Mr. Spam Gets A New Hat: An Epic Animation Journey: Moving From the Traditional into the Unreal

All presentations are available in the virtual platform on-demand.

Speaker(s):
Taylor Moll, DNEG Animation, United States of America
Shelley Smith, DNEG Animation, United States of America
Gabriele Pellegrini, DNEG Animation, Italy

Talk Description: Moving a traditional feature animation pipeline into a real-time renderer requires creative problem solving from both the production, the technology, and the leadership. Listen in to how DNEG tackled this with their brand-new animated short, Mr Spam Gets a New Hat, directed by Oscar winner William Joyce and executive produced by DNEG’s David Prescott.

Speaker(s) Bio: Taylor Moll is a VFX Supervisor at DNEG Animation with over a decade of experience. She is currently VFX Supervisor on ‘Mr. Spam Gets a New Hat’, an animated short from Academy Award-winning director, writer and illustrator, William Joyce. Taylor is known as a go-to resource for her teams, having accumulated strong technical expertise over the years across multiple studios. With experience from her first major project, ‘Broken Saints’ a flash-animation comic series which won multiple awards (including Telefilm Canada and Sundance Film Festival), Taylor’s skill and understanding of complex workflows was apparent from the beginning of her career. Her earlier projects also include George Miller’s critically acclaimed ‘Happy Feet’ and ‘Stuart Little 3: Call of the Wild’. From her experience with DreamWorks Animation as Lead and Senior Surfacing Artist, Taylor honed her skills on titles such as Disney’s ‘Home’, ‘Rise of The Guardians’, ‘Kung Fu Panda 2’ and ‘Shrek Forever After’ among others. More recently, Taylor has supervised DNEG’s surfacing work on the animated feature film, ‘Ron’s Gone Wrong’.

Mr. Spam Gets a New Hat is Shelley Smith's first Producer role. Smith started in Feature Animation in 2010 as an intern at Pixar Animation Studios. Over the last decade, she has worked on six feature films, including Coco, Toy Story 4, Jungle Book and Ron’s Gone Wrong, as well as numerous shorts and television specials. She has also worked in clearances and development, utilizing her law degree from the University of Florida. Gabriele Pellegrini, CG Supervisor Gabriele Pellegrini is a Supervising Technical Director at DNEG Animation, hailing from Tuscany, Italy. A 3D Generalist, he excels at all of the disciplines, but feels most passionately about rigging. Before joining the team at DNEG Animation he worked at a multitude of studios in Italy and around Europe, in feature animation, advertisements and video games.

Gabriele Pellegrini is a Supervising Technical Director at DNEG Animation, hailing from Tuscany, Italy. A 3D Generalist, he excels at all of the disciplines, but feels most passionately about rigging. Before joining the team at DNEG Animation he worked at a multitude of studios in Italy and around Europe, in feature animation, advertisements and video games.