Specialties: Visual Effects for motion pictures, television and video wall installations. Realistic environments, computer-generated fluids, fire, smoke, particles, rigid body dynamics/destruction fx. RealFlow, Maya, Fume FX, Krakatoa, Houdini, Redshift, Maxwell Renderer

Lauren Millar
Co-Founder/ Executive Creative Director

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In the television business for 20 years, Lauren began her career as a reporter and anchor in television news, then traveled the world as a producer, director, journalist and on-camera host for her own series on Discovery Channel and TVOntario. From filming in refugee camps during the Rwandan genocide in ’96 to stunt flying with Canada’s aerobatic tudor-jet flying team, to personally filming a 13-foot tiger shark as it was released beside her in Hawaiian waters, Lauren has had a thrilling & diverse career in film & television, winning multiple nominations and awards. Lauren has produced and directed more than 100 television programs — from documentary to lifestyle television.

As Director of Development for Omni Film Productions, Lauren created and developed award-winning original television programming – from documentary to drama — with a diverse range of international television broadcasters (Discovery, Animal Planet, HGTV, Discovery Health, The Movie Network, History Television, W Network, CBC, Global and CTV).

After meeting Mark during a volcanic eruption in Montserrat, and then moving to Trinidad, Lauren continued filmmaking by documenting Mark’s investigations of volcanic activity in the Caribbean for the University of the West Indies.

Lauren’s passion for story telling, her critical director’s eye and her producer savvy has been a driving force behind the success of Fusion CI Studios.

Mark V. Stasiuk
Co-Founder/VFX Supervisor

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Mark has developed highly efficient proprietary methodologies for creating complex, photo-real fluid & dynamic fx and has custom designed his studio’s fx pipeline for maximum efficiency and creativity.

Mark has a PhD in geophysical fluid mechanics and has worked for more than 20 years in fluid dynamics. This gives him a unique advantage in the world of computer generated fluid fx as he has a deep understanding of the physics of fluid behavior — an understanding that began with traveling the world, studying volcanic eruptions for a living! Mark’s drive to simulate the repercussions of a volcanic eruption led to his current status as a world expert in Realflow. He’s has been a devoted user since RF2.

Mark works closely with the engineers at Next Limit (creators of Realflow) to constantly improve the software and resolve production issues. His python scripting was instrumental in moving Realflow from version 3 to 4, he wrote the scripting guide in the RF4 user guide and advised Next Limit as they developed RF5. Mark continues to trouble-shoot beta versions of RealFlow and has made significant progress analyzing 2013. Mark has also created a number of tutorials for Next Limit’s website and has given workshops across the US to studios such as Disney Animation and Blue Sky Studios on Realflow use. His RealFlow courses can be found at fxphd.com.

Because of Mark’s international reputation as a fluid dynamics expert and artist, Fusion CI Studios has an accomplished record in creating a wide range of outstanding dynamic effects (fire, explosions, particle work, and cg fluids), from large-scale, multi-million particle ocean surfaces with cresting waves, foam & spray to massive explosions and fire.