EP 23 - Diana Costantini : ABC made

Diana Costantini is a multi-award winning Creative Director with a diverse history in broadcast design, branding, promotions and marketing.  Diana travelled the world working for various media organisations before founding her own design and branding agency, Tactic Creative, in Sydney Australia. Tactic operated for 12 years and during that time, the Tactic creative team were successful in winning pitches all over the world. Diana has personally been Creative Director across 30+ TV channel branding projects and is currently head of the in-house creative agency ABC Made at the ABC. www.vimeo.ABCmade

Topics Discussed
- Advice to motion designer’s and animators
- XYZ Entertainment : Creating TV Channel Brands
- Early career & Working in New York
- Failures in your career & hard things you had to learn
- Starting your own design agency Tactic Creative
- Winning work and pitching
- 12 years of Tactic Creative & closing Tactic
- Creative Direction of brands and projects at the ABC
- 12 years of Tactic Creative & closing Tactic
- What makes a good creative director
- Selling your ideas
- ABC Kids Brand development

EP 22 - Travis Hogg - Airbag

Travis is the owner and senior director at the award-winning Airbag productions, which he established with his partner over 16 years ago. He focuses on photo-real VFX which allows him to transform any 'out-there' idea into something visually amazing. Travis has a decorated past, winning many Awards. He began as a commercial photographer in London, moving through a landscape of still work, live action, and visual effects, to arrive where he is today at AIRBAG. His work is - all at once - technical, beautiful, subtle and bold. www.airbag.co

Topics Discussed
- Advice for Director’s & VFX Artist’s on the best way to progress your career
- Early career - Starting out in the UK & working with Nick
- Challenges & failures
- Moving into Richmond & bringing on partners
- Running your own production Company
- Studio Pipeline & Being on the Tools
- Importance of awards
- Directing skills & supervising style
- Treatments and Pitching
- Directing TVC’s with visual effects
- VFX post production
- Passion Projects
- The future

EP 21 - Kelly Lynagh - 12field Animation studio

Kelly is a director, animator and producer with over 20 years experience in animation. She has worked  on a variety of high quality Australian and international TV series. She co-founded the animation studio Bigkidz Entertainment in 2001, working variously as a director, editor, animator, production manager and background designer on television series and pilots, TVC’s and award-winning short animated films. Kelly has a degree in Visual Arts in Animation and has lectured at a tertiary level in Story Structure and Project Management. Currently Kelly is a director and co-owner of 12field Animation studio. www.12field.com.au

Topics Discussed
- Advice for animators & designers & Best way to progress your career
- Early career - Melbourne & Perth & The New Adventures of Ocean Girl & QUADS
- Bigkidz : Building an animation studio & Merging animation studios
- 12field animation studio work & culture
- Pipeline and studio development
- Collaboration with Media world
- Exploring directing The Flaming’ Thongs
- Directing skills & supervising style
- Being a first time director
- Directing skills & supervising style
- Narrative and story
- Sustainability of the industry
- Quality & failures

EP 20 - Luke Hetherington - Industrial Light & Magic

Recorded at SIGGRAPH Asia : Luke Hetherington is the Executive in Charge of ILM’s Singapore studio and responsible for all films in production at the studio as well as overseeing all studio operations, marketing, and bidding on future projects. In July 2019, his role expanded to include the buildout and oversight of ILM’s Sydney studio. Hetherington’s experience in building high functioning teams plays a critical role in his work at the studio. Prior to joining ILM, Hetherington had 20 years of experience in the animation and visual effects industry. He spent the 17 years at Animal Logic in Australia where he helped lead the company through a period of outstanding growth in roles including Head of Film VFX, Executive Producer, Head of Production, and Head of CG. www.ilm.com

Topics Discussed
- Lukes story & career path
- Early career - TVC’s, broadcast design & Farscape TV series
- How did Happy Feet change Animal Logic
- Becoming a supervisor, challenges, promoting artist’s & advice
- Leadership, challenges learnings & tips
- Outward facing as a executive producer & pitching process
- Projects : most successful and satisfying
- ILM Transition - internal training - software & pipeline
- Work life Balance
- About ILM Sydney
- Inspiration & the Future

EP 19 - Alan Do - Cadre Pictures

Alan Do is Co-founder and Look Development artist at Cadre Pictures. Since early 2000s, he's worked in the 3d industry for over 15 years. His VFX work includes the automotive, financial, retail and entertainment in the advertising industry. Having worked as a Senior 3d Generalist / Lighter at Robot VFX and Method Studios, his expertise concentrates cinematic quality on photo-realistic creatures, stylised characters, natural and mechanical surfaces. Since co-founding Cadre Pictures, Alan has focused his efforts to ensure that every project is finished to the highest possible standard with stunning visuals to match.. www.cadrepictures.com.au

Topics Discussed
- Alan's story & career path
- Mastering your creative craft
- The process of 3D look development
- A good promotional, texturing and lighting shot
- Generalists to specialists
- What it takes to become an expert - the Conan wheel of pain
- Robot VFX, Ben West & Fugu and Tako the movie
- Creating high-end TVC’s
- Briefing a 3d artist
- Starting your own studio
- Understanding Cadre specialist pipeline
- Podcast recommendations & lots more

EP 18 - Octavio De Lellis - Simulation Expert

Octavio De Lellis has over 20 years of experience in the VFX and post-production industries. He has worked across a range of diverse roles, from modeling, to animation and lighting, to creative direction and directing. Octavio's years of working in post-production also mean he has nurtured a deep familiarity with the inner workings of the advertising industry. This knowledge, coupled with a strong design background and a keen eye for detail make him an outstanding problem solver. Over the last 6 years Octavio has specialised in Fluid Simulation. www.octavio.tv

Topics Discussed
- Growing up in South America
- Starting out in visual effects on Farescape
- Starting, building, operating and closing a small studio.
- Tips for starting up a small studio
- Salaries rates and payments
- Running small teams & creating 3-D for advertising
- Transitioning into liquid and particle work
- How to brief a liquid simulations job
- How to produce a successful particles project

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EP 17 - Lara Hopkins : Framestore

Over the last 25 years Lara Hopkins has worked internationally in production and talent management across most areas of animation and VFX including stop motion, cel animation, VFX + CG features, commercials and immersive projects. Starting her career in production in Adelaide at claymation specialists Anifex, she then moved to Sydney to produce commercials at Animal Logic. After a short stint at Advertising Agency Saatchi and Saatchi in Hong Kong, Lara joined Framestore in London as a Senior Producer in Advertising. In 2003 she moved to a CG artist manager role in Framestore's feature film division, covering both artist resource management and recruitment in CG and compositing. Heading back to Sydney she became Studio Manager for Rising Sun Picture's Sydney office, moving then to Dr D Studios to head up the recruitment team. She then returned to Framestore, moving to New York in 2012 to expand their film division, and also crewing Framestore's new offices in Montreal, Los Angeles and most recently Chicago. Lara is currently based in Sydney and consults exclusively for Framestore. She is also passionate about supporting gender diversity in animation and VFX with a strong belief that the best teams are those that are balanced. www.framestore.com

Topics Discussed
- Framestore
- CV, cover letter and Interview
- Dr D & George Miller - building a studio of 800 artists 
- Leadership, negotiations, recruiting and future jobs
- Explore the issue of women in the industry & Having kids
- 27 years in vfx / animation and working overseas

EP 16 - Annabel Dundas : TILT

Annabel has been Founder and Creative Director of TILT for nearly twenty years and the company has a portfolio of impressive projects and highly regarded clients globally. Having worked around the world she has been influenced by many cultures and therefore has a broad understanding of different markets and how audiences perceive communication. Although small, TILT has worked with some big name clients, producing some award winning projects. www.tiltcreative.com.au

Topics Discussed
- Running your own studio
- Being a top freelancer
- Early career - working overseas
- Tilt - London  
- Tilt : Melbourne
- FIFA and World Cup
- Broadcast design industry : Budgets, sustainable and the future
- Women in the workforce - Explore the issue of women in the industry
- Side-sizing Tilt Melbourne
- The Future

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EP 15 - Darren Price : Mighty Nice  

From 2001-2007, Darren Price established the 3D studio for Nexus Productions in London, then went on to win a BAFTA for his first short movie “Potapych – The Bear Who Loved Vodka”. Moving back to Sydney, Darren set up and built Mighty Nice into an internationally recognised creative studio delivering award-winning animation. Working on “This Way Up”, the short film was nominated for an Oscar for best animated short and won numerous film festival awards. He has directed hundreds of acclaimed TV commercials and co-directed ‘Bottersnikes & Gumbles’ in 2015-2016, a twice Logie-nominated children’s series. He is also co-creator of preschool TV series ‘Kazoops’. www.mightynice.com.au    

Topics Discussed
- Running your own studio
- Being a top freelancer
- Early career, building Nexus 3D Studios - London
- Building an animation studio - Mighty Nice  
- Pipeline and studio development
- As a creative director : Maintaining quality
- Developing series animation content : The process
- Projects : Bottersnikes and Gumbles and Kazoops!
- Projects : ‘Square Peg’
- Inspiration

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EP 14 - James Hackett : Studio Hackett 

After working in London for five years James established Studio Hackett (formerly Hackett Films) in the early 2000s, and has gone on to build an incredibly diverse portfolio of work. The studio’s work has won multiple awards – there’s even a couple of Arias sitting in the office. James and Studio Hackett have carved themselves a unique place in the Australian production industry. James’ skills and experience have enabled Studio Hackett to work in sectors that range from broadcast TV to educational games. His expertise is the lynchpin between story and design. James loves getting to the heart of a character and is happy directing live-action talent or animated characters. He has recently written a young adult science-fiction novel, Ectogen, to be published soon.  www.studiohackett.com

Topics Discussed
- Working in the industry and getting a job in a studio
- Essential must haves for freelancers
- Mastery of skills versus balance
- Tips for creative directors around creating ideas
- Managing your studio in times of heavy workloads
- Being a good manager / creative director
- The benefits of mentoring and how to make mentoring work for you
- Creative writing has a passion project
- Benefits of writing to a creative professional or studio

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EP 13 - Peter Viska : Viskatoons

Peter Viska has been a major part of the Australian animation industry for 38 years, where he has kept abreast of technology to be a content creator and producer for global television networks, international advertising agencies, online games and small businesses. Steeped in a history of loving satire and cartoon humour, Viska graduated to animation from a career as a political cartoonist and illustrating the famous Far Out, russel Sprout!, All Right, Vegemite! and Unreal, Banana Peel! series of books. 

As head of the MICKEY DUCK Animation Co., he directed and produced animation for the advertising industry (Freddo Frog, Target, Telstra, Bloo Loo, Heinz, i-select and the TAC) and for 15 years was major supplier of animation for The Australian Children’s Television Foundation (The Greatest Tune on Earth, The Hedge and Mr Snip, Lift Off, Kaboodle). The association culminated in the production of Li’l Elvis Jones and the Truckstoppers, which was his original concept and the first Australian – French animation Co-Production.

A global presence necessitated a name change to VISKATOONS. He co-wrote and directed the hugely successful MonsterChef for ABC3. Peter was also the Art Director for the award winning casual game, Jolly Rover. Peter is the Creator, Director and Executive Producer of Jar Dwellers SOS. Peter was Executive Producer of Film Victoria supported Suspect Moustache (SBS). He received the Australian Cartoonists Association Stan Cross Award for Animation Cartoonist in 2014. He leads a team of award winning animators and designers who push the boundaries of animation and fun.

www.viskatoons.com

EP 12 - Grant Freckelton : Animal Logic

Grant has been working in the Visual Effects and Animation industry since 1998, as an Illustrator, Art Director, VFX Supervisor and Production Designer. Most recently, Grant was Production Designer on The LEGO Batman Movie and The LEGO Movie. Prior to this, Grant served as Art Director on Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole, Directed by Zack Snyder, for which he won an AFI ACTAA award for Best Visual Effects. This followed his previous collaboration as Visual Effects Art Director on Snyder’s 300, for which he won a Satellite award for VFX.  www.animallogic.com

EP 11 - Gareth O'Brien : Buck Sydney 

Gareth is the Creative Director of Buck’s Sydney studio. After studying design at Massey University he freelanced in Wellington for a few years before moving to New York. Here he joined an eager 4 man crew at Buck NY which he saw grow to a team of 40 odd artists. In 2015 he moved with his family to Sydney to open the doors to Buck’s 3rd studio.

www.buck.tv

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EP 10 - Tim Dyroff

Tim is a multi-award winning Creative Director, Designer, Compositor and Editor. He brings over 20 years experience in the creative industries and is the founder of boutique production house Resolution Design. Tim is a unique Directorial talent able to combine performance; animation and visual effects work in a confident and fresh approach. Tim has received local and international acclaim for his imaginative visual work and direction. 

www.resolutiondesign.com.au  &  www.timdyroffphotography.com.au

EP9 - James Cowen

James is Founder and Creative Director of Yes Captain, a design led motion studio based in Melbourne. With 20 years experience across feature films, television, advertising, music videos, shorts, events, documentaries and digital, James takes a no bull shit approach to creating entertaining, narrative driven, emotive design and animation. James is also Co-Founder of NodeFest - Australia's dedicated motion design event. 

www.yescaptain.net  &  www.nodefest.com.au

EP8 - Glenn Melenhorst

With a background in design and traditional 2D animation, Glenn has refined his skills over the last 28 years and now oversees many film projects as a VFX Supervisor at Deluxe’s Iloura. With his vast knowledge of film production and his commitment to creative excellence, Glenn supervises Iloura’s projects from concept to completion. Most recently, Glenn oversaw the Iloura team that delivered a significant suite of work for the Emmy Awards winning “Battle of the Bastards” Season 6  Episode 9 crescendo of HBO’s tentpole series Game of Thrones. NOTE : Since we recorded this interview Iloura has merged with Method Studios.

www.iloura.com.au  &  www.glennmelenhorst.com & www.methodstudios.com