Pierre Perifel, Annie Award-winning director of DreamWorks Animation’s
The Bad Guys 2, will be speaking in person at
VIEW Conference 2025, together with the film’s VFX supervisor Matt Baer. Appearing live on stage at Turin’s state-of-the-art OGR conference venue, Perifel and Baer will talk in depth about the creative journey they undertook to bring this spectacular new animated feature to the big screen.
Everyone’s favorite felons are back, and this time, they’ve got company. In the new action-packed chapter from DreamWorks Animation’s acclaimed comedy smash about a crackerjack crew of animal outlaws, our now-reformed Bad Guys are trying (very, very hard) to be good, but instead find themselves hijacked into a high-stakes, globe-trotting heist, masterminded by a new team of criminals they never saw coming: The Bad Girls.
Based on the New York Times best-selling book series by Aaron Blabey, which has soared from 8 million to over 32 million copies sold since the first film’s release in 2022, The Bad Guys 2 stars a stellar original cast, led by Academy Award winner Sam Rockwell as Mr. Wolf, SAG award nominee Marc Maron as safe-cracker Mr. Snake, SAG award nominee Craig Robinson as master-of-disguise Mr. Shark, Grammy winner Anthony Ramos as Mr. Piranha, and Emmy winner Awkwafina as hacker Ms. Tarantula, aka “Webs.”
The Bad Guys 2 opens in theaters August 1, 2025.
This year’s VIEW Conference takes place from October 12-17, 2025, in the stunning baroque city of Turin, Italy. Tickets are now available at the official website:
viewconference.it/pages/registration
“It is a true privilege to welcome Pierre Perifel and Matt Baer to speak in person at VIEW Conference 2025,” says Conference Director Dr. Maria Elena Gutierrez. “I know their wisdom and insight will inspire our international audience here in beautiful Turin, as they recount the story behind the making of this upcoming summer blockbuster.”
About Pierre Perifel
Pierre Perifel made his feature director debut with the April 2022 release of “The Bad Guys,” from DreamWorks Animation. He most recently served as head of character animation on the short film “To: Gerard” and as a director of the short film “Bilby,” both of which received numerous awards and industry accolades. He joined DreamWorks in 2007 and worked as an animator on “Kung Fu Panda,” “Monsters vs. Aliens,” “Shrek Forever After,” “Kung Fu Panda” and then stepped into the role of Lead Character Animation and Supervising Animator on the film “Rise of the Guardians.” In addition, he directed the short film “Le building.”
In 2008, Perifel received an Annie Award for Best Character Animation in a Television Production/Short Form Content for his work on “Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Furious Five.” His work is heavily influenced by the iconography of French graphic novels and European films, blending the simplification of illustrative animation with the sophistication of live action staging. A native of the Auvergene-Rhône-Alpes region of Lyon, France, Perifel is a graduate of the prestigious Gobelins, L’Ecole de L’Image in Paris and is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Art and Sciences (AMPAS).
About Matt Baer
Matt Baer joined PDI/DreamWorks in 1999 to work as a Clothing Artist on the Academy Award®-winning “Shrek.” He continued his career on “Shrek 2” contributing to effects, clothing development, and crowds. Matt served as an effects lead on “Madagascar,” where his work earned him a nomination for an Annie Award. Matt was promoted to Head of Effects on “Shrek 3,” where he received a nomination for a Visual Effects Society award, and continued his role onto the Oscar® nominated (Best Animated Feature) films “How to Train Your Dragon,” which won both Annie and VES awards for Best Effects, and “The Croods,” which was also nominated for Annie & VES awards.
Following these successes, Matt has been promoted to Visual Effects Supervisor where he helped launch the DreamWorks short film program, leading teams in the adoption of new technology on the short films “Bilby” and “To: Gerard.” He earned his first VFX Supervisor credit on “Trolls World Tour” and served as VFX Supervisor on “The Bad Guys.” Baer is most recently serving as VFX supervisor on the franchise’s upcoming sequel, “The Bad Guys 2.”
Prior to joining PDI/DreamWorks Animation, Baer was an Effects Animator at Tippett Studio, Santa Barbara Studios and Electronic Arts and was a Software Consultant for Alias/Wavefront in Santa Barbara. Baer is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Science, and the Visual Effects Society.
About VIEW Conference
An English language event, VIEW Conference 2025 takes place from October 12-17, 2025, in the beautiful baroque city of Turin, Italy. Enjoy this unrivaled opportunity to network with award-winning film directors, animators, artists and game designers as they deliver an incredible program of keynotes, panels, talks, workshops and masterclasses. Explore cutting-edge thinking in a wide range of creative and technology-based fields as a stellar line-up of stars from Hollywood and Silicon Valley. Celebrate the latest achievements in Animation, VFX and Games and share unforgettable visions of the future.
The conference’s vibrant and inclusive atmosphere is designed to enlighten and inspire, with an extensive live program of talks, presentations, workshops and masterclasses embracing cutting-edge thinking on such diverse topics as Storytelling, Virtual Production, Computer Graphics, Interactive & Immersive Media, VR/AR/Mixed Reality and the Metaverse, Artificial Intelligence, Real-Time Rendering and much, much more.