CHRISTOPHE DEFAYE
Cofounder, AOKI Studio

Christophe Defaye was born in 1968. In 1995 he graduated from Bordeaux School of Architecture. In 2000, after 5 years of freelance works on architecture, landscape design and 3D visualization, he co-founded AOKI, an animation & 3D SFX creative studio, working there as art director. Next year, he moved to Japan to lead the Tokyo branch of AOKI studio.

ISAO NISHIGORI
Freelance, P.I.C.S.

Nishigori-san got his start in ‘95 as a VJ on MTV Japan, bringing an early taste of CG to the hungry masses. Since then, his work received awards from Siggraph, New York Film Festival, Promax&BDA, Anima Mundi, ACIDMAN, Japan’s Culture Ministry and more. Commercial pieces include works for Panasonic, Seiko, Japan’s public broadcaster NHK, as well as visual design at Tokyo Dome, the country’s largest baseball stadium, and the who’s who of Japanese music scene Kohaku Uta Gassen. He is currently affiliated with P.I.C.S creative productions company, a former unit of MTV Japan.

SHUHEI MORITA
Director, YAMATOWORKS

Shuhei Morita’s bio reads like the brief history of 3DCG invasion into Japanese animation establishment. After helping found Kamikaze Douga in 1999, Morita-san worked with Studio 4℃ in developing cel-shading techniques used to make three-dimensional images appear like hand-drawn art. In 2003 he founded YAMATOWORKS. His debut work “Kakurenbo” reaped awards from Tokyo International Anime Fair, Canada’s Fantasia and Japan’s Culture Ministry and led to his current work as a director on the Freedom Project.

TOMOYUKI SUGIYAMA
President, Doctor of Engineering/Digital Hollywood

Whether battling Japanese bureaucracy for recognition of digital arts as college-worthy curriculum, or working through countless forums, associations and councils, or simply equipping classrooms with refrigerators for midnight oil-burning students, Sugiyama-san is a tireless champion of CG in Japan. He founded Digital Hollywood in 1994, after returning from a 3-year tenure at MIT’s Media Lab armed with a firm vision of a networked digital society. The school, now a certified university, is a major source of CG talent for Japan’s creative industry.

PASHA ALPEYEV
Design Ambassador, Cut&Paste Tokyo

KENTARO KATO
Account Manager, MTV Japan

Kentaro also serves as one of our Design Ambassadors for Cut&Paste Tokyo.