Paul Howell

A lifelong interest in animation, especially stop motion, prepared Paul for a career in the fantasy world that is animated film. A highlight has been the integration of his software into the work flow at Aardman Animation studios in Bristol UK, during 2008. Stop Motion Pro is currently being used on four high profile stop motion productions, including "Wallace and Gromit - A matter of Loaf and Death", "The Fantastic Mr Fox", "Roary the Racing Car" and an Australian feature, "Mary and Max".

 A passion for stop motion animation prospering as an art form is a key motivator for Paul. Working at Telstra Research Laboratories on iTV and 3D broadband software applications provided a solid background in the principles of user centered design.  A longing to work in more traditional animation saw Paul return to stop motion animation and consider new ways of making this style of film, culminating in the development of Stop Motion Pro with Ross Garner starting in 1999. Paul is the co director and co founder of Stop Motion Pro. He has also made short films that have appeared in film festivals.

Isaac Kerlow

Isaac Kerlow is a visual creator who pioneers the use of digital technology and computer graphics to produce creative content.

Mr. Kerlow is currently developing a computer-animated animated feature (Dream) and an art project (face - miàn kǒng  面孔). Mr. Kerlow is also the author of several best-selling books, including the successful The Art of 3D Computer Animation and Effects published by Wiley and translated to Mandarin, Japanese, Russian, and Korean. The new and expanded 4th edition of Art of 3D will be released in March 2009.

Mr. Kerlow has been a guest or consultant at many creative and research institutions throughout the world. Kerlow actively participates in professional organizations and multiple international festivals including SIGGRAPH, the Visual Effects Society, the International Electronic Film Festival in Japan, the FMX Festival in Germany, and is also a technology advisor to the American Society of Cinematographers.

Between 1997 and 2004 Mr. Kerlow played an executive role at The Walt Disney Company where he lead multiple initiatives related to producing entertainment with new media, including 3D computer animation and 24P High-Definition digital moviemaking. In this role, Mr. Kerlow participated in production and creative decisions that impacted many live action and animated projects company-wide created between 1999 and 2003. Prior to that Mr. Kerlow led as Vice President the group of digital artists and animators at Disney Interactive, where he oversaw creative and production aspects of over 20 computer games including the successful Animated Storybooks (Hercules, Mulan, Toy Story, 101 Dalmatians, etc.) and action games such as Escape from DeVil Manor, Hades Challenge, and Hercules Action Game.

Mr. Kerlow’s distinguished academic career includes being the founding Dean of the School of Art, Design and Media (ADM) at the Nanyang Technological University in 2005. ADM is the first professional art school in Singapore offering six BFA degree programs, including animation and film. Starting in 1985, Mr. Kerlow spent a decade at Pratt Institute in New York, where he was the founding chairman of the Department of Computer Graphics and Interactive Media and the youngest ever tenured full professor at the institution.

Anthony Lawrence

Award winning animation director, Anthony Lawrence, is one of Australia’s foremost stop motion practitioners. Born in Melbourne in 1960, he developed a passion for film making during his teens. In the early 80’s he completed a Bachelor of Education majoring in Media at Melbourne College of Advanced Education, and then began specializing in stop motion animation.  In the mid 80’s he created a self funded, half hour puppet animation called HAPPY HATCHDAY TO PLASMO which was purchased for broadcast nationally by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. He followed this up with a 13 x 5 minute puppet animation series called PLASMO, which has been shown in 24 countries, and which utilized a wide range of in-camera special effects techniques as well as incorporating computer generated imagery. As the creator, writer, director, co-producer, and one of the animators, Anthony developed a strong sense of the overall animation process.
 
His 2002 film LOOKING FOR HORSES won several awards and received a special distinction at Annecy for “direction and quality of emotion”. In 2008 he worked as one of six animators on Adam Elliot’s feature, MARY AND MAX.  Although advertising is often the bread and butter for animators, and Anthony has directed a handful of them, his primary goal for animation has always been the creation of original and engaging characters designed for high quality television series production. To this end he continues to develop series concepts as vehicles for new characters he has created including the furthering of his PLASMO concept.

Hellen Lie

Hellen Lie is an award-winning motion graphic and broadcast designer based in Singapore. Hailing from Jakarta, Indonesia, she graduated from a reputable art college in Singapore majoring in animation. She has been working in both local and international motion graphic companies in Singapore, where she had the privilege to work with major TV stations including MTV, ESPN, Channel 5, Channel 8, Channel U, Channel News Asia, etc.
 

Rob O’Neill

Rob O’Neill lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. He is an artist, programmer, and researcher working at the intersection of art and science. Rob is currently Acting Director and Research Associate in the Pratt Institute Digital Arts Research Laboratory and an Adjunct Assistant Professor in Digital Arts. He is a founding partner of Kickstand: Animation Research + Design.

Rob holds an undergraduate degree in anthropology from Brooklyn College of the City University of New York where he focused on anatomy and biological anthropology. He holds an MFA from Parsons School of Design in Design and Technology with a focus on animation and visualization. His work has been shown in collaboration with Kidrobot at Visionaire Gallery, the Exit Art "Studio Visit" Exhibit, the New York Hall of Science, the New York Academy of Sciences, Eyebeam and internationally as part of Intersculpt (Nancy, France) and Mutamorphosis (Prague, Czech Republic). He continues to create work for both screen and gallery settings and is actively publishing, speaking, and producing work in the realms of character technology, animation production, and developing new tools for creative expression.

Previous professional experience includes: Researcher in Cultural Resources in the Division of Anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History; Production Fellow at Eyebeam; Character Technical Director at PDI/Dreamworks on "Shrek 4D", "Shrek 2", and "Madagascar"; Character and Research Technical Director at Charlex/Launch; and Studio Technical Director at Eyebeam.

Rob is the author of "Digital Character Development: Theory and Practice" published by Morgan Kaufmann (Elsevier). The textbook is a software agnostic overview of the process of creating animated characters for animation and games.
 

James Speck

James Speck, is the founder and creative director of Cowboy WaterDesign in Singapore. The company specializes in 3D computer animation and havea large roster of international clients. The company won the AsianTelevision Award for "Most Innovative Program" for the groundbreaking show of avirtual real time character "Lili". The company designed the characters "Quu andTee" for Sony Pictures, which can be seen throughout Asia. The studio iscurrently working with strategic partners to design, develop and createreal-time entertainment programs for live events, television and mobilemarkets.

Kathleen S. Wilson

Kathleen Wilson is based in New York City where she consults with media companies on digital strategy and creative development and is a member of the adjunct faculty at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in the Interactive Telecommunications Department.  Previously, she co-founded and worked at Viacom for seven years as the Vice President, Creative Director of Viacom Interactive, a cross-company division that catalyzed the development of new digital products, brands, and businesses for Viacom companies.  Prior to Viacom, Kathleen was an Executive Producer/Designer at Paramount’s Media Kitchen in Silicon Valley for three years, working with Paramount companies to write and develop interactive television pilots, interactive story worlds and interactive travel content for mobile devices. Before joining Paramount, Kathleen scripted and designed the children’s CDROM title, Simtown for Electronic Arts/Maxis and consulted with a consortium of seven art museums, coordinated by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, to design and develop interactive experiences for museum visitors based on the art and world of the Impressionists.

Kathleen spent eight years as a Producer/Designer and Multimedia Director at Bank Street College’s Center for Children and Technology in New York, where she scripted, designed and developed interactive media pilots for children, with funds from Sony, Apple, NSF and the Department of Education.  Her biggest project at Bank Street, Palenque, was funded by RCA, GE, and Intel, using their experimental digital video interactive technology, in conjunction with Bank Street’s Second Voyage of the Mimi TV show, which starred the young Ben Affleck and aired on PBS.  Kathleen has written many articles and given numerous presentations on digital media around the world,  participated as a judge at many interactive media festivals, consulted with a wide range of companies and traveled extensively.  Whenever possible she takes writing workshops at the Gotham Writers Workshop, has a doctorate from Harvard University in Human Development and Psychology, a global MBA from TRIUM (HEC-Paris, LSE-London, NYU-Stern), and a BA from Middlebury College with honors in art.   She recently published her first novel, Rumer & Qix:  The Race to Terra Incognita, a futuristic, eco-fantasy adventure for tweens.