The DePaul Animation Program and the School of Cinematic Arts Visiting Artist Series Presents
FxF: The Frame-by-Frame Animators Conference 2025
The DePaul Animation Program and the School of Cinematic Arts Visiting Artist Series Presents
FxF: The Frame-by-Frame Animators Conference 2025
CDM Theater, 14 E. Jackson Daley Building LL105.
Saturday, March 1st , 2025
Stitching together illusive dreams, memories and city observations into a visual code of enigmatic imagery, McShine´s murals, installations, drawings, animations, and canvases disclose multilevel narratives that haunt the mind and provoke intimacy into self.
His animations have been awarded and screened in several international film festivals such as Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival and Portobello Film Festival, UK. Presented at TEDx Youth Facebook Headquarters, US. Wendell Mc Shine comes by way of Trinidad and Tobago, lived in Mexico City for a number of years, and now resides in the United States.
Elyse is an award-winning director and producer with a passion for human-centered stories. With expertise in both animation and traditional documentary filmmaking, she brings a distinctive perspective to her work, seamlessly blending unapologetic animated visuals with thoughtful nonfiction storytelling.
Elyse's work has earned accolades and been showcased at festivals worldwide, including Sundance, Tribeca, Annecy, Zagreb, and OIAF. She's directed award-winning campaigns and content for clients such as Netflix, the ACLU, The Atlantic, Sesame Workshop, Sony Music, the United Nations Foundation, and Meow Wolf.
In 2022, Elyse founded the studio Neon Zoo because she recognized a genuine need for stories that inspire change, all told through the vibrant lens of animation. When she’s not at the studio, she’s sharing her love of the medium with students at Georgetown University!
Bill Kroyer is an Oscar®-nominated director of animation and computer graphics commercials, short films, movie titles and theatrical films. Trained in classic hand-drawn animation at the Disney Studio, Bill was one of the first animators to make the leap to computer animation as Computer Image Choreographer on Disney’s ground-breaking 1982 feature TRON.
He pioneered the technique of combining hand-drawn animation with computer animation on projects such as his theatrical animated feature film Fern Gully, The Last Rainforest and his short film Technological Threat. As Senior Animation Director at Rhythm & Hues Studios he directed animation on scores of commercials and many feature films, including Cats and Dogs, Garfield, and Scooby Doo.
Sara Varon is a graphic novelist and children’s book author/illustrator living in Chicago. She is the author of Robot Dreams, which was adapted into an Oscar-nominated animated feature film by the Spanish director Pablo Berger. Her other books include Odd Duck, Bake Sale, New Shoes, Hold Hands, My Pencil and Me, and the Detective Sweet Pea series. Her work has received many accolades—among others, Hold Hands was named a Best Children’s Book of 2019 by the New York Times; Odd Duck was selected by Kirkus Reviews as one of the Best Children’s Books of 2013; Bake Sale was chosen as a YALSA Great Graphic Novel of 2012; and Robot Dreams was on Oprah’s Kids’ Reading List in 2008. In 2013, Sara was a recipient of the Sendak Fellowship.