Dr. Ian Palmer, Director at Escape Studios 

Henry Badgett, VFX Supervisor at BlueBolt 

About session

Following the work as primary VFX vendor on the first season of Cobra, BlueBolt were brought back on board this time around to create a total of 260 VFX-heavy shots for the Sky Atlantic show. The session will take a look at the key VFX of the series, starting with an underwater explosion which causes a CG tidal wave to sweep across a seaside town. 

About speaker

Henry Badgett joined BlueBolt at its inception in 2009 as a 2D Supervisor on Game of Thrones Season One and is now one of their main VFX Supervisors. To date, he has supervised various projects such as Peaky Blinders (BBC/Tiger Aspect), War and Peace (BBC/The Weinstein Company) and Taboo (Scott Free/Hardy Son and Baker), both on set and leading a team of artists in-house. Henry has won a BAFTA TV Craft award for his work on Great Expectations and has received numerous nominations, including nominations for a Primetime Emmy, VES and an RTS Award. 

Gordon Curtis, CG Supervisor at Framestore

About session

From epic mountainscapes to microscopic detail (and a few ultra-cute CG goats), find out how Framestore helped heighten the edge-of-the-seat action of The King's Man. 

About speaker

Gordon Curtis is a CG Supervisor working from Framestore's London studio. He graduated from the Glasgow School of Art with a degree in fine art before pursuing a masters degree in computer animation at Bournemouth University. His Framestore career spans more than 15 years, with projects to benefit from his deft touch and artist's eye including The Dark Knight, Gravity, Thor: Ragnarok and His Dark Materials, as well as numerous entries in the Wizarding World franchise.

Lauren Barnes, Talent Acquisition Manager at Blue Zoo

About session

Attendees will get to learn more about Blue Zoo, what we look for in applications and any top tips to improve application. 

About speaker

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. 

Saint John Walker, Deputy Dean at Escape Studios 

Saint is Deputy Dean of Escape Studios and has been working at the interface between the animation, computer games, and VFX industries and higher education for over 25 years. He has designed courses for institutions such as the National Film and Television School and University of the Arts, and has been an external examiner, written articles, mentored and led and managed a range of industry facing education ventures. 

Joe Duffy, Regional Talent Acquisition Lead at Technicolor 

With over five years of experience in Talent Acquisition, Joe Duffy's is now Europe's Regional Talent Lead within Technicolor Creative Studios, Joe oversees a pool of VFX talent managers across our award-winning film, episodic, and advertising studios based in London & Berlin. Joe's extensive experience in HR, recruitment and his personable approach to individuals makes it easy for you to find the right opportunity, regardless of where you are in your VFX career. 

Panos Theodoropoulos, Senior VFX Producer at BlueBolt 

Panos is a Senior VFX Producer at BlueBolt, involved with all aspects of production and assisting with the smooth execution of projects. He started at BlueBolt in 2014, moving up the production ladder to eventually produce a multitude of shows. His VFX Producer credits at BlueBolt include Peaky Blinders Series four and The Last Kingdom series three, among others. Panos moved to ILM London at the beginning of 2019, as a Producer for the TV department. He stayed with ILM for 2 and a half years before returning to BlueBolt in June 2021.

Among the shows he produced at ILM is the recently VES nominated series, The Stand. Panos has a thorough knowledge of the creative and the technical VFX process, and a wealth of experience with bidding, scheduling, and client liaising. He holds a Master of Arts in Management from Durham University and a BSc in Public Administration from Panteion University. He also took part in one of the first Producing for VFX courses run by Escape Studios. 

Callum Harwood, Surfacing Artist at Blue Zoo 

Callum is currently working as a 3D Surfacing Artist at Blue Zoo Animation in London. In 2015 he graduated from The University For the Creative arts Farnham before gradually transitioning into a career as a Freelance 3D generalist on a variety of projects for 3D Animation, AR, VR , Mobile apps and Feature Film credits. In 2020 Callum completed his Masters Degree in 3D computer animation at Bournemouth University's National Centre for Computer Animation. Shifting his focus to shading and look development. 

In 2020 he joined Blue Zoo where he worked as a Surfacing Artist and in the Finalising Department for Magic Light Pictures Christmas Special "Superworm". He is currently working on a currently unannounced project at Blue Zoo!

Gina Jackson OBE, Founder of GameDev Bootcamps 

Dr. Gina Jackson OBE founder of GameDev Bootcamps was awarded an OBE in the 2020 Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to diversity and education in the Video Games industry, has recently received the MCV/Develop Women in Games award for her outstanding contribution and has a fellowship from Norwich University of the Arts for her contribution to the UK Video Games Industry. Gina started in games development in 1992 and has worked for developers, publishers, and distributors covering console, PC, and mobile games. She is passionate about diversity, games education and mental health with a particular focus on games development and production management and process. She is a trustee of GamesAid, sits on the board at NextGen Skills Academy, is Visiting Professor in Games Industry and Business at the Norwich University of the Arts and is an advisor to several games developers.

Sarah Tanner, Operations Director at Jellyfish Pictures

Joining Jellyfish Pictures as HR Director in 2017, Sarah Tanner brings over 15 years’ experience of high-level HR strategy planning. Working within the leadership team, Sarah has been a crucial part of streamlining Jellyfish Picture’s rapid growth plans, overseeing a company expansion of over 100%; ensuring a structured employee engagement strategy. As of 2020, Sarah has taken on the role of Director of Operations, overseeing all operations and resources, in addition to her HR responsibilities. As well as her work at Jellyfish Pictures, Sarah is active across industry associations including, UK Screen Alliance, Animation UK, Screen Skills and Access: VFX. 

Laraib Atta, Digital Compositor at Industrial Light & Magic 

Laraib Atta is a Digital compositor based in London and working at Industrial Light & Magic at present. She studied at Escape studios and began her career at the age of 19. Some of the recent projects she worked on include No Time To Die, Fast and Furious 9, Tenet, Chernobyl and Marvel’s Wanda Vision. 

She has previously spoken at several major conferences in Pakistan, Canada, USA and London for motivating young generation, empowering women and representing minorities in the creative industries. At present she is working at ILM full-time and has previously worked at Framestore, DNEG, Aardman Animations and the Mill. 

Hugo Guerra, Director and VFX Supervisor 

Hugo Guerra is an award-winning Director and VFX Supervisor. After finishing his Fine Arts degree, he worked in Portugal and Sweden before moving to the UK where he was a freelancer for several years. In 2010 he joined The Mill London as a VFX Supervisor and as Head of the Nuke Department where he worked with clients like Audi, Adidas, Nike, IKEA, Panasonic, Discovery Channel, Sony, Activision and Ubisoft, to name a few.

In 2014 Hugo joined Fire Without Smoke as a Director and Visual Effects Supervisor, working on trailers for games studios like CCP, Ubisoft, Deep Silver, Square Enix, Sony, Warhammer and many others. Most recently Hugo worked as a VFX Supervisor for Sony PlayStation and worked as a Film Director for Rebellion Studios directing the cinematic trailer for Sniper Elite 5. He is also very active as a teacher and lecturer of Visual Effects, making keynotes in festivals all over the world in partnership with BenQ, Foundry, ActionVFX and Ftrack. Hugo is also a content creator on YouTube and Twitch with his channel Hugo's Desk and he is the co-host of the VFX Notes Podcast with Ian Failes from Befores & Afters.

He Sun, Head of VFX at Rebellion Film Studios

He started his career in the game industry, contributing to games franchises such as James Bond: GoldenEye, Dead Space, and Sniper Elite 5. Alongside the game experiences, Sun also stepped into VFX for Film and TV. His credits include The Lion King (2019), The Mandalorian (2019) and Maleficent: The Mistress of Evil (2019). In late 2019, He established the VFX division at Rebellion Film Studios in South Oxford, UK. The studio is emerging with the technology between the real-time game engine and USD based VFX workflow, offering high-quality VFX for film/TV, CGI trailer, cinematic, and virtual production. 

About speaker

Joanne has a background in animation, having graduated in 2012 from the École Supérieure des Métiers Artistiques, (ESMA) Montpellier in France, where she co-directed the independent short film Origami. She then joined Rumble, a London collective of 2D and 3D artists dedicated to make their own creative content and stories alongside advertising projects. For three years as an animator, she worked closely with directors and story-boarders which reinforced her passion for composition and camera work. She joined The Third Floor London office in 2015 and has since worked on numerous projects, such as Dumbo, Paddington 2, and the seasons 7 and 8 of Game of Thrones. Most recently she has supervised Shadow and Bone, the Netflix series and an upcoming HBO production.

Joanne is a highly-skilled character animator with a wealth of experience in all areas of visualization. Thanks to her background, she has strong animation, composition and lighting skills, whilst her time working on Game of Thrones Season 8 has equipped her with extensive techvis skills. 

Steven Sevo, Admissions Coordinator at Technicolor

About session

In this session, Technicolor who works with creative and technology leaders in content creation, distribution and consumption to seamlessly deliver experiences worldwide will introduce you to their Academy.  

They offer access to virtual learning for the next generation of visual effects artists around the world through their Academy. The courses prepare you for a career in visual effects by working with industry experts on their creative, technical, procedural, and soft skills. They also provide a great opportunity to gain experience and expertise to build upon as you progress in your career. Upon completion of the course you will have the opportunity to directly apply for available roles at Technicolor Creative Studios. 

About speaker

Steven Sevo an Admissions Coordinator for Technicolor Creative Studios, he specializes in recruiting entry-level artists and support graduates by offering world class training and mentoring through academy programs. Our team’s guidance and passion deliver a positive learning experience that will encourage your career’s growth and knowledge.