VISUAL EFFECTS COMPOSITING INSTRUCTORS
CHRIS RYAN
MASTERCLASS LEADER: VISUAL EFFECTS
Chris Ryan is a visual effects and CGI supervisor with over 20 years of experience in the creation and design of visual effects and graphics for commercials, feature films, music videos, and other marketing mediums. He has worked for studios including Zoic, Method, and FuseFX. Ryan began his career with Metrolight Studios in Los Angeles, but has worked in Canada for the past 17 years as a CG supervisor, technical director and pipeline specialist. His many film and television credits include Black Panther, The Finest Hours, The Huntsman: Winter’s War, The Great Gatsby and Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey.
DARVIN MANWAH
3D + VFX DEPARTMENT LEAD
Darvin is the Compositing Supervisor at Side Street Post and a visual effects producer from Vancouver, BC. A graduate of Vancouver Film School, his professional work includes Netflix’s ‘Spectral’, ‘Aliens Ate My Homework’ and ‘The Mist’, Marvel’s ‘Legion’, ‘Falling Skies’ and ‘Once Upon a Time’. Darvin also volunteers with ACM SIGGRAPH S3R3 as a Portfolio Review Mentor. His short film ‘OutPost Alpha’ is in post production this summer where he served as VFX Supervisor and Producer.
JAMIE ADKINS
COMPOSITING
Jamie Adkins is a Senior Compositor at Scanline VFX. He has 10+ years of experience working on feature films, TV and media production. His credits include: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2, Aquaman, Captain Marvel, Terminator Dark Fate, Justice League, and Chappie just to name a few.
ODEMARIS BURGOS
COMPOSITING
Odemaris Burgos is a Rotoscopy and Paint Artist who has worked for studios including Lucasfilm’s Industrial Light and Magic, Zoic, and Scanline. With Industrial Light and Magic she has worked on Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and The Mandelorian, The Irishman, and Marvel movies including Dark Pheonix and Captain Marvel. Odemaris also has credits on Stranger Things, Game of Thrones, and other huge series.
KAREN PARKER
COMPOSITING
Artist, illustrator, and Matte Painter Karen Lorena Parker is a traditional and digital artist living in Vancouver Canada. Known for her versatility in style, from realism to abstract, she has worked on concept art, Film, TV as a compositor, and Matte Painter for the visual effects and short film industry. Her paintings are collected internationally and she exhibits annually in Vancouver Canada at Parker Street Studios.
A graduate of Vancouver Film School’s 3D animation and VFX, Think Tank Matte Painting Program, Graphic Design, and Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Alberta College of Art and Design, Karen has over 15 years of experience in design, marketing, print, and traditional fine art. With a focus on the art of storytelling in visual effects, Karen builds artistic and technical skill necessary to achieve an exquisite result and pushes students towards employment within a talented industry of artists.
DAVID MICHAN
COMPOSITING
David Michán is an award-winning Mexican director with multiple feature film credits and more in production. He is an alumnus of the reknowned Centro de Capacitacion Cinematografica and has more than fifteen years of experience in the direction and production of films, commercials, music videos and advertising campaigns for both cinemas and television. He is also an accomplished visual effects artist with VFX and other post-production credits on a dozen films and TV series, including Tales From the Loop, Big Sky, Yellowjackets, and more.
XENIA PIROJENKO
COMPOSITING
Xenia has been working in the VFX industry for the past 6 years as a senior compositor, key artist and supervisor of the roto/paint department on titles such as Game of Thrones, Finch, Bumblebee, and many more. Throughout her career, she realized how important it is to share knowledge and information with artists and that is why she decided to take up a new challenge and teach what she loves.
SAEED FARIDZADEH
COMPOSITING
Saeed Faridzadeh has worked in the VFX Industry since 2004. Starting at Luma Pictures, he has worked throughout the world at such studios such as Rhythm & Hues, Digital Domain, and Double Negative. He currently works at Crafty Apes as a Compositing Supervisor in New York City, and continues to develop his skills into the new world of Production with Unreal.
His unorthodox style of compositing often breaks the rules, but much like his MacGyver style out-of-box style thinking, gets the job done. As a supervisor his main goal is to encourage his artists to learn and grow, not only as compositors, but as problem solvers.
A self proclaimed “Constant Work In Progress” he is never satisfied with the status quo and is always trying to better himself and try new things to push himself out of his comfort zone. Taking on projects such as content creation, stand-up comedy, and screenwriting.
He is a proud member of Team Fox for the Michael J. Fox Foundation and its ongoing mission to find a cure for Parkinson’s Disease. He also is a member of the Visual Effects Society, and a ravenous supporter of the 3D software: Blender. He currently holds a Green Belt in Ed Parker’s Kenpo Karate, and on a good day sometimes gets mistaken for a slighter shorter Keanu Reeves.
Born in London (but cursed with an American accent), Saeed holds dual citizenship between the US and UK, and has the great luxury of being able to pick and choose the shortest line at the airport.
ALEKSANDER NAJDOVSKI
COMPOSITING
Aleksandar initially had huge interests pursuing a career in programming, so he enrolled at a university for software engineering. Within two years, he was offered to be a demonstrator assistant for the Computer graphics subject, a position that he held for the rest of his studies.
Missing the visual aspects of digital design, he then learned about the visual effects industry. 13 years ago, he began his career as a roto paint artist using Eyeon Fusion, then slowly transitioned to Nuke and Silhouette when these software became the norm. Later, he was asked to lead a paint and roto team for Roland Emmerich’s Moonfall. Since then, Aleksandar has become a compositing artist. In his 13 years in the visual effects industry, he worked on more then 60 movies like the Oscar winning movies The Revenant and Life of Pi and some honourable mentions like Deadpool, Avengers: Infinity War, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Wonder Woman.
JAMES LEE
COMPOSITING
James Lee is an experienced compositor, where he worked on many well-known feature films and television shows such as Ms. Marvel, Black Panther 2, Detective Pikachu, Ad Astra and Skyscraper. He also worked at studios such as Digital Domain, Fuse, Encore, Kalos Studios, MPC and Dneg. He has excellent knowledge both in technical and creative skills in Nuke compositing software.
James’s hobbies include cooking, gaming and walking his dog, Candy.
MILE PETRUSHEVSKI
COMPOSITING
Mile Petrushevski has worked in the industry as a digital paint artist, compositing artist and instructor. He has managed training and career development for in-house visual effect artists and played a key role in creating training department that grew into training facility and school for visual effects “VFX Nest” in Skopje, Macedonia where he organized, created, and delivered several courses for beginners and visual effects enthusiasts as well as career development trainings for the next gen junior compositors.
With almost a decade of experience in the VFX industry, Petrushevski has contributed to movies and high-end serials working as digital prep and compositing artist. Currently living the thrill and responsibilities of a lead roto paint artist in Framestore, Montreal. He uses his spare time with family in intensive walks throughout the city discovering the secrets of Montreal.
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