Effects Montreal 20 Advisory Board

Colin Giles

Head of the School of Animation & VFX – Vancouver Film School

Colin Giles is the Head of the Vancouver Film School’s School of Animation & VFX, bringing over 22 years of professional experience as a director, animator, and creative designer. Colin’s work in animation and storytelling has allowed him the chance to work with some of the biggest names in the industry, including Disney Interactive, Cartoon Network, Ford Motor Co., The NBA, and Starbucks, to name a few. When he’s not busy inspiring new artists in the classroom, he’s active on many popular industry projects like Dan Vs, Robotboy, and the 2D sequences in Seth Rogen’s animated hit Sausage Party. In 2017, Colin was an official speaker at TEDx Vancouver and has delivered workshops and keynotes in Mumbai, Seoul, Shanghai, Los Angeles and across Canada.

Steve Goldberg

Visual Effects Supervisor – Disney Animation Studios

Steve Goldberg is a computer animation veteran who has been with Walt Disney Animation Studios for over 25 years. Goldberg began his professional career with Disney in 1990 as the CG Department Head on the acclaimed animated feature film “Aladdin,” and has since made essential contributions integrating computer animation at the studio. 

Born in Los Angeles, Goldberg studied sculpture, graphic design and computer science at California State University Northridge before launching his career at Robert Abel and Associates and Pacific Data Images. While at Pacific Data Images, Goldberg produced and directed the award-winning short “Locomotion,” considered one of the earliest examples of computer character animation.

From 1992-2000, Goldberg supervised computer animation for Disney on various animated feature films, including “Pocahontas” and “Fantasia 2000.” He also lent his talents to “The Lion King” and “Tarzan” as a computer graphics artist.

Goldberg served as the visual effects supervisor on the Walt Disney Animation Studios films “Chicken Little,” “Meet The Robinsons,” “Tangled,” “Frozen.”, and most recently, “Frozen 2”. In addition to his accomplishments as an artist and filmmaker, Goldberg has given presentations of his work at film festivals and technical conferences, and has served on juries for computer animation film festivals. He met his wife Dana while working together on “Aladdin,” and they have two children.

Natasia Schumacher

Head of Operations – Method Studios

Natasia began her career in Visual Effects in 2014 in an administrative role at Framestore and, within a few months discovered her passion for creating a positive work environment and encouraging strong company culture. She stepped into the role of Facility Manager and helped cultivate the culture, growing the company from 100 to 300 artists. Natasia joined Atomic Fiction, now Method Studios, as the Senior Manager of Facilities in 2016. Now, She is the Head of Operations, pouring her efforts into creating a work environment where each individual feels supported, welcomed and empowered to do their best work!

Ila Soleimani

CG Supervisor / Creative Director – Sinking Ship Entertainment

I studied Art and Design and graduated as a Graphic Designer but I always wanted to be an animator. I am a self-thought CG Artist and started my CG career as an animator around 1994, creating 3D animated TV Commercials. I started as the CG Supervisor at Sinking Ship Entertainment in 2012 and helped to build the VFX and Animation department from the ground up. We own most of the IPs we develop and our focus at Sinking Ship is usually on A-Class Children and Family-friendly programs.

Vincent Clémençon

CG Supervisor – Digital Dimension

Vincent Clemencon is a 3D veteran with more than 20 years of experience in the field of animation, VFX, video games, and advertising. Throughout my career, I’ve always been fascinated by how new technologies help us to push the limits of our creativity. I’m working as a CG supervisor at Digital Dimension on high-end games cinematics and full CG TV series. Currently, I’m supervising an animated TV series production of 52 episodes, which are fully rendered with a real-time game engine (Unreal).”

Gregory Peczinka

CG Supervisor / PIXOMONDO

I started my CG career in 2004 when I finished my studies in math, physics, Academic art, and science.For many years I was in between Math and Graphic Computer Science. So I found that perfect balance in the VFX world. Then I got my first job as FX/Lookdev TD in a VFX Studio called Millimages/Back film in Paris. I worked in France and mostly in Paris for the next 3.5 years (SparxFX/DuranDubois/MacGuffline/Ex-Machina/MikrosImages…..), before thinking about moving to London. I established in the UK for less than 5 years , where I was lucky to work as Senior FX TD/Artist but as well as Creature FX TD, for Framestore/MPC/Cinesite. I went back to France around 2011/2012 and after a couple of months, we decided with my wife to move with the kids to North America.

Dylan Sisson

Artist & Designer – Pixar Animation Studios

Dylan Sisson is a digital artist with over 25 years of experience in VFX and animation. He began his career animating commercials for Will Vinton Studios, and at Crave Entertainment creating animated sequences for RPGs on the Sony Playstation. After Dylan’s independent animation won the award for “Best Computer Animated Short” at the Animar Festival in 1999, he joined Pixar Animation Studios, playing a role as a technical artist in the development and evangelization of Pixar’s RenderMan. In addition to his role at Pixar, today, Dylan is an active artist exploring the emerging mediums of VR sculpting and 3D printing. Dylan is also the creator and designer of Pixar’s RenderMan Walking Teapot.