The VFX Festival Emerging Talent

Come in, have a look around the Escape Studios campus and start networking with other attendees.

Dr Ian Palmer, Principal at Escape Studios, opens the 2023 edition of Emerging Talent.

Join Anelia Asparuhova, VFX Supervisor at DNEG, as she takes you behind the scenes of Netflix’s fantasy film The School for Good and Evil. Anelia will share insights into how DNEG’s visual effects helped to transform the Theatre of Tales, showcase a range of Cyclops’ facial expressions, develop Sophie’s signature blood magic and, of course, create a chocolate fireball! Find how a magical mixture of FX simulations, compositing work, environment builds, and animation brought The School for Good and Evil to life on our screens. 

An introduction to Freefolk and the career paths of two senior members of Freefolk’s team. A breakdown of the work on Netflix series Winx: The Fate Saga that reached number one on Netflx Top TV Programmes in multiple countries. And the difference between working in commercials and episodic with case studies.

Takeaway: 

• What it’s like to work in an independent studio
• The difference between working on commercial and episodic
• How the magical effects in Netflix’s Winx: The Fate Saga were brought to life through CG and 2D Comping

In this session, David will cover BlueBolt’s work on The Northman from visionary Director Robert Eggers.

We're based in Holborn, in central London, with plenty of places to choose from in the local area.

Hear an invaluable advice from industry professionals representing a range of roles and experience. This session will help you navigate the various disciplines, as our panelists will discuss a range of topics and share their top tips about how to get started and succeed in the screen industry.

Panelists: 

• Saint John Walker, Director of Industry Engagement at Escape Studios (Chair)
• Simon Carr, Creative Director at AXIS Studios
• Davi Stein, Technical Trainer at Industrial Light & Magic
• Harriet Edge-Partington, Talent and Recruitment Manager at Union VFX
• Dasha Sherman, Producer at Koala FX
• Outpost VFX, speaker to be added shortly  

In this session, Hamilton Lewis the Head of Creative from The Third Floor will discuss the show team's work on Marvel’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Hamilton will take us behind the scenes to explain the visualisation process used to achieve ambitious shots and sequences. 

Watch this space! Details for this session will be added shortly.

Watch this space! Details for this session will be added shortly.

Watch this space! Details for this session will be added shortly.

Dr Ian Palmer, Principal at Escape Studios opens this second day of amazing talks.

The Andor series explores a new perspective from the Star Wars galaxy, focusing on Cassian Andor’s journey to discover the difference he can make. The series brings forward the tale of the burgeoning rebellion against the Empire and how people and planets became involved. It’s an era filled with danger, deception and intrigue where Cassian will embark on the path that is destined to turn him into a rebel hero. Scott in his session will cover work delivered by Industrial Light & Magic.

Scott Pritchard, VFX Supervisor at Industrial Light & Magic

Scott Pritchard was one of the first artists to join Industrial Light & Magic's new London studio in 2014 for Avengers: Age of Ultron. Since then he has worked on a number of features including Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame. In 2019, he joined the Industrial Light & Magic TV department as Visual Effects Supervisor for Brave New World, before going on to supervise The Stand, The Pale Blue Eye, and the latest Star Wars Episodic series, Andor. 

Hannah and Jonathan, from Union VFX, will be talking you through the work we did on episode 1 of Marvel's Moon Knight for Disney+ During the presentation they will focus on some of the complex shots that showcase the range of environment and DMP work Union VFX did. They will also cover some of the development challenges we faced and the general workflow we used to approach the work. Keep an eye out for the speeding cupcake!

Hannah Kenton, CG Generalist at Union VFX

Hannah graduated in 2018 from Bournemouth University with a BA degree in Computer Visualisation and Animation. After graduating Hannah joined MPC as a Technical Animator but her main interest was to work as a Generalist. Hannah ended up getting hired by BlueBolt and has been working as a Generalist since 2019. She has worked at a number of different studios and across a variety of projects including live action and feature animation. In 2021 Hannah re-joined Union VFX and became part of the core team earlier this year. Whilst Hannah has experience working across multiple 3D disciplines she now has a focus on CG environments and assets. Hannah is also a great baker and often makes the team tasty treats!

Jonathan Wannyn, Environment Lead at Union VFX

Jonathan grew up in Belgium where he studied 3D Animation. After graduating with a generalist skillset, Jonathan moved to London in 2017 and joined Squint VFX as a CG Generalist. In 2018 Jonathan joined Union VFX as a Junior Environment Artist. Over the last 4 and a half years he has worked his way up to senior level and has been an Environments Lead since 2020. During the years Jonathan has worked at Union VFX, he has worked on projects such as Mamma Mia 2, The Mauritanian, The Wheel of Time and more recently, Moon Knight. 

Watch this space! Details for this session will be added shortly.

We're based in Holborn, in central London, with plenty of places to choose from in the local area.

Many great directors honed their craft in commercials- where surprising and delighting audiences within seconds needs a particular set of skills. VFX and animation imagery from a good commercial can stay with you for years and be part of the culture - think about Meerkats or Elton John in Snickers' You're Not You When You're Hungry, or recently Will Ferell as Elf in the Asda Xmas advert. The excitement of the fast turnaround and ability to try something new are mentioned as why VFX artists and creatives like working in commercials. We gathered together a few of the UK's best studios to run us through their favourite commercials and tell us why you should consider joining them!

Watch this space! Details for this session will be added shortly.

Meet the Blue Zoo Talent Team as they discuss what’s on, what they look for in applications, and life at the Zoo. Attendees will learn the talent teams top tips on how to make a strong application, and what the recruitment process looks like at Blue Zoo. It’s also a great opportunity to ask questions to the team directly during the Q&A. 

Lauren Deakin, Talent Acquisition Manager at Blue Zoo

Lauren recruits externally for several departments across the studio, working closely with hiring managers to identify the most suitable & awesome talent to join us. She also leads on presenting at virtual recruitment events, provides the team with regular recruitment statistics, and continues to implement our hiring system, Eploy. 

This session will provide you with insights into Union VFX, current and future roles.

Harriet Edge-Partington, Talent and Recruitment Manager at Union VFX

Harriet joined Union VFX as Talent and Recruitment Manager in 2019 where her ability to uncover multi-talented recruits who are also a great fit quickly earned her a change of title internally to ‘Head of Unicorn Discovery’. Harriet, who holds a foundation art degree from the University of Gloucestershire, began her VFX career at DNEG in 2013 as Recruitment Administrator, supporting the wider recruitment team day to day. From there she progressed to interviewing artists, recruiting and retaining VFX talent holding roles as Talent Acquisition Partner in the Film, TV and Feature Animation divisions. During her six years at DNEG, she was heavily involved with the creation, development and running of the annual Greenlight Scheme under which DNEG offer graduate programmes and summer internships. Her passion for encouraging diversity and inclusion resulted in an invitation to become a founding Non-Executive Director of ACCESS:VFX - a role she has maintained since joining Union. She is also one of Union’s Mental Health Champions.  

2022 was the year of Virtual Production - a series of tools built around Games Engines that started to revolutionise the way VFX, Film and TV were made. Major studios were calling out for artists who knew Unreal Engine to come and work for them. Things move fast - its 2023 and all sorts of interesting productions have started to use VP in new ways. We invited some of the worlds pioneers to talk about where the technology is going and show us examples of the amazing work being made here in the UK.