dynamic simulations of natural phenomenon.

Before working at Alias, Duncan was an animator at Cinescan, primarily producing educational programming for TV Ontario.

Duncan has a Master’s degree in Music Performance at Juilliard, America’s most prestigious music school, and enjoys playing piano as well as creating digital realizations of symphonic works in his spare time.

Suresh Seetharaman is the co founder and President of Virgin Animation and Virgin Comics.

Virgin Comics is a character entertainment company creating original IP for worldwide audiences. It creates content for the entertainment industry for the production of Movies, Animations, Games and Merchandise.

In 2005, Sharad Devarajan and Suresh Seetharaman teamed with Gotham Chopra to invent new mythologies and spark a creative renaissance in Indian character entertainment. Joined with the visionaries Deepak Chopra and Shekhar Kapur, they formed Virgin Comics under Sir Richard Branson's Virgin group of companies. The objective of Virgin Comics/Virgin Animation was to create a platform to showcase the enormous creative talent that has been dormant in the Southeast Asian countries. Virgin Comics believes in the vision that East has the potential to culturally revolutionise the entertainment industry.

Suresh is also the co founder and Chief Operating Officer of Gotham Entertainment Group, South Asia's largest comic book publisher. He oversees the company's international operations, including production, distribution, promotions and sales.

Suresh Seetharaman's experience also includes positions as Senior Vice President and Executive Director of Clarion McCann and National Creative Director of J Walter Thompson India. Suresh is also the Founder Director of Creative Works, a creative hot-shop that has developed and built many of today's leading brands in the Asia-Pacific region.

Production Supervisor for Character Animation at Dreamworks (San Francisco)

Sue Erokan is the Production Supervisor for Character Animation at Dreamworks Animation.  

She has been at Dreamworks for 5 years, working on films including Shrek 2 and 3, Madagascar, and Bee Movie.

Sue has been in the industry for 20 years. Her previous jobs include scheduling manager at Western Images, a post-production facility and producer at PomegraniteEditorial. She also produced media for live events at Shout Creative.

Sues team of animators are currently working hard to complete Madagascar 2.

 

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Head of Global Production, Nokia Games (Toronto)

Dan Scott is a games industry veteran with over 17 years experience and currently serves as the Global Head of Production for Nokia.

Scott is responsible for managing and directing the first party games publishing department, which is building a comprehensive catalogue of innovative mobile games for the N-Gage platform. Scott joined Nokia in 2003, and was most recently Senior Producer for North America.

At Nokia, Scott has been instrumental in developing the Nokia game development and production processes and creating the N-Gage platform. In addition, he was the Producer and Creative Director for Snakes, an updated version of the classic Nokia game and the highest rated game released for N-Gage, which has since been ported to almost 20 Nokia S60 devices.

Prior to Nokia, Scott held positions at several game companies including over 10 years at Electronic Arts.
 

Masakazu Kubo is the marketing genius behind the Pokémon phenomenon and is the executive producer of the immensely popular anime television series and movies.

He is also Executive Producer of the Tokyo Anime Center and the director of Shogakukan's Character Business Center and publishing company.

Kubo-san is one of the leading industry development policy strategists on the Animatio industries to the Japanese government.

Heather Kenyon oversees new project initiatives for Starz Animation Toronto. Her extensive animation career includes serving as head of series development for Cartoon Network as well as monitoring the industry pulse as editor-in-chief for Animation World Network. There is nobody that Heather Kenyon doesn’t know.

Dale is a thought leader on the future of media consumption in an interactive and “many-screen” world of increasingly rich media interfaces. With an extensive background in Broadcast Design and branding, he was creative director of on-air design and branding for the three CBS Sports Winter Olympics broadcasts in the 1990s. Having his roots in the rich media approach to design in TV and film, he has pioneered a unique spatial approach to designing navigation systems for Interactive TV and connected screens. The work begins to blur the line between television, games and web, a concept he calls "New Television."

Dale was a part of the research team that developed the visionary gestural interfaces that first appeared in the film Minority Report, and is now leading development work in the rapidly emerging world of gestural navigation for screens at a distance. Screens have always defined unique spaces, and, particularly with advancements in stereo 3D projection and advanced AR, information can occupy these spaces. Spatial context is becoming increasingly important in design that is no longer flat: space and place are the new frontiers of design. 

Dale has an MFA from California Institute of the Arts, where in 1981 he taught the first course in Motion Graphics offered to designers in the United States. He served on the founding advisory board of the digital content direction at the American Film Institute, and was an active participant in the development of advanced prototypes for Enhanced TV at AFI for many years. Dale received one of the first ITVT Interactive TV Leadership Awards and has won four Emmy awards.

Dale was co-founder of interactive agency Schematic, which recently merged with three other agencies to become global powerhouse Possible Worldwide where he currently serves as Chief Interaction Officer. 

Graduating from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 1994, Nickson first started as a CG Animator for Future Pirates, a games developer in Tokyo, Japan.
 

In 1996, Nickson joined DreamWorks SKG and was one of the first few CG Animators involved in the early pre-production for "Shrek", which won an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film in 2001. In the late 1990s, Nickson worked with several of Hollywood's largest and renowned visual effects companies; including Sony Picture Imageworks, where he was the Lead Compositor for "Starship Troopers" (Academy Award nominee for Achievement in Visual Effects in 1997). At Centropolis Effects, where he was Lead Light/Render Technical Director for "Godzilla" and "The 13th Floor," Technical Supervisor for "Stuart Little" (Academy Award nominee for Achievement in Visual Effects in 1999), Nickson also supervised a team of FX technical directors and headed up the effects department for "The Patriot" (Academy Award nominee for Best Cinematography, Music and Sound in 2000) and Senior Technical Director for "8 Legged Freaks" and "The Scorpion King". At ESC Entertainment, Nickson was FX Technical Director for "The Matrix Reloaded" and Shot Development Technical Director on "The Matrix Revolutions", sequels to "The Matrix".

For years, Nickson carried a passionate dream to make his own animated feature, which only continued to grow as time went on. This dream led him back to his hometown in Singapore, where he founded Egg Story Creative Production (ESCP). After years of dedicated hard work and difficult times, "Kungfu Gecko" was born - an epic animated feature filled with adventure, comedy, and romance, set to be released in 2009.

A firm believer in the importance of training and education, Nickson also founded a new school dedicated to animation and filmmaking - the Egg Story Digital Arts Academy (ESDAA).

Paul Steed is a recognized industry professional with 17 years experience making computer and video games.

He has contributed artwork, art direction or creative direction to more than 33 games and 3D entertainment applications for 7 entertainment companies.

His books on modelling and animation are not only strongly considered the best starting point for any character modeller or animator, they are used as curriculum course books at various institutes and programs focused on game development. Paul has a unique insight into the games and animation industries having worked extensively for both developers and publishers across most delivery mechanisms and platforms.

Paul Steed is a recognized industry professional with 17 years experience making computer and video games.

He has contributed artwork, art direction or creative direction to more than 33 games and 3D entertainment applications for 7 entertainment companies.

His books on modelling and animation are not only strongly considered the best starting point for any character modeller or animator, they are used as curriculum course books at various institutes and programs focused on game development. Paul has a unique insight into the games and animation industries having worked extensively for both developers and publishers across most delivery mechanisms and platforms.

Paul’s work on the hugely successful 'Wing Commander' and 'Quake' series has helped establish him as a leader in game developement. Currently, as the co-founder and CCO of Exigent, one of the USA’s leading game developers, he has expanded his passion and expertise into the exciting and dominant world of outsourcing with significant interests in outsourcing in China.

A K Madhavan, the Chief Executive Officer of Crest Animation Studios Limited is credited with opening the doors for Indian Animation in the intensely competitive and demanding CGI products and services global market.

Madhavan, joined the organization in the year 1999, when the Animation Industry was an unrecognized entity in India and India’s animation competence unacknowledged in the global CGI space. He joined in the capacity of Vice President New Business Development and was entrusted with the responsibility of creating new business opportunities in the global CGI space for the Company.

Madhavan is the Chief Architect of the company’s Vision and Sales & Marketing strategy. He is the key driver of the company’s growth, and has consistently generated more revenues from the international CGI market than any of his contemporaries in the Indian Animation Space.

Madhavan’s leadership, sales and marketing competence, business insights and complete understanding of the global CGI market is the key factor in establishing Crest Animation Studio and India on the global CGI map. The fact that he got the first CGI television series to India from the US market, even when the company or the country had nothing to show to the world market is a testimony to his sales & marketing acumen, belief in the creative and technological prowess of his very talented team.

Crest’s first order was procured by him in the year 2002 and from thereon went to continuously create strategic partnerships with multiple producers of repute in the US and European Markets. The strategic alliances built with global CGI producers of repute are today reflected in the brand image of the company.

In all his sales and marketing initiatives, he has always ensured that the company’s product portfolio increased the value proposition provided to its client and stakeholders alike.

Madhavan is committed to ensuring that India is considered as a High on Value Destination for CGI products and Services in the global CGI space. He leads the Indian Animation Industry in all the government forums including NASSCOM, FICCI etc.

An exemplary Leader, a people person’s and a communicator par excellence he is the most sought out spokesperson for the Indian Animation Industry internationally.

Madhavan has a Masters in Sales & Marketing, and has decades of experience in Sales & Marketing in the IT Industry in addition to Brand Building & Advertising.

ichael Stephens is a leading New Zealand Film and Entertainment Lawyer and Board Member of the Wellington NZ Film Production Studios and Digital Post Facilities for the Wingnut Group of Companies: the producers and VFX creators of the Academy Award winning “Lord of the Rings” film series.

Michael has a great professional interest in the future of East/West co-productions and funding for film and other digital media projects. Michael is currently Chairman of the NZ-Asia Pacific Film Fund, Co-Chairman of the Korean Cinerama Trust of NZ www.koreanfilmfestival.co.nz and an Honorary Adviser for the NZ/China Film Festivals.

Tatiana started her career working in production at TVOntario in Toronto, Canada.  After 6 years, she moved to Japan and began working on the business side of the industry at NHK.  There, she secured co productions in the HD Hi-Vision dept.

Later, she moved to England where she lived for 7 years and concentrated on the Children’s Animation market.  She worked in distribution and financing at BBC Worldwide and was later named the children’s genre specialist.  At Endemol UK she was brought in to spearhead Endemol’s thrust into the children’s market but left when she became the Managing Director of Egmont Imagination UK.  Egmont Imagination UK was a subsidiary of Egmont, the largest children’s publisher in Europe.  Here Tatiana lead the distribution team and built the catalogue.  The world market fell under her remit and she was instrumental in placing and financing series like Lizzie McGuire, Paz, the Penguin for Discovery Kids US, and The Fairytaler, a Hans Christian Andersen Fairytale anthology.

She founded Bejuba! Entertainment in 2004, specializing in the executive production, financing, co-production and international distribution of children’s and family entertainment. 
 

Co Founder, CEO & Managing Editor of AnimationXpress.com (Mumbai)

AnimationXpress.com is the internationally acclaimed Animation, VFX, Gaming information portal and Business2Business company.

Anand is thoroughly networked with a 1000+ studios across India, China and the Asia Pacific and with an equal number of content buyers, distributors and outsourcing studios from the US & Western Europe. He also loves writing and traveling and is currently developing four children focused Intellectual Properties that will reach children across the globe in 2010.

Alan is a writer, director, producer and managing director. He entered television production 35 years ago after a career in photography.

He has been head of a broadcast documentary unit, director of television for a major advertising agency, he has consulted on new business development for broadcasters and media companies, he has made over 110 hours of quality television and he is on the board of Western Australian film agency ScreenWest.

The ACDI’s first innovative product is an international Virtual Super Studio that creates a round-the-clock digital content pipeline linked through a high performance computing cluster with massive rendering capacity, which will service digital visual effects production and industrial visual content, creating a technical force with exceptional cost effectiveness.

Running a digital visual effects production through a virtual studio pipeline is about creating powerful teams and giving them the fastest turnaround of their work so they can see results quickly, make corrections or improvements or approvals efficiently and move the pipeline forward. This includes effectively archiving for rapid retrieval every step of the process.

ACDI greatly enhances the marketability of productions. Visual effects productions are a high-level investment. A fast, efficient pipeline shortens the time from investment to delivery, allowing productions to get on to air or into cinemas faster to earn back a return on investment. This dramatically reduces the investor’s financial exposure and allows production companies to service more projects in a business year.

Isaac Kerlow is a visual creator who continues to pioneer the use of digital and computer technology to produce creative content.

Prof. Kerlow was recently Artist-in-Residence at Microsoft Research Asia in Beijing, China, and is the Festival Director for SIGGRAPH 2010’s Computer Animation Festival in Los Angeles.

Prof. Kerlow just completed People–Coral–Mentawai, a documentary short about earthquakes and tsunamis in West Sumatra’s Mentawai Islands. He is currently in production with Mayon: The Volcano Princess, a documentary produced by the Earth Observatory of Singapore about the people living around the Mayon Volcano in the Philippines. Recently he completed the Creative Direction of Draconika (祥龙腾飞系南洋), a large-scale animatronic Dragon Float that won the Audience Award at Singapore’s 2009 Chingay Parade, and also completed the development and preproduction for Holy Night! a Spanish computer-animated feature film.

Prof. Kerlow is also the author of several best-selling books, including the successful 4th edition of The Art of 3D Computer Animation and Effects published by Wiley and translated to Mandarin, Japanese, Russian, and Korean.

Between 1995 and 2004 Prof. Kerlow led the group of digital artists and animators at Disney Interactive and multiple initiatives related to producing entertainment with new media at The Walt Disney Company, including 3D computer animation and 24P High-Definition digital moviemaking. While at Disney Interactive Prof. Kerlow oversaw creative and production aspects of over 20 computer games including the successful Animated Storybooks (Hercules, Mulan, Toy Story, 101 Dalmatians, etc.) and action games such as Escape from DeVil Manor, Hades Challenge, and Hercules Action Game.

Prof. Kerlow’s academic career includes being the Founding Dean of the School of Art, Design and Media (ADM) at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) from 2005-08. ADM is the first professional art school in Singapore offering six BFA degree programs, including animation and film. Prof. Kerlow was also the Founding Chairman of the Department of Computer Graphics and Interactive Media at Pratt Institute in New York, and the youngest full professor ever tenured at the institution.

Eddy Wong Wang Hin, CEO and Director of Menfond Electronic Art & Computer Design, founded the company with his brother in 1990.

Famous for producing China’s first-ever computer animated TV commercial, Eddy has since produced visual effects for Jackie Chan’s Gorgeous and The New Policy Story; Jet Li’s Fearless; Twins Effect; Master Q:2001, A Chinese Tall Story and Initial D.

Under Eddy’s leadership Menfond has won numerous international awards and recognitions including SIGGRAPH’s Electronic Theatre Award; IMAGINA’s Digital Theatre Award, the New York Festival Award; the Grand Prize of the Japan International Advertising Awards; the Best Visual Effects Award from the Taipai Golden Horse Film Festival; and the Best Visual Effects Award from the Hong Kong Film Academy.

Eddy is actively focused on training new talents for the animation industry. Jointly with The Hong Kong Productivity Council, Eddy created Hong Kong’s first training program for Film Visual Effects and has to date trained over 200 new animators.

Eddy serves on the committee for the Hong Kong Council for Academic Accreditation, the Hong Kong Arts Centre and the Cyberport IncuTrain Centre.

Eddy graduated from the China Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing in 1989.

Mr Zhang is President and General Artistic Supervisor of Shanghai Fantasia Animation Company.

With an illustrious career spanning twenty five years, more than a dozen major film and television productions, and the animation industries of China and France, Mr Zhang is one of China’s most highly acclaimed Animation directors.

Mr Zhang’s award winning work includes:

Martin Morning (Vice Director) which received the China Cartoon Gold Frog Award; the Excellence Prize of the 22nd China Gold Eagle Award; the Excellent Coproduction Prize of the 7th National TV Programs Award; the 2005 Achievement Award of China Cartoon Association; and 2005 Best Animation Works of Luchon TV Festival of France.

Shaolin Wuzang (Director) which was awarded the 2004 CCIF Best Trailer Prize at the Red Stick International Animation Festival USA; the Best TV Series and Best Director Prize of the 8th Sichuan TV Festival Gold Panda Award in 2005; the Jury Special Prize of 2006 Japan TBS Asian Digital Content Competition; the China Animation Gold Prize of the 13th Shanghai TV Festival in 2007; and the best TV production of China International Animation and Digital Arts Festival (CICDAF) in 2007.

Mr Zhang’s expertise and guidance is highly sought after throughout China’s animation industries. He is an Executive Council Member, Committee of Cartoon Arts of China TV Artists Association; Executive Council Member, China Animation Association; Vice President of the Animation Academy of the Shanghai Film Art Institute; and a Master’s Tutor at the China Media University Animation Academy. Mr Zhang is a member of the Ministry of Culture’s Cartoon Industry Development Experts Committee, and he serves as an Annual Observer of the CCTV Children’s Channel. Mr Zhang served as a Juror for the 21st and 23rd China TV Golden Eagle Award, and the inaugural China Lifetime Animation Award.

Prior to his work at Shanghai Fantasia company, Mr Zhang spent eight years in France where for four years he served as the Director and Artistic Supervisor at Les Cartooneurs Animation Studio. Mr Zhang began his career at the Shanghai TV Station Animation Studio.

Wang Jing is one of China’s Animation, Media and Marketing Powerbrokers. Nominated as one of China’s Top 10 Intelligent Figures in 2007, Mr Wang was also listed in the China Top 50 Professional Managers by Global Entrepreneur Magazine in 2003.

Great Dreams Cartoon Corporation is China’s largest animation company. As the CEO of Great Dreams, Mr Wang is leading the company to create original animation works and establishing a unique children’s retail network.

Great Dreams is focused on licensing, merchandising, retail and multimedia distribution channels.

Prior to his appointment at Great Dreams, Mr Wang was Senior Vice President of the Wumart Group, Vice President and partner of Roland Berger Strategy Consultants and CEO of China Resources Vanguard Corporation. Mr Wang created the concept of “Ole’ & Vango” and successfully turned Vanguard into an incredibly profitable company.

Mr Wang’s influence across China’s retail industry is legendary. He is a member of CCFA (China Chain Store & Franchise Association) Experts and Consultants Committee and a Vice President of China Commercial Real Estate Association.

Mr Wang has been nominated as one of “China’s Top 10 Marketing Figures”, and in 2006 he was the only person nominated by Standard & Poor’s Retail Manager from mainland China.
 

Norbert Chang, Vice President and Managing Director, WDIG China, is responsible for all of WDIG’s lines of business, including mobile, online and broadband gaming. WDIG China currently has a team of over 200 staff.

Norbert joined the Walt Disney Internet Group as vice president and general manager -- Mobile in China in 2007 and he was responsible for WDIG’s mobile content business in China, including Disney-branded mobile entertainment and embedded content. He joined the company after Enorbus, the company he had founded in 2000 was acquired by the Walt Disney Company in early 2007. An early mover in the Chinese wireless space, Chang grew Enorbus to become a top mobile developer of content for many of the world’s largest brands. Before founding his company, Chang worked for UBS Warburg in its e-commerce infrastructure division where he played an integral role in the system architecture and led multiple research projects.

Born in the United States, Change earned a bachelor’s degree in Finance and Information Systems from New York University. He has also studied at Beijing Normal University and Central University for Nationalities in Beijing. Chang is based in Beijing.

Sarah is the Business Director of the Strategic Partnership Group (SPG) of Microsoft China Research and Development in Beijing.

SPG is responsible for driving the development of a robust technology ecosystem in China. This includes five different initiatives encompassing several hundred partners in the areas of software development outsourcing, hardware and device manufacturing, digital entertainment systems, systems integrators, independent software developers and the venture capital community.

A key additional component to her role is launching the China Business Innovation Center, which will focus on nurturing emerging companies in the Chinese technology industry. This will include: Intellectual Property Licensing and Ventures, MoU Commercialization and Emerging Business Consulting. Microsoft is committed to combining the investment of both mature and emerging technologies with the provision of guidance on strategy, business development, partnerships and financing. Our goal is to have a sustainable impact on the ability of Chinese entrepreneurs to cultivate their innovative business models into thriving enterprises, potentially with a path towards acquisition, merger or IPO.

Prior to joining Microsoft, Sarah ran the North American operations of a global software quality firm, where she also drove the evaluation of outsourcing options in China. Before that, she founded four companies: a manufacturer of specialty textiles, a venture backed software company, an employment process consultancy, and a corporate research firm. Sarah began her career in Management Consulting.

Sarah is a sought after speaker on technology and human capital in high growth environments. She is a regular presenter at VC Forums held throughout China by the China Venture Capital Research Institute. She is an Executive Member for the International Council for GlobalEXECWomen, and was the Chair of the Annual "International Women of Influence Awards" held in December 2007 in Beijing. She was an Executive Delegate on the AEA trade mission to China in 2006, and is a Founding Ambassador for the Georgia China Alliance. She also serves as Vice Chair for Strategic Branding for the Zhongguancun Software Association. Sarah was the 2005 President for Women in Technology, served four years on the Board of Directors for the Technology Association of Georgia, and three years on the Advisory Board for the US Government Technology Counsel.

Sarah graduated from the University of Michigan Honors College with a degree in Chinese Language and International Business. She enjoys sports, music and spending time with her husband and three children.