Currently the Chief Operating Officer at Blender, General Manager and Producer at Blender Studio. He has a professional background in industrial design and has made important contributions in 3D art and open source film projects.

Francesco Siddi is a key figure in the fields of 3D animation and open source filmmaking, best known for his work in the open source 3D creation software Blender. Over the years, he has participated in numerous Blender projects, contributing both in technical development and creative production. With a background in digital art, design, and computer graphics, Siddi's early exposure to Blender laid the foundation for his career, prompting him to deeply participate in the open source community and promote the development of collaborative projects. His career took off through his extensive work with Blender Institute, the creative arm of Blender, where he worked on several animation projects such as the 2012 sci-fi short film Tears of Steel, the 2013-2016 animated series Caminandes, which fully demonstrated Blender's animation capabilities, and the ambitious 2015 project Cosmos Laundromat, which showcased Blender's potential for complex storytelling and visual effects.

On the entrepreneurial side, Siddi co-founded Blender Cloud with Blender founder Ton Roosendaal, a platform that provides resources and tutorials for Blender users. In addition, Siddi founded Cineca, a company focused on immersive and interactive media production. His contributions to the creative and technical aspects of animation, especially in the open source movement, have solidified his key position in the field.

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Robert Minkoff an American director, animator, and producer. He is best known for co-directing The Lion King (1994), and live-action films including Stuart Little (1999), Stuart Little 2 (2002), The Haunted Mansion (2003), and The Forbidden Kingdom (2008). In recent decades, he returned to feature animation with Mr. Peabody & Sherman (2014) and Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank (2022).

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Scott Ross is the Co-Founder of Digital Domain with Hollywood luminaries James Cameron and Stan Winston, one of the largest digital production studios in the motion picture and advertising industries. Under Ross' direction, Digital Domain garnered multiple Academy Award nominations, receiving its first Oscar for the groundbreaking visual effects in Titanic. For well over a decade Ross oversaw the company that created imagery for movies such as Titanic, The Fifth Element, Apollo 13, Fight Club, True Lies, Interview with the Vampire, O Brother Where Art Thou, X-Men, The Lord of the Rings, The Day After Tomorrow, and I, Robot.

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Dr. Neoh’s diverse roles, including his leadership at Global Digital Creation, showcase his significant influence in China’s creative industry. His insights into the legal, business, and academic aspects of creativity and animation make him a critical voice at the conference. 

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Wayne Kennedy, based in Los Angeles, CA, USA, is currently a Senior Production Director at Blizzard Entertainment. He previously acted as the CEO of Empyreal Entertainment and a director of Digital Domain.

Kennedy's pioneering work in incorporating AI into Hollywood productions places him at the cutting edge of merging creative and technological domains. His experience at Blizzard Entertainment and Digital Domain provides him with unique insights into the future of AI in entertainment.

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Raymond Dennis Neoh is widely recognized as the "Father of the Chinese CG Industry." He has been instrumental in pioneering the computer graphics sector in China. Neoh founded the Institute of Digital Media Technology (IDMT), Global Digital Creation (GDC), and GDC Technology, which significantly contributed to the development of digital cinema in China. He also established the Institute of Digital Game Technology (IDGT) for game development and training in Singapore, and CG Global Entertainment (CGGE) for the International AI and Creativity Conference. Additionally, he founded the Krystal Institute and Krystal Technology, focusing on bridging the global digital divide and advancing digital transformation.

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Generalist 3D artists located in Switzerland and working for Dreamscape Immersive. He has worked and has given presentations in the following countries: Switzerland, China, Netherland, Venezuela, Brazil, Russia.
He gives presentations and workshops in both English and French and has pipeline design and TD experience.

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Dr Li is currently Chief Advisor at QFOC, Board Director at public and start-up companies, Adjunct Professor of Corporate Finance at the University of Hong Kong, with closed to 30 years of global corporate finance and strategy advisory experiences. He was the Group Finance Director at the PingAn Group, led and oversaw the group-wide Smart Finance digitisation programme across 9 listed companies and over 20 financial, technology, and healthcare subsidiaries. Prior to that, he has provided management consulting services to Fortune 500 and fast-growing start-up companies in China, US, Canada, UK, Japan and others.

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MAJA is an Art Director at Beijing Xiangxin Culture and Art Co., Ltd.

He began his career in film art and visual effects concept design in 2008, accumulating over a decade of experience in visual CG for film, television, and games. His responsibilities primarily include visual effects, early concept design, storyboarding, and developing on-set design schemes, as well as serving as a visual effects director and CG director.

From 2014 to 2015, MAJA was a senior lecturer in film concept at Mars Era Education. He has contributed to the visual concept and atmosphere design for films such as Caught by the Tides, The Battle at Lake Changjin II, Mao Zedong 1949, The Thousand Faces of Dunjia, Airpocalypse, Sky Hunter, and Surprise.

Additionally, he has worked on visual effects concept design, visual concept proposals, storyboarding, and pre-visualization for television series including 3 Body Problem, The Land of Warriors, Palace of Devotion, Ultimate Note, Ancient Love Poetry, Yuci Xiao Wu Zuo, and Zhe Tian.

In the realm of gaming, he has been involved in projects such as 傲视水浒 and 新蜀山.

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Yuichiro Katsumoto is an artist and a professor at Tokyo Denki University. His work focuses on exploring the interplay between letters and images by experimenting with linear objects such as strings, ribbons, and springs.

Artistic expression has long been intertwined with the acts of writing and drawing—processes through which humanity has mastered the compression of the three-dimensional world into two-dimensional lines. Katsumoto seeks to reverse this compression, liberating these lines back into physical space to create kinetic typography and motion graphics.

Katsumoto earned his Ph.D. in 2010 from Keio University, specializing in video production, physical computing, and design thinking. After completing his doctoral studies, he worked as a researcher at the National University of Singapore before returning to Japan in 2018. Since 2019, he has been teaching design and creating art at Tokyo Denki University, where he also heads The Utsuroi Lab.

In 2024, Katsumoto served as the ACM SIGGRAPH Asia 2024 Art Papers Chair, supervising the review process and organizing eight sessions that shared cutting-edge research at the intersection of art, design, and technology. Through his initiative, the program saw a significant increase in submissions, fostering lively discussions and strengthening the sense of community.

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Pablo is the CEO of Kaleidos, makers of Penpot. He has 20+ years of experience in software development and has been an entrepreneur since 2011. He has led major technological undertakings ranging from AI to Retail. His academic background in Physics and Computer Science is at the core of his multidisciplinary collaboration ethos. He raised $8M for the biggest Series A round for an open source product in Spain to date and helps kindred spirits that aim at positive impact of technology.

He frequently speaks about open source, design and code collaboration and lean and inclusive teams.

On a personal side, he loves archery, role-playing games, gardening and cooking.

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Nosipho Maketo-van den Bragt is the CEO and co-founder of Chocolate Tribe, a leading African animation and VFX studio. A former attorney turned creative entrepreneur, she is passionate about storytelling, mentoring, and building opportunities for young talent. In 2021, she founded AVIJOZI, a platform connecting African creatives to global networks through roadshows, festivals, and industry support. Her leadership has earned her recognition in Nasdaq’s “I AM” campaign, EY’s Winning Women Class of 2024, and a position on the FMX Advisory Board for 2025.

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Léo is a French animator who trained in traditional animation techniques before specialising in 3D at ATI (Art et Technologies de l'Image) at the University of Paris 8. He began his career on the project 'Les Contes de la Nuit', by Michel Ocelot, with whom he later collaborated on all his works.

In parallel, he worked on various animated series, shorts and features, developing his expertise and taking on new responsibilities. It was on the project 'Dilili à Paris' Michel Ocelot that he discovered Blender, a software that would become central to his practice. He then expanded his skills on other productions at Mikros and Autour de Minuit and other studios.

More recently, Léo was animation director on Flow by Gints Zilbalodis, a multi-award-winning animated feature film co-produced by Sacrebleu all made in Blender software, where he applied his artistic skills and technical expertise.

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Mārtiņš Upītis is a Co-Founder and creative director of Physical Addons (https://physicaladdons.com) where he and his team design Blender addons. Started to contribute to the Blender community in 2006 and ever since is using Blender as his main tool. He is Academic arts graduate and a Technical Artist in computer game and VR training simulation companies.

Teaching his own course in physical lighting and materials using Blender in art schools and universities in Latvia. Started using Blender Game Engine to make games.

Dad of 2. He has a passion for shading, physical lighting, and space.

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Konstantins Visnevskis is a Latvian 3D artist and a lecturer at the Art Academy of Latvia, with over two decades of experience at the intersection of art and technology. His extensive career as a freelance 3D artist has spanned the fast-paced world of television commercials to the immersive realms of virtual reality and computer games.

A testament to his innovative approach is his recent work as a 3D Computer Graphics Artist on the internationally acclaimed animated feature film, "Flow" (2024). The film, created entirely with the open-source software Blender, has been lauded for its technical and artistic achievements, earning numerous accolades, including the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature and the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

With a Master of Arts in Visual Arts, Konstantins brings a unique blend of academic rigor and hands-on technical expertise to his practice. His work on "Flow" showcases the power of modern technology to create breathtaking new forms of creative expression, making him a distinguished voice at the International Artificial Intelligence and Creativity Conference.

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Bilibili UP | I am a Chinese Blender video creator with 394,000 followers. Since 2018, I have been updating over 400 episodes of open-source Blender teaching videos in the "Black Iron Knight" series on Bilibili.

Add-ons | I have led the ACGGit team in designing and developing 34 Blender add-ons. Examples include Simple Deform Helper, Place Helper, Light Helper, Lattice Helper, Colorista, POPOTI Align Helper, Gesture Helper, and more.

AI & ComfyUI | I have designed and developed an add-on called Blender ComfyUI Node Editor, which was used for demonstration at Nvidia CES 2025.

Interests | I am extremely fond of Blender, animation, and the mobile game League of Legends: Wild Rift (I am ranked as the fifth Leona in China). I also enjoy cooking and tasting delicious food.

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Isn't that a question we all ask ourselves? Well, my name's Nathan, and I like ice cream and riding bicycles.

Oh! I'm also a freelance 3d artist and software developer with 18 years of professional experience under my belt. On the art side I specialize in rigging and character animation, but I'm also a competent generalist. On the software side I primarily do graphics and tools/add-on development.

I've done work for a bunch of different companies and organizations including Nintendo, National Geographic, the Blender Institute, and Blender Animation Studio. So far everyone seems pretty happy with my work!

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Mr. Tada started his Art and VFX career at Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) in Tokyo, working on games. He then moved to Los Angeles, USA to work on VFX shows with Digital Domain as a 3D Generalist/TD. Afterwards, he moved to New Zealand to work with Weta Digital as Lead and Senior Lighting TD for VFX films such as Avatar, The Hobbit, and Planet of the Apes. In 2018, he worked as Senior TD at Industrial Light & Magic in Canada. Mr. Tada currently runs an online art school as a Founder.

Mr. Tada enjoys creating stylized 3D illustrations, animation. He created the Deep Paint tool, a user friendly tool to create 3D stylized illustrations in Blender. Deep Paint extends Blender's Grease Pencil and allows artists to model and paint in 3D more easily. Compatible with Blender 3.6 and higher, the add-on introduces useful tools for turning Grease Pencil strokes into 3D meshes, custom GP and texture paint brushes, useful material presets, and much more.

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I have always been passionate about animation and Blender. It was animation that introduced me to Blender, and it was also Blender that set me on the path of animation.

I have been using Blender since 2016 and create small animations in my spare time. In 2022, I collaborated with my classmates to produce our graduation animation project Elegy of Elephant using Blender, which later won a number of international awards. Since graduating in 2022, I have been working on the project Deep Dive at NiceBoat Animation as a technical artist, mainly responsible for VFX related tasks.

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Mr. Cao is a partner resident at the firm's Beijing office. Mr. Cao's practice focuses on entertainment and media industry matters. He is extensively involved in transactions including development of film and television projects, Sino-foreign co-productions, production financing (including debt financing and slate financing matters), establishment of production and financing vehicles, large theme park projects, music industry contracts, personal management, as well as advertising and new media. Mr. Cao is also richly experienced in general corporate and finance transactions, such as IPO and M&A matters, which helps him structure complicated transactions in the entertainment and media industries.

Mr. Cao's recent experience includes advising major Hollywood studios, top-tier international and Chinese entertainment companies, technology companies, investment institutions, as well as superstars, A-list directors and producers in many high-profile deals in the film, television, technology, and music industries.

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Emilio Coppola leads the Godot Foundation as its Executive Director, guiding the growth of the free, open-source Godot game engine. He started out making games and teaching others how to use Godot. With his background in web development and startups, Emilio now oversees the Foundation's work. He manages funding, allocates resources, and helps Godot become a top choice for game creators.

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