Women in Digital Production: Careers & Industry Insights

Gnomon recently hosted an inspiring event for International Womens Day in collaboration with the Women in Animation Group. The event brought together a panel of successful women working in the digital production industry in Los Angeles, and was moderated by the award-winning journalist Carolyn Giardina, Contributing Editor at The Hollywood Reporter. The evening’s discussions celebrated achievements, fostered connections, and supported women considering a career in digital production for entertainment. The panel included speakers from Walt Disney Animation Studios, DreamWorks Animation, Duncan Studio, Naughty Dog, Nickelodeon, and The Mill.

A Livestream of the event is now available to watch on Gnomon’s Livestream.

Guest Speakers

Melissa Altobello—Environment Texture and Shader Artist at Naughty Dog

For more than seven years Melissa has been working at Naughty Dog on award-winning games including Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, The Last of Us, Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. She received a BFA from the University of Michigan in 2005 before completing the full-time program at Gnomon in 2008. When she’s not plugging away at the next big thing from Naughty Dog, you’ll find her getting bruised-up playing roller derby or competitive dodgeball.

Letitia Kao—Texture Artist at Nickelodeon

Born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Leticia Jones (Kao) is currently working as a Texture Artist for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles show at Nickelodeon Animation Studios. She began her studies at the Melies School of Cinema and Animation in Brazil in 2008, and continued at Gnomon in 2010. She has won multiple awards for her outstanding work, including the People’s Choice CG Student Awards of 2014.

Loren Pillai—Lead Texture Artist at DreamWorks Animation

After five years of running a successful interior design and mural business, Lorin decided to switch careers and went back to school, at Gnomon. Her focus was on real-time environments and cinematics for games. After completing studies at Gnomon she worked on films, commercials, and several games as an Environment Artist. She then made a move to animation, and is now Lead Texture Artist on Dinotrux.

Krystal Sae Eua—Modeling and Texture Lead at The Mill

Krystal has been working in the visual effects industry for more than nine years. She has worked on almost 30 films, including Avatar, The Avengers, 2012, Fast and Furious, and Breaking Dawn: Part 2. She is a graduate from Gnomon’s full-time program, and she currently works at The Mill in Los Angeles as a Modeling and Texturing Lead on high-end commercials and video game cinematics.

Brooke Shay—Animator at Duncan Studio

Brooke has animated on feature films at studios such as Reel FX, Duncan Studio, and Sony Pictures Imageworks. Prior to focusing on films, Brooke worked on several commercial projects at Psyop. In 2012, she founded the L.A. Character Animator Social Critiques group, which is focused on providing peer-to-peer feedback to animators. She is currently working at Duncan Studio on The Nut Job 2.

Diana J. Zeng—Lighting/Compositing Artist at Walt Disney Animation Studios

Diana is currently working as a Lighting Supervisor on Walt Disney Animation Studio’s Zootopia. Over the past five years, she has contributed to four feature films at Disney as a Lighting, Compositing and Look Development Artist. In addition to working in CG, she also has a diverse background in theater, live action film, and television. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling and rock climbing.