LIAF 2021: UK Animation Industry Event Session 5: Animation in Real time: the rise of the engines

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LIAF presents the 2021 UK Animation Industry Event – six panels giving insider access to some of the hottest topics of the year. We’ve gathered together some of the most passionate, honest and insightful experts from a wide range of different areas and backgrounds who are ready to cover all manner of vital topics to give you much food for thought.

Animation doesn’t stand still; and debates and discussions with animators and creative experts are the best way to get in touch with what’s happening, whether it’s a look into the minds of some of the most creative forces making music videos in the 2020’s, the advance of games engines, teaching kids with animation, how to get more people with disabilities into animation roles, current UK funding opportunities and a deep dive into the technology behind the Netflix series ‘Love, Death and Robots’.

For anyone currently working in the film and animation industry, thinking of working in the industry or just plain curious, these six talks are indispensable.

The panels will be chaired by Saint John Walker, Deputy Dean/Director at Escape Studios and Julian Scott, animation consultant at Film London.

LIAF 2021: UK Animation Industry Event Session 5: Animation in Real time: the rise of the engines

Traditionally, 3D Animation has been laborious and often meticulously planned, certainly never instant – you need patience and plenty of time to render to top quality. But could that all be in the past with the advance of Games Engines like Unity and Unreal that offer new freedoms to animators, without loss of quality? Come and hear from the animation companies and animators who have embraced the real time engine revolution and see their work; hear what using a games engine does for their creative processes and bottom line. 

Chaired by Saint John Walker – Deputy Dean/Director at Escape Studios, the UK’s leading VFX, Games and Animation industry training institution in the heart of London.

Panellists

Chair:  Saint John Walker – Deputy Dean/Director at Escape Studios

Saint is the author of the Core Skills of VFX Handbook and has designed and run VFX courses across the UK. He has been LIAF’s industry panel coordinator and chair for several years, as well as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. At Escape he has chaired panel discussions for the annual VFX Festival, and has taken part in many Access:VFX activities online and in person.

Phil Stewart – Head of Realtime at BlueZoo

Phil is Head of Blue Zoo Animation’s Realtime department where he co-ordinates and performs research and development in emerging Realtime technologies. This includes realtime rendering, developing VR animation solutions, and motion-capture. He has previously worked as a pipeline-TD, technical director, lighting/rendering supervisor, production designer, layout artist, and pure generalist in the computer animation industry on a range of projects including short films, TV shows and commercials.

Michael Davies – Programme Leader for Animation at Escape Studios

Michael has worked in VFX for over 10 years as a freelance artist and for leading studios including Double Negative, Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), The Mill and Prime Focus. His experience of working on VFX blockbuster films such as Batman vs Superman, Doctor Strange and Thor Ragnarok led him to investigate real-time technologies whilst at Escape Studios. Michael’s main area of expertise is based on work as a Character TD, involving a deep knowledge in modelling, texturing, rigging, and CFX but he has also worked as a Generalist and Supervisor. In 2021 Michael wrote the curriculum for Epic Games/Escape Studios’  Summer of Unreal event for Animators across Europe, and is now Head of the MA in Character and Creature Creation.

Hasraf ‘HaZ’ Dulull – Co-founder, HaZimation

HaZ started his career in Video games before moving into Visual Effects, and then later transitioning over to Directing & Producing with his breakout feature film THE BEYOND, the indie sci-fi was released in 2018 and was number 2 in the iTunes Charts before being licensed on Netflix and turning into a profitable movie. His second feature film – 2036 Origin Unknown, starring Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica, The Mandalorian) earned a limited Theatrical release before landing on Netflix. He was then hired by Disney to helm the pilot for action comedy series Fast Layne, where he also served as EP / Creative Consultant on the entire series. HaZ is the co-founder of production company HaZimation producing animated feature films, series and video games based on their propriety pipeline utilising Unreal Engine.

He is represented in Hollywood by The Vendetta Group.

Boyan Georgiev – Lighting Artist at DNeg Animation & Vice-Chair of the London ACM SIGGRAPH Chapter

Boyan is an experienced CG artist working on various productions from TV, feature film to animation. He has worked some of the major studios in London such as Blue Zoo, MPC and for the past couple of years at DNEG. Boyan pecialises in Lighting and Compositing and has been involved in projects such as The Lion King, Ron’s Gone Wrong and various TV shows. He explored the capabilities of real-time technologies at DNEG through Unreal Engine working on a short film by academy award winning director William Joyce for the film Mr Spam Gets a New Hat. As Vice-Chair of the London ACM SIGGRAPH Chapter, Boyan oversees the activities of the chapter, and reaches out to potential partners, sponsors and event opportunities.

Event supported by Film Hub London, managed by Film London. Proud to be a partner of the BFI Film Audience Network, funded by the National Lottery.