After a period working as a builder, he began as a set designer in 1982. Since then he has art directed movies for Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Bob Zemeckis, Zack Snyder, Peter Jackson and James Cameron - amongst others. In 2010 Kim received a BAFTA, and an Academy Award for art direction on the movie Avatar. 

Other projects include designing The Adventures of Tintin, and a TVC for Samsung directed by Romain Gavras. In 2014, he production designed two New Zealand feature films: The Dark Horse which won Best Film at the 2014 New Zealand Film Awards, and Slow West which won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 2015. 

Paul Franklin is an Academy Award® winning visual effects artist and filmmaker who has been working in film and television for over 30 years.  Paul is the Creative Director of beloFX, having previously held the same position at DNEG, a VFX studio he co-founded in 1998.

For over a decade, Paul worked closely with director Sir Christopher Nolan, designing and supervising the visual effects for all three film’s in Nolan’s Dark Knigh Trilogy and winning Oscars® for the visual effects of Inception and Interstellar.  Paul’s other credits include Harry Potter ant the order of the Phoenix and Venom.  

Paul continues to push the boundaries of visual storytelling at beloFX and beyond.

Adam Dewhirst is a distinguished Visual Effects (VFX) Artist with over 20 years of experience across film, television, commercials, games, and children's programming. He began his career at Framestore, contributing to projects such as The Golden Compass, which earned the team an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. Adam recently completed three years at Industrial Light & Magic working on projects such as Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power, Venom 3 and Antman QuantumMania. His notable film credits include The Dark Knight (2008), John Carter (2012), World War Z (2013), and Guardians of the Galaxy (2014).

Amy Ash has been working in illustration and animation for over 20 years, working in a wide range of styles across advertising, television, and game cinematics. Drawing on her training as a traditional Media Illustrator and many years working as a Generalist, she has worked for companies such as Passion Pictures, Aardman, and Goodbye Kansas. She joined Axis Studios in 2018, where she led the character team on projects such as Riot’s Tales of Runeterra series, The Love Death and Robots episode The Tall Grass for Netflix, and the Diablo Immortal launch trailer, before taking on the role of Head of Characters at the studio.

Debbie has been producing content for 30 years, starting in live action before moving on to CGI / 3D animation in 2006 and working with some of the biggest names in the games industry. After many years at Axis Studios, Debbie co-founded Hydra Studios with two other industry veterans, where she continues to make game trailers and cinematic content. Her approach to production is to keep things simple and real, supporting Hydra's directors and artists to make highly creative content, and to have fun whilst doing so.

Roberto is the Core Technology Director at Creative Assembly, responsible for building the engine on which all Total War games are released. The team consists of graphics, tools, infrastructure, technical art, technical animation and core gameplay teams. Prior to Creative Assembly, Roberto worked as a Project Manager for more than ten years with clients such as Marvel Studios, Disney, Bacardi, the NHS and IKEA.

A Primetime Emmy Award-winning Visual Effects Supervisor, Hayden Jones has over 25 years of experience in the industry. He was VFX Supervisor on Netflix’s Lost Ollie, a live-action/animation hybrid family series directed by Peter Ramsey, for which he also won an Emmy for outstanding VFX. Hayden is now serving as VFX supervisor on the Netflix animated feature, Ultraman: Rising.

Chloe has been working in recruitment for five years, two and a half of those have been at Playground Games which is her first job in games. She now specialises in art recruitment, supporting the art department to hire top talent across both the Forza Horizon and Fable projects.

Kiril is a recent Escapee (Escape Studios alumni) and a VFX Artist working on Fable at Playground Games.

Noélie is a Senior Gameplay Designer at Creative Assembly currently working on the sequel to Alien: Isolation. Previously, she was working at Ubisoft for five years on the Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope game and DLCs.

Pedrom is a highly experienced CG supervisor with projects including The Witcher, War of the Worlds, and Paris Has Fallen. Initially studying games development, he discovered the world of CG and worked his way up from there. On The Rig: Season 2, he oversaw the entire CG side of Vine FX’s work, from initial concepts and post-vis up to the final stages of rendering. 

Jessica works as a Generalist TD, specialising in lighting and groom. She brings a wealth of knowledge to the team, having worked at studios like One of Us, Blue Zoo and now Vine FX. Whilst working on The Rig: Season 2, she developed the lighting effects for the Ancestor Tree asset and lit a range of environments for the project with a keen eye for the nuance of lighting to tell the narrative. 

Alesja is one of the Senior Compositors at Vine FX with ten years experience in the industry. Starting her career at Framestore in the roto department, she joined Vine FX as a Junior and developed very quickly, with credits for Thor: Ragnarok, Kingsman: The Golden Circle and The Witcher. On The Rig: Season 2, she worked closely with the VFX Supervisor to achieve a pixel-perfect and consistent look across sequences during the compositing stage. 

With over 18 years of experience in the creative industry and a background as a freelance illustrator, Simon has held key roles in talent development and learning across visual effects, games, television, and commercial radio. As the current Head of the Framestore Talent Development Team, he is also the Founder and Director of ACCESS: VFX, a global industry movement uniting over 75 leading studios, industry bodies, and educational institutions in visual effects and animation. ACCESS: VFX champions inclusion, diversity, awareness, and opportunity through its four pillars: Inspiration, Education, Mentoring, and Recruitment.

Led by VFX Supervisor David Dunn, BlueBolt created 92 VFX shots to support Peter Kosminsky’s vision for the BBC’s Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light. BlueBolt’s brief was to add Tudor era authenticity to the locations, including the meticulous digital restoration of both Holbein’s portrait of Anne of Cleves and the Abraham Tapestries at Hampton Court. In addition, BlueBolt delivered CG bees for Thomas Cromwell’s dream sequence and crowd enhancement for his execution.

Led by VFX Supervisor David Dunn, BlueBolt created 92 VFX shots to support Peter Kosminsky’s vision for the BBC’s Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light. BlueBolt’s brief was to add Tudor era authenticity to the locations, including the meticulous digital restoration of both Holbein’s portrait of Anne of Cleves and the Abraham Tapestries at Hampton Court. In addition, BlueBolt delivered CG bees for Thomas Cromwell’s dream sequence and crowd enhancement for his execution.

Saint John Walker is a leading VFX educator with over 25 years of experience of teaching and training in the games, animation and VFX industries. Recent projects include Victor Foxtrot Xray Halo, a podcast that last month featured Scott Ross, Digital Domain founder. Saint is also Chair and Convenor of the London International Animation Festival’s industry panels, that included Aardman, Studio AKA, Blue Zoo and others.

Previously, Saint was Dean and Director of Industry Engagement at Escape Studios. Saint is an active member of Access:VFX, with recent work with the Next Gen Skills Academy, FMX and The VIEW Festival that seeing him chairing and taking part in industry panels as diverse as AI, Animated Documentaries, VFX Careers and Creature FX. Saint is the author of the well-respected Core Skills of VFX Handbook and Student Primer, which he is currently updating for a new generation of new entrant talent.

After 20 years of experience as Producer and Director, and a deep interest and knowledge in new technologies, Stefano established Stormcloud Company, aiming to go beyond the boundaries of the entertainment industry.

Ricardo is an award-winning Digital Compositor who has been working in the cinematography industry since 2009, he was part of the team that won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects in 2014 on Gravity, in 2015 on Interstellar and in 2016 on Ex-Machina. He has been working on both areas, film and commercial projects for Industrial Light & Magic, DesignStudio, Cinesite, Prime Focus, MPC, DoubleNegative, Trixter and Polarmedia, this has come after completing the two compositing courses at Escape Studios, in London. Ricardo is a Compositor Supervisor, researcher and a Visual Effects Society Board Manager in London.

Lee started his career at Alias as a Senior Applications Analyst. He helped build and launch Maya 1.0 before moving to The Film Factory as VFX Supervisor. He then joined Smoke + Mirrors as Head of 3D before becoming Deputy Head of 3D Commercials/Broadcast for MPC. Lee moved to Escape Studios as Training Development Director in 2006, where he redefined their training programme by making it more industry-relevant. A year later he was made a Maya Master.  

In 2013 Lee joined Escape Technology as Chief Technology Officer. He consults on all major pipelines and special projects. 

Khalid has been working in VFX since 2013, specialising in character sculpting and facial blend shapes. Having worked at DNEG, MPC, Framestore and One Of Us, he has strong experience in creating a wide variety of creatures, humans and robots.

Gianni has over two decades of experience in the film, television, and game industries. He has been a part of many large-scale Hollywood productions as both a lighting/compositing artist as well as in leadership/supervisor roles. A large portion of Gianni's career has been spent in animation at companies such as DreamWorks Animation, PDI/DreamWorks, and Lucasfilm Animation before joining Goodbye Kansas. Gianni most recently completed Secret Level - The Outer Worlds: The Company We Keep for Amazon.

With over 18 years of experience in VFX for Film & TV, James has previously held positions as a Senior Environment Artist, CG Supervisor, Head of 3D and more recently VFX Supervisor. James landed his first gig at Framestore, contributing to titles such as Avatar, Where the Wild Things Are and The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader. After which followed success with Bluebolt, earning him a VES nomination for the baby dragons in Season One of Game of Thrones.

Fast forward to now and James has delivered 15+ titles as CG Supervisor for Goodbye Kansas, recently including one of the nation's favourites, Doctor Who. His eye for detail and creative intuition has made him a core member of the Goodbye Kansas team where he has been for the past seven years.

Executive Producer Jörgen Lilja has produced everything from award-winning music videos, worldwide commercials and game cinematic's to complex interactive campaigns during the last 10 years. Because of his experience in producing cinematic's, commercials, VFX/CGI and interactive campaigns together with his vast network of agencies, creatives, directors, game developers and web developers, projects from all over the world ends up at his desk.

Shane Mulholland is a Digital Producer at DNEG Animation, with nearly 20 years of experience in the animation and games industry. He is currently working on an unreleased show but most recently served as a CG Animation Producer, delivering Netflix’s festive feature, That Christmas. Shane began his career in 2005 as a Character-Finaling artist on an animated feature for Nickelodeon, before moving on to Dreamworks Animation where he honed his skills in production management. A multi-talented individual, Shane’s career spans several prominent roles, including Production Manager at Netflix, Director of Marketing Operations at DreamWorks Animation, and Department Manager at Weta Digital. Before DNEG Animation, he also served as a Producer at Amazon Game Studios.

Nicholas New is currently serving as a VFX Supervisor at DNEG Animation. He began his career after studying Mechanical Engineering at the University of Sheffield, initially working as a motion graphics artist at TWI. He later freelanced in TV and commercials before joining The Senate VFX as a generalist. In 2006, Nicholas joined DNEG as an FX artist on Stardust, eventually becoming Head of FX at DNEG Animation, where he led the team behind stunning effects work on feature animations like Under the Boardwalk, and most recently, Netflix's festive film That Christmas. Over his career, he has contributed to major films including Batman Begins, Captain America: The First Avenger, and Interstellar.

Matt Waters is currently a VFX Supervisor at DNEG Animation with over 16 years of experience. Previously, he served as a DFX Supervisor at DNEG Animation on Netflix’s festive feature That Christmas. Matt’s artistic and technical experience spans across several major films, including DNEG Animations' first feature film, Ron's Gone Wrong, where he led a team of over 40 lighting and compositing artists, supervising nearly 800 shots. Passionate about the craft of digital effects, Matt has also contributed to blockbuster animation projects such as Sherlock Gnomes at Mikros Animation, Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, Kung Fu Panda 2, and The Croods for DreamWorks Animation.

Oliver has lent his talents to some of the most acclaimed and technically groundbreaking features of the last ten years and has consistently raised the bar for CG character performance on film.

He has maintained a vast influence over hero character performances in productions including The Lion King and The Jungle Book, which delighted audiences worldwide and won multiple awards including the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. 

His most recent achievements include overseeing animation work for Prehistoric Planet, Knuckles, The Acolyte and the creatures featured in the second season of Amazon fantasy epic, The Wheel of Time.

Max Howard created and ran animation studios for The Walt Disney Company in London, Paris, Orlando and Los Angeles, working on some of Disney’s most memorable films including Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King. As President of Warner Bros Feature Animation, he oversaw such hit movies as The Iron Giant and Space Jam. At DreamWorks, he was co-executive producer for Spirit, Stallion of the Cimarron.

Max served as an executive producer on the animated feature film and TV series, 100% Wolf, it’s sequel, 200% Wolf, together with two TV series based on the films. The franchise is produced in Australia by Flying Bark Animation Productions. In addition, Max was an executive producer on the Christmas movie, Saving Santa, and a slate of animated feature films for Exodus Film Group: Igor, The Hero of Color City, and Bunyan and Babe.

Max is currently serving as Executive Producer on Avoke Production’s upcoming animated feature, Drew’s World.

Harry works as a VFX Runner for a Cambridge-based studio. He started at the studio at the end of 2023, during his third year of studying at Escape Studios. Brought in for his positive and 'can-do' attitude to initially support artists at the studio and being a team player for the studio operations team. Once graduating and joining Vine FX full time, he has been earning opportunities to pursue compositing, picking up credits on shows like Netflix's 'The Witcher: Season 4', Amazon's 'Paris Has Fallen' and 'The Rig: Season 2' as well as being set to receive his first feature film credit on a Disney/20th Century Fox Production in April 2025.

Amelie is a marketing communication specialist with expertise in employer branding and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Currently pursuing an MBA in management consulting, she is passionate about developing and promoting inclusive communications that authentically represent the diversity of society. With a commitment to fostering belonging and equity in the workplace, Amelie strives to bridge the gap between organizations and diverse talent through thoughtful and impactful branding strategies

Ellie is a neurodivergent leader and passionate advocate for inclusive hiring in the VFX and games industries. As the Recruitment Manager for Framestore’s London studio, they specialise in building high-performing teams across current and emerging technologies. Ellie works closely with experts in Systems, Production Technology, Software, Creature Tech, Production Tools, Rendering & Machine Learning, as well as Unreal Engine and Real-Time teams within Framestore’s Immersive and Virtual Production departments. A film and games enthusiast, they are dedicated to fostering diverse, innovative teams that drive creativity and technological advancement.

An alumni of ILM Singapore and London, DNEG VFX, Weta and Framestore. She began her career working outside VFX in Los Angeles as a large-scale sculptor, painter and stop motion puppet maker for film and TV. Her passion to work in a story driven industry keeps her excited each day to find like minded people and then talk their ear off about great films! 

Simon is a series director and animator at Blue Zoo Animation Studios in London. He has directed the BAFTA winning CBeebies series Numberblocks and has recently finished production on its new sister show Wonderblocks.

Fortunato, a VFX veteran with 25+ years of experience and 100+ film/TV credits, has worked on projects like Spider-Man (2002) and The Hunger Games (2012). As Compositing Lead and Industry Outreach Specialist at Campus VFX, he mentors aspiring artists and advocates for VFX education and inclusion.

Kathleen Ruffalo is the Recruitment Manager for Framestore’s U.S. offices. Since joining in 2012, she has been instrumental in shaping the creativity and culture across the LA, New York, and Chicago studios. Committed to fostering diversity and inclusion in the VFX industry, she also co-chairs the U.S. chapter of Access:VFX.

Chris Kiser is the Global Director of Business Development at Glassworks in Amsterdam, where he leads a talented team of artists and helps grow the studio’s creative reach. As Chapter Lead of ACCESS:VFX Europe, he’s passionate about expanding the European chapter and making the VFX and animation industries more inclusive.

Cat Gulácsy is a Senior Talent Acquisition Specialist and founder of Calling All Talent LLC, advising top studios like Buck, Framestore, and Nickelodeon. She champions inclusion, mentorship, and education, teaching at Carnegie Mellon, Pratt, and SVA while leading ACCESS:VFX and supporting The Animation Project Inc.

After 14 years at Disney Feature Animation working on such films as Tangled, Bolt and Frozen, Dara followed her lifelong ambition to live in London, joining DNEG as an Artist Manager. Today, she helps to bring students and careers together! 

Phil Attfield is a VFX industry professional with over 40 years of experience as a Technician, Artist, Entrepreneur, and Educator. He co-founded the VFX boutique Men-from-Mars, earning BAFTA and Emmy nominations, and has worked on high-profile projects such as the multi-Oscar and BAFTA winning movie The King’s Speech.

In 2015 he co-founded NextGen Skills Academy to bridge the gap between education and the creative industries, helping to develop qualifications, apprenticeship standards, and alternative training pathways into VFX, animation, and games. Recently, Phil was honoured with the Outstanding Contribution to Diversity and Inclusion award at the UK Screen Alliance and Animation UK Awards, recognising his dedication to breaking down barriers and promoting equal access to the industry.

Experienced technologist within the immersive sector.

Finding a new home for his skills at d&b audiotechnik; Identifying the creative and driving sources of amazing projects, turning them to d&b experiences and spatial audio adventures from the Saatchi Gallery to Facebook's events space across the globe. From the relaunch of the Iconic KOKO, London to numerous grass Roots music champions via the MVT and genuine spectaculars, such as Bjork at the Pompidou.

In the organisations new Artist Relations department, Wayne is applying all these narratives and to raise d&b audiotechnik’s brand awareness, beyond our current networks. This multiple trajectory approach: within the creative communities of Music, Art, Culture, AV and Experiences, will raise the profile, create energy for new future audiences and destinations.

Professor Ian Palmer joined Escape Studios in 2015 to lead the development of its degrees in VFX, animation and games. The studio-based approach at Escape Studios was the ideal place for him and build programmes that have the industry focus at the heart of their pedagogy. Working with professionals at the top of their field and current and recent students, he has developed and tested new approaches to supporting learning in this area, sharing the practice both internally and externally through invited presentations and papers. Ian was appointed Principal at Escape Studios in 2022 and is in charge of the overall day-to-day management and strategic direction for the institution. 

Alex is the Dean/Director of Animation and Visual Effects at Escape Studios. He has over 25 years’ experience working in the animation industry and some of his film credits include; The Lion King, Robots, The Road to El Dorado, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and The Iron Giant. He also has 20 years’ experience working and teaching in higher education. 

Simon joined Escape Studios in 2008 and is now the Dean/Director of Interactive and Real Time at Escape Studios. He has over 23 years’ experience working in the industry and 10 years’ working in higher education and teaching. He designed the Escape Studios undergraduate degrees and the MA in Game Art. 

After graduating from a Fine Art background, Simon joined Bits Studios and later moved on to Sony Computer Entertainment Europe for 10 years, designing and creating environments, characters and leading teams at a senior level. 

He worked in senior lead roles on nine published titles including Total NBA ’97, This is Football, Getaway, Black Monday, Kinetic, Kinetic Combat and Sony Playstation Home. During his career he has also created bespoke courses for corporate clients in the video games and TV sectors such as Rare, Big Big Studios and the BBC. 

Daniel’s early work in architecture included rendering the Sega World amusement attraction in Piccadilly Circus, before moving on to roles within the games industry, with tenures at Sierra and Divide By Zero. From there, Daniel worked in post-production for Lost in Space, on projects for 4:2:2, BBC, Discovery Channel, National Geographic, Channel 4 and ITV. He also contributed to the award-winning Honda, Hate promo and the Pink Panther film. He has worked with the Head of 3D to revise the curriculum for all of our 3D short courses. 

Jake is an Animator who studied at Escape Studios in 2020. Since completing his course, he has worked in many aspects of the institution, including managing the alumni and aftercare offering, followed by working within the Student Community team. He has been in his current role since April 2024 as the Community and Events Coordinator assisting with the planning of graduation, welcome week, showcase and Escapeverse Live.

Whilst studying at Escape Studios, Jake directed his first short film, ‘Mafia Mix-Up’ which has since won 5 film festival awards. He has been directing his second short film ‘Am I Dreaming?’ for the last three years with a release date in the first quarter of 2025 set to run the film festival circuit.

Will Hughes is Escape Studios' Talent Development Manager. He has been with the company for eight years and services studios with industry ready talent. Will is pivotal in ensuring Escape Studios graduates are getting the dream jobs they've worked so hard for.