<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>It's 3am. You're mindlessly swiping through TikTok. Suddenly, you stop. Your swiping finger frozen as you stare, eyes wide, transfixed to the screen. Your brain has been hacked. Your dopamine center has been hijacked by short-form animated comedy videos in a vertical format. </p><p>Three animators (identities withheld) have agreed to meet with us to reveal the secret comedy tools they employ to psycho-engineer you into laughing and crying and liking and sharing. </p>

<p>Based in Ottawa, Spencer is an independent animator and filmmaker. Since 2013, he has worked as an animator, writer, storyboard artist and director on a variety of projects big and small, with equal appreciation for the fancy big-studio projects, the weird, artsy stuff, and everything in between. Spencer's always got his radar up for new and exciting voices in animation, and he's eager to share his findings with the TAAFI audience in his new role as Director of Programming.</p>

Spencer Moreland

The Dark Secrets of Vertical Videos!! Not Clickbait!

<p>Christina Fidler is an LA-based character animator, director, and all around funny little clown with origins from New York City. She graduated with a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2020 and has since worked for the likes of Comedy Central, Bento Box's A Studio Digital, and Buzzfeed on animated shorts for humankind’s digital consumption. She has independent work that has been featured in festivals such as Animation Block Party, Sweaty Eyeballs, and Maryland Film Fest. Her favorite (highly professional) pastimes include: eating peanut butter, losing socks, and saying “cows” when passing farms on roadtrips. Also she's an Aries sun... if you're into that kinda stuff.</p>

Christina Fidler

<p>Joe Cappa is an director &amp; animator currently residing in Portland, Oregon. His animated short 'Ghost Dogs' was a 2021 Sundance selection and won the Satoshi Kon Award at Fantasia. Cappa has gone on to make original content for Bento Box, Adult Swim, and Meow Wolf using 2D animation, stop motion, and paper mache costumes.  You can also check out his short animated videos on instagram @joecappa. </p>

Joe Cappa

<p>Lindsey DeMars is a storyboard artist, animator, and independent filmmaker living and breathing in Los Angeles, CA. She is writing this blurb in the 3rd person point of view because she has noticed many professionals do this when they want to sound fancy. Lindsey is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design's Experimental Animation Program, where she made a bunch of silly cartoons that have screened at festivals such as Animation Block Party and Animafest Zagreb. Most recently, she worked in feature animation as a Storyboard Artist at BaseFx, and has directed animated shorts for Bento Box's "A Studio Digital”.</p><p>When she’s not making cartoons, Lindsey spends 100% of her spare time attempting to persuade her two new kittens to ride around on top of the Roomba like a horsey.</p>

Lindsey DeMars

<p>Listen as Nathaniel Larouche (VFX Supervisor - Star Trek: Strange New Worlds) and Paolo Tamburrino (Executive Producer - Star Trek: Strange New Worlds) share their experience working on set and online with completely virtual productions. Through their experience they share their Do's and Don'ts of the Virtual Production process. </p>

Do's and Don'ts of ICVFX (Virtual Production)

<p>The son of steampunk magicians, Nathaniel Larouche is an Emmy &amp; Visual Effects Society nominated VFX Supervisor at Pixomondo Toronto. Nathaniel was born and raised near Montreal where he enjoyed being the weird kid, filming everything in sight, and experimenting with editing and stop motion animation. Later on in life, he found himself in Toronto, where he studied animation and realized VFX was a medium that combined everything he enjoyed. </p><p>During the day, Nathaniel devotes his time on-set and in-house at Pixomondo Supervising the creation of real-time content. During the night, he experiments and collaborates with other creatives around the world. These collaborations result in unique content like Necronomicon, Baby Deer, and his fourth short film Soft Rain. </p><p>Most recently he completed three virtual production shoots on Pixomondos LED volumes including Star Trek Discovery, Strange New Worlds and Beacon 23.</p>

<p>The son of steampunk magicians, Nathaniel Larouche is an Emmy &amp; Visual Effects Society nominated VFX Supervisor at Pixomondo Toronto. Nathaniel was born and raised near Montreal where he enjoyed being the weird kid, filming everything in sight, and experimenting with editing and stop motion animation. Later on in life, he found himself in Toronto, where he studied animation and realized VFX was a medium that combined everything he enjoyed.</p><p>Most recently he completed three virtual production shoots on Pixomondos LED volumes including Star Trek Discovery, Strange New Worlds and Beacon 23.</p>

Nathaniel Larouche

<p>Paolo Tamburrino is an Executive Producer who currently oversees the Virtual Production and Visual Effects of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds at Pixomondo. </p><p>He is widely regarded as the go-to source on technically demanding projects and client engagement. </p><p>With over 15 years of experience in the Media &amp; Entertainment industry, he was involved in many varied and award-winning projects, where he gained invaluable insight into production and pipelines. He is an alumnus of the Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg, where his graduating short film “Wrapped” was honored with a VES Award. </p><p>Since then, Paolo has worked in Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America, where he has contributed to projects including “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”, “Foundation”, “The 100”, “Upload”, and numerous commercials. </p><p>Paolo currently serves as a managing board member of the Visual Effect Society in Toronto, board counselor of the Realtime Conference, and member of the Program Advisory Committee for Virtual Production at Humber College.</p>

Paolo Tamburrino

<p>To mark the release of both Storyboard Pro 22 and Harmony 22, Toon Boom Animation commissioned the team at Mercury Filmworks to produce an original animated short film using the latest versions of our software. Mercury Filmworks is an animation studio which specializes in high-quality animation made using 2D rigs, and is widely known for their work on award-winning series such as Hilda and Kid Cosmic. For this new short, titled The Duke's Game, the team at Mercury Filmworks was given full creative freedom. Hear from directors Shane Plante and Collin Tsandilis, and Production Manager Tim Chapman on the process and making of the commercial Duke's Game.</p>

Toon Boom Presents: Behind-the-Scenes of Duke's Game

<p>Collin Tsandilis is one of the co-directors of Duke’s Game. Collin has worked at Mercury Filmworks for over 10 years. Currently, Collin is the director for an upcoming adult animated series.</p><p>Before this, he was Assistant Director on Kid Cosmic and If you Give a Mouse a Cookie which won a 'Gold Award' from the Parent's Choice Foundation 2020, and received an Emmy nomination for "Best Animated Preschool Program" in 2018.  Prior, he worked as an Animation Supervisor on Atomic Puppet, Penn Zero, Star vs. the Forces of Evil and Wander Over Yonder. He also was an animator on the 2019 Oscar-winning short Hair Love.</p>

Collin Tsandilis

<p>Mike Schnier is Toon Boom Animation's social media and content manager. He also hosts livestream panel discussions about film and animation.</p>

Mike Schnier

<p>Shane Plante is a Senior Animator, Director, Compositor, and Sound Engineer all in one - a jack of all trades; master of none! Currently floating around the Animation Department at Mercury Filmworks, he's been known to crawl out of his cave to push the limits of Harmony here and there... when the conditions are just right that is... this loud-mouthed maniac is way into Heavy Metal music, Dungeons and Dragons, and travelling into the future to save human-kind.</p><p>LONG live the LOUD!</p>

Shane Plante

<p>Tim Chapman is a Production Manager at Mercury Filmworks in Ottawa, Canada. Tim has been a part of Mercury Filmworks since 2018, working on projects such as If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, Kid Cosmic, The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse, and The Ghost and Molly McGee, among others. Most recently, he was the Production Manager in charge of the Duke’s Game short, which was a collaborative effort between Mercury Filmworks and ToonBoom.</p><p>Tim has a background in Business Management, and a passion for filmmaking that led him to the Animation industry. He hasn’t looked back since.</p>

TAAFI News

Toronto Animation Film Festival

Toronto Animation Industry Conference

Toronto Animation / VFX Job Fair

Toon Boom Presents: Behind-the-Scenes of Duke's Game

Collin Tsandilis, Director, Mercury Filmworks

Mike Schnier, Social Media and Content Manager, ToonBoom

Shane Plante, Director, Mercury Filmworks

Tim Chapman, Production Manager, Mercury Filmworks