Curated by Gnomon founder and director Alex Alvarez, first-class lineup of Los Angeles-based VFX artists includes Jonathan Berube, Alexandre Lopes Cancado, Dylan Ekren, Devon Fay and Brandon Fayette.
Jonathan Berube
Gnomon Live Australia presents a first-class lineup of Los Angeles-based artists who will share their strategic thinking and practices developed in some of the industry’s most highly regarded studios including Blizzard Entertainment, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Infinity Ward, Bad Robot and Luma Pictures. Gnomon Live Australia - The Art of Entertainment will be held at Abbotsford Convent in Melbourne March 4-6, 2016.
Gaining an international perspective, attendees will have the chance to share ideas and learn techniques from artists who have contributed to Academy Award winning films, high grossing video games, commercials, and TV productions. Credits include Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Avatar, World of Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo III, Call of Duty, Pirates of the Caribbean, Captain America, and Frozen, among many others. Encouraging participation, they will share their techniques, workflows and experiences working in teams of advanced practitioners and award-winning directors.
With skills across a wide range of production roles including as matte painters, cg supervisors, environment artists, character modellers, compositors and art directors they will also demonstrate techniques in a variety of CG software that improve efficiency and quality of creative content.
Speakers for the event to date include Alexandre Lopes Cancado, 2D Supervisor at Luma Pictures LA; Jonathan Berube, Art Director, Blizzard Entertainment; Dylan Ekren, Character Modelling Supervisor, Walt Disney Animation; Devon Fay, Senior Environment Artist, Infinity Ward; and Brandon Fayette, CG Supervisor, Bad Robot, with more to be announced.
Alexandre Lopes Cancado
The program is curated by Alex Alvarez, founder and director of Gnomon, which includes the acclaimed Gnomon School VFX, Games and Animation in Hollywood, California, as well as The Gnomon Workshop, which provides professional online training for artists. Alvarez has been described by Fast Company Magazine as a visionary who has helped change the face of computer graphics education, having dedicated the past eighteen years to educating students and professional artists around the world. He has worked closely with entertainment artists to build a training center that is highly awarded for its graduate outcomes but also renowned for creating community events that support the industry by bringing both established and emerging artists together to discuss issues and share knowledge.
In 2015 Alvarez curated a highly successful masterclass for Ideas on Design during Melbourne International Design Week, which resulted in this first official Gnomon Live in Australia event. To be held at the Abbotsford Convent in Melbourne, the event will feature a weekend of live demos and talks, plus outdoor cinema screenings, insights from leading Australian studios, music, and the chance to meet up with local and international artists at the Shadow Electric Bar.
Dylan Ekren
Ideas on Design has been committed to supporting and resourcing the creative industries since being founded by Ken Cato, AO in 1991. Since then Ideas on Design has brought to Melbourne some of the world’s most highly acclaimed artists and designers for conferences, masterclasses, workshops and exhibitions. Ideas on Design brought their first entertainment artist to Melbourne in 1997, Mark Moore, creative director at Industrial Light & Magic for 13 years. Since then Ideas on Design has seen the likes of Neville Page -- lead character designer on James Camerons’ Avatar and Ralph Eggleston of Pixar, who created Nemo. Others have included, in 2002, the highly acclaimed Tetsuya Mizaguchi, who was Chief Creative Officer of Sega’s United Games in Japan; Iain McCaig, character designer with the Star Wars Series; and Roland Ijzerman whose graduation project Ibb and Obb became part of IndieCade’s selection at E3 in Los Angeles, and resulted in him becoming a lead designer at Guerilla Games on Kill Zone in the early 2000’s.
“While technology develops at a rapid pace and provides ever more intriguing and experiential platforms for the expanding entertainment industry we believe that the industry’s success relies on the talented content creators who bring characters, environments and ultimately our stories to life,” said Kristin McCourtie, Director IdeasonDesign. “This event has been designed specifically to support these artists and designers and encourage their ongoing passion and commitment for excellence. Recognized as the benchmark in computer graphics education, Gnomon is one of the world’s premier training centrse for the Entertainment Industry and it is a privilege to be working with them to develop this niche event for our region.”
Devon Fay
Source: Gnomon Live Australia
Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.
