<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><span style="color: black">Join&nbsp;</span><em><span style="color: black">Strange World&nbsp;</span></em><span style="color: black">Heads of Animation Amy Smeed and Justin Sklar for a behind-the-scenes look at the inspiration and animation style&nbsp;of Walt Disney Animation Studios' upcoming action-packed adventure film.</span></p><p style="text-align: start"><em><span style="color: black">Strange World</span></em><span style="color: black">&nbsp;introduces a legendary family of explorers, the Clades, as they attempt to navigate an uncharted, treacherous land alongside a motley crew&nbsp;that includes&nbsp;a mischievous blob, a three-legged dog and a slew of ravenous creatures.&nbsp;The film opens in theatres November 23.</span></p>

<p>Karen Jackson is the newest Chair for TAAFI. As TAAFI's first female chair, Karen is excited to bring with her new ideas and efforts in increasing inclusion and diversity into TAAFI's events. Karen has worked tirelessly for TAAFI for many years and is proud to have the opportunity to continue building TAAFI towards further success. Karen currently works at Mainframe Studios and has over ten years experience in the Animation Industry bringing with her a strong background in managing teams, organizing events, building event and organizational pipelines and running the business.</p>

Karen Jackson

Exploring Strange World: An Animator Q&A

<p>AMY SMEED (Head of Animation) began her professional career at Walt Disney Animation Studios in 1998, working as an assistant (in the scene set-up department) on the production of “Dinosaur,” and went on to become an animator in 2004 on “Chicken Little” (2005).  Since then, she has served as head of animation on the Oscar®-nominated films “Moana” and “Raya and the Last Dragon.” She also animated on such Disney Animation features as “Meet the Robinsons,” “Bolt,” “Tangled,” “Wreck-It Ralph,” the Oscar® winner “Frozen,” and “Ralph Breaks the Internet.”  </p><p>Smeed’s animation of the character Rapunzel for “Tangled” earned her a VES Award nomination for outstanding animated character in an animated motion picture. Her other Disney Animation credits include work on the theme park attraction, “Mickey’s Philharmagic,” and on both of the award-winning “Prep &amp; Landing” TV specials.</p><p>Born and raised in Royal Oak, Michigan, Smeed attended Western Michigan University for three years, before going on to receive her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1997. Her dreams of becoming a painter and animator led her to seek work in the animation industry and to her current job leading a team of animators for Disney Animation. </p><p>Working at the Disney has provided her with several opportunities to collaborate with her husband, Tony Smeed, who served as animation supervisor for “Zootopia” and head of animation on “Frozen 2.” The couple met during the production of “Dinosaur,” and have a daughter.</p>

<p>AMY SMEED (Head of Animation) began her professional career at Walt Disney Animation Studios in 1998, working as an assistant (in the scene set-up department) on the production of “Dinosaur,” and went on to become an animator in 2004 on “Chicken Little” (2005). Since then, she has served as head of animation on the Oscar®-nominated films “Moana” and “Raya and the Last Dragon.” She also animated on such Disney Animation features as “Meet the Robinsons,” “Bolt,” “Tangled,” “Wreck-It Ralph,” the Oscar® winner “Frozen,” and “Ralph Breaks the Internet.”</p>

Amy Smeed

<p>JUSTIN SKLAR (Head of Animation) joined Walt Disney Animation Studios in 2011 after graduating from Ringling College of Art and Design with a degree in animation.</p><p>During his junior year at Ringling, he came to Burbank, California, to work as a summer animation trainee at Disney Animation, where he and his fellow trainees completed a short film called “Chalk.” Born in Baltimore, Maryland, and raised in nearby Owings Mills, Sklar went to George Washington Carver Center for Arts and Technology, a magnet school for gifted and talented students, where he took an intensive art program. Around that time, several of his friends were experimenting with a 3D computer graphics software toolkit called Blender. Driven by an intense desire to understand how the program worked, he became obsessed with it and mastered it. During that time, he also honed his artistic side by drawing massive super realistic charcoal drawings. His love of challenges and puzzle solving led him to pursue a career in animation because he found it hard and interesting.</p><p>Hired by Disney Animation as a trainee in 2011, he got his first feature film experience animating crowds for “Wreck-It Ralph.” He was promoted to an animator on “Frozen” and went on to other assignments on “Big Hero 6,” “Zootopia” and “Moana.” In his role as supervising animator on “Ralph Breaks the Internet,” Sklar helped to guide the character of Ralph, and played a key role in creating the “Ralphzilla” character (who was nominated for a VES Award). For “Frozen 2” he worked with the team on the characters of Kristoff and Matthias and on “Raya and the Last Dragon” he supervised the character of Namaari. He observes, “the cool thing about animation is that each movie is like a new puzzle to figure out. It’s changing all the time, and no matter what you’ve done, there’s always something new to learn.”</p>

<p>Hired by Disney Animation as a trainee in 2011, he got his first feature film experience animating crowds for “Wreck-It Ralph.” He was promoted to an animator on “Frozen” and went on to other assignments on “Big Hero 6,” “Zootopia” and “Moana.” In his role as supervising animator on “Ralph Breaks the Internet,” Sklar helped to guide the character of Ralph, and played a key role in creating the “Ralphzilla” character (who was nominated for a VES Award). For “Frozen 2” he worked with the team on the characters of Kristoff and Matthias and on “Raya and the Last Dragon” he supervised the character of Namaari. He observes, “the cool thing about animation is that each movie is like a new puzzle to figure out. It’s changing all the time, and no matter what you’ve done, there’s always something new to learn.”</p>

Justin Sklar

Disney

<p>Sad that our first IN-PERSON day of TAAFI is coming to a close? Well perk up buttercup, we've got a fun night of mixing, mingling, and shmoozing with the best and brightest animation loving peeps in Toronto. <br><br>It's within walking distance of the Toronto Reference Library, so take a stroll, grab something to eat along the way, spill it all over yourself, then put on a happy face to share a drink with STAAFI, TAAFI, and all our great Sponsors, Speakers and Attendees.</p><p></p>

Closing Night Party presented by Pipeline Studios

Pipeline Studios

<p><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34)">A talk on joke theory; the mechanics of lulls and lols. A deconstruction of humor pulled out of my poutine days before the talk. BE THERE!</span><br><br><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34)">... "The birth of a giggle, the moon-like suck and swell of timing, how to ostracize and how to firehose candy with jokes - these topics will be stabbed at from the shadows by Pendleton on Thursday..."</span></p>

<p>Wornoff helps TAAFI with speaker, film programming, sponsorship and community building. Wornoff is a full-time professor at Seneca College, where he coordinates the 3rd year 2D stream, as well as a Creative Producer for Smiley Guy Studios where he directs animation for clients like Netflix and Fox. Barnabas has his Masters in Creative Media and Education from Bournemouth University in England and has a fat lazy cat.</p>

Barnabas Wornoff

Fireside Chat with Pendleton Ward: Joke Theory

<p><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34)">Pendleton Ward created the Emmy winning series </span><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventure_Time"><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34)">Adventure Time</span></a><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34)"> and directed the psychedelic interview show Midnight Gospel for Netflix. Pen loves 3D modeling in Blender and lives in a foggy biome with his two pugs Slug &amp; Booger.</span></p>

<p>Pendleton Ward created the Emmy winning series Adventure Time and directed the psychedelic interview show Midnight Gospel for Netflix. Pen loves 3D modeling in Blender and lives in a foggy biome with his two pugs Slug &amp; Booger.</p>

TAAFI News

Toronto Animation Film Festival

Toronto Animation Industry Conference

Toronto Animation / VFX Job Fair

Fireside Chat with Pendleton Ward: Joke Theory

Pendleton Ward, Creator, Cartoon Network / Netflix

Barnabas Wornoff, Co-Founder, TAAFI