One of the biggest events in the calendar, every year Escape Studios hosts The VFX, Games and Animation Festival. Now in its 7th year, it’s known as a celebration of the creative industries and a showcase of talent.
In response to industry needs, the 7th year of our annual festival brings an exciting new format, to deliver the most relevant content. The VFX Festival 2019 will consist of events taking place in February and June 2019 and all are targeted at different audiences. The VFX Festival 2019 will include a number of talks, keynote sessions, workshops, exhibition spaces and panel discussions from talent across the industry, as well as lots of networking opportunities.
The VFX, Games and Animation Festival also focuses on the wealth of changes taking place in the creative industries and how these elements are diversifying and changing to adapt to the future. The festival will explore new trends and changes in technologies such as VR, AR and motion capture.
More details about new format of The VFX Festival can be found here.
6th February to 7th February 2019
Purcell Room, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX
*Programme for The VFX Festival Emerging Talent:
DAY 1: Wednesday, 6 February 2019
08:30 – Doors Open
08:30 – 16:00 – Exhibition Zone Open
09:00 – 09:15 – Welcome / Opening Talk
Ian Palmer, Dean Escape Studios
09:15 – 10:00 – The Journey of Digital Doubles in Netflix’s The Innocents | Jellyfish Pictures
Dave Cook, Head of 3D; Jeremy Booth, Compositing Colour Pipeline TD; Jason Hayes, 2D Lead
10:15 – 11:00 – Magic for Massive Battles in Total War: WARHAMMER II | Creative Assembly
Steph Anderson, VFX Artist
11:15 – 12:00 – TBC | The Mill
Guest Speakers TBC
12:45 – 13:30 – Panel Discussion: Careers and recruitment – Games | Supported by Access VFX and WeAreStripes
>> Chair: Simon Fenton, Head of Games Escape Studios
> Nigel Ang, Technical Art Director at Rare Ltd
> Mike Christian, Art Director at King
> Kish Hirani, CTO of Terra Virtua
> Gina Jackson, Head of Games at The Imaginarium
> Saul Marchese, Art Director at Climax Studios
> Tara Saunders, Head of Studio Operations at PlayStation London Studio
13:45 – 14:30 – ‘Game of Thrones’ Season 7: Orchestrating the Frozen Lake scene | The Third Floor
Michelle Blok, Previs Supervisor
14.45 – 15:30 – Getting into games – My Journey | Climax Studios
Matt Duff, Senior Lead Designer
15:45 – 16:30 – Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald | Framestore
Christian Manz, VFX Supervisor Framestore’s Creative Director, Film
16:30 – Closing and end of the event
DAY 2: Thursday, 7 February 2019
08:30 – Doors Open
08:30 – 16:00 – Exhibition Zone Open
09:00 – 09:15 – Welcome / Opening Talk
Ian Palmer, Dean Escape Studios
09:15 – 10:00 – MPC Character Lab: An Introduction to Movie Monsters | MPC Film
Rebecca Melander, Head of Assets; Damien Guimoneau, Modelling Key Artist
10:15 – 11:00 – How we created Virgin ‘Depart The Everyday’ | ETC
Dean Robinson – Head of CG
11:15 – 12:00 – Use of RealTime in FX | AXIS Studios
Michael Zaman, Realtime Supervisor
12:45 – 13:30 – Making Elton John: Digital Faces in ‘The Boy and The Piano’ | MPC Advertising
Jessie Amadio, VFX Supervisor
13:45 – 14:30 Panel Discussion: Careers and recruitment – VFX and Animation | Supported by Access VFX
>> Chair: Andrew Brassington Head of Strategic Projects
> James Cook – Global Head of Talent, DNEG
> Simon Devereux – Founder and Director, ACCESS: VFX
> Maya Lad – Talent Acquisition, The Mill
> Clare Norman – Executive Producer, Milk VFX
> Paul Wilkes – Global Head of Talent Management, MPC Advertising
> Tory Wire – Head of People, Union VFX
14.45 – 15:30 – The Magic Behind Mamma Mia! Here we go again | UNION
Simon Hughes, Creative Director
15:45 – 16:30 – The Real-Time Revolution with Blue-Zoo | Blue-Zoo
Tom Box, Co-Founder / Managing Director
16:30 – Closing and end of the event