The full schedule and an additional speaker have been announced for the second annual Irish VFX & Animation Summit taking place this weekend at the Science Gallery, Dublin. The summit will give audiences the chance to hear award-winning international visual effects practitioners from the US, the UK and Ireland take part in workshops and talks. This year’s event, the second annual summit, begins on Friday night with a special screening of Interstellar which will be attended by some of the visual effects team who worked on the film, and it continues until Sunday evening. The event has expanded from the hugely successful inaugural summit last year, and will celebrate the amazing world of Visual Effects and animation, with film screenings, talks, workshops, master-classes, discussion panels and Q&As with award-winning VFX and animation professionals including cutting edge talent from both Ireland and around the world.
The full schedule for the summit has been announced and can be seen here: http://vfxsummit.com/#/schedule/
In addition to the previously announced high-profile speakers, another internationally reknowned Oscar® winning visual effects supervisor has also just been added to the line-up. Andrew Lockley, visual effects Oscar® winner for Inception and Double Negative VFX Supervisor for Interstellar will also take part in the event.
Highlights from the event include the screening of Interstellar on Friday 28th November and a special screening of Paddington on Saturday 29th November, which will have the visual effects crew from that film present. Speakers at this year’s summit include high profile industry figures such as Eugenie Von Tunzelmann, CG Supervisor, Interstellar; Darren O'Kelly, Managing Director, The Mill; Kyle McCulloch, VFX Supervisor, Framestore and Eamonn Butler, Animation Director, Cinesite.
Event Founders Laura Livingstone and Eoghan Cunneen, drawing on their experiences at both large and small VFX facilities across the UK, US and Canada, are convinced there is now a realistic opportunity to develop and sustain a world-leading VFX industry in Ireland.
Eoghan Cunneen noted the calibre of the guests this year “We’re really lucky to have such accomplished VFX and animation talent attend the event this year. They've a huge amount of experience between them so we're hoping their stories can really motivate the attendees and contribute to increasing the level of interest in these industries in Ireland. We also want to attract more VFX work to Ireland and to strengthen the existing sector of the industry here, which can lead to job creation and will position Ireland as a creative hub for VFX and animation. The summit is a very visible opportunity to present our credentials to filmmakers around the world and make the international industry aware of the level of talent available in the Irish VFX field.”
Livingstone commented on the goals of the summit “While we’re seeing growth in the Irish visual effects and animation sector, it’s our aim to accelerate this to position Ireland as a real centre of excellence for VFX and animation. Ireland has a strong history of producing world-class talent in the arts and film in particular. This history, coupled with ongoing success in producing talented and successful engineers, software developers and computer game professionals, creates a pool of talent that can contribute so much to our homegrown VFX and the wider film industry. Despite this however, at this present time there are still comparatively low numbers of Irish professionals practicing within this industry. The aim of the VFX & Animation Summit is to change this.”
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. The summit is also teaming with Shotgun for a Showreel Clinic and they invite industry professionals and students to send in their showreels. There will also be a special panel discussion on Women in Animation. The event takes place with the support of Screen Training Ireland, Animation Skillnet and Enterprise Ireland.
Tickets can be purchased here, with special discounts for large groups and students: http://vfxsummit.com/#/tickets/
