Each issue of 3D World is brought to you with the help of our advisory board. Made up of leading artists in the fields of animation, visual effects, games, illustration and architectural visualisation, the advisory board provides its feedback on proposed articles and tutorials, helping us to ensure that our content remains at the cutting edge of the 3D industry.

Advisory board members

Tim Alexander

Visual effects supervisor
Industrial Light & Magic

Tim Alexander joined Industrial Light & Magic in 1996, rising from the rank of compositor to visual effects supervisor on The Spiderwick Chronicles and the three most recent Harry Potter movies. In 2000, he was awarded a BAFTA for his work on The Perfect Storm. He is currently visual effects supervisor on Gore Verbinski’s first animated feature, Rango, due for release in 2011.

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Stuart Adcock

Technical art director
Ninja Theory

Stuart Adcock began his career at SCEE’s Cambridge Studios in 2001. As part of Sony’s Advanced Technology group, he was responsible for developing new methods for next-gen character creation, working on the ‘Alfred Molina’ real-time face demo for the PlayStation 3 launch event at E3 2005. Since 2006, he has worked at UK game developer Ninja Theory, supervising facial animation on its acclaimed PS3 title Heavenly Sword.

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Jordi Barés

Joint head of 3D
The Mill

Jordi Barés worked in the games and film industries in his native Spain for eight years before moving to London in 2000, where he freelanced at Jim Henson’s Creature Shop and Passion Pictures. The winner of numerous awards, he was nominated for an Emmy in 2004 for his work on the BBC documentary Pyramid. Since 2003, he has been joint head of 3D and VFX supervisor at Oscar-winning London VFX studio The Mill.

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Pascal Blanché

Senior artist
Frontier Developments

Pascal Blanché studied at the Art School of Luminy in Marseille, then freelanced for TILT, an early videogame magazine, before going on to work for companies such as Virtual Xperience, Xilam Animation and Sony. He worked on the first French Canadian full CG movie, Kaena: The Prophecy. After nine years at Ubisoft Montreal as Art Director, he is presently relocating to Cambridge, UK, to work as senior artist at Frontier Developments.

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Tim Brade

Pipeline Technical Director
Sony Pictures Imageworks

He has over a decade of experience in the industry, working in sectors from broadcast documentary & commercials to feature animation. Previously has been responsible for supervising the production of numerous high-end commercials from a technical perspective, and involved throughout production from creative brief through to delivery. He currently works for Sony Pictures Imageworks as Pipeline Technical Director, developing and supporting in-house tools for the studio’s feature animation slate.

Visit Sony Pictures Imageworks/a>

Visit Sony Pictures Imageworks

Gustavo Capote

Art director
Neoscape

Gustavo Capote is art director and studio manager for Neoscape’s UK studio, with over 10 years of 3D visualisation experience. A sought-after speaker at industry conferences, he has received numerous professional accolades, including the American Society of Architectural Illustrators’ Award of Excellence and CGarchitect’s Best Still Image Award. His work has featured in Ballistic Publishing’s popular Exposé and Elemental books.

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Andrew Daffy

Director
The House of Curves

Andrew Daffy is co-director of The House of Curves, where “creating mini drag queens, surfing ducks and racing sharks all constitute a normal working day”, thanks to the production studio and training company’s ‘non-render specific’ policy for creating photorealistic and motion graphic work. Previously head of 3D commercials at Framestore CFC, he was responsible for projects winning over 30 awards. He was voted one of Autodesk’s Maya Masters in 2004.

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Lee Danskin

Training development director
Escape Studios

Lee Danskin started his career at Alias Research, going on to become part of the development team for Maya 1.0. In 1995, he co-founded London effects house Smoke & Mirrors, working on the title sequence for The World Is Not Enough before moving on to become deputy head of 3D at the Moving Picture Company. In 2006, he joined leading international 3D training company Escape Studios, and in 2007, was voted one of Autodesk’s Maya Masters.

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Jonathan Davies

Head of 3D production
The Moving Picture Company

Jonathan Davies has worked in the commercials VFX industry since he started as a runner at MPC in 1997. After working in Soho as a VFX producer, he returned after 10 years to MPC as Head Of 3D Production. As well as running the production side of this large department, he often manages individual VFX projects.

Visit The Moving Picture Company

Sofronis Efstathiou

MA 3D programme leader
NCCA, Bournemouth University

Sofronis Efstathiou has been an educator in the field of CG since 2001. In 2004, he joined Animal Logic as training manager, facilitating training on George Miller’s Happy Feet and Zack Snyder’s 300. Since returning to the UK, he has continued to train artists in industry, as well as teaching computer animation on the undergraduate and postgraduate courses at Bournemouth University’s prestigious National Centre for Computer Animation.

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Paul Franklin

VFX supervisor
Double Negative

Paul Franklin studied Fine Art at Oxford University before going on to work for pioneering UK game developer Psygnosis as a computer artist. In 1994, he joined the Moving Picture Company as a CG animator working in television commercials, film and broadcast, leaving in 1998 to co-found Double Negative. He is currently a senior in-house VFX supervisor at the studio and recently Oscar-nominated for his work on The Dark Knight.

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Andrew Gordon

Animator
Pixar Animation Studios

Andrew Gordon joined Pixar in 1997, where he has been an animator on A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc, The Incredibles, Ratatouille and Finding Nemo, for which he received a VES Award. He supervised animation on Pixar’s Oscar-nominated short film Presto and worked on Toy Story 3. He is one of the founders of animation education podcast Spline Doctors and teaches at California College of The Arts, Oakland.

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Eddie Leon

President/CEO
Spine3D

Eddie Leon obtained his Master of Architecture degree from Florida International University, going on to work for Spillis Candela DMJM before returning to FIU to found its Studio of Digital Arts and teach courses in computer modelling and web design in the School of Architecture. In 2000, he co-founded the multi-award-winning Spine3D, now the largest architectural visualisation studio in the US.

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Andrew Lindsay

Director of animation
Lionhead Studios

Andrew Lindsay studied fine art, taught painting and drawing, then worked making CG animated kids’ TV shows. Since 2001, he has worked at Lionhead Studios, the UK-based developer of such leading videogame franchises as Fable and Black & White. He is passionate about the role of art within the games development environment. His own work has been shown at international film festivals and the Tate Modern.

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Stefan Marjoram

Director
Aardman Animations

Stefan Marjoram began his career in London creating computer games. He then moved to Bristol, working with the Bolex Brothers, TV graphics firm Burrell Durrant Hifle, and Aardman Animations, where he designed, animated and directed projects including the BBC3 ‘Blobs’ idents and acclaimed short The Deadline. Now a freelance director and designer, his time is still mostly spent at Aardman working on commercials.

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Jeremy Moorshead

Chair, Animation Department
Savannah College of Art and Design

Jeremy Moorshead began his career as animation cameraman at the National Film and Television School, UK and served as technical instructor at the Royal College of Art. He was a freelance animation cameraman for numerous independent shorts, including Nick Park’s A Grand Day Out. Nominated for a BAFTA for best animated short in 1997 for El Caminante, he currently heads the animation department at leading US college SCAD.

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Alex Morris

Director
Alex Morris Visualisation

Alex Morris studied at Cambridge and Liverpool universities, qualifying as an architect in 1990. In 1996, he joined leading international visualisation studio Hayes Davidson, becoming a partner in 2001. He was responsible for many of HD’s landmark images, including London’s Millennium Dome and the Tate Modern. He is a judge for the CGarchitect 3D Awards and is on the boards of numerous key industry bodies. In 2009, he left Hayes Davidson to found his own agency.

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Ximo Peris

Creative director
Crystal CG

Ximo Peris trained as an architect before moving into architectural visualisation in 1997. He taught at Delft University of Technology and worked at DPI Animation House before moving to London, joining first Hayes Davidson and then Smoothe, where he worked on many large-scale animation projects, co-ordinating the visualisation team for the London 2012 Olympics bid. Ximo recently joined Crystal CG as a Creative Director where he is currently busy building the London architecture department.

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Shelley Page

Head of international outreach
DreamWorks Animation

Shelley Page originally trained as an illustrator, moving into feature animation in 1996. She joined DreamWorks Animation at the creation of the studio in 1995 as co-head of artist development. Her film credits include Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Antz, Shrek and Madagascar. She sits on the graduation juries of leading European animation schools Les Gobelins and Supinfocom, and the selection juries of numerous international animation festivals.

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Robi Roncarelli

Editor and publisher
PIXEL

Robi Roncarelli has worked in the computer animation industry since 1978, initially as a designer and producer, and subsequently as an analyst, writer and consultant. He is currently president, editor and publisher of PIXEL, publisher of the industry-standard research bulletin The Roncarelli Report on the Computer Animation Industry. He frequently lectures on the industry at colleges and computer graphics conferences.

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Jolyon Webb

R&D art director
Blitz Games Studios

Jolyon Webb has spent the last decade on games development teams working as an art director and technical artist across a wide variety of titles, including stints at leading UK developers such as Codemasters and Blitz Games Studios, for which he is currently R&D Art Director. His ongoing focus is on how to make realistic and stylised humans more engaging in games.

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