Andrei Stirbu war als Supervisor für mehrere große Produktionen tätig und verfügt über umfangreiche Erfahrungen bei der Auswahl, Einstellung und Schulung von Mitarbeitern in professionellen VFX Studios. Er hat Studenten an mehreren Akademien und in verschiedenen Ausbildungsprogrammen unterrichtet und sie aktiv beim Sprung in ein professionelles Arbeitsumfeld unterstützt. Andrei hat viele Jahre lang im Projektmanagement, im Bereich lighting & compositing und in der Produktion bei renommierten Branchengrößen, wie z.B. Rainmaker Animation, gearbeitet. So entstand ein sehr großes Netzwerk mit namhaften Professionals der Unterhaltungsindustrie.

Robb Innes verfügt über enorme praktische Erfahrungen und zahlreiche Kontakte in verschiedenen Bereichen der 3D Animation & Visual Effects Industrie. Er war unter anderem als Visual Effects Supervisor bei diversen Unternehmen tätig und trainierte als Mentor die eingestellten Mitarbeiter. Robb bringt außerdem seine eigenen Erfahrungen aus dem Studium an ähnlich konzipierten Akademien beim Ausbau unserer karriereorientierten Programms ein: In der PIXL VISN Intensivausbildung hat er die effektivsten und praxisorientiertesten Elemente zusammengefasst.

Working on animated films, feature films, and commercials during the past 20 years; Frederic Durand has had the opportunity to work at Sony Imageworks, Disney Animation, DreamWorks, Jim Henson’s Workshop, the Mill, MPC and Digital Domain among others. He is the co-founder of Noroc Studio.

As a leading lighting artist, his approach is not only technical, but also artistic. He heavily emphasizes and integrates aspects of cinematography into his approach. He has been teaching lighting and rendering classes with Mental Ray, V-Ray, Renderman, compositing with Nuke on several schools and universities, notably the Gnomon school, the University of South California and now at PIXL VISN. He published several instructional DVDs and soon a textbook about illumination with V-Ray.

Frederic Teaches 3D Lighting and Compositing at PIXL VISN

After 9 years of serving his country, James Schauf left the US Air Force to pursue his dream of becoming a professional artist. His career in the entertainment industry started as a character modeler on Iron Man 2. Since then, he has continued his career in film while also working in television, commercials, games, theme parks and fashion.

James has worked for clients and projects such as Disney Animation Studios, Big Hero 6, Marvel, Legacy Effects, Iron Man 2, Psyop, Microsoft, Clash of Clans, Skechers, Aaron Sims Company, Nickelodeon Animation Studios, Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness, and Disney Internet Media Group. James is currently a modeler at Disney Animation Studios as a part of the environment modeling team on Moana.

James is teaching Modeling at PIXL VISN.

Fonzo has been doing film animation at the highest level for the past 6 years, in London for the most part. Currently animating Marvel's Hulk and Disney's Genie at ILM, he has proudly been part of the animation teams of Dneg and MPC. From realistic lions, wolves and panthers on "The Lion King" and "The Jungle Book", to spaceships, super-heroes and aliens on "Guardians of the Galaxy", "X-Men" and "Life", Fonzo has been an ever-learning and versatile VFX animator.

Fonzo Teaches Animation at PIXL VISN.

Paula Requa has ten years of industry experience as a Compositor in live-action, animation, episodic television, direct-to-dvd release, and theatrical features. She has worked in lead and supervisor roles for over five years, hiring and training dozens of artists of all skill levels. Paula is highly motivated to increase knowledge about proper compositing techniques within the industry; after several years of retraining basic techniques to experienced artists in large scale tutorial sessions she decided to become a Nuke educator so she could give artists the best information right from the start.

Paula teaches Compositng at PIXL VISN.

Justin has over 12 years of experience in the gaming world, contributing to 20 plus titles at studios throughout the Midwest. Whether he is an environment artist, senior artist or lead, you will find his work in legacy franchises, such as Tony Hawk and Mortal Kombat as well as other AAA titles like Singularity and Stranglehold. He has worked at High Voltage Software, Midway Games, Raven Software, Robomodo, Disney Interactive Studios and Phosphor Games.

In addition to gaming, Justin has spent the last 10 years as an adjunct instructor at institutions across the Chicagoland area.

Outside of game development and education, you can find Justin assisting brands like Threadless, Heavy Metal Magazine and Arcade Brewery with their marketing and product development. He is part owner and manager of Code of Conduct Tattoo, and heads up Artist Relations for KHDK Electronics.

Justin Teaches Texturing at PIXL VISN.

Peter Gend has years of experience with 3D and Visual Effects and has many years of experience as a Professor of Visual Effects both teaching and developing curriculums. His work has been featured in dozens of feature films, commercials, many experimental projects, and several video games. He has a wide range of skills across the industry with professional level proficiency in nearly every aspect of the field. Peter has also recently been awarded a Master of Fine Arts from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.

Peter Teaches Dynamics Simulations and Effects at PIXL VISN.

Rolf Elsmann begann 1989 mit TV-Grafik und 3D-Animationen für WDR- und ZDF- Projekte. Er arbeitet heute größtenteils im Bereich Industriefilm.

Seit 1996 ist er freiberuflicher Mediendozent. Er verfügt über umfangreiche praktische Erfahrungen, entwickelt neue Kurskonzepte für Jugendliche, hat Schüler und Studenten an verschiedensten Akademien rundum betreut und sie erfolgreich in die Arbeitswelt vermittelt. Außerdem leitet er Firmenschulungen. Einige Stationen seiner Dozententätigkeiten sind die Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, die Fachhochschule Aachen und die Macromedia Akademie Köln.

Rolf Elsmann unterrichtet Photo Editing bei PIXL VISN.

Irina Enss unterrichtet seit 1995. Sie ist eine erfahrene Dozentin, Künstlerin, Designerin, Kuratorin und Autorin. Die Schwerpunkte ihrer Lehrtätigkeit sind: Malerei, Zeichnung, Anatomie, Perspektive, Farblehre, Bildhauerei, Komposition und Kunstgeschichte. Sie leitet diverse Kurse und Workshops und macht Vorträge. Sie entwickelt fachübergreifende Unterrichtskonzepte und individuelle Lernprogramme. Als Künstlerin stellt Irina Enss international in Museen, Galerien und Kunstvereinen aus, organisiert und nimmt teil an internationalen Künstlerprojekten. Zu ihren Aufträgen gehören Arbeiten in den Bereichen: Malerei, Graphik, Bildhauerei, Architektur und Werbung. Sie schreibt Kunsthistorische Texte, Artikel und Prosa.

Irina Enss unterrichtet Drawing bei PIXL VISN.

For over 10 years now, Alexander Samouridis has been working in the 3D industry on several tasks and projects. Starting out as a generalist he quickly specialized in rigging and animation and has since worked on several projects ranging from technical animation over various VFX shots to games and even VR projects.

Currently he is working full time as rigger and Principal Animator for Piranha Bytes on their new game - ELEX

Alex Teaches Rigging at PIXL VISN