Year after year, the SparkFX conference and career fair power pack a February weekend in nearby Vancouver BC. That’s Canada, not Washington – but still only a ~5.5 hour drive, ~8 for bus/train or as little as 1h15 for a direct flight. With a healthy film scene and local offices for most of the heavy hitters in VFX and Animation, this is the closest thing to a “Winter SIGGRAPH” that I’ve seen, and I look forward to it each year (as well as it’s Animation focused counterpart each October).
The itinerary for this year’s FX conference, which falls on Valentine’s Day weekend, is looking very solid as always – and you’ll find it copied/pasted below. Saturday is prime time for the most exciting presentations, and it’s easy to plug in a loop of the career fair into a gap in the Saturday schedule if you’re curious about BC opportunities. A mixer and VFX Supervisor panel is on tap for Friday, and Sunday is dedicated to Open Source tools. If you’re going, feel free to reach out to the chapter email address. If I hear from enough of us, it might make sense to organize a Portland meetup or perhaps carpooling options. Have a look!
The cost is only $100CAD (about $79 USD) for the weekend pass, or individual presentations cost $20/ea (about $16). 2020 signals a move to the Roundhouse in Yaletown, which is a great venue. The conference hotel rate at the nearby OPUS is $203 CAD (~$150 USD) per night, plus taxes. Includes wi-fi and full breakfast. They have a limited number of rooms with 2 beds. Link for this price: https://be.synxis.com/?hotel=28558&chain=11727&Rate=SPARKFX&Arrive=02/14/2020&Depart=02/16/2020
Check the Spark FX website for the most up to date information, but as of this writing, here is the itinerary:
| DAY 1 | FRIDAY – FEBRUARY 14, 2020 |
| 6:30 pm | SESSION INDUSTRY MIXER + OPENING PANEL moderator: Chris van Dyck with Betsy Paterson, Chris Downs, Freddy Chávez Olmos & Joern Grosshans |
| DAY 2 | SATURDAY – FEBRUARY 15, 2020 |
| 9:30 am | SESSION SUPERHEROES & SUPERVILLAINS: ANIMATING REALISTIC CHARACTERS IN VFX moderator: Aaron Gilman with Jan Philip Cramer & Liz Bernard |
| 11:00 am | SESSION HIS DARK MATERIALS: BEHIND THE SCENES moderator: Sue Rowe with Aulo Licinio & Shawn Hillier |
| 12:15 pm | BREAK LUNCH |
| 1:00 pm | SESSION TERMINATOR: DARK FATE – REIMAGINING A VISUAL EFFECTS CLASSIC moderator: Dennis Hoffman with Aaron Barr, Alex Wang, Georg Kaltenbrunner, Marko Chulev & Wade Wilson |
| 2:30 pm | SESSION CREATING A DIGITAL WILL SMITH FOR ANG LEE’S GEMINI MAN moderator: Heather Zolis with Stuart Adcock |
| 4:00 pm | SESSION THE INVISIBLE PRE & POST VFX OF FORD VS FERRARI moderator: Jessica Glass with Dave Morley, Kristin Turnipseed & Taylor Lenton |
| 5:30 pm | SESSION TAKING JUMANJI TO THE NEXT LEVEL with Craig McPherson & Jason Greenblum |
SPARK FX 2020
http://sparkfx.ca/festivals/information.php?SPARKFX2020-G
Conference · Career Fair · Open Source Summit
February 14 – 16, 2020
Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreational Centre
181 Roundhouse Mews
Vancouver, BC