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Source:  3Dup.com - The Computer Graphics Portal
URL:  http://3dup.com/news/view.vfx?nid=55
Category:  Miscellaneous
Next April 10th with Speakers from Tippett Studio and Halon Entertainment
3Dup.com - March 18, 2008 - 23:38
Gnomon School of Visual Effects and the VES are welcoming two key players of the visual effects team from the recently released, The Spiderwick Chronicles. This evening, Colon and Daniel will take you through many of the compositing and previs shot-breakdowns from the fantasy adventure for the child in all of us. Colin and Daniel will help to uncover some of the visual effects magic of the Spiderwick estate and the creatures that inhabit it.

About this Evening’s Speakers

Colin Epstein - Compositing Supervisor, Tippett Studio

Colin Epstein fell into visual effects work pursuing a variety of interests. He grew up in Hollywood, surrounded by movies -figuratively and literally- as his father co-founded the UCLA Film Archive. This meant a constant exposure to films from every decade and every country, fostering a love for the medium. It also started a lifelong fascination with the fantastic images of films like King Kong, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, and Star Wars. Colin graduated from Pitzer College in Claremont, California, with a BA in English, but he spent as much time in art and film classes as he did studying literature.



Through some friends, Colin found his way to a small computer animation studio in Santa Monica where he received on-the-job training working on commercials and music videos and became proficient with several compositing and image manipulation techniques. Three years later Colin answered a recruitment ad from Tippett Studio for Starship Troopers. This led to an ironic move away from Hollywood but into motion pictures.

Colin is still working at Tippett Studio, serving as compositing supervisor on Beverly Hills Chihuahua.


A few of Colin’s credits include: Mission to Mars (2000), Hollow Man (2000), The Ring (2002), Blockbuster "Carl & Ray" Commercials (2002/2003), Starship Troopers 2 (2004), Hellboy (2004), Charlotte’s Web (2006), The Spiderwick Chronicles (2007) and Beverly Hills Chihuahua (2008 - in Production).

Daniel Gregoire - Pre-visualization Supervisor, HALON Entertainment

As the Owner and CEO of HALON Entertainment, a Previsualization (Previz) and VFX company, Daniel Gregoire has been the Previz Supervisor of some of the most exciting projects in the last five years culminating in the soon to be released Indiana Jones 4.

In 1996, Gregoire started his career in San Diego as a TD for pre-rendered adventure video games and quickly moved to game cinematics. In late 1999, he was offered an opportunity to work on final effects shots for Titan AE for POVDE and was also introduced to previz for Moulin Rouge. This introduction to previz led to Star Wars: Episode II at the start of 2000.

Spending four years working for George Lucas and Rick McCallum at JAK Films (The production company for the Star Wars prequels) on Star Wars: Episode II, III and THX1138 - The George Lucas Directors Cut, Gregoire moved from Previz Artist to Previz Supervisor by 2001 and VFX Supervisor / Producer on THX1138 in 2003. Around 2004, he was introduced to Steven Spielberg, whom he worked with on several sequences for Episode III. This began a relationship with Spielberg as Gregoire went on to be the Previs Supervisor for War of the Worlds.

Shortly after War of the Worlds, Gregoire was put on retainer with Spielberg and started his own company, HALON Entertainment. Since then HALON has worked on films such as Transformers (pre Michael Bay), X-Men 3, Ghostrider, Eight Below, Evan Almighty, Rush Hour 3, The Kingdom, Spiderman 3, The Spiderwick Chronicles, Avatar and Indiana Jones 4.

With a vision toward the future, Gregoire has started to move HALON into the fields of production development, direction and technology. Personally, he is moving into directing and development and is looking forward to getting behind the camera on several projects that he has been offered.

This event is FREE of charge.

More Information at: www.gnomonschool.com. Videos Courtesy of Paramount Pictures