Ian Failes, Editor-in-Chief, befores & afters

Ian Failes is a journalist based in Melbourne specialising in visual effects and animation. Ian publishes the industry VFX and animation publication called befores & afters (beforesandafters.com) and an accompanying print magazine. He has written for fxguide, Cartoon Brew, VFX Voice, 3D Artist, 3D World and many other publications. Ian is the author of the books, 'Industrial Light & Magic: 50 Years of Innovation' and ‘Masters of FX’. He holds the world's largest collection of memorabilia from the film Speed.

Hugo Guerra, Director & VFX Supervisor, Hugo's Desk

Hugo Guerra is an award-winning Director and VFX Supervisor. After finishing his Fine Arts degree, he worked in Portugal and Sweden before moving to the UK where he was a freelancer for several years.

In 2010 he joined The Mill London as a VFX Supervisor and as Head of the Nuke Department where he worked with clients like Audi, Adidas, Nike, IKEA, Panasonic, Discovery Channel, Sony, Activision, Ubisoft, etc. In 2014 Hugo joined Fire Without Smoke as a Director and Visual Effects Supervisor, working on trailers for game studios like CCP, Ubisoft, Deep Silver, Square Enix, Sony, Warhammer, etc.

Most recently Hugo worked as a VFX Supervisor for Sony Playstation, worked as a Film Director for Rebellion Studios directing the cinematic trailer for Sniper Elite 5 and Directed a commercial for Zeiss.

He is also very active as a teacher and lecturer of Visual Effects, making keynotes at festivals all over the world in partnership with BenQ, Foundry, and Ftrack. Hugo is also a content creator on YouTube with his channel Hugo's Desk and he’s the co-host of the VFX Notes Podcast with Ian Failes from Befores & Afters.