Philippe Brochu

Philippe Brochu

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Philippe has led an impressive career as a 3D Artist and Concept Designer in his 20+ years working in the VFX and Animation industry. In both 2014 and 2019, he received The Visual Effect Society (VES) Award nominations for Outstanding Created Environment in an Animated Feature Motion Picture and also took part at the 47th Annie Awards in 2019, sharing nomination for the Production Design In An Animated Feature Production; “How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World.”

Prior to his current role at Spire Studios, Philippe first worked on an extensive list of Visual Effects films and TV series. Joining Disney Animation Studios in 2005, he worked on a number of movies including “Meet The Robinsons,” “Bolt,” and “Prep and Landing.” For more than a decade at DreamWorks Animation he received recognitions for “The Croods,” “The Croods 2: A New Age,” “Puss And Boots,” “Trolls,” and “How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World.” Most recently, he worked at Netflix Animation, where he designed concepts for 3 non-announced movies.

Philippe was born and grew up in Montreal, Canada where he studied Fine Arts, worked from cameraman, editor to Director of live broadcasts and developed his 3D Design skills as a graphic designer. Philippe is a member of the Animation Guild and ASIFA-Hollywood, and lives in Burbank California with his wife and daughter.

Charles Ellison

Charles Ellison

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Charles has arrived at Spire with almost 20 years of experience in the Animation industry. Most notably during that time, Charles has served as a Head of Modeling for DreamWorks Animation where he supervised both Trolls and its sequel, Trolls World Tour. He also brings an extensive resume as a 3D artist for such franchises as “How To Train Your Dragon”, where he helped develop characters and environments for each installment of the beloved trilogy, and other DreamWorks films such as “Kung Fu Panda 2”, “Rise of the Guardians”, and “Abominable”. In more recent years, Charles has served mostly as a Character Visual Development artist where he has helped bring to life many franchise characters for upcoming projects from both DreamWorks Animation and Netflix Animation.

Charles has the unique combination of skill and collaborative spirit which empowers him to continue to usher into the world, vibrant animated characters that connect with audiences. His passion of the craft has also extended into the animation community where he’s dedicated many years to educate the next wave of talent as an Instructor for both the Art Center, College of Design in Pasadena, as well as AnimSchool’s highly acclaimed online program, teaching 3D character development.

Charles was born in Venezuela, but at an early age migrated to the United States, growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he later studied Fine Arts and 3D Animation at the Academy of Arts University. A dreamer since a boy, Charles continues his pursuit of telling great stories through the characters he brings to life. Charles is a member of the Animation Guild and ASIFA-Hollywood, and lives in Los Angeles with his wife, two daughters and two dogs.