<h3>Where</h3><p>Online</p><h3>When</h3><p>March 24-26, 2022</p>

Toronto Animation Film Festival

<h3>Where</h3><p>Online</p><h3>When</h3><p>March 24-27, 2021</p>

<h3>Where</h3><p>Hot Docs Cinema | Toronto, Canada | 506 Bloor Street West</p><h3>When</h3><p>Monday April 25th</p>

<h3>Where</h3><p>Online</p><h3>When</h3><p>November 11-13, 2021</p>

Toronto Animation Industry Conference

<h3>Where</h3><p>Online</p><h3>When</h3><p>November 18-22, 2020<span class="ql-cursor">﻿</span></p>

<h3>Where</h3><p>Corus Quay, Toronto, Canada, 25 Dockside Dr.</p><h3>When</h3><p>Saturday to Sunday, November 2-3, 2019</p>

Toronto Animation / VFX Job Fair

TAAFI News

<p>Learn the latest from the folks that are on the cutting edge of the animation industry. Whether it's Virtual Production and animation with&nbsp;Motion Capture,&nbsp;Animation for Virtual Reality theme park rides/experiences or Animation for Metaverse development we've got that and more!</p>

Emerging Tech in Animation

<p>Dan Fill is the president and co-founder of Dark Slope Studios - a metaverse and virtual production company that specializes in games and television production.</p><p>In this role Dan spearheads the development of innovative projects ranging from fully immersive theme park rides and spectacles, to cutting edge television programs that combine world class animation, motion tracking and a real time game engine pipeline. Dark Slope develops original intellectual properties as well as service production.&nbsp;Recent partners clients include: NBC Peacock, Nickelodeon, WildBrain, Insight Productions, AT&amp;T, TVOntario, eOne’s Secret Location, Zero Latency, Hologate and Magic Leap.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>Prior to his current role, Dan was the&nbsp;head of multiplatform for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, where he was named the top&nbsp;Digital Innovator by The Australian for his role in commissioning the country’s most popular video streaming service (iView). iView now accounts for over 900 million streams a year in Australia. Previous to ABC, Dan was the former vice president interactive of Decode Entertainment (now WildBrain). In this role, he built an award-winning internal studio producing games and immersive experiences for a global audience.</p><p>Dan is a seasoned presenter having spoken at the Banff World Media Festival (Canada), MIPCOM ( France), XMedia Labs (Singapore),&nbsp;Xmedia Labs (Melbourne) and Xmedia (Sydney), Game Developers Conference (San Francisco and San Diego), Kidscreen (New York), Asia Animation Summit (Kuala Lumpur), Kidscreen (Miami) as well as TAAFI Animation Festival (Toronto).&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>Dan is a co-founder of the production company Chocolate Liberation Front and a major shareholder of education and simulation company Lumeto.&nbsp;</p>

Dan Fill

<p>Grayden Laing is a St. Thomas based artist, animator, and filmmaker who has a passion for creating artwork that leads viewers to a more nuanced perception of the world around them. Grayden’s artwork is informed by the visual communication paradigms of social media as well as the iconoclastic works of early 20th century French artists.</p><p>In the broadcast world, Grayden has done work for the W Network, Travel + Escape, CHCH, Vision TV, Investigation Discovery, and the History Channel. He was the director of photography and colourist for the History TV series <em>War Story: Afgahnistan</em>, which won a Canadian Screen Award for the Best History Documentary Program or Series. When the pandemic hit, Grayden switched from filming for <em>War Story</em> to being the lead digital artist pioneering a technique to colourize black and white WWII footage for <em>War Story: Fight to the Finish</em>, which was nominated in 2021 for Best History Documentary Program or Series.</p><p>Grayden currently maintains an art studio in St. Thomas, ON, where he paints, teaches, works on film projects, and runs Establish Media.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

Grayden Laing

<p>For over 20 years Joe Raasch has been the coordinator of Seneca College's visual effects program and a visual effects artist.&nbsp;He has made training for Foundry, organized several Nuke user group meetings, served on the board for TAAFI and the Toronto chapter of the Visual Effects Society and most recently completed the Unreal Fellowship for Virtual Production.</p>

Joe Raasch

<p>Shishir 'S' Pande (Bachelor of Engineering, McMaster University, 2014) is the CEO of EXAR Studios and has a background in business strategy, marketing, and engineering. He has a track record of innovation and community focus proven by his past entrepreneurial successes and achievement of the London Inc. Top 20 Under 40 Award in 2020.</p><p>EXAR Studios is a digital creative tech company whose mission is to develop extended reality (XR) technology that allows destinations all over the world to bring engaging cultural content to users on location.&nbsp;</p><p>We deepen the experience of exploring the world by providing arts, history, and culture experiences to people who travel globally or locally. We work with local experts to create the most culturally authentic content we can while providing entertaining storytelling to the world.</p>

Shishir 'S' Pande

Dark Slope

<p>It's Friday night, who's ready to do some sketching and some chatting? Maybe meet a new BFF or catch up with some old ones? Pop into the beating 💖 of TAAFI, our Discord Server for some mingling and networking.</p><p>Joel &amp; Spencer are BACK! And so are the dusty ol' TAAFI Drink &amp; Draw crew. Will Winty be there? Time will tell.</p><p>Joining us Friday night is Gustavo Cosío - he's boarded on <em>Maya and the Three</em> with Jorge Gutiérrez, and <em>Kid Cosmic</em> to name a few, and Minh Pham, an artist extraordinaire with Guru Studio and the host of Guru Studio's Art Jam group!</p><p>We'll be using Drawpile to make a virtual drawing together-apart.</p>

Friday Night Networking: Drink & Draw!

<p>Gustavo Cosío is a storyboard artist, born and raised in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. He has worked on over a dozen animated films in his country as well as a couple of animated TV series. In 2018, he joined Netflix Animation Studios to work on Jorge Gutierrez's new and totally amazing project Maya and the Three! Since then, he has continued to work on original animated series by Netflix like Kid Cosmic and We the People. Gustavo is currently working in an awesome sci-fi action comedy series and couldn't be happier.</p>

Gustavo Cosío

<p>Joel and Spencer met during an epic hot-dog eating competition in Ottawa. After finishing in a tie, they developed a mutual respect for one another and decided to join forces.</p><p>When these two weenie boys aren't on the clock, working on hit cartoons, you can find them kicking back with their many, many friends, sipping and sketching. Come join the fun on Thursday night in the <a href="https://discord.com/invite/f3kaVvNg6j" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">TAAFI Discord Server</a>, as Joel and Spencer invite you to be friends with them and drink and draw the night away!</p>

Joel & Spencer

<p>Animator and artist extraordinaire Minh Pham has been with Guru Studio since 2014, bringing to life hit shows such as the global phenomenon <em>PAW Patrol, Pikwik Pack</em> which airs on Disney Junior and Hulu, and the soon-to-be released comedy adventure series <em>Big Blue</em>, coming to CBC Kids this December! Minh is also the host of Guru Studio's Art Jam group!</p>

Minh Pham

<p>Join the Martin Twins, Edgar and Sergio as they share some stories and secrets from The SPA Studios. You may know us from our work on films such as "Despicable Me", "Smallfoot", "Rio", or most recently "Klaus", Netflix's first original feature animated film, which was entirely conceived and produced at The SPA Studios, receiving 1 BAFTA and 7 Annie Awards, as well as being nominated by the 2020 Academy Awards for Best Animated Film, among many others.</p>

Featured Studio: The SPA STUDIOS

<p>Edgar Martins is a storyboard artist who helps develop animated film projects. He has worked on innumerous&nbsp;productions for about 15 years, and was the head of story on <em>KLAUS</em> feature film of The SPA Studios.</p><p>He co-directed alongside his twin brother Sergio and Tom Delonge (artist behind Blink182 rock-band) the short film <em>Poet Anderson: The Dreamwalker,</em> winner of Best Animation prize at Toronto Short Film Fest.</p>

Edgar Martins

<p>Sergio Martins is an animation supervisor at The SPA Studios, the studio behind <em>KLAUS</em>. Sergio has over 15 years of animation experience, launching his career as a freelance animator for commercials, TV shows and music videos. He also had the opportunity to co-direct the animated short, <em>Poet Anderson: The Dreamwalker</em>, alongside his twin brother, Edgar Martins, and Blink-182 frontman Tom Delonge.</p>

<p><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.04);">Sergio Martins is an animation supervisor at The SPA Studios, the studio behind </span><em style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.04);">KLAUS</em><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.04);">. Sergio has over 15 years of animation experience, launching his career as a freelance animator for commercials, TV shows and music videos. He also had the opportunity to co-direct the animated short, </span><em style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.04);">Poet Anderson: The Dreamwalker</em><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.04);">, alongside his twin brother, Edgar Martins, and Blink-182 frontman Tom Delonge.</span></p>

TAAFI News

Toronto Animation Film Festival

Toronto Animation Industry Conference

Toronto Animation / VFX Job Fair

Featured Studio: The SPA STUDIOS

Edgar Martins, Storyboard Artist, The SPA Studios

Sergio Martins, Animation Supervisor, The SPA Studios