Advisory Board
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Alex Cancado
Lead Compositor, Luma Pictures
Currently working on Serious MAN. Also worked on: Pirates of the Caribbean 3, Harry potter and the Half-Blooded Prince, Underworld Evolution, Silent Hill, Apocalypto, Primeval and The Covenant.
Jobs in the past include: Lead Motion Graphics, MTV BH.
BA in advertisement, Puc University, Brazil. Gnomon Alumnus.
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Chad Dezern
Art Director, Insomniac Games
Chad is the studio director at videogame developer Insomniac Games. Prior to joining Insomniac, Chad worked as an artist for DreamWorks Interactive and Disney Interactive.
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Chris Edwards
Pre-visualization Creative Director, 3rd Floor
Credits include: Resident Evil 5, Valkyrie, Jumper, The Great Raid, The Passion of the Christ, The Butterfly Effect, Master and Commander, Frida, We Were Soldiers, Starship Troopers, Air Force One, Turbulence, Multiplicity, Waterworld, Species, and Outbreak
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Henrik Fett
Visual Effects Supervisor, Look Effects
Credits include: Telepathic, Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, Yes Man
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Mike Fink
Sr. Visual Effects Supervisor, Prime Focus
Michael won an Academy Award for his work on The Golden Compass. He is now working as Visual Effects Supervisor on Prince of Persia: Sands of Time.
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Jack Fulmer
Award Winning Lead Lighting Technical Director, Rhythm & Hues Studios
Film work includes: Golden Compass, Night at the Museum, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Elektra, Garfield, Garfield Two, Scooby Doo Two: Monsters Unleashed
Broadcast work includes: CSI, CSI-Miami, Crossing Jordan, Fastlane, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Smallville, Angel, The Dead Zone, Twilight Zone, Helen of Troy miniseries
Commmercial work: Cox Broadcasting
Awards: Jack's team won an Academy Award for their work on The Golden Compass.
Education: BA, UCLA, Economics. BA, UCLA, Psychology. Certificate studies in Digital Media at UCLA Extension. Gnomon alumnus.
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Frank Gladstone
Animation Producer, International Consultant, Gladstone Film Inc.
Frank Gladstone has been working as a professional animator, producer, director, writer and teacher for more than thirty-five years. From 1973 to 1989, he managed his own Emmy award-winning studio, Persistence of Vision, Inc., producing commercials and educational films, and has since worked for the feature animation divisions at Disney, Warner Bros. IDT/Starz Media and DreamWorks. He is currently president of his own animation consulting firm, Gladstone Film, Inc.
His feature film credits include the DreamWorks productions of The Road to Eldorado Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, and Shark Tale. Prior to his tenure at DreamWorks, Mr. Gladstone was a producer at Warner Bros. Feature Animation and manager of training at Walt Disney Feature Animation, where he was instrumental at setting up recruiting and training programs for Disney’s Orlando and Paris studios. While there, he worked with production crews on Rescuers Down Under, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, Pocahontas and Mulan. Additionally, Mr. Gladstone has been actively involved in bringing independent animated projects such as Millenium Actress and Ghost in the Shell II: Innocence to North American audiences. Frank’s most recent screen credit is on IDT Entertainment’s feature, Everyone's Hero.
Mr. Gladstone is on the executive board of ASIFA - Hollywood, is a past board member of the Visual Effects Society, is serving as vision advisor for SIGGRAPH 2010 and has been a commissioner and past chair of the City of Glendale, California Arts and Culture Commission.
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Javier Jimenez
Executive Producer/Co-Founder, Motion Theory
As co-founder of Motion Theory, Executive Producer Javier Jimenez brought together directors, animators, visual effects artists, writers, and many other artists to form a more personal and agile creative studio. Motion Theory has since expanded on that original inspiration and developed into a multi-faceted production company with a unique ability to guide projects from concept to finish.
Prior to starting Motion Theory in 2000 with director/partner Mathew Cullen, Javier built an impressive body of work in feature film, video, documentary, and commercial production, working with leading studios and production companies such as Warner Bros., Propaganda, OneSuch Films, New Regency, Radical Media and Disney.
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Iain McCaig
Concept Artist
Iain McCaig is an internationally recognized and award-winning artist, and one of the motion picture industry's leading conceptual designers. He has worked on numerous films, including Peter Pan, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Most recently, Iain was one of the principal designers on Star Wars Episode One, Star Wars Episode Two and Star Wars Episode Three in which his work includes the landmark designs for Queen Amidala and Darth Maul.
As a concept designer, screenwriter, director and illustrator, Iain's talents have led him to numerous projects including The Face, his directorial debut in 1988. In 2001 he wrote and designed his first CG feature film, The Pied Piper for Imax/Mainframe.
Iain has taught drawing and storytelling for over twenty years.
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Jeff Okun
Award-Winning Visual Effects Supervisor, Chair of VES, Former Chair VES Awards Committee
Jeff has worked on wide-ranging effects as seen in such award winning films as Blood Diamond, The Last Samurai, Stargate, Sphere, Red Planet, Deep Blue Sea, Lolita, and The Last Starfighter.
His credits also include ground breaking music videos from such varied artists as Sting, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Janet Jackson, Wayne Newton, Bryan Adams, Amy Grant, Dolly Parton, Prince, Michael Jackson, the Neville Brothers and Rod Stewart.
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Andrew Orloff
Visual Effects Supervisor, Zoic Studios
Andrew Orloff is Zoic Studios' Creative Director and has been with the company since its inception. He leads Zoic's award-winning episodic television division and the dynamic and ever-expanding work in the videogame and mobile realm.
His wealth of television credits include VFX Supervisor for CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (three seasons), VFX Supervisor for CSI: Miami (season 2), and VFX Supervisor for the pilots for NYPD 2069 and Global Frequency. With over 100 motion control shoots to his name, Orloff was instrumental in setting up Zoic's insert stage used for both episodic and commercial projects.
In the gaming arena, Orloff has contributed to such high-end projects as the design and creation of a 360-degree experience for EA via Arnson Communications to showcase the captivating power of EA's titles at E3. He has also worked on such wildly popular music videos as Linkin Park's Points of Authority and In the End.
A graduate of UCLA's school of Theatre, Film and Television, Orloff is also on the Advisory Board at Gnomon School of Visual Effects, and has created numerous instructional DVDs on visual effects and CG production. He has also been a featured speaker at various conferences and industry events including VES. His expertise has led to numerous media opportunities including extensive interviews in such noted publications as Cinefex and CGW.
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Toni Pace Carstensen
Producer, Blockade Entertainment; Founding member VES, Co-Chair VES Education Committee
She most recently worked as a Visual Effects Produce on James Cameron's Avatar. She was a digital production manager on Fantasia 2000 (Walt Disney Feature Animation), coordinating producer on Jack Hanna's Animal Adventures, (a nationally syndicated TV series), and one of the visual effects producers for Pushing Daisies, Minority Report, End of Violence and Any Given Sunday. In the area of CG large-format projects she has worked on such shows such as Mission:Space and StarTrek Voyager: Borg Encounter. Her TV work has 3 Emmy nominations and a Broadcast Design Association Gold Award. She is a founding member of the Board of Directors of the Visual Effects Society'and continues to serve on the VES Education Committee. She has taught at UCLA Extension and guest lectured at Walt Disney Imagineering. Her own company is called The Creativity Connection a practical and inspirational resource for creative people.
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Lance Powell
Senior Artist at Electronic Arts, Los Angeles
Credits include: Medal of Honor: Airborne, Ultraviolet, Serenity, Constantine, Shrek 2, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The Postman, Contact, and Anaconda
Steve Preeg
Academy Award winning Character Supervisor, Digital Domain
Steve Preeg is a Character Supervisor at Digital Domain. He has been creating digital characters for more than a decade, for movies including Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, two Lord of the Rings films: The Return of the King and The Two Towers, King Kong, and I, Robot. Steve recently received an Academy Award® for his work as Character Supervisor on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. He also created visual effects for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, Flags of Our Fathers and other movies. Steve holds a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
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Brad Reinke
Director of Recruiting/Artist Manager at Radium
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Alison Savitch
Visual Effects Producer
Alison Savitch is a producer in multi-media entertainment; live action movies & television, digital visual effects for blockbuster movies; animation and theme park attractions for the worlds leading parks.
Ms. Savitch is Chair of The Producer’s Guild of America, New Media Council; she is on The National Board of Directors for the PGA; The Advisory Board of Gnomon School of Visual Arts and is a founding Board Member of the Visual Effects Society.
Savitch is also known for her innovations in 3-D stereoscopic as well as interactive and real time media for tv, internet and broadband.
Her credits include: The Poseidon Adventure, Messengers, Rise, Journey to the Center of the Earth (stereoscopic pre-viz) The Abyss, Dracula, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, The Grudge & The Grudge 2, Rise, Aliens of the Deep, The Shadow, Arachnophobia, The Last Action Hero, the Mortal Kombat movies and television series, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, Beowulf, The Faculty, Dogma and many others.
Her groundbreaking work on both The Abyss and Terminator 2: Judgment Day contributed greatly to these films winning 2 Academy Awards for best special visual effects.
Savitch produced both Mortal Kombat features. Each one opened number one in the box office as they went on to gross nearly $200 million worldwide. She also produced Mortal Kombat’s Animated series that was #1 on USA network, as well as Mortal Kombat, The Journey Begins, a direct to video animated special that ranked #1 on the Billboard Kid Vid sales and rental charts, in which Ms. Savitch pioneered the use of Motion Capture and went on to further develop Motion Capture for some of Hollywood’s most memorable and technically advanced moments on film.
Most recently, she produced and supervised the animation and visual effects on numerous major theme park attractions, including an all CGI stereoscopic movie for Hershey Park, Star Trek: Borg Invasion a- stereoscopic ride/attraction film for Paramount's Theme Park Division and the Walt Disney Company's #1 ride ever, "Mission Space" at Epcot Center as well as one of Euro Disney's top attractions ARMAGEDDON, based on the blockbuster movie.
Savitch is also involved in developing the launch of a new era in a 3D stereoscopic process for the main stream market place, including producing the REAL D demo, and work with Cobalt 3D, Aliens of the Deep Title Sequnce , as well as various museums and alternative venues.
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Sande Scoredos
Executive Director of Training and Artist Development, Sony Pictures Imageworks
Film credits include: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Beowulf, Surf's Up, Spider-Man 3, Spider-Man 2, I Spy, Stuart Little 2, Spider-Man, SIGGRAPH 2001 Chair Computer, Animation Festival/Electronic Theater, Hollow Man, Stuart Little, Full Spectrum Warrior (VideGame) (producer), Early Bloomer, Open Season, and The Polar Express.
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Richard Winn Taylor II
Award-Winning Director, Electronic Arts, Los Angeles; VES Vice Chair
Richard Taylor holds an extensive background in live action direction, production design, special effects, and computer generated images for theatrical films, television commercials and computer games.
In 1973 Richard joined Robert Abel and Associates, the pioneer TV commercial graphics/special effects studio, where he served six years as art director/director. While at Abel’s, Richard created many award winning spots, receiving four Clio awards for his work on the 7UP Bubbles, 7UP Uncola and Levi’s Trademark commercials. He directed numerous promotional films and network graphics for ABC, CBS, and NBC and designed new theatrical logos for CBS and Columbia Pictures. As a part of his work at the Abel Studio Richard worked for Paramount Pictures on Star Trek: The Motion Picture, where he supervised the storyboarding of the film and designed and supervised the building of the miniatures including The Enterprise.
In 1980 Richard became the Creative Director at Information International Inc. (III) was one of the first companies to create computer-generated images for film and television. While at III Richard designed and directed the special effects for Looker, a Michael Crichton feature and became the co-effects director of the innovative special effects and computer-generated images for Walt Disney’s Tron, the film that introduced America to the world of computer simulation.
In 2003 Richard became the Cinematic Director at Electronic Arts Los Angeles where he has designed and directed the cinematic sequences for Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth, Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II, Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars and Command & Conquer 3: Kane’s Wrath, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 and Command & Conquer, Red Alert: Uprising.
For more information about Richard's work visit richardtaylordesign.com
