2021 JURORS
JAMES RANSOME
James has illustrated over seventy books for children. His newest book, The Bell Rang, which he authored and illustrated, has received a Coretta Scott King Honor Awards in 2020. James received his MFA from Lesley university in Cambridge, MA and his books have garnered numerous accolades including Coretta Scott King Awards, a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor, ALA Notables, a Jane Addams Award and NAACP Image awards. He has created murals for Poughkeepsie's Adriance Memorial Library, the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis and the Underground Railroad Museum in Cincinnati. James lives in Rhinebeck with his wife and frequent collaborator, author Lesa Cline-Ransome.
PEI YAO
Pei Yao is a compositor. She has been working in the vfx field since her MFA Computer Art at School of Visual Arts in New York. After finishing her graduate work, she still sought more experience and knowledge. Hence, having decided to take her career to the next level, she started working in Shade VFX in New York, after that she moved to the great city Los Angeles for her next challenge. Now she is working for MoonShine Animation in Taiwan. She specializes in compositing for live action film, TV shows or commercials. She has worked on projects such as The Greatest Showman, Lucy in the Sky, Jessica Jones (TV series) and Daredevil (TV series)
Kevin Taylor
Kevin Taylor is an Assistant Professor in the Computer Animation and Game Development Program. He is a veteran video game artist who has created work for publishers such as Bethesda Softworks, SEGA, Activision, Konami, and Ubisoft. He teaches courses such as Animation/CGI production, Digital Modeling and Concept Art and Storyboarding. His research interests include Augmented Reality, 2D/3D animation, and comic book development.
Cami Kwan
Cami is Creative Producer at Apartment D, a stop motion studio in Burbank, CA. Cami's passion is creating children’s media, especially media that pairs animation and education. Cami spent the first few years in LA as an animator and armaturist on the Amazon series Tumble Leaf before joining forces with Maximilan Lopez and Sean Malony to found Apartment D. Cami has spent the last three years animating, directing and producing at Apartment D, working on projects for clients such as Barbie, Hot Wheels, Warner Brothers and Nickelodeon. Cami's most recent work is a 22-minute short film and a 66-minute, six episode stop motion series for American Girl.