The Annecy International Animation Film Festival is the world's premier celebration of animation, bringing together around 12,000 industry professionals each year in the picturesque French alpine town of Annecy. For an entire week, the event gathers the biggest names in the sector and celebrates the creative and diverse animation styles and techniques from around the globe.
A Mifa accreditation gives you access to Houdini presentations and workshops as well as all Festival and Mifa screenings and events.
SideFX is proud to be hosting Houdini HIVE Talks at Annecy which offer a firsthand look at how industry experts are using Houdini in production, including an in-depth exploration of the powerful new animation tools in Houdini 22.
Get hands-on at the IGNITE Workshops and experience Houdini's procedural, node-based workflow for yourself.
Houdini HIVE TALKS
CEST
Salle de L’Europe | Wednesday | June 24 | CEST
1:30 PM
Alex Caballer Williams & Valerio Tarricone | Skydance
Wednesday | June 24 | 1:00 PM CEST
Breaking the Ice - FX of Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age
Learn how visual effects for Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age prioritised realism to support a natural, documentary style. The focus was on seamlessly integrating CG creatures into real-world environments, allowing the story and behavior of the animals to take center stage. A major emphasis is placed on the use of Houdini as the core tool for FX development. From simulating snow, sand, dust, vegetation, and breath to handling complex character-environment interactions, Houdini enabled the team to build highly tailored, physically grounded simulations. The presentation explores how different environments required unique approaches—showing how even similar setups, like snow and sand, demanded entirely different parameters and behaviors to achieve believable results.
It also dives into the creative and technical process behind building realistic interactions for extinct creatures. With no direct references available, the team relied on real-world animal studies and on-set puppetry plates to guide simulation work and ensure accuracy in motion and environmental response.
A central theme is the close collaboration between departments—animation, FX, CFX, groom, and lighting—to create cohesive and convincing imagery. From wet hair and fur simulations to environmental effects like footprints, breath, and particle movement, each element was refined through an iterative, cross-department “round trip” workflow that helped bridge the gap between CG and live-action..
Guy Schuleman began his career in South Africa, where he earned a BA in Graphic Design and an Advanced Certificate in 3D Animation from the Midrand Graduate Institute. He initially worked in advertising, serving as the lead 3D artist, before making the move into feature film visual effects.
Since joining Framestore in 2016 as an FX TD, Guy has climbed the ranks to become an FX Supervisor. In this role, he oversees specialised teams to deliver complex FX for some of cinema's most prominent franchises. His extensive portfolio includes work on Avengers: Endgame, Wonka and How to Train Your Dragon.
A career standout for Guy was working as an FX Lead on Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age, where he worked across multiple sites and collaborated with a global team of artists to push the boundaries of natural history effects. His exceptional work on the series earned him both an Annie and a VES Award for Outstanding Effects Simulations In An Episode in 2026.
Wednesday | June 24 | 1:30 PM CEST
Swapped: Bringing the Four Elements to Life with Houdini
A behind-the-scenes look at how the FX team at Skydance Animation brought Swapped to life — seamlessly blending fire, water, and destruction into a single, cohesive cinematic moment.
Alex Caballer Williams is an FX Artist at Skydance Animation Madrid. Born in Barcelona, joined Skydance early 2021 after graduating - and since, has worked on several feature animated films including Luck, Spellbound and Swapped. Loves to work and explore on all sorts of FX and procedural setups.
Valerio Tarricone is an Italian visual effects artist and FX Lead at Skydance Animation with over a decade of experience in film, television, music videos and animation. Specialising in advanced simulations such as fire, smoke, water, destruction and large-scale physics-based effects, he primarily works with Houdini by SideFX to build scalable, production-ready procedural systems for high-end projects. He has contributed to major films including Blade Runner 2049, Wonder Woman, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Godzilla vs. Kong and Star Trek Beyond, and was part of the DNEG team that won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects for Blade Runner 2049. Known for combining strong technical expertise with artistic sensibility, he continues to push the boundaries of simulation-driven visual storytelling.
Wednesday | June 24 | 2:45 PM CEST
TumbleRig | Cartoony Rigging in Houdini
Magnus will show in detail how a cartoony frog character was created in Houdini 22. He will go over the new rigging toolkit and showing how the different techniques were created, from setup up the bendy limbs, creating a custom cartoony mouth rig and a custom eye rig (and a lot more fun effects).
"TumbleRig" is a package with 30+ new rigging nodes, built on Apex, but with a more "sops focused" interface. Fans of the original version of KineFX will hopefully feel at home, and new Houdini artists will hopefully find it intuitive.
Magnus Møller loves quirky, cartoony characters with an existential crisis — and he’s built a studio around making them. As co-founder of Tumblehead Animation Studio in Viborg, Denmark, he works across look development, rigging, and art direction. With a foot in both the artistic and technical sides of production — from painting moods to writing code — Houdini is his ultimate playground for creating characters and worlds.
The Animation Workshop in Viborg holds a special place in his heart — a school where the craft of drawing and animation comes first. Magnus studied there and keeps coming back as a guest teacher, sharing everything from life drawing to rigging to game development.
At Tumblehead, Magnus has co-directed and art directed several short films that have won prizes at festivals all around the flat earth. In 2025, he was nominated for Best Short Film at the Annie Awards for “The Swineherd,” co-directed with Peter Smith.
Wednesday | June 24 | 3:05 PM CEST
Character Animation in Houdini 22 and Beyond
Warren will begin by teaching all about new character animation features in Houdini 22. Explore tools and workflows that extend the capabilities introduced in Houdini 21, such as new features for Ragdoll, Motion Mixer, FBIK plus much more.
Cristin will then take you through the Houdini Character Roadmap. The future of character rigging, animation and motion editing from the Houdini perspective. We will offer a glimpse into the innovative character technology shipping with Houdini 22 and share our vision of how this next generation of tools and workflows is poised to change the way character artists deploy and enjoy their craft.
Cristin Barghiel is a veteran software executive who currently serves as the Vice President of Product Development at SideFX. Based in Toronto, Cristin has spent over three decades driving technical innovation in the VFX industry. He is best known for his foundational contributions to Houdini, the industry-standard procedural software used to create complex digital effects and natural phenomena in blockbuster entertainment. As head of R&D, Cristin continues to look out for new technologies to drive Houdini's growth beyond VFX, into character rigging and animation, creature effects and all the CG elements that help bring memorable characters to life.
Warren Leathem is a Senior Animator on the character team at SideFX. Prior to joining SideFX in 2021, he spent over 20 years as an Animator, Animation Lead and Animation Supervisor in the film and TV industry, focused almost entirely on character animation. Having worked at studios such as MPC, Weta Digital, and Animal Logic, he brings that experience to focus not only on animators doing amazing work, but also on how animation fits into the overall production environment and workflows.
Houdini IGNITE WORKSHOPS
Day 1 | Campus Room 2:
Introduction to Animation in Houdini
Thursday June 25 | 9:30 AM - 4:00 PM
Designed as a beginner-friendly animation track, Day One introduces artists to Houdini’s animation workflows in a practical and approachable way. The session begins with a guided introduction to the Houdini interface, core animation tools, and the procedural mindset behind the software. From there, participants will move into a hands-on production-style exercise focused on animating a cartoony dragon from scratch.
Throughout the day, attendees will explore a full animation workflow inspired by real production scenarios, including planning, rough animatic and layout, pose-to-pose blocking, and final polish. The workshop will also introduce Houdini’s APEX animation tools and state system, showing how they can be used to manage keyframes, refine timing and spacing, push poses, and experiment creatively during the animation process.
This workshop is for: Beginner Houdini users
NOTE: You need to be have an Annecy pass to access the workshop room.
INSTRUCTORS:
Max Rose is a 3D animator and technical artist known for blending strong character performance with deep procedural and rigging expertise. His work spans advanced KineFX and APEX-based systems, along with forward-thinking explorations into AI-assisted animation workflows. As Senior Character UX Specialist at SideFX, Max is helping to shape the future of character tools in Houdini, making complex systems feel intuitive and artist-friendly.
Saša Budimir is a freelance 3D artist/animator from Zagreb, Croatia with over 20 years of experience. During that period, he has worn many hats and has worked on numerous commercials, short animated films, and festival/TV/film openers. His great passion is making things that move around, especially in the form of quirky characters, while exploring different visual and animation styles.
Day 2 | Campus Room 2
Procedural Character Creation and Rigging
Friday June 26 | 9:30 AM - 4:00 PM
Day Two focuses on intermediate procedural workflows for character creation and rigging in Houdini. The session begins with Roy Kristoffersen guiding participants through the creation of a stylized dragon character from concept to finished 3D model, highlighting Houdini’s procedural modeling, sculpting, and rig-first workflow. This part of the workshop also showcases how Houdini’s character tools are reshaping modern animation pipelines.
Building on that foundation, Magnus Moller and Max Rose will take participants deeper into Houdini rigging workflows using the Auto Rig Builder and APEX. The session will explore how to extend and customize rigs with additional controls for specific character parts, while also introducing practical rig prototyping methods and production-ready rigging techniques. Participants will gain insight into how custom rig solutions can be developed, tested, and integrated into broader character setups.
This workshop is for: Intermediate Houdini users
NOTE: You need to be have an Annecy pass to access the workshop room.
INSTRUCTORS:
Roy Kristoffersen is the Lead 3D Artist at Qvisten Animation. A 3D generalist with 20 years of experience in Maya, he has a deep passion for character modeling, rigging, and animation. Over the past four years, he has been exploring Houdini’s powerful procedural tools to enhance character creation.
Magnus Møller loves quirky, cartoony characters with an existential crisis — and he’s built a studio around making them. As co-founder of Tumblehead Animation Studio in Viborg, Denmark, he works across look development, rigging, and art direction. With a foot in both the artistic and technical sides of production — from painting moods to writing code — Houdini is his ultimate playground for creating characters and worlds. The Animation Workshop in Viborg holds a special place in his heart — a school where the craft of drawing and animation comes first. Magnus studied there and keeps coming back as a guest teacher, sharing everything from life drawing to rigging to game development. At Tumblehead, Magnus has co-directed and art directed several short films that have won prizes at festivals all around the flat earth. In 2025, he was nominated for Best Short Film at the Annie Awards for “The Swineherd,” co-directed with Peter Smith.