• Eric Bruneau

In 1983, Eric graduated from the University of Florida with a major in Architectural Design. Eric went to work at several prestigious architectural design firms. While at these firms, Eric began envisioning the use of computers to tell three dimensional stories. This was a concept that was at its infancy. With Eric's entrepreneurial spirit, Eric founded Creative Image Associates located in Boca Raton, FL in 1985. CIA specialized in architectural animations and visualization. The firm won several national awards including two Truevision Awards. With the convergence of broadcast commercials and computer graphics, Eric's desire to push computer animation to its limits allowed him to form Smoke & Mirrors Digital Effects Studio in 1989. The firm specialized in visual effects for the broadcast community. Eric worked with many high profile clients within the South American community including the Sao Paulo electric company, GS&P, FCB to name a few.

Eric's passion for innovation and technology opened new opportunities. Soon the lure of feature film visual effects became irresistible. In 1995, after the sale of his company, Eric went to work for Century Three at Universal Studios in Orlando, FL. With Eric at the creative helm, the company developed innovative 3D ride simulators and short cinematics for television.

This was his stepping stone for greater things to come. One year later, Eric moved to Los Angeles to work for one of the leading feature film visual effects company, Sony Pictures Imageworks. At Sony, Eric had great opportunities to work with legendary Academy Award winning visual effects supervisors John Dykstra, Ken Ralston, Scott E. Anderson along with the most talented individuals to ever come out of the visual effects arena. Eric had the opportunity to work on many A-list feature films including Contact, Starship Troopers, Godzilla, Stuart Little, Hollow Man, and Charlie's Angels which lead to three Academy Award nominations for Best Visual Effects. While at Sony, Eric was instrumental in the development of the color & lighting pipeline for compositors and the overhaul of the compositing pipeline.

In 2001 Eric became Compositing Supervisor for PDI Dreamworks where Eric had the opportunity to work with legendary director Steven Spielberg. Eric's credit includes Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) and Minority Report where A.I. was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.

In 2002 after the closure of the PDI facility, Eric moved to the premier visual effects and commercial production facility Digital Domain (DD) as Compositing Supervisor. Eric's credits include The Day After Tomorrow, Star Trek: Nemesis and Stealth. Eric also had the opportunity to work on several national commercials.

In 2006 after a storied career in feature film visual effects, Eric moved to Michigan and became Executive Vice President Digital for Speedshape. He was instrumental in the redevelopment of the production pipeline and the restructuring of the company. With Eric's creative leadership the company grew to employ over 105 artists within two years. That equated to a growth of 150%. The company developed a Los Angeles office. Eric worked directly with such Award Winning agencies Campbell-Ewald, Leo Burnett, Lowe Worldwide, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, Duetsch, McCann Erickson, Digitas along with others. He was also credited as Creative Director for the first award presented to Speedshape by the AdCraft Club of Detroit - Digital Design/Technology/Application Ð Michelin Better Web Mobility Micro Site.

• Julie Hodge

Julie Hodge graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Michigan with a Bachelors of Fine Art in graphic design.

She started her career by producing a documentary and a Spanish language public service announcement in Washington D.C. After a short stint in television production and post production, Julie transitioned into the 3D realm by joining Alias (now Autodesk) as a consultant.

Now she works as a Client Executive and Manager of 3D Visualization for RTT. Julie has been actively involved with computer graphics organizations and conferences. She has been an officer for both the University of Michigan and Detroit's Professional ACM/SIGGRAPH chapters. She has been a jury member for many computer graphics and video competitions at both the regional and global levels.

In addition to this, she is an award winning speaker, most recently speaking on behalf of Chrysler LLC. at the Virtuality conference in Italy. Julie is currently working on obtaining her MBA from the Ross School of Business.

• Linda Kato

As Sr. Manager, Digital Nissan Asset (DNA), Linda is leading the way for Nissan to create a Digital Garage to benefit Nissan globally. The objective of the Digital Garage is to create the highest quality digital models from engineering data upstream in the production process. This will save time and costs in the creative production process when the digital model is used multiple times for multiple executions in broadcast, print, and interactive.

Linda also oversees global asset sharing of North American assets among 20+ countries, which has resulted in significant ROI and increased brand consistency.

DNA has enabled Linda to leverage her experience as Advertising Manager, where she managed national campaigns for Nissan, including the re-launch of the legendary Z. Throughout her career at Nissan, Linda has held a wide range of positions in the areas of marketing and corporate communications.

• Tom Weisz

Has been chasing the illusive computer rainbow throughout his career in advertising and design. He has numerous first to his name in computer graphics with Apple, IBM, Seybold, Adobe, BBDO, Daimler Chrysler, Nissan and many others. Tom has worked with many of the participants in this conference and is continually striving to improve the creative process in a digital age.

Tom is currently working with Autodesk and its customers to help redefine the digital creative process from CAD to AD, from initial creative ideation, through product design to engineering to manufacturing, working with product design, marketing and advertising executives to show how Digital Prototyping is changing the way products are conceived, designed, engineered, manufactured and communicated to consumers.

• David Burton
• Director/Visual Effects Supervisor
• With A Twist Studio

David Burton is an award-winning Visual Effects Supervisor, Director, and the leader of With A Twist Studio's creative team. He provides the artistic vision, the technical oversight and the zeal to excel that has helped the company to grow, almost overnight, into a premier source for superb CGI creations.

David grew up in Michigan and developed an interest in cars at a young age while helping his father create custom motorcycles and hot rods. He studied film and animation at Grand Valley State University and spent the early years of his career working at television stations and post production studios in Michigan and Virginia.

A gifted animator, he soon focused in the mid to late '80s on the emerging field of CGI. He co-founded Traveling Pictures, a Visual Effects Studio, and through it worked on TV commercials for Coca-Cola, Toyota, Chevrolet, B.F. Goodrich, and other accounts. He won several advertising and visual effects awards for his work, including Telly and Mobius awards. David is a very proud member of VES (Visual Effects Society).

In 1999, David moved to Hollywood where he worked on commercial and feature film projects, the latter including I Robot and What Lies Beneath. In 2000, he was an Academy Award finalist for his work as CG Supervisor on Cast Away. David has been working between LA and Detroit for the last 15 years and has been a CG Supervisor at various high profile facilities including GTN, and Armstrong/White. David has been a guiding force and leader in the CGI Automotive industry working with all of the major automotive advertising agencies, high profile photographers, leading design firms, and premiere retouching facilities. Now partnered with Executive Producer Pam Hammarlund and the 'Twisters', they have quickly become one of the leading automotive digital production studios.