Ask Me Anything: VFX Pros Tell All

Vice President, Recruitment, Talent Development and Outreach at Nickelodeon

Camille Eden joined Nickelodeon as Vice President, Recruitment, Talent Development and Outreach in January 2020, where she leads the recruitment for Nickelodeon Animation, finding and placing new talent that will help develop a growing slate of series and feature productions.

Prior to her current role, Eden spent nearly a decade at Walt Disney Animation Studios as a talent acquisition and outreach manager. There, she built a reputation for promoting diverse and inclusive hiring practices while helping staff projects like FROZEN and FROZEN 2, WRECK-IT-RALPH, MOANA and BIG HERO 6. Additionally, she’s worked across recruitment and production at Sony Pictures Imageworks, DreamWorks and her current home, Nickelodeon.

Since returning to Nickelodeon, Eden has developed a recruitment culture for the studio and continued her work in bringing a diverse lens to hiring the best talent at all levels, partnering with internal departments on learning growth and development and sharing with the world what an amazing place Nickelodeon Animation is to work.

Eden’s team has staffed roles on both big kids and preschool animation across television and movies, including SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS, THE PATRICK STAR SHOW, RUGRATS, BIG NATE, STAR TREK: PRODIGY, BLAZE AND THE MONSTER MACHINES, MONSTER HIGH, TRANSFORMERS: EARTHSPARK and many more to come.

Artist, Animation Director, Filmmaker

An Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) VFX Executive Branch member, Lyndon boasts a long career in art and animation. His film credits include The Matrix Trilogy, Happy Feet and The Thing, where he directed pivotal character animation sequences in those features and many others. He currently wins accolades for his unique gum wrapper sculptures and stop-motion animations of historic figures and events, whose portrait and Sportrait films are produced entirely on iPhones. Within the art world, his work has been featured in major institutions from the Pérez Art Museum Miami, to the MOCA Los Angeles, the Massachusetts MOCA, and most recently added to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s permanent collection. Subjects of his work range from gender inclusion in the FIFA World Cup, to America’s Covid-19 crisis, racial uprisings and elections of 2020.

Producer and InclusionFX Founder

Audrea Topps-Harjo has worked in the entertainment industry for almost thirty years. She has worked for Sony Pictures (CONTACT, STARSHIP TROOPERS), Cinesite (X-MEN 2), Electronic Arts (MEDAL OF HONOR), WETA FX (RISE OF THE PLANETS OF THE APES, THE HOBBIT), and James Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment (AVATAR SEQUELS). She produced three independent films (SECRETS, ALL IN, THE AVAILABLE WIFE) and served as Mind & Machine’s VFX Producer on Ridley Scott’s (RAISED BY WOLVES). Audrea served as COO at A44 Games (FLINTLOCK) in Wellington, NZ and while there founded InclusionFX (IFX) which is a platform designed to support and amplify underrepresented voices in the VFX for features, television and games industries. Audrea continues her work with IFX, while producing independent feature films and now resides in Washington, DC.

Senior Vice President of Lucasfilm Visual Effects and General Manager of Industrial Light & Magic

Janet Lewin is the Senior Vice President of Lucasfilm Visual Effects and General Manager of Industrial Light & Magic. A 28-year veteran of Lucasfilm and Industrial Light & Magic, Janet oversees all aspects of the visual effects and animation business for Lucasfilm and ILM, including Production and studio operations across the global organization. She also oversees the company’s burgeoning virtual production StageCraft business.

Janet’s vast experience at ILM and Lucasfilm VFX, the birthplace of STAR WARS visual effects and pioneer of the VFX industry, has positioned her well to lead the company into the future. Janet previously oversaw visual effects for all of Lucasfilm’s projects, including feature films, long-form content, theme park rides and commercials. She has been credited as overall Lucasfilm VFX Producer on THE FORCE AWAKENS, ROGUE ONE, THE LAST JEDI, SOLO, and THE RISE OF SKYWALKER. She also served as Co-Producer on the Emmy Award-winning Disney+ series, THE MANDALORIAN.

Senior Vice President of Visual Effects at HBO

Janet Muswell Hamilton, VES is the Senior Vice President of Visual Effects for HBO.  Janet is a VES Fellow and member of the Visual Effects Society global Board of Directors and Education Committee. With a career spanning several decades, she established her reputation as a VFX Producer and Supervisor for cutting-edge visual effects on a wide range of groundbreaking television series and theatrical features, as well as animation, IMAX, commercials and Stereoscopic Special Venue projects.

Janet moved to the U.S. to pursue the expanding digital world as a compositor, which quickly led to VFX supervising and producing. Her curiosity for new technology has taken her around the globe working on innovative projects. Prior to HBO, Janet was Global Director of VFX Production at Netflix. She has recently become involved in various PGA initiatives and is passionate about educating the next diverse generation of visual effects professionals.

Visual Effects Supervisor

Sheena Duggal is an acclaimed visual effects supervisor and artist whose work has shaped numerous studio tent-pole and Academy Award nominated productions. Most recently, Duggal was Visual Effects Supervisor on the box office blockbuster VENOM: LET THERE BE CARNAGE and is a current BAFTA nominee for Best Special Effects for her work as Visual Effects Supervisor on the Oscars VFX-shortlisted GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE. She was the first woman to be honored with the VES Award for Creative Excellence, bestowed in 2020.

Duggal is known for her design skills, creative direction and visual effects work on blockbuster films such as VENOM, THE HUNGER GAMES, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, MEN IN BLACK II, SPIDER-MAN 3 and CONTACT. She has worked extensively with Marvel Studios as VFX Supervisor on projects including DOCTOR STRANGE, THOR: THE DARK WORLD, IRON MAN 3, AGENT CARTER, One shot, and for Marvel’s TV series AGENT CARTER. Her pioneering inspiration and hands-on production experience also deeply contributed to the Sci-Tech Academy Awards® won for visual effects and compositing software Flame®and Inferno.® Duggal continues to work with innovative industry leaders and has been consulting with CODEX® since 2012, and now CODEX + PIX®, providing guidance on various new technologies they are developing for the VFX community.

Duggal is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and serves on the Executive Committee for the VFX branch. She is also a published photographer, and traveled to Zimbabwe and Malawi on behalf of UK water charity Pump Aid, where she photo-documented how access to clean water has transformed the lives of thousands of people in rural areas.

President of Women In Animation and Head of Studio at Skybound

Emmy-Award winner Margaret Dean is the Head of Studio for SKYBOUND, the home of “Invincible” and “The Walking Dead”. Dean is responsible for the production of original content and operating from studios in Los Angeles.

Prior to Skybound, Dean was the Head of Studio at Crunchyroll, the largest streaming source of Anime. Prior to that she was General Manager of Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, the largest stop motion studio in Southern California, where she supervised production of Emmy award-winning “Robot Chicken” (Adult Swim) and “Buddy Thunderstruck” (Netflix) as well as expanded Stoopid Buddy’s range of work to include 2D and 3D CGI.

Known for building studios and animation pipelines, Dean has been responsible for the design or re-design of several studios large and small, including Columbia-TriStar TV, Warner Bros. Animation, Mattel’s Playground Production, Omation (Steve Oedekerk), Technicolor Animation and Wildbrain Entertainment.  Dean serves as President of Women in Animation and is a recognized global leader in advancing women in the field of animation.

Director at Directors Guild of Canada/VFX Compositing Supervisor at Image Engine

Freddy Chávez OImos, compositing supervisor, writer, director, brings more than 14 years of experience in visual effects working in feature films, TV and commercials.  Born in Puebla, Mexico, Freddy studied special effects make-up in Los Angeles and was later mentored by the legendary Dick Smith (THE EXORCIST).

Working in the visual effects industry in Vancouver, Freddy has worked on productions directed by Guillermo del Toro, Neill Blomkamp, Robert Rodriguez, Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan, and has been part of Oscar and Emmy-winning VFX studios, including Double Negative, Industrial Light & Magic, Method Studios, Weta Digital, Image Engine, Fuse FX and Scanline VFX. His impressive VFX credits include ANNHILATION, FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM, DISTRICT 9, PACIFIC RIM, DEADPOOL, SKYSCRAPER, CHAPPIE, SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR and ZACK SNYDER’S JUSTICE LEAGUE.

Freddy also writes and directs projects independently, including the award-winning short films SHHH, LEVITICUS 24:20 and DUÉRMETE, NIÑO in collaboration with VFX studios Image Engine and Ollin VFX. More recently, Freddy joined the Directors Guild of Canada and he’s currently wrapping up an episode of his television directorial debut. He is a sought after guest speaker, at venues including San Diego’s Comic-Con, ACM SIGGRAPH, Spark Fx and TEDx.

Director and Head of Story, Cinesite Studios

Cinzia Angelini, creator and director of animated films, has worked for major animation studios in Europe and the U.S. for more than 25 years. While she started out as both a 2D and 3D animator, she later became a story artist for Warner Brothers, DreamWorks, Sony Imageworks, Disney Animation Studios, Duncan Studio and Illumination Entertainment. Her body of work includes BALTO, PRINCE OF EGYPT, THE ROAD TO EL DORADO, SPIRIT: STALLION OF THE CIMARRON, SPIDER-MAN 2, BOLT, MINIONS, DESPICABLE ME 3, THE GRINCH and ABOMINABLE. She is currently directing HITPIG, an upcoming animated feature for Cinesite Studios.

Cinzia has also written and directed the CG short film MILA, a war story that centers on the plight of civilian children. The short was produced by the world’s largest, independent virtual studio collaboration ever created. Cinesite’s Vancouver Animation Studio, which joined the film in its last year of production, was instrumental in bringing MILA across the finish line in 2021.

It was this unconventional, multi-national approach to production that got the attention of industry media, and also sparked her idea of bridging cultural diversity through the magic of animation. This would eventually lead to her invitation to speak at TEDx Trento-Italy, and at TEDx Vail-Colorado.

Chris White

Visual Effects Supervisor, Wētā FX

Award-winning VFX Supervisor Chris White has more than 25 years industry experience creating compelling digital environments, creatures and effects and is the recipient of multiple VES Awards for his artistry.

Chris has played a pivotal role in the development of Wētā FX’s new water pipeline for the AVATAR sequels, bringing technical and artistic expertise to this cutting-edge technology that is setting a new industry standard for the creation of digital water.

He has been supervising Wētā’s work on Netflix’s UMBRELLA ACADEMY series, creating Pogo and the talking fish AJ Carmichael.  He was nominated for a Primetime Emmy for THE WHITE VIOLIN episode in Season 1. Chris also recently supervised the space-traveling chimp Marcus for the comedy SPACE FORCE.

A VFX Supervisor on VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS, Chris led the team in creating the Pearl Planet, home to the Pearls, humanoid aliens inspired by aquatic creatures.  Previous creature supervision includes work on RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, where his leadership in creating the chimpanzees, orangutans and gorillas was celebrated with both Academy Award and BAFTA nominations.

Chris masterminded the complex Goblin Caverns environment for THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY, winner of a VES Award and nominated for Academy and BAFTA awards.  He played a major part in developing the procedural system used to build digital New York City for KING KONG, and later expanded on this experience for the MAZE RUNNER films.

Nonny de la Peña

Founder, Emblematic Group

Nonny de la Peña, founder of Emblematic Group, is a pioneer of virtual reality and immersive journalism – a phrase she coined to describe the groundbreaking application of VR for social impact.  She was named Wall Street Journal’s “Technology Innovator of the Year” and one of CNET’s “20 Most Influential Latinos in Tech,” as well as “The Godmother of Virtual Reality” by Engadget and The Guardian for her leadership using cutting edge technologies to tell important stories.

Under Nonny’s leadership, Emblematic’s team of award-winning filmmakers, journalists, designers and game developers lead the industry in creating fully immersive environments that place the user inside the scene, allowing them to move through, interact and play with the story.

Her VR projects include Across the Line, which helps viewers understand what some women go through to access reproductive health services; After Solitary, which takes viewers inside the Maine State Prison to experience a harrowing story of solitary confinement; One Dark Night, which traces the sequences of events leading up to the shooting of Trayvon Martin; and and Out of Exile, which uses VR to draw attention to the plight of homeless LGBTQ youth. Other projects have explored the Syrian civil war, Guantanamo Bay Prison, experiences of refugees and the impact of climate change on the landscape of Greenland.

Nonny’s latest breakthrough is Emblematic’s WebVR platform REACH, a no code toolset which creates scalable distribution in the medium, democratizes content authorship, and empowers new voices to share their stories. A Yale Poynter Media Fellow and a former correspondent for Newsweek, she is widely credited with pioneering the genre of immersive journalism.  Nonny was selected by Wired Magazine as a #MakeTechHuman Agent of Change and Fast Company named her “One of the People Who Made the World More Creative” for her work in immersive storytelling.  Emblematic has built a critically acclaimed body of work using a range of technologies from 360 video, to VR, AR, and XR technologies, and AI and machine learning.

Ellen Poon is a world-renowned expert in visual effects and animation, with a career spanning more than 30 years, and is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Executive Committee. She has collaborated with numerous acclaimed directors, including George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Tim Burton, Woody Allen, Christopher Nolan and Jennifer Lee.

Ellen is a founding member of MPC’s Computer Graphics department and helped develop many of the technologies used for the studio’s state-of-the-art commercial and television productions. She later joined Industrial Light and Magic, and during her 11-year tenure, was the first woman to be made Visual Effects Supervisor. Her realization of the miracles in The Green Mile, creatures in Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace and the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, are just some of her many on-screen accomplishments.

Ellen developed a passion for Chinese film projects and worked with director Zhang Yimou on period Chinese film Hero, which set the standard for this genre of Asian films and garnered her the award for Best Visual Effects at the Hong Kong Film Awards. She served as Visual Effects Producer on Monster Hunt, the highest grossing film of all time in China in 2015, which earned her a second VFX award at the Hong Kong Film Awards – and went on to work as Visual Effects Supervisor and Producer on the box office record-breaking sequel Monster Hunt 2. Ellen’s love for animation brought her back to Disney as a lighting and compositing artist. Her work on Frozen and Zootopia (both Academy Award winners for Best Animation) and on Moana, Wreck-It Ralph 2 and the forthcoming Raya and the Last Dragon, demonstrate her versatility and love of hand-on creative work.

Aruna Inversin specializes in direction, creative direction, visual effects supervision and real-time supervision for real-time immersive content and experiential technology. From his twenty-year career in feature film VFX, he has stepped into real-time direction and supervision. As a VFX supervisor, he has driven small and large teams across multiple countries and continents to succeed. He received a Visual Effects Society nomination for “Outstanding Visual Effects in a Special Venue Project” for his work on Nike’s “The Neymar Jr. Experience” as well as two Emmy Nominations in 2000 and 2001.

An extremely well-rounded supervisor, Aruna effortlessly takes projects from inception to delivery while understanding budgetary constraints. To date, Aruna has nearly 50 film and television credits to his name in addition to a dozen VR experiences and more than 10 cinematic game trailers.

Recently, Aruna worked on the highly anticipated VR project with TIME called “The March” a groundbreaking immersive exhibit that recreates one of the most iconic moments in American history, the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

Aruna continues to develop real-time solutions for digital humans, game development, traditional media, experiential projects that encompass location-based events and mixed reality deliverables and anything that runs in real-time. Based at Digital Domain’s Los Angeles studio, Aruna is part of a mighty team of agile creatives.

Academy- and Emmy award-winning producer, Karen Dufilho has been working in the intersection of story, animation and innovation for almost two decades. As Executive Producer at Google Spotlight Stories, she was instrumental in introducing immersive, narrative content at Google and is responsible for engaging and shepherding talent and content from development through production and multi-platform launch.

Karen and her Spotlight team produced Back to the Moon (the first immersive Google Doodle), Emmy Award-winning Pearl (the first VR short to receive an Oscar nomination), multi Cannes Gold Lion-winner Help, and was recognized with a Peabody Futures of Media Award, several Annies, and the Ub Iwerks Award for Innovation. She is the producer of Academy and Annie Award-winning short films For the Birds and Geri’s Game for Pixar Animation Studios, where she helmed the Shorts Division overseeing its original shorts slate and productions as well as A Bugs Life, Toy Story 2 and Monsters Inc. franchise production efforts.

Karen is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Short Films and Feature Animation Branch, where she contributes to A2020, the organization’s five-year initiative to bring new, diverse voices to the organization. She is the recipient of a Distinguished Leadership Award from Advanced Imaging Society and on the Executive Board for Women in Animation, Bay Area and on the VES Magazine’s Editorial Advisory Board.

Greg Anderson is the Head of Studio-NY and Senior VFX Supervisor at FuseFX, an award-winning visual effects studio providing visual effects services for episodic television, feature films, commercials and VR production across three studio locations – Los Angeles, New York, and Vancouver.

Greg brings 20 years of experience in senior visual effects roles with 1stAveMachine, Ring of Fire, and Sony Pictures Imageworks. His many feature credits include such blockbusters as “X2: X-Men United,” “The Matrix Revolutions,” “Spider-Man 2″ and “The Day After Tomorrow.” Greg has worked extensively in commercials and episodic television, including the critically acclaimed “When They See Us.” His other credits include “The Blacklist,” “The Punisher,” “Luke Cage,” and “Iron Fist.”

Greg holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in design and computation from MIT.

As Global Managing Director of Mill Film, Lauren champions the talented team of artists, technicians, producers and developers that make up Mill Film’s Montreal, Adelaide, Bangalore and Los Angeles studios. A driving force within the visual effects industry, Lauren looks to realize the full potential of the industry’s most diverse talent in the pursuit of creative excellence across Episodic and Feature VFX.

A specialist in VFX management with 15 years in the industry, Lauren has spent the last 18 months building Mill Film out from 0-700 seats and sourcing talented creative and producers to represent the business. Prior to Mill Film, Lauren held positions at MPC’s Montreal and London studios as Head of Production for 5 years, overseeing production teams across Academy Award® winning projects such as Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 and Jon Favreau’s The Jungle Book. Lauren also held positions at Framestore and Prime Focus World, where she worked between the London, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Chennai studios. Currently based in Montreal, Lauren brings her transformational values to her vocational works as the chairperson for both Women in Animation and Access VFX’s respective Montreal chapters.

As an Animation Supervisor, Sidney Kombo-Kintombo ensures the animation his team delivers is the best in the industry, whether it’s achieved through performance capture, keyframe animation, or a combination of both. He joined Weta Digital in 2015 as a Senior Animator on The Jungle Book, and went on to work as an Animation Supervisor on War for the Planet of the Apes (Annie Award winner for Outstanding Achievement for Character Animation), Avengers: Infinity War (VES Award winner for Outstanding Animated Character – Thanos) and Avengers: Endgame.

Prior to Weta, Sidney worked at Framestore, London and Industrial Light and Magic. He was a Senior Animator on Alfonso Cuarón’s Oscar-winning Gravity, and a Sequence Supervisor and Character Lead Animator for the majority of Rocket the Raccoon’s shots in the first Guardians of the Galaxy. His credits also include The BFG, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Paddington.

Sidney has a Infographist degree from the Emile Cohl 

As a founding Partner, President and Executive Producer of SPINVFX Neishaw Ali has been working in the film and television industry for over 25 years. She has molded SPINVFX into an internationally recognized leader in visual effects production, with teams in Toronto, Atlanta and Los Angeles. Her creativity and leadership has produced an expansive body of work including over 120 feature films and 26 television series. Her television credits include the Emmy award-winning series Game of Thrones (HBO), The Umbrella Academy (Netflix), and film credits such as the Academy Award-winning biopic Spotlight (First Look), upcoming productions Zombieland 2: Double Tap (Columbia Pictures), and In the Tall Grass (Netflix).

Neishaw represents the film and animation industry at large as the Co-Chair for the Computer Animation Studios of Ontario (CASO), and serves as part of the Government Policies Platform Committee. She also serves on the Ontario Film & Television Advisory Panel, the Toronto Film, Television & Digital Media Board, the Digital Media Infrastructure Working Group for the City of Toronto, as a Board Member of The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television and a Board Member of the Visual Effects Society.

Neishaw is also a founding Partner and President of SPINVR, the virtual and augmented reality studio that develops customized VR/AR experiences, 360 degree videos, games and apps. Committed to innovation, she has nurtured the development of BRIOVR, a cloud-based VR/AR program that allows users to upload and convert almost any media content in to a VR or AR experience, and then instantly share it – the first platform of its kind in the world.

Kaitlyn Yang is the founder and visual effects supervisor of Alpha Studios, a Burbank-based postproduction company specializing in visual effects. With more than 12 years experience in visual effects, Kaitlyn has credits including film, television and commercials and her works include The Walking Dead, Robot Chicken, Grey’s Anatomy, and Four Weddings and a Funeral.

The visual effects bug bit Kaitlyn when she was just nine years old. She discovered Photoshop and Star Wars, and began her life-long pursuit of digital imaging. An immigrant, and wheelchair user, Kaitlyn encountered additional obstacles during her career. Nevertheless, she persisted. A graduate of USC Film School, Kaitlyn made the 2018 Forbes 30 Under 30 list for Hollywood and Entertainment and is a member on the Awards Committee at the Television Academy. Kaitlyn is also an activist for diversity and inclusion, and serves on the boards of Easterseals Southern California and the Able Artist Foundation to further the representation of disabled artists in entertainment.

Michelle Grady is EVP, General Manager of Sony Pictures Imageworks, responsible for overall operations, strategy, planning, and production. She most recently oversaw production of the Academy Award®-winning SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE (Sony Pictures Animation), SMALLFOOT (Warner Animation Group), and SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING (Marvel/Columbia Pictures).

Michelle has spent 26 years in the Visual Effects and Post-production industry in Vancouver, where her career grew alongside the expanding film production business in the city.

She joined Imageworks from the visual effects studio MPC, where she served as head of film, managing projects including SUICIDE SQUAD (Warner Bros.), BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE (Warner Bros.), GODZILLA (Warner Bros.), MALEFICENT (Disney) and the Academy Award®-winning LIFE OF PI (Fox).

Prior to MPC, Grady was vice president and general manager at Technicolor, overseeing a 35mm film laboratory, digital post production and VFX divisions.

Michelle is Chair of the Animation & VFX Alliance of BC, an Executive Board Member of the Motion Picture Production Industry Association of BC (MPPIA), Executive Board Member of Women in Animation, and Executive Committee Member of Creative BC.