This Weekend in Vancouver: Ken Duncan, Sanjay Patel, Peter de Sève, Jin Kim, More Light Up Spark Animation

Learn how The Iron Giant: Signature Edition, The Peanuts Movie, The Little Prince, Shaun the Sheep Movie, and other animated standouts came to be as Spark Computer Graphics Society’s annual conference starts in Vancouver today.

There may not be a more lovely destination for some of the industry’s most intriguing talents and executives to mind-meld on the art and commerce of animation and computer graphics. Taking place today and tomorrow, Spark’s two-day weekend festival features moderated panels and presentations that will inspire and inform attending students, fans, and pros looking to understand how animated shorts and features are made and sold.

Today’s presentations include Sanjay Super Team’s Nicole Grindle & Sanjay Patel, The Peanuts Movie’s Brian Anderson and Joe Antonuccio; The Little Prince’s Jamie Caliri; The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore and Taking Flight’s Brandon Oldenburg; and The Iron Giant: Signature Edition’s Ken Duncan, Dennis Venizelos, Michel Gagné and Wendy Perdue.

Saturday includes presentations on character design from animation veteran Borja Montoro; character development from Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Jin Kim; the making of Shaun the Sheep Movie with lead character animator Laurie Sitzia; bringing The Little Prince to animated life with Alex Juhasz and Peter de Sève; and writing for storyboard-driven animation with Kent Osborne.

An all-day symposium on women in the animation industry is also happening today, and there’ll be film screenings throughout the weekend of shorts as well as features including The Iron Giant: Signature Edition, Asterix: The Mansions of the Gods, and The Boy and the Beast.

Tickets for individual events, if not sold out, can be bought at the door. For more details, visit Spark’s official site.