Alex Duque received his BFA in Computer Animation at the Miami International University of Art & Design in 2001. After graduation he moved back to his hometown in Bogota Colombia to become a freelance 3D artist for Young & Rubicam, Ogilvy and Mather, Mc Cann Erickson,

J. Walter Thompson and Leo Burnett. After developing a strong relationship with his clients, Alex became their “go to” guy for the development of their 3D illustrations, 3D animations, and CG enhancement projects. Some of his credits include work for Toyota, Renault, Energizer, Ford and Citibank.

After working as a freelance artist for the past seven years he returned to school to earn his masters degree in Visual effects. Upon receiving his degree, he was given the opportunity to become a professor at Digital Media Arts College (DMAC) in Boca Raton FL. and has loved it ever since. Currently Alex is a professor for advanced classes in modeling, lighting, texturing as well a visual effects for both the BFA and the MFA programs and he still is actively involved in the industry.

Alex’s workshop will guide you through the main stages of development for a visual effects shot and through the process you will learn some some basic tips, tricks and techniques.

ah1 shotdown from alex duque on Vimeo.

Xin Wang was born in Hangzhou, P.R.China, next to the beautiful West Lake. Right after graduate from SCAD, he has been working at Blizzard Film Department, currently he is the Cinematic Character Supervisor, helping to create CG characters and creatures for the in-game-movies, he is one of main creators behind Kerrigan, the Queen of Blade. He has worked on the cinematics of some of the world’s best-selling PC games, such as “Starcraft Ghost”, “World of Warcraft”, “World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade”, “World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King” and “Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty” and most recently on “World of Warcraft: Cataclysm”. He is currently working on the cinematics of Diablo.

Xin’s master workshop will focus on the creation of “kerrigan” the iconic female character from the critically acclaim Starcraft game series.

JON KARAFIN, DIRECTOR OF PRODUCTION OPERATIONS
DIGITAL DOMAIN MEDIA GROUP

“Revealing the Magic Behind 2D to 3D Conversion; A review of Stereoscopic VFX, conversion, and the desired skills DD looks for in a potential candidate.”

Jon Karafin is Director of Production Operations at Digital Domain Holdings. His current focus is Digital Domain’s new Stereography/VFX department in Florida. Previously, Jon was VP of Production Operations with In-Three, Inc. and developed stereoscopic production facilities in Mumbai, India and Los Angeles, CA. He has applied his diverse background in visual arts and digital production to direct and optimize the company’s daily operations and stereoscopic production pipeline. In addition, Jon actively develops innovative stereoscopic techniques and systems, with the goal of increasing artist efficiency and product quality.

Jon Karafin, Director of Production Operations at Digital Domain Media Group, will be revealing the tricks of low quality stereo conversion, as well as reviewing the artistry behind Digital Domain’s Dimensionalization® process. He will provide the audience with the knowledge of how to discern high quality stereographic VFX to help arm artists with the knowledge of the skill sets required for employment at Digital Domain’s Florida based studio.

Brett McConnell and Nickie Huai are a lighting and rendering duo from California. As a married couple in the often nomadic production industry, they have been fortunate enough to work together in almost ever branch of the computer graphics industry—commercials in Manhattan, video games in Southern California and films in Los Angeles—culminating with their trip down to New Zealand in 2009 to work with Weta on James Cameron’s “Avatar”.

Brett and Nickie both come from fine arts backgrounds and hold Masters of Science degrees from New York University in Digital Imaging and Design.  They worked on the live action films “Speed Racer” and “Night at The Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian” and animated features “Horton Hears a Who” and “Ice Age 2: The Meltdown”.  Currently a CG Supervisor at Sony Playstation, Brett is finishing up work on the pre-rendered cut sequences for “Resistance 3.” Nickie is Lighting Lead at DisneyToons studio, overseeing the lighting direction of 4 films currently in production.

Brett and Nickie’s Master Workshop will display practical steps towards implementing effective lighting and rendering regardless of the situation or software.  Focusing on the multiple elements that make up a successfully executed shot, including scene organization, scene breakouts for composite, managing rendering resources and a step-by-step method to lighting, they will show you the problems solved every day by professional lighters in the computer graphics industry.

View more of Brett’s work
View more of Nickie’s work

Gary M. Davis began his career after receiving a BFA in Computer Graphics from Bowling Green State University in 1992. Since that time, he has been heavily involved in visual effects and motion graphics for numerous clients in television, film, video games and architectural visualization projects. After spending nearly six-years developing ride films and digital photography systems for themed entertainment venues, at the turn of the Millennium he formed visualZ, LLC. From 2004-2007, Davis served as the only independent, worldwide certified training specialist for 3ds Max, Combustion and Toxik. During this time he also authored The Focal Easy Guide to Combustion. At the Siggraph 2007 Conference, Davis was awarded the title of Autodesk 3ds Max Master. Shortly thereafter, he joined the Media and Entertainment Division of Autodesk as a Solutions Engineer specializing in 3D animation and compositing software solutions.

View Gary’s Blog on “The Area”

Creative Director, technical artist and project lead at Nuclei, Miguel graduated with a BA from Florida Atlantic Univeristy’s Computer Arts Program. While working towards his degree he also worked for Navteq’s Mapper division. While at Mapper he was responsible for creating 3D buildings and textures for use with Navteq’s real-time 3D GPS systems.

From college he went on to found Nuclei, Inc. which has gone on to work with several clients including HGTV and has developed games for Unreal mobile including Fridge Raider and Silent Death. He also teaches Unreal at several universities in south Florida. An indie game developer to the core making the best out of this interesting and evolving industry.

Miguel’s talk will take you through the workflow of the Unreal 3 engine.

Visit the company website at: Nuclei3d

Emanuel “Emey” Druckmann is a technical artist with broad experience ranging from film to video games.

Emey’s film experience includes working at the likes of Weta, Disney and Framestore doing pipeline design, rigging, dynamics, scripting and some animation. Emey is credited with Creature Technical Director for 2005’s “King Kong,” Character Rigger for Disney’s “The Wild,” and Senior Technical Director for, “The Tale of Despereaux”.

Emey also has experience as a Technical artist on several blockbuster video games. He is co-creator of an auto rigging tool with custom versions built for THQ and Microsoft called FinalRig and is currently working at the cinematic department of a top video-game company.

Emey’s workshop will cover how to analyze a model and plan a rig.
This will include:
-Discussion on how biomechanics affect model proportions and animation.
-Explore how to evolve basic rigging methods into complex limbs.
-Demostrare how to avoid common mistakes and minimize rig issues.

View Emey’s List of Credits

Joshua Noble is an environment artist at Insomniac Games. Currently Josh is working on Resistance 3, the upcoming sequel to the Playstation 3 exclusive Resistance and Resistance 2. Josh has a wonderful ability to create believable environments that have a history and tell a story while being fantastic and colorful.

Josh has an impressive list of blockbuster credits under his belt including Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30, Stuntman: Ignition, Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time, and currently Resistance 3. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Louisiana Lafayette and a graduate of the Masters program at Guildhall @ SMU. After graduating from Guildhall @ SMU, Josh immediately began work at Terminal Reality. Josh’s Master workshop will focus on environment design for Games. Josh will share his experience and workflow when it comes to modeling detail expansive environments for blockbuster games such as resistance 3.

View Insomniac’s Site

Character Animation Master Class

Featuring Ludovic Bouancheau

Ludovic Bouancheau is an Animator at Dreamworks Animation studios. Recruited by Dreamworks directly after his graduation from the prestigious French Animation School Les Gobelins in Paris, Ludovic trained and supervised animators in India where Dreamworks had just opened a new studio. After animating on Madagascar 2 at PDI Dreamworks, he worked as an Animation Supervisor in India on two TV specials , Merry Madagascar and Scared Shrekless. He came back last year at Dreamworks Animation in Los Angeles, where he animated on Megamind and is now part of the animation team of the main character of Puss In Boots, a new feature film that will be released by the end of the year.
His Master Class will focus on animating believable characters for a feature animation shot. He will take you through the full process of a production shot from its staging to its finalization. Ludovic will provide students with rigs/scene files to use during the class. This class will be a two part class held on Sat and Sun.  This is a Class you don’t want to miss.  Register today seating is limited.

See more about Ludovic here!

Character Modeling/Texturing Master Class

Featuring  Peter Zoppi

Peter Zoppi is a Senior Character Artist at Treyarch/Activision. Most recently, Peter worked on Call of Duty: Black Ops, which holds the record for largest entertainment launch in history. Peter’s character models reflect a great level of believability while maintaining a unique feel that gives each character its own personality.
Peter has a long list of credits in both film and video games including Silent Hill the movie, Underworld Evolution, The Golden Compass, James Bond: Quantum of Solace the game, and Call of Duty Black Ops. He is a graduate of Trinity College with a B.A. in Studio Art. His Master Class Peter will provide students with a truly hands on approach to how he goes about creating his character for triple A blockbuster games.

See more about Peter here!

Environment Modeling & Texturing Master Class

Featuring Josh Noble

Josh has an impressive list of blockbuster credits under his belt including Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30, Stuntman: Ignition, Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time, and currently Resistance 3. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Louisiana Lafayette and a graduate of the Masters program at Guildhall @ SMU. After graduating from Guildhall @ SMU, Josh immediately began work at Terminal Reality. Josh’s Master workshop will focus on environment design for Games. Josh will share his experience and workflow when it comes to modeling detail expansive environments for blockbuster games such as resistance 3.

Josh’s Master class will be conducted in a classroom environment. This class will incorporate different tools and techniques Josh uses on a day to day basis to creating complex environments. This will include the use of zbrush for creating alpha maps that will be propagated through a scene for use in normal map generation as well optimization steps involved in creating realistic real-time environments. As a student you will be provided with scene files that josh has put together to further help communicate his process. This class will be a two class on both sat and Sunday. This class is for students who want to pursue a career in games as an environment artist and has a good knowledge of modeling and texturing.

Eric Ryan is a concept artist with over 7 years experience in both the film and video game industry. Using solid art technique and a strong knowledge of creature anatomy, Eric creates images that are at the same time fantastic and believable.

Beginning his studies at the University of Berkley in Molecular and Cell Biology, Eric moved to the Art Institute of California to study Media Arts and Animation in 2001. A short two years later, Eric started work as a 3d and Concept Artist for Liquid Entertainment in Pasadena California working his way up to Associate Art Director. Eric has offered his talents as an instructor of Character Design at Gnomon School of Visual Effects, Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Art and the Art Institute of California.Presently, Eric works as a Senior Concept Artist at Sony Computer Entertainment of America.

Eric’s workshop will take you step by step through the creation of amazing yet believable creatures and characters.