Alessandro Carloni, Shannon Tindle, and Mark Osborne Among Headliners at Italy’s VIEW Conference

The VIEW Conference is bringing a who’s who of animation and visual effects talent to its 16th annual edition in Turin, Italy next month. That country’s largest gathering of computer graphics professionals, VIEW covers the entire digital arts spectrum from 2D/3D animation to interactive techniques, and from gaming to visual effects.

Our interests — animation and vfx — will be well represented, with numerous feature filmmakers, vfx supervisors, and other key talents delivering keynotes, workshops, and masterclasses. In fact, six of the event’s seven keynotes will have significant relevance to the animation community:

• Alessandro Carloni, co-director of Kung Fu Panda 3, will give a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the upcoming DreamWorks feature.
• Oscar-winning Skywalker Sound director of sound Randy Thom (The Incredibles, The Right Stuff) will discuss his most recent work on The Peanuts Movie in his keynote “Teaching the Camera to Listen: From Apocalypse Now to The Peanuts Movie.”
• Mark Osborne, director of the upcoming CG/stop motion hybrid The Little Prince, will present “The Challenges of Adapting a Beloved Classic.” In his keynote, he’ll guide attendees through the challenging creative process he and his team underwent to translate the classic French story into an animated feature.
• Shannon Tindle, director of the upcoming Google Spotlight Story On Ice and a veteran visual development artist (The Croods, Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends) will discuss the challenges and newfound freedoms in creating interactive animation.

• The Book of Life director Jorge Gutierrez will present the talk “Every Picture Tells a Story,” documenting his 25-year journey by from his Emmy Award-winning student film to his dot-com era webseries work for Sony, and beyond, including TV pilots for Disney, his Nick series El Tigre, and his first feature film.
• Christopher Townsend, VFX supervisor on The Avengers: Age of Ultron will give the talk: “Avengers: Age of Ultron, Hulk, Vision, and the Gang,” talking about the design, development, and implementation of some of the key characters in the film.

Other workshops and guest speakers include:

• Kris Pearn, director of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 and veteran story artist, will conduct the workshop “The Scribble Pond – Fishing for a Story,” during which he’ll break down the mechanics of feature storyboarding and show how storyboards allow filmmakers to tell their story.
• Michael Kurinsky, production designer of Hotel Transylvania 2, will conduct the workshop “The Art of Creating a Color Script: Every Picture Tells a Story.”
• Scott Carroll, supervising animator at Blue Sky, will discuss adapting Peanuts from a print comic strip to CG animation.
• Kim White, director of photography at Pixar, will present “Illuminating Joy: The Lighting of Inside Out.”
• Richard Starzak and Paul Kewley, the writer/co-director and producer respectively of Shaun The Sheep Movie, will present a behind-the-scenes look at how they made the stop motion feature at Aardman.
• Daniel Kramer, a vfx supervisor at Sony Pictures Imageworks, will discuss how the visual effects were produced for the live-action/CG hybrid Pixels.

• Jason Reisig, head of character animation at DreamWorks will present “Animating Home — Just Another Post-Apocalyptic Alien-Invasion-Buddy-Road Movie.”
• Steve Emerson, head of VFX at Laika, will present “Visual Effects at LAIKA.”
• Glenn Entis, co-founder of Pacific Data Images, will present “The Spirit and Stories of PDI,” a discussion of the pioneering CG studio and its 35 year history before DreamWorks shut it down last January.

“We always try to bring an intriguing group of artists to Torino from all areas of the digital arts – 2D and 3D computer graphics, interactive media, digital cinema, animation, gaming, and visual effects,” said conference director Maria Elena Gutierrez. “Our speakers inspire each other and the attendees.” In addition to these animation-related talks, we’ve been told that there’ll be a discussion about women in the CG industry as well as a panel about the future of theatrical animation with directors Alessandro Carloni, Jorge Gutierrez, Richard Starzak, Kris Pearn, and Shannon Tindle.

Additionally, a special focus on Industrial Light & Magic will include multiple panels, including one about the studio’s work on Jurassic World with animation supervisor Glen McIntosh and vfx supervisor Tim Alexander, and another panel celebrating the venerable studio’s 40th anniversary with key talents from the studio attending.

VIEW takes place in Turin from October 19-23. Online registration is now open and required for some of the limited-seating master classes. Prices range from €20-100 (€10-€80 for students). For more information and to register, please visit ViewConference.it.