Raine Anderson

Creative Development – Creatures of Art

Raine is a self-taught artist working in the film, animation, and game industries for over 20 years. He has worked at various studios such as Weta, Pixar, and Industrial Light & Magic, honing and building his craft. Currently, Raine works for various studios in a Creative Development role, including texture, concept, and sculpting. His track record in the film industry is astounding, working on projects like Avatar, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Partysaurus Rex, The Revenant, Valerian, and the City of a Thousand Planets, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Black Panther, and Aladdin.

Peta Bayley

Animation Supervisor – Moving Picture Company

 Peta is currently an Animation Supervisor at MPC. She started her animation career in 2002 working in Toronto on a variety of television series, DVD releases, and full CG feature. Peta moved to the UK to join the world of VFX in 2007 at the Moving Picture Company, during which she engaged in a myriad of roles such as Senior Animator, Lead, and Animation Supervisor. Further, she worked on high-profile projects including Dolittle, Shazam, The Jungle Book, Guardians of the Galaxy, Transformers V, Pirates of the Caribbean, Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, and more. In 2017, she won an Annie award for her work on The Jungle Book.

Pascal Blanche

Art Director – Behaviour Interactive

Pascal Blanche has many years of experience under his belt, working as a senior art director at Behaviour Interactive Artist and as an art director at Ubisoft involved in projects such as Myst IV Revelations, Naruto Rise of a Ninja, Cameron’s avatar the game, Mighty Quest for Epic Loot, Farcry New Dawn. Further, he worked as illustrator and concept artist freelancer working on for West of the Coast, Aquaman the movie, Games Workshop, and many others.

Alyssa Zarate

Lead Matte Painter – Sony Pictures Imageworks

Alyssa Zarate is currently a Lead Matte Painter at Sony Pictures Imageworks. For over a decade, to name a few, she has worked on films such as Marvel’s Spider-man: Far From Home, Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, Game of Thrones, Lu, The Wolverine, Jurassic World, and The Chronicles of Narnia. Further, she was involved in shows produced by HBO, Starz, National Geographic, Amazon Prime, and Netflix.

Sepp Sonntag

Environment Department Supervisor | onSet VFX Supervisor – Image Engine Design Inc.

Sepp Sonntag infuses over 12 years of experience in creating digital environments for blockbuster feature films as Environment and On-Set VFX Supervisor. Hailing from Munich Germany, Sepp started his professional career as a Junior Matte Painter with Scanline VFX. His first international credits include Roland Emmerich’s 2012 and Ghost Writer.

In 2009, Sepp moved to London to take the next step in his career, eventually rising through the ranks and ending up as Matte Painting Lead for MPC. In 2012, he seized the opportunity to transfer to MPC’s Vancouver studio, where he became Environment Supervisor. Eventually, he switched to Image Engine in September 2018.

With a long list of credits to his name, Sepp considers the following as his career highlights: working for Legendary Studios’ Godzilla: Kind of the Monsters as a VFX Plate Unit Director and supervising a photography unit in Hong Kong for Ghost in the Shell.

Ara Khanikian

VFX Supervisor – Rodeo FX

 An accomplished and highly-esteemed VFX Supervisor, Ara Khanikian balances his artistic and technical strengths to deliver unparalleled hyper-realistic visual effects. Clients appreciate and value Ara’s characteristic calm and positive attitude as much as his focus and organized workflow.

Ara Khanikian has been in VFX for the past 20 years, working on major films and TV shows, including Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman, for which Ara and the Rodeo FX team earned a VES Award for Best Supporting Visual Effects. Acting as the overall VFX Supervisor on the movie, Ara was instrumental in designing the imperceptible visual effects that contributed to the single-shot illusion. He is currently finishing work on Disney’s Jungle Cruise, and his most recent projects include the high-flying adventure movie The Aeronauts, in which he was nominated for a 2020 VES award as well as Netflix’s El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie.

Ara has worked on over 70 feature films during his career, and several other high profile projects in his 12 years at Rodeo FX, such as Downsizing, Kong: Skull Island, Star Trek: Beyond, Central Intelligence, The Last Witch Hunter, and Tomorrowland.