A Night of Stop-Motion & Computer Animation Madness! November 29, 2006

Ok, the official title is probably just "Stop-Motion & Computer Animation", but I always like to add the word "madness" for the extra drama! I'm not exactly sure how to classify this; it's like a "Film reading" really; there will be some film, I'm sure, and there will be some talking. But most of all, there will be some Stop-Motion...

- Ken Priebe, author of “The Art of Stop-Motion Animation”
- Anthony Scott, stop motion/CG animator at Laika Studios
- Larry Bafia, Head of 3D Animation at the Vancouver Film School, stop motion/CG animation director
- Peter Muyzers – Head of Film / Executive Producer at Image Engine VFX
- Vancouver-based stop motion director David Bowes (Aardman’s first CG feature “Flushed Away”.

Arrive early!

Doors open at 6:30 PM

The presentation will be preceded by a book signing of “The Art of Stop Motion Animation” by Ken Priebe, which will be available for sale through Sophia Books on-site.

Presentation starts 7:30 PM

Siggraph.ca Members: $5 / Non-members: $10

Speaker biographies:

Ken Priebe
Ken earned a BFA from the University of Michigan, where he studied art and film and directed several independent animation shorts. He has worked as an animator for several childrens' games and freelance projects for Hasbro Interactive and other independent filmmakers. Ken currently works in admissions at VanArts and teaches part-time courses in 2D and Stop-Motion Animation.

Anthony Scott
Anthony Scott began his animation careeer in 1987, when he was offered a stop-motion animator position on The New Adventures of Gumby, Art Clokey's green clayboy from the 50s. A year later he met Henry Selick and animated on his MTV and Pillsbury spots. This led to an animator position on Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, Anthony's first feature film. Other stop-motion features followed including Disney's James and the Giant Peach and Fox's Monkeybone.

Computer Animator credits include Toy Story 2 and A Bug's Life for Pixar Animation Studios. He also worked at Tippett Studio animating CG creatures for Ivan Reitman's Evolution.

Animation Director credits include the WB's TV Series Phantom Investigators and Davey & Goliath's Snowboard Christmas for Clokey Productions. Recently, he spent 2 years in London as Animation Supervisor on Tim Burton's Corpse Bride.

He is the creator and site administrator for stopmotionanimation.com an online resource for animators.

He is currently working as Animation Supervisor on Henry Selick's next stop-motion film, Coraline.

Larry Bafia
An animator who works with numerous media, Larry started his career in stop motion and claymation before moving into CGI. During his seven year tenure as Commercial Animation Director at PDI/Dreamworks, Larry directed commercials for many top clients including Coca-Cola, Sega, Intel, Kraft, Circle K, and Saturn. While with PDI/Dreamworks, Larry was also Sequence Lead Animator on several hit films including Antz, Batman & Robin, A Simple Wish, and was a Sequence Animation Supervisor for Mission Impossible II. In addition, Larry served as Animation Supervisor for the Stop Motion Division on Tim Burton's feature Mars Attacks. In 2002, Larry founded his own CGI company Blam! Animation. As the company's Creative Director, Larry continues to develop commercials with animated characters.

Peter Muyzers
Peter started out as a 3D artist in TV Commercials 11 years ago in Europe and has worked on Motion Ride Films, Imax 2D and Stereoscopic films. In 2000, Peter joined The Moving Picture Company in the UK as a Technical Director and quickly showed his strengths as a Computer Graphics Supervisor while maintaining a key role in the team and pipeline building of the MPC film division. With his track record of production pipelines and feature film work, Peter recently joined Image Engine to head up the film department and to enable Image Engine to garner high-end VFX film work as the Executive Producer.

Peter's film credits include “Corpse Bride”, “Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit”, “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”, “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone”. Peter has also considerably contributed to films like “Kingdom of Heaven” and “Troy”.

David Bowes
Director of Aardman’s first CG feature “Flushed Away”. For more on David Bowes, see the latest issue of 3D World Magazine (Issue 85): “Clay vs. CG.” http://www.3dworldmag.com/page/3dworld?entry=issue_85_of_3d_world1 )

Official Website: http://www.siggraph.ca/events/coming_event.html