Artist Irina Borisova was born in Kharkov, Ukraine. She became fascinated by visual arts since early childhood. Irina graduated from college with a degree in architecture. For many years she worked as Art Director - at first at a Kharkov movie studio and later at the Kharkov State Puppet Theatre. Irina established herself in various genres of art - ceramics, puppets, book illustration, theatre stage set and costume design, theatre posters, etc.

Irina's animated shorts (like Bus) were shown at the national TV and won numerous awards. Her puppets, posters, and stage sets for five theatre productions became immediate success.

In 1993, during a visit to her friends in the USA, she met Eugene Mamut, an old colleague of hers, who had established himself as a movie's special effects creator. Irina and Eugene got married and later moved to Lee, MA where in 2002, they founded Animagic.

Most recently, she illustrated a funny book called "Cats Who Quilt" and created characters for several commercials. She made a cow for a Vtech commercial. As a member of the Suspended Animation team she worked on Crab Delights commercial and other projects.

You can tell that she had much fun working on a Burger King commercial with a famous artist / director Tom Gasek of Great Barrington.

Amazingly, Irina still finds time in her busy schedule for ceramics, puppets, graphics, jewelry, and other arts. Her works are in private collections and galleries in Ukraine, Israel, Europe, and North America. Some are on display in Animagic.

Academy Award® winning special effects creator Eugene Mamut began making movies and special effects at a Kharkov movie studio in Ukraine (former USSR), where he first met his future wife Irina Borisova and where, in 1975, he created one of the first computer-animated shorts. 

Ten years later, he arrived in New York City and was hired by EFX Unlimited where as optical cameraman he participated in creating visual effects for The Blue Lagoon and Xanadu. In 1980, he joined R/Greenberg Associates.  There, Eugene developed special effects for movies such as Ladyhawke, Zelig, Dirty Dancing, Ghost Dad, Predator, and Predator 2.

In 1981, Eugene created “the elastic effect” which led to "the camouflage effect” which he created with Joel Hynek for the movie Predator. 

For his groundbreaking work, Eugene received many awards and accolades, including a 1982 Clio Award® and a 1986 Academy Award®.

In 1996, Eugene moved to Lenox, MA to work with Mass.Illusion.  There he was making visual effects for movies such as Starship Troopers and The Matrix. 

In 2002, he and his wife Irina Borisova opened Animagic to showcase the Berkshire visual effects talent and to foster the moviemaking spirit in the Berkshires. 

Currently, when he is not conducting animation workshops, giving public talks, or running the museum, he continues to take on movie and special effects projects.