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Ken Lai is a passionate leader who is committed to empowering others to build successful careers in the game and animation industry and grow the industry in Asia. What first started as his personal vision has now been expressed through his extensive work as CEO of Brandoville Studios and the Former Shareholder of Lemon Sky Studios, leading both businesses in Indonesia and Malaysia.

Before becoming a Partner at Lemon Sky Studios in 2011, Ken studied at Vancouver Film School and the University of Toronto in Canada. Following his graduation, Ken launched his career at EA Canada, where he developed games for more than 7 years as the Lead and Technical Artist, producing high-profile games like Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City.

Since then, Ken has gained around 20 years of executive management experience in the animation and game industry. Using his experience and never-ending determination, Ken continues to propel his passion for art while encouraging individuals around him to achieve beyond the status quo.

Ken Lai is a passionate leader who is committed to empowering others to build successful careers in the game and animation industry and grow the industry in Asia. What first started as his personal vision has now been expressed through his extensive work as CEO of Brandoville Studios and the Former Shareholder of Lemon Sky Studios, leading both businesses in Indonesia and Malaysia.

Before becoming a Partner at Lemon Sky Studios in 2011, Ken studied at Vancouver Film School and the University of Toronto in Canada. Following his graduation, Ken launched his career at EA Canada, where he developed games for more than 7 years as the Lead and Technical Artist, producing high-profile games like Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City.

Since then, Ken has gained around 20 years of executive management experience in the animation and game industry. Using his experience and never-ending determination, Ken continues to propel his passion for art while encouraging individuals around him to achieve beyond the status quo.

Chris O’Connell has over 20 years of experience with working in several fields, such as Post Production, Video Games, Vfx and Animation. Moving around from New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Vancouver he has worked on several projects and films, which include Captain America, Oz the great and powerful, Sherlock Holms, Moana, Big Hero Six and Frozen 2. He was fortunate to be a part of the talented team that created two Oscar winners for Best Animated Film, Frozen and Zootopia.

While working primarily as a modeler for most of his career. In the past few years he has specialized in environments as a Environment Modeling lead. Learning the pipeline, process and working with multiple departments to broaden his career.

Other positions he has had are Modeling instructor at the Art Institute and currently working at Walt Disney Animation Studios

Career Highlights:
Taking the plunge and moving to Los Angeles
First break in the film and Animation industry at IMD 2007
Working on Frozen

Rajiv Sharma is working over 13 years in Feature Films, TV Shows and Gaming industry.
He started his career as visual effects artist and moved forward with roles
like Visual Effects Lead, Visual Effects Technical Director, Visual Effects Supervisor.

He is expert and experienced in Dynamics and Particles Simulations, Fluids Simulations, lighting, Rendering, compositing and Python Programming.
He is credited in many feature films for creation of VFX Elements like Fire, Explosion, Water, Destructions.etc
Some of the blockbuster movies he worked on are Resident Evil, The Three Muskteers, 10000 Days, Happy Feet 2, Planes, Planes2, Cowman and Ratboy

During his career path he worked with many studios, some of them are – Technicolor Animation, Anibrain, DrD Studios, Prana Studios, Anima Point and Lemonsky Studios

Rajiv also have his VFX Pipeline Youtube channel where he create free tutorials for CG community and sharing his knowledge.

I am First Nation/People of the Dakota (Sioux). My parents are also both Dakota, as are my grandparents, and so on. By Dakota/Lakota tradition, when introducing yourself, we are required to introduce the tribe we are from and our parents, etc..

My People are originally from the Minnesota area, but in 1862, the ‘Minnesota Uprising’ caused us to flee into both parts of the Dakotas and into Canada. So this is where I was born, in particularly, Manitoba. I have been a professional character artist for the past 20 years, working on both video game titles and television/direct-to-videos. I have had the privilege of working in studios such as Mainframe Entertainment, Snowblind Studios (which became WB Games), Signal Studios, Unity Technologies and finally, Turn 10 Studios (a Microsoft Studio).

I have shipped titles such as Lord of the Rings: War in the North, Ascend: Hand of Kul, and Forza Motorsport 7. And worked on tv series and direct-to-videos, such as: Action man, Reboot, Barbie and the Nutcracker, Spider-man MTV series, among others.

I am also a self-taught fine artist, exploring many genres such as illustrating, sculpting, carving, painting, etc..

I was honored, in 1995, to have won first place in a First Nations Art Contest, in Canada, for an acrylic painting. I have also worked for both screen printing and paper printing companies, as the artist, as well.

The personal work I create, is mainly with acrylic paints, with themes heavily based on the dreams and teachings I have learned and experienced within the Dakota/Lakota traditional beliefs and lore.

I have also been working on a self-made graphic novel called, “SpiritWolf: Birth of a Legend”. A comic book based on a Native American legend with a hero, I created, who is called upon to protect the Oyate (People). The hero walks both in Spirit and the Physical, and must learn what it is to feel, to touch …. to live as a human being. So his journey, becomes ours.

I have worked on over 23 titles for Electronic Arts. Titles range from WCW, SSXs, Need for Speeds, FIFA/NBA Streets, Metal of Honor, Army of Two, Battlefield, and FIFA17-20’s highly acclaimed story modes.

I have about twenty-two years of character production experience in videogames and television production. I am experienced in all areas of characters, from conception to final in-game assets. Over the years, I have been very involved in streamlining the process of character production.

In the past eight and a half years at EA, I have become more involved in animation/cinematic implementation into Frostbite. This shift has allowed me to become more involved in many other areas of production such as Motion Capture, Lighting, Environments, Rendering, FX, Audio, QA and Marketing.

Previous experience: (Mainframe Entertainment)

I have 20 years of experience working in the video game and television industry. I have worked on over a dozen video game titles and several television series and direct-to-video projects. I specialize in sculpting high/low resolution characters and creating photo-real and stylized textures for video games and tv/film.  My work has included everything from capturing the likeness of celebrities to interpreting stylized 2D designs to reviewing and collaborating with outsource partners. More recently, I have transitioned to a management role for all the character development outsourced by The Coalition.

Previous experience: (Electronic Arts, Propaganda Games, Mainframe Entertainment)

Surfacing artist since 2004.

Worked on project include: Need For Speed, Fifa20, Final Fantasy Kingsglaive, Magic: The Gathering.

Experience with:  Maya, Zbrush, Mari, Substance Designer, Painter, Marvelous Designer.

Sebastian is a 3D animation director and writer who started his career in Vancouver over 20 years ago on the first fully 3D animated television series REBOOT at Mainframe Entertainment. Since then, he has been the series director and writer for League of Super Evil, and has directed several animated TV series including: SLUGTERRA, THE DEEP, and SPIDER-MAN: THE NEW ANIMATED SERIES, to name a few. Originally from Uruguay, South America, Sebastian came to Vancouver in the 1990s just as the animation industry was just getting off the ground and was one of the first to graduate with a Degree in Digital Animation from the Centre for Digital Imaging and Sound. Sebastian joined BRON in 2017 and is currently Director of Photography and Head of Previs and Layout on THE WILLOUGHBYS.

I am an artist located in Vancouver, a beautiful, cosmopolitan city with lots of inspiration for my art work. I have worked in the video game industry for 10+ years and am currently a full-time freelance artist. I work with a variety of clients from the video game, mobile game and film industry.

Some of the titles I have worked on include Resident Evil Raccoon City, Sleeping Dogs, Tomb Raider series, Adam Episode 2 and 3 by Unity, and several other game cinematic trailers. I am also an active illustrator and 2d concept designer who work with various mobile game studios.

In my leisure time, I love to learn new things and discover new knowledge in the art field as I enjoy both 2D and 3D work. Aside from the time spent in art, I am a veteran hunter in the Monster Hunter series and spend too much time hunting down monsters.

Career Highlights

Resident Evil Racoon City

Sleeping Dog

Tomb Raider series

Jarold Sng is a professional concept artist with over a decade of experience in the entertainment design and collectible design industry.

Jarold specialises in characters and futurism design- with his work carried over to AAA video game titles like Gears of War 5, Gears of War ultimate edition and Starcraft Remastered. 

An avid collector himself; he has designed for a fare share of high end statue collectibles, working alongside licenses like Attack on Titan, Bleach, and Ragnarok: Thor.

You can also find him teaching on the classrooms of The One Academy in Kuala Lumpur; through the Concept Art course that he had designed with the Illustration faculty. 

Jarold currently manages and operates his co founded art house called Ten Ten Studio; a newly founded art service provider focusing on providing bespoke art services for the entertainment industry.

It‘s in this studio where Jarold practices his belief of a more holistic creative development within entertainment design. With a vision of more problem solving based design and thoughtful art implementation with respect to story and gameplay needs. 

Ivan Chan joined BioWare in 2016 as an External Art Director. He has been working in the games industry for over 15 years. Ivan previously had roles as Environment/Lighting/Tech Art at EA Vancouver, Level Designer at Capcom and Content Lead/Manager at WB Games Montreal. He has worked on titles such as NBA, FIFA, NCAA, NHL, Medal Of Honor, Dead Rising, Batman Arkham series, Star Wars The Old Republic, Mass Effect Andromeda, Anthem and currently in production, Dragon Age 4.

John has been working as a professional animator in television, film, and games for more than 17 years. He has worked at leading companies including Microsoft, Sony, and Disney. He has a BSc in Biology from the University of Western Ontario and pursued 3D Animation and Digital FX studies at Vancouver Film School. He is an Assistant Professor of 3D Computer Animation at Emily Carr University of Art + Design and works full-time as a Lead Animator at Kabam Studios.  He is currently working on the highly anticipated Marvel game coming out in summer 2020 called Marvel Realm of Champions for iOS and Android.

Credits:

Marvel Realm of Champions

Korean artist Jiyoung Lee has worked in various studios in Canada, US, UK, and Singapore. Lee has more than 20 years of experience in this industry, starting her career as a freelance illustrator and eventually ventured as a texture and look dev artist, having have worked for companies such as Mainframe Entertainment, DreamWorks Animation, Digital Dimension, Lucasfilm, Moving Picture Company, Double Negative, and Sony Pictures Imageworks over the years.

Lee has worked on major blockbuster Hollywood movies such as Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019), Men in Black (2019), Godzilla: King of Monsters (2019), Deadpool 2 (2018), Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018), Hotel Transylvania 3 (2018), American Sniper (2015), Les Miserables (2012), and How to Train Your Dragon (2010) among other things in her extensive portfolio.

Lee currently works as the Senior Texture Artist at ScanlineVFX, Canada.

Katherine Laflamme has over 15 years of experience in digital and traditional arts. Over time, her technical and artistic skills covered graphic design and commercial illustration for major advertising firms as well as color keys, production design, and matte painting in the movie and animation industry.

Working at Sony Imageworks, Vancouver as a Matte Painter, Katherine’s work includes Sausage Party, The Emoji Movie, Smallfoot, and The Addams Family, among others. In addition to digital mediums such as Photoshop, Maya, Nuke, After Effects, and Flash, Katherine is also proficient in traditional mediums like acrylics and oils.

Growing up fascinated by peculiar design and astonishing imagery, Joshua pursued his dream to create and manifest his art as a 3D Character artist.

After becoming one of the winners of CG Student awards by Autodesk in 2015, he discovered another passion to pave a purposeful, collaborative, and meaningful way to inspire and impact the next generation individuals to chase their dream.

By combining his dream and passion, he is very eager to nurture and to grow the Computer Graphic industry in his home country, Indonesia.

Damien has been a professional character modeler/digital sculptor for over 13 years in Film ,Television and Games . Most notably he has worked on projects such as Avengers , Xmen , Spiderman , Thor ,Beauty and the Beast and Power Rangers contributing his expertise as a sculptor to help realize visions of these films digital characters . Damien now works as Freelance Artist for his own company formed in 2019 , Mudbros Digital.

Herrick Chiu is an industry veteran with more than 25 year experience in 3D animation for television series and Direct-To-Video projects. He’s worked as Modelling Supervisor and promoted to Modelling Department Head at Mainframe Entertainment Canada. 

He worked on Reboot, the world’s first full 3d animated television series. Other project he worked on are Beast Wars, Beast Machine, Action Man, Heavy Gear, Max Steel, War Planets, Weird-Ohs, Hot Wheels, Scary Godmother and Barbie.  

Herrick joined the team at Nerd Corps Entertainment in 2003 as Production Resources Manager, moving up to Studio Resource Supervisor in 2006. His list of credits includes League of Super Evil and Rated A For Awesome, and he’s responsible for organizing and managing production resources across multiple projects and identifying new talent for the company.

Throughout his 25 year experience in 3D animation, Herrick has developed the highest level of punctuality. He has built a reputation for strategic planning, project management, pipeline development, and production team training.

LinkedIn

IMDB

Affiliate:

Program Advisory Commitment for Art Institute Vancouver and VCAD

Wilson Leung’s career has been vast and impressive. Graduating in 1996, Wilson wasted no time and jumped in to work on one of the biggest toy franchise animation show, Transformers. In addition, Wilson also worked on Reboot, the world first 3D animated TV show. After completing a few more animation show such as War Planet and Weirdoh, Wilson moved on to pursue his video game career in the year 2000.

With the mentality of only working with the best, Wilson decided to join Electronic Arts, one of the largest video game studios on the planet. As a Lead Motion Capture Specialist, Animator and Manager, he has worked on many award-winning AAA titles. For example, Harry Potter, Lord of the Ring, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Need for Speed, Madden, NHL, FIFA, Dead Space, Dante’s Inferno, God Father, Medal of Honor, MMA UFC, Fight Night, FIFA Street, NBA Street, Army of Two, Def jam, Skate … the list goes on and on. He has also worked with many celebrities such as top professional golfer, Tiger Woods, Street basketball team And1, baseball super star Luis Gonzalez, NBA Star Stromile Swift … etc. Other than video games, he has also worked on Gillette commercial featuring Tiger Woods, Roger Federer, and Thierry Henry. While Wilson was busy managing many projects, he has also acquired a Bachelor of Technology Management at BCIT in part-time studies to further upgrade himself.

Wilson found success in both the animation and video game industries, but he chose to never keep the knowledge to himself. Starting in 2002, he started to share what he learned from his profession. After acquiring the professional Provincial Instructor Diploma, he has taught at many prestigious schools, such as BCIT, CDIS, Vancouver Film School, Think Tank, Langara College, and Centre for Arts and Technology. In 2003, Wilson was interviewed by BCIT. In his Article, “Electronic Arts Meets the BCIT Classroom”, he shared his vision on the relationship between gaming and education. In 2010, Wilson left EA to pursue his passion for education; he wanted to transform the classroom into a workplace-like learning environment. He decided to move to beautiful Kelowna and joined the best Art School in Okanagan area, Centre for Arts and Technology. He worked closely with Animation Department Head, Sean Ridgway, who was a Disney Animator, to revise the whole 3D animation curriculum. His vision? To transform the classroom into a professional studio environment.

In 2014, Wilson left Kelowna and returned to Vancouver for family reasons. He rejoined EA and worked on one of the largest video game franchises in the world; FIFA. In 2018, Langara college interviewed him for an article and video to talk about his more than 20-year career in animation and video games, with the goal to inspire young minds. At the same time, Chinese game giant NetEase invited Wilson to do a Game Talk sharing. At present, Wilson is the Animation Department Head at Centre for Arts and Technology’s Surrey Campus and also Lead Instructor at Langara Colleage. He is leading and managing the exciting, fun, and rewarding animation programs. His goal very simple: to make your passion into your profession.