Industry: Third annual Irish VFX & Animation Summit, November 20-22

Details have been announced for the third annual Irish Visual Effects (VFX) & Animation Summit, in partnership with Animation Skillnet and Screen Training Ireland. Following on from last year’s massively successful event which hosted over 350 delegates, this year’s event will span three days with delegates attending free of charge to hear the cream of world leaders in the industry discuss their high-profile work on this year’s blockbusters.

The Summit will celebrate the world of Visual Effects and animation, with the first screening in Ireland of the new Disney / Pixar film The Good Dinosaur. This will take place along with talks, workshops, masterclasses, discussion panels and Q&As with award-winning VFX and animation professionals including cutting edge talent from both Ireland and around the world.  Demand is expected to be significant for tickets, which are free for the 2015 event.

As well as the continued collaboration with Screen Training Ireland and Animation Skillnet, Enterprise Ireland, Grant Thornton and the U.S. Embassy Dublin are also event supporters this year. The 2015 event expects to increase the number of attendees to over 400, making it the largest event ever hosted in Ireland to focus on the Visual Effects and animation industries.

Confirmed speakers at this year’s summit include high profile industry figures such Jim Morris, President of Pixar Animation Studios, who will give a keynote speech at the event. Prior to joining Pixar, Morris held a range of key positions in various divisions of Lucasfilm Ltd. He served as President of Lucas Digital Ltd. and managed its two divisions, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and Skywalker Sound. As ILM’s General Manager for more than ten years, he supervised a staff of over 1400 artists and technicians, and guided the largest visual effects facility in the entertainment industry.

Some confirmed speakers at this year’s summit include renowned industry figures such as Neil Weatherly, CG Supervisor at Framestore who will give a presentation on The Martian; Kevin Baillie, CEO of Atomic Fiction, CEO of ConductorIO for cloud rendering and VFX Supervisor on The Walk along with other world industry leaders in the VFX and animation fields. Other presentations at this year’s Summit will include discussions on films such as Ex-Machina; The Martian; Avengers: Age of Ultron; The Walk; and Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur..

The annual VFX & animation summit will promote the VFX and animation trades within Ireland, to create a wider dialogue between existing and aspiring VFX and animation professionals and to offer training and support to those who wish to join the industry.  The event’s success depends upon the support and participation of the key players in the industry: the established Irish VFX and animation studios and their artists, the film and culture supporting bodies and the aspiring, young students who want to be tomorrow’s professionals. With this support both existing and new talent in Ireland will benefit enormously from this annual conference.

Event Founders Laura Livingstone and Eoghan Cunneen, drawing on their experiences at a number of high profile VFX facilities across the UK, Canada and The United States, are certain that there is a genuine opportunity to develop and sustain a world-leading VFX industry in Ireland.

[quote title=”Laura Livingstone – Irish VFX & Animation Summit, Founder”]A career in VFX and animation can be rewarding and exciting. We want to show prospective students that it’s also accessible.  We’re bringing the most relevant speakers to Ireland to showcase the work done on the largest productions and future proof our talent at home, exposing them to state of the art techniques and production workflows.  To celebrate Irish achievements recently, we note that Ireland has been receiving worldwide recognition for its contributions to Visual Effects and Animation with Cartoon Saloon receiving its second Oscar nomination for their feature animation Song of the Sea. At the same time, Alan Holly and Eoin Duffy were on the Oscar nomination shortlist in 2013 and 2014 respectively.[/quote]

The Irish VFX & Animation Summit’s mission is to celebrate the Visual Effects (VFX) and animation industries within Ireland and beyond. To create a stronger dialogue between existing and aspiring VFX and animation professionals and to offer training and support to those who wish to join the industry. Ireland has a strong history of producing world-class talent in the arts and film in particular, with the production of indigenous films increasing at pace in recent years. This history, coupled with ongoing success in producing talented and successful engineers, software developers and computer game professionals, creates a range of talent that can contribute to our homegrown VFX and the wider film industry. Tickets are limited, free of charge, and can be accessed here:

http://vfxsummit.com/ – /tickets/

The full schedule will be announced shortly.