Art & Animation Summit 2021 - devcom Developer Conference

Art & Animation Summit 2021Viola Tensil2022-10-25T13:54:29+02:00

Art & Animation Summit

Dec 14 & 15, 2021 (online)

Creating the look, style and imagery of digital games.

Join us at the devcom Art & Animation Summit on December 14 & 15, 2021!

For our next summit, we will create a 2-day program packed with talks, panels, fireside chats, and workshops.

Renowned international games industry experts and artists will be sharing insights into their work and their approach to topics like 2D and 3D animation, character design, environment building, UI, visual effects and more.

A game’s visuals are without a doubt one of the most important aspects – from gorgeous pixel art to photorealistic imagery, lighting, stunning VFX, and fluid animations.

During this 2-day summit, renowned artists from all around the globe will present their works to the devcom audience, share insights into their artistic work processes, and dissect the individual steps from first concepts to final products.

Attend numerous talks and panels, participate in Q&A and dedicated portfolio review sessions, be a part of our roundtables and exchange and discuss ideas with fellow artists from all around the world, or even exhibit your own artworks in our online gallery and – with a bit of luck – win some fantastic prizes.

Xsolla is excited to be a Platinum Sponsor at the devcom Art & Animation Summit on December 14 & 15.

We admire the creative talent that brings your games to life visually and partnerships that bring commerce to their hard work. Visit our virtual booth and learn how to accelerate your video game growth globally.

Speakers & Sessions

++ Click on the speakers’ pictures to see their bios & sessions. ++

Dickson Agyei Jnr.
Gridlogos.com

Jonathan Bradley
Toast VR

Fiona Cherbak
Xbox Games Studios

Thomasy Chesny
Kinetix

Nikola Damjanov
Nordeus

Christian DeAnda
SuperAlloy Interactive

Andreas Edesberg
Sloyd

Rodrigo Etcheto
Moonray PBC

Dan Fessler
Manticore Games Inc.

Medos Gashi
Kolibri Games

Mitch Gonzalez
The Third Floor

Sebastián González Majó
Pomelo Games

Eric Jacobus
SuperAlloy Interactive

Mark Johnson
SuperAlloy Interactive

Mike Jungbluth
BioWare

Katherine Junginger
Kolibri Games

Nikita Kayal
Improvive

Elias Kremer
kaleidoscube

Halldór S. Kristjansson
Myrkur Games

Avi Latner
Sloyd

Richmond Lee
Bit Egg

Zach Lowery
Epic Games

Anna Mimik
2FOR2

Oluwatosin Ogunyebi
Africacomicade

David Olamide
Dimension 11 Games

Jari Pauna
Supremacy Games

Vladimir Petkovic
Adobe 3D&I

Unna Pussayapaiboon
Niantic

Jenna Ruth
Insomniac Games

Jalil Sadool
Steamroller Studios

Klaus Scherwinski
Freelance Storyboard Artist

Stefanie Schmiedel
Kolibri Games

Dominik Schön
kaleidoscube

Thomas Shiva
Digital Realm Entertainment

Natasha Skult
MiTale Ltd.

Chris Solarski
SOLARSKI Studio

Tasha Sounart
Pixar Animation Studios

Eric Staub
MESO

Viktoria Steshina
80 Level

Kirill Tokarev
80 Level

Zac Swartout
SuperAlloy Interactive

Vera Velichko
OWL Studio

Portfolio Sessions: Get your Art reviewed!

We always love to support emerging talents, and especially as an artist, it’s vital to receive feedback and evaluation. The Portfolio Sessions at the devcom Art & Animation Summit are your unique chance to get expert reviews of your artworks and designs!

Stefanie Schmiedel
Lead Game Artist at Kolibri Games

Stefanie started as a traditional animator in the movie industry about 20 years ago. Since then she has moved careers several times to go with the ever evolving creative industry. Stefanie worked in traditional and digital 2D animation, moving to 3D character animation and VFX animation. As well as illustrating children’s books and now working as a Lead Artist at Kolibri Games.

Tue, Dec 14, 2:30 – 3:30 pm (CET)

Natasha Skult
CEO & Creative Director at MiTale Ltd.

MiTale is a game development company focusing on narrative-driven experiences in mixed reality and gamification. Natasha is also a Board Member of IGDA.org and Chairperson of IGDA Finland, and one of the founders and elected Chairperson of The Hive – Turku Game Hub. She is active in academic research and teaches courses in game design and game (digital) art production at University of Turku.

Wed, Dec 15, 2:30 – 3:30 pm (CET)

Vera Velichko
CEO at OWL Studio

Vera is a professional artist, and has been drawing for 27 years, last 10 of them in the game industry, and since 2013 as a lead artist. In 2015, she founded OWL Studio, an art outsource company working with major Russian and European game dev companies. In 2016, she started an online school for artists, running weekly art podcasts and life drawing sessions, and regularly participates in educational programs as a lector.

Wed, Dec 15, 3:30 – 4:30 pm (CET)

How to access:
A Content Pass +, All Access Pass or Recruitment Pass is required for the devcom Portfolio Sessions.
➡️ Go to Ticket Shop

Please note:
After you have registered via our online platform PINE, please reach out to the speaker beforehand with a link or your portfolio attached!

Twitch Live Show

Streaming live from the devcom studio, our daily Twitch shows will complement the summit program with insightful interviews, live drawings, tutorials and fun interactions with the devcom community.

Join us on December 14 & 15, starting at 12 pm (CET)!

devcom TWITCH CHANNEL

Be a part of our Art & Animation artist gallery on Facebook!

How it works:

Send us your artwork & details
Get your followers to vote for your artwork before December 15, 2021

The TOP 3 artworks with the most likes can win a full conference pass for devcom Developer Conference 2022 and devcom Merchandise Store vouchers*!

*Prizes:
1st place: devcom Developer Conference pass for 2022 + devcom Merchandise Store item of choice
2nd + 3rd place: devcom Merchandise Store item of choice

Instagram Artist Takeover

In the wake of the devcom Art & Animation summit, we proudly present a couple of valuable Instagram takeovers!
Each artist will publish images and reels on our devcom Instagram account for 2 days to learn, ask questions, get inspired, laugh and create with them!

#devcomAAtakeover2021

Rick Hoppmann

@tinymoss

Follow on Instagram

Anna Mimik

@anna_mimik

Follow on Instagram

Sebastián González Majó

@stianest

Follow on Instagram

80 Level is pleased to be a Partner at the devcom Art & Animation Summit on December 14-15, 2021.

The 80 Level Talent platform helps creative job seekers worldwide find their dream job. Visit our virtual booth to learn how to take your creative career to the next level.

Be a Partner of the Art & Animation Summit

Promote and showcase your services, tools and technologies to the audience

Use your virtual booth to present what you and your company have to offer.

Increase your visibility in the games industry

In our sponsoring packages we include visibility on our website, social media channels, newsletters, Twitch program and in the PINE event app.

Engage with an experienced crowd of games industry representatives

60% of our anticipated attendees are working Senior / Lead positions, with significant experience in their fields.

Stay in touch with the game dev community

Numerous networking opportunities are available throughout the devcom Art & Animation Summit.

Find and recruit new talent

devcom Art & Animation Summit can help you to present yourself to new talents for your company.
Be it newcomers or veterans with a creative focus, find them within our attendees.

We offer various ways for you to become a sponsor, exhibitor or partner and meet your target audience at the devcom Art & Animation Summit, from give-aways to digital advertisements or even special sessions.

We’re looking forward to hearing from you!

Roufina Guenkova
(they/them)
Head of Sales
roufina@devcom.global

Astrid Gooding
(she/her)
Sales Manager DACH
astrid@devcom.global

DOWNLOAD SALES BROCHURE

Our Partners

Main Summit Partners

Media & Event Partners

devcom streams are supported by

FROM STORYBOARD TO PIXELS: Animation in games and African Creators

In this panel, we will discuss the role of animation as a key stage and crucial skill for African creators in 2D and 3D animated games and animated films.

Speakers:

Thomas ShivaFounder & CEO at Digital Realm Entertainment / President at Enter Africa Org Rwanda

Natively Rwandese, Founder and CEO of Digital Realm Entertainment Inc. / Co-founder of GIT (Geniuses In Technology), a Tech company for IT Experts, Developers and businessmen. Currently pioneering a start of one of the very first African fully-fledged game development studio in Kigali, Thomas is also the leader and the representer of Enter Africa in Rwanda a once a Gamification project that succeeded in creating the first African games throughout 15 African countries with one vision and recently a rising multinational organization with an expanding community behind it. Thomas is an IT & Tech expert, Digital artist, Game developer, Urbanist. After having graduated from University with a B.Sc. in Computer Science and Economics. Thomas took other certification professional courses in game design, content creation, art, project management and worked for different developer companies for four years, tech reviewing and testing, game testing. As a student, Thomas was an online digital artist freelancer in game development (3d game assets modeling, animation), visualization, content creation, departments between 2013 and 2015. From 2015 to 2017 Thomas worked as an IT expert for hire, pro gamer at Major League Gaming (MLG). From 2018 to present Thomas Worked with the Goethe Institute on the Enter Africa Game project as a leader and presenter of a team of local developers, writers, thinkers, artists, designers, working together developing a location based game about the Past-Present-Future of the city of Kigali, also pioneering the rise of the game industry currently still in its infancy in the region.

David OlamideCTO & Lead Gameplay Engineer at Dimension 11 Games

David Olamide is a self-taught indie game developer from Nigeria with 4 years of experience in the Game Development Industry. He started his Game Development journey in his first year at the university when he accidentally stumbled upon the Unity game engine. David has since then been making games. He started an indie studio named “Dimension11 Game Studio” in Nigeria last year December with some fellow Nigerian game developers to promote African stories through games. They are currently working on their first title “Legends of Orisha” which is scheduled to launch next year. He is a game development enthusiast and also works remotely with an indie game studio in Germany: Spheriearth Studio, a studio committed to making environmental games. David’s passion for creating games has always been on the increase since he started. He loves game dev communities. David’s ambition is to bring the African Games Industry to the limelight.

Dickson Agyei Jnr.Founder & Game Developer at Gridlogos.com

An IT enthusiast, a student engineer, a full-stack web developer, a game developer with extensive experience and good knowledge in computer programming. Always open to learning new technologies.

Oluwatosin OgunyebiCo-Founder of Africacomicade

Oluwatosin is a game developer with a knack for the extended reality spectrum. He believes games would have a great impact across Africa in years to come and he is currently working on various projects to help this dream become a reality. He is also a cofounder for Africacomicade: A platform for African digital creatives in the Games, Animation, comics, and XR industry, showcasing their works and connecting them to opportunities for learning, collaboration, and funding.

Creative Talents Hiring: A Recruiter's Perspective

In this 80 Level session, our host Viktoria Steshina will talk with recruiters and HR managers about recruitment trends in game development. They'll also share tips & tricks on how to get your portfolio noticed by hiring managers.

Topics that will be covered:

What hiring trends can be observed in gamedev
Portfolio tips & tricks
Portfolio review session
How to retain staff
How to join Microsoft, Moonray PBC, TOAST, or Myrkur Games

Speakers:

Viktoria SteshinaMarketing Manager at 80 Level

Viktoria is a Senior Marketing Manager at 80 Level. She manages the marketing side of the premium job-matching platform at 80 Level, creating and leading the HR Brand of 80 Level and of hiring partners. Viktoria works closely with artists, designers, and animators, conducting surveys about preferred career opportunities, tips&tricks to be hired, etc. One of the current and innovative workflows Viktoria is managing as well is the Revenue-sharing model (next-level compensation model for development and creative teams for the games they help to build).

Fiona CherbakTalent Acquisition Lead at Xbox Games Studios

As part of the Talent Acquisition team for Xbox Game Studios, Fiona supports hiring initiatives across 1st-party studios. Fiona was previously Talent Acquisition Lead, Worldwide Studios for Sony Interactive Entertainment. Fiona is the former chairperson of IGDA Women in Games SIG, co-founder of Women in Games International (11 chapters globally), co-creator of GameMentorOnline, partnership advisor for the European Women in Games Conference and Women in Games Jobs U.K. Fiona speaks regularly at college campuses and industry events, including USC Games, MIT, SCAD, PAX, GDC, GDC Europe, and GDC’s Game Career Seminar series, plus has served as an advisory board member and speaker for SXSW Interactive, AIGA, and SIGGRAPH. As a member of the indie games community, Fiona is co-founder and prior executive producer of the Boston Festival of Indie Games, now in its 10th year, and prior advisor to national indie game events IndieCade and Fantastic Arcade. Fiona was part of a “women in games” initiative developed under Obama’s U.S. White House in 2015. She was previously a U.S. advisor on behalf of BAFTA Games in 2018-2019, supporting a debut diversity and inclusivity campaign.

Jonathan BradleyLead Artist at Toast VR

Professional 3D Visualiser based in Melbourne with over 8 years of experience working on projects ranged from architectural & civil engineering designs to TVC's, cartoon shows, and mobile phone games.
Through working on these diverse projects I have developed an advanced generalist skill set that allows me to produce content and problem solve tasks across the production pipeline.

Halldór S. KristjanssonCEO & Game Director at Myrkur Games

Rodrigo EtchetoFounder and CEO at Moonray PBC

Creative Talents Hiring: A Recruiter's Perspective

Topics that will be covered:

What hiring trends can be observed in gamedev
Portfolio tips & tricks
Portfolio review session
How to retain staff
How to join Microsoft, Moonray PBC, TOAST, or Myrkur Games

Speakers:

Viktoria SteshinaMarketing Manager at 80 Level

Fiona CherbakTalent Acquisition Lead at Xbox Games Studios

Jonathan BradleyLead Artist at Toast VR

Halldór S. KristjanssonCEO & Game Director at Myrkur Games

Rodrigo EtchetoFounder and CEO at Moonray PBC

Animating with no Skills – AI Web-based 3D Motion Capture Workflow

How to easily animate biped characters for your games and cinematics, using AI Web-based 3D Motion Capture technology, Kinetix. Learn simple motion capture, animation retargeting and cleaning workflows within Maya and Unreal. Whether you are an independent game developer, 3d animator, motion graphic artist, layout artist, anyone who needs to create 3d animations and seeks options to accelerate this process or iterate around it to get the perfect results. From capturing a performance to getting 3d animation out of it in no time, no matter the software you are using.

QA and localization are often forgotten in long-term planning. However, this couple can really set you back month on your timeline. Let’s not waste time and avoid localization problems at the stage of initial development. QA problems are more challenging to avoid, but we can be prepared for what to expect.

Speaker:

Thomas ChesnyLead Technical Animator at Kinetix

Layout, Rotoanimation and Matchmove expert with solid experience in camera and body tracking. I worked for mid to large VFX studios in Canada for nearly 10 years. Very flexible and solution oriented, I am now focusing on developping a more accessible way to produce 3d animation, thanks to AI, with my team at Kinetix.

Houdini - Learn Work Teach Repeat

In this session, Nikola will guide us through several personal and commercial projects that showcase how Houdini can empower a generalist one-man army to tackle self-improvement, large scale projects and giving back.

This session will be streamed live on Twitch: Wed, Dec 15 - 12:00 - 12:45 pm (CET) https://www.twitch.tv/devcom_global

Speaker:

Nikola DamjanovLead Game Artist at Nordeus

Nikola is a Generalist 3D Artist with over fifteen years of diverse experience. Working for the past 10 years at Nordeus, Nikola has been actively improving his artistic skills, exploring new tools and adopting them as early as possible.
He has advanced through the company and is currently channeling his passion as a lead artist of a small RnD department by day, and as a procedural tinkerer at night. Nikola cherishes the big picture and looks to help shape it in every way he can, getting involved in hiring, interviewing, mentoring and overall maintenance of the company culture.
Nikola invests a lot of time in his personal projects and collaborations with companies like Substance, SideFX, Adobe, nVidia etc.

Motion Capture Pipelines for Indies (and AAA)

Join the team from SuperAlloy who's worked on AAA titles like "God of War", "Destiny 2", and indies like "Midnight Fight Express" as they discuss how to stand up a motion capture pipeline for your project. We get asked questions all the time like how do mocap pipelines work? What options are out there? Do I need a million dollars to make this work or just a few thousand? Do I actually need motion capture to assist my animation teams? And once I have all the gear - then what? Come find out those answers and more as we discuss how to tackle projects that scale from solo devs to AAA.

Speakers:

Eric JacobusHead of Studio at SuperAlloy Interactive

Eric Jacobus is a stuntman, action designer, and Head of Studio at the Las Vegas-based SuperAlloy Interactive studio. Preferring to answer to the title "mad scientist," Eric has helped design and motion capture some of the most hard-hitting action games in the business such as "God of War", "Mortal Kombat 11", "Demon's Souls", "Destiny 2", "Godfall", "Midnight Fight Express", and a bunch of others that he'd love to promote but would be sued for mentioning.
Driven by his philosophy of "Make content, or you don't exist", Eric and his team have also developed in-house action films with the latest technology, creating action in a new way and driving eyes to SuperAlloy's industry services. Eric believes that technology will drastically change the filmmaking process and rekindle genres like action comedy. Because, especially these days, everyone needs to be able to laugh a bit.

Christian DeAndaProduction Supervisor at SuperAlloy Interactive

Mark JohnsonStudio Manager at SuperAlloy Interactive

Zac SwartoutCo-Founder at SuperAlloy Interactive

Zac is a Co-Founder of SuperAlloy and its Head of Business Development. With a 20 year business background, he has helped grow organizations in health care, finance, and tech. A life long nerd, Zac has always loved games and been fascinated with the people who make them. He sees games as windows into the soul of both fans and creators. Through SuperAlloy he’s building a platform to connect world class stunt talent with game creatives to unlock the potential of action as story.

How procedural Generation and Machine Learning will shape Games and 3D in the Future

Are you ready for a future of creative machines? Automation technology, particularly procedural generation and machine learning generation, is changing how art and animation are done. In this talk, we'll review different types of automation technology, see what has changed in recent years and what's about to change in the future. The talk will be delivered by the product team at Sloyd.ai, a promising startup aiming at making 3D creation easier through automation.

Speakers:

Avi LatnerCo-Founder of Sloyd

Co-Founder of Solyd, a start-up for quick 3D generation and styling for game development. A product person with experience scaling up entertainment and media startups. Background in engineering from BGU and MIT and past experience as VP product and design studio manager. Passionate about creator communities, data and generative machine learning.

Andreas EdesbergCo-Founder of Sloyd

Co-Founder at Sloyd and user-centric business guy with Big 4 consultancy experience. Building digital products, and having fun doing it. An avid games (Btw: he's a musician and podcast host, too.)

Creative Talents Hiring: A Recruiter's Perspective

Topics that will be covered:

What hiring trends can be observed in gamedev
Portfolio tips & tricks
Portfolio review session
How to retain staff
How to join Microsoft, Moonray PBC, TOAST, or Myrkur Games

Speakers:

Viktoria SteshinaMarketing Manager at 80 Level

Fiona CherbakTalent Acquisition Lead at Xbox Games Studios

Jonathan BradleyLead Artist at Toast VR

Halldór S. KristjanssonCEO & Game Director at Myrkur Games

Rodrigo EtchetoFounder and CEO at Moonray PBC

Art Directing the Metaverse - Deadmau5 Oberhasli Concert Post-mortem

In this talk, Dan will discuss the opportunities and challenges around creating art for the metaverse. He will then walk the audience through some of the things he learned when creating the world for the famous EDM artist Deadmau5’s Oberhasli Concert - an interactive concert series and social hub in Core.

Speaker:

Dan FesslerChief Visual Officer at Manticore Games Inc.

Dan Fessler is the Chief Visual Officer of Manticore Games, the developer of Core, a platform for making real-time multiplayer games and experiences for the Metaverse.
Before Manticore, Dan was Art Director at A Bit Lucky, a social games company acquired by Zynga in 2012 where he worked primarily on VR and other R&D projects.
Dan's background is as a pixel artist, having started his career in the pre-iphone era of mobile gaming and worked on various indie games including as the lead environment artist on Chasm.

The Design Evolution of Idle Miner Tycoon

We want to showcase the evolution of the art of Idle Miner Tycoon. We will highlight how our art style was developed five years ago, how it has changed and grown over the past years, and how we adapt other things (like characters and LiveOps events) to our now signature look of the Idle Miner Universe.

Speakers:

Katherine JungingerSenior 2D Artist at Kolibri Games

An Artist from the Philippines who graduated with a degree in BS Animation. Has worked in a range of jobs from animator to freelance artist, with a specialization in characters, before coming to Germany and making her way into the games industry, applying all her previous skills to the range of tasks needed in creating games and constantly learning new skills still.

Medos GashiHead of Art at Kolibri Games

I studied communication design, which is a very broad field. Worked on typography / classic design / illustration / animation and more: These points also included a lot of theoretical topics that go hand in hand, such as photo/Art and film history as well as psychology for designers and other topics. After that, I worked for a long time at Gameforge, starting as a junior in the art team and later as a senior artist in the mobile game team, where I was able to learn a lot about games. At Kolibri Games, I started as the first lead back in the days, where I had a small, young, dedicated team and I'm currently Head of Art for the IMT team, but also for the many artists we have in the MVP teams!

How Hollywood Cinematography is employed to support Games Cinematic Visualization

This presentation takes a deep dive into how Hollywood cinematography is employed to support games cinematic visualization with a case study from a high profile and highly regarded game, "Apex Legends". "Apex Legends" delivered the new back story cinematic "Fight Night", which was fully visualized by The Third Floor. This cinematic later went on to reach the #1 trending spot on Youtube in the US. This in-depth presentation will be delivered by one of The Third Floor's visualization supervisors, with years of industry experience.

Speaker:

Mitch GonzalezVisualization Supervisor at The Third Floor

Before earning a BFA in Computer Animation at Ringling College of Art and Design, Mitch Gonzalez was “rocketed” into the VFX industry after landing a job as a remote animator on the Wile E.Coyote and Road runner short films during his senior year. In College. Soon after graduating, and with a few Looney Tunes short films under his belt, Mitch relocated to Los Angeles, California. Over a decade later, Mitch is passionately pursuing his work in the visual effects industry at a Supervisory level. Recently, he has been involved with large scale cinematic action sequences in Feature films and game cinematics including Bad Boys For Life and Apex Legends. Before working at The Third Floor, Mitch collaborated on a wealth of mediums and worked with an A-list cast of companies featuring: Apple, Google, 20th Century Fox, Bungie Studios and Warner Bros, among many others.

How do Programs feel when we touch them?

I invite you to try and perceive the software interaction as a sensory experience, in which all our senses want to be present in the dialogue with the intangible part of a computer. Looking through this lens we'll think and explore how can we use our audiovisual and design resources to make the content of such dialogue, an effective and rich experience.

Speaker:

Sebastián González MajóAnimator at Pomelo Games

After studying in the University of Fine Arts in Montevideo, Uruguay, he taught himself animation and worked for several years as a 3d generalist, animating and doing post-production for advertising, documentaries and music videos. Later in 2013 he joined a group of friends to form Pomelo Games, a studio that today, has successfully developed and released 7 titles for Android and iOS. Until this date he continues to try and beautify games at Pomelo, working on animation, VFX, interaction design and user experience.

Motion Capture Pipelines for Indies (and AAA)

Speakers:

Eric JacobusHead of Studio at SuperAlloy Interactive

Christian DeAndaProduction Supervisor at SuperAlloy Interactive

Mark JohnsonStudio Manager at SuperAlloy Interactive

Zac SwartoutCo-Founder at SuperAlloy Interactive

Motion Capture Pipelines for Indies (and AAA)

Speakers:

Eric JacobusHead of Studio at SuperAlloy Interactive

Christian DeAndaProduction Supervisor at SuperAlloy Interactive

Mark JohnsonStudio Manager at SuperAlloy Interactive

Zac SwartoutCo-Founder at SuperAlloy Interactive

Growing Beyond Animation

Art and Animation is great, but sometimes it feels like the challenges or questions you want to solve are beyond the execution of your craft. Join us in this conversation between industry experts talking about what they have learned as they moved beyond animation roles into larger, multi-disciplinary leadership roles.

From kickstarting a game to being CEO of a successful studio, moving from film to games to theme parks, or to becoming head of production on one of the most successful games of all time, we will find out where their background as an artist has influenced them.

Speakers:

Michael JungbluthAnimation Director at BioWare

Mike Jungbluth is an Animation Director at Bioware on "Dragon Age". Some of his previous credits include "Anthem", "Agents of Mayhem", "Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor" and "Call of Duty: Black Ops". Fostering the growth of an inclusive game animation community and advocating for open sharing of industry knowledge are his driving passion. To that end he has created the Animation Exchange and GDC Animation Summit, co-created the AnimState network, has spoken at GDC and various international conferences. You can reach out to him on Twitter: @lightbombmike

Tasha SounartAssociate Creative Director of Theme Parks and Interactive at Pixar Animation Studios

Tasha Sounart started at Pixar Animation Studios in June 1997 as an intern. She soon joined the studio as a full-time animator and worked on "A Bug’s Life", "Toy Story 2", "Monsters, Inc.", "Cars", and Academy Award©-winning "Finding Nemo", as well as the short film "For the Birds", which also took home an Academy Award© for Best Animated Short Film. After nine years with Pixar, Sounart left the studio to pursue work in video gaming and created the game "Costume Quest" at Double Fine Productions. She returned to Pixar in 2011 as part of the marketing creative services team, animating marketing and publicity images for the "Brave", "Monsters University", and "Inside Out" theatrical campaigns. By 2014, Sounart joined Pixar’s theme parks team as an associate creative director. In this position she works closely with Walt Disney Imagineering on the usage of Pixar characters within any of the Disney parks worldwide including animation direction, marketing and merchandise reviews.

Jalil SadoolCEO & Co-Founder at Steamroller Studios

Jalil Sadool is the CEO and Co-Founder of Steamroller Studios with over fifteen years experience working in the film industry as a professional animator. After graduating from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania in 2004, he soon began his animation career at Rhythm and Hues Studios working on "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe". In 2006, Jalil moved to New Zealand to join Weta Digital Ltd, where he spent five years as Senior Animator on "The Water Horse", "Prince Caspian", and James Cameron's "Avatar". In 2009 he was Sequence Lead Animator on Matt Reeves' "Rise of the Planet of the Apes". In 2011, Jalil moved from VFX to Feature Animation and joined DreamWorks Animation, where he worked as Lead Animator on "Rise of the Guardians" and "How to Train Your Dragon 2". Together, with two industry colleagues, Adam Meyer and Keith Lackey, Jalil co-founded Steamroller Studios in central Florida in 2015. Under the banner of their new studio, Jalil worked on multiple high-profile projects including "Rise of the Tomb Raider", "Deus Ex: Mankind Divided", "Dauntless", "Fortnite", "Cyberpunk 2077", and "Horizon Forbidden West". Jalil and his team at Steamroller Studios are currently producing their own animated TV series called "Spice Frontier".

Zach Lowery

Zach Lowery is currently Director of Production at Epic Games on "Fortnite", but before making a shift to Production, Zach worked in the game industry as an Animator for 12 years bringing to life over the top gameplay for the "Saints Row" franchise and "Lawbreakers". Zach was the Creative Director on the very short lived "Radical Heights", and it was there that he realized that helping teams organize, prioritize, and ultimately ship a product was his true passion. Zach has been at Epic, working on "Fortnite", for the past 3 1/2 years in a production role.

The Design Evolution of Idle Miner Tycoon

Speakers:

Katherine JungingerSenior 2D Artist at Kolibri Games

Medos GashiHead of Art at Kolibri Games

Playful Character Animation Techniques using VR

A journey through the process of exploring fun and playful character animation techniques In VR. Going through a series of projects, I would like to talk about using code-generated live capture, playing with time, non-human avatar, and mimicking. This led to interesting configurations like Medusa and magic mirror. A range of movements and animations explored with insights and collaborations from performance artists and dancers.

Speaker:

Nikita KayalGame Designer & Creative Developer at Improvive

I am a VR maker, creative developer and a hyper-generalist. With more than 5 years of working in VR, I love to share and explore social interaction, and bringing the human body and movement in VR.

A Juggler's Tale - A Game restricted by Puppet Strings

We will introduce you to the world of "A Juggler's Tale", an atmospheric sidescroller puzzle game. "A Juggler’s Tale" is all about the relationship between the puppeteer Jack and little marionette Abby. The puppet strings are not only a visual representation of the connection between storyteller and puppet, but also our main game mechanic, creating lots of unique puzzle moments.

We give insights into our development process in Unreal Engine 4. We will show you our approach for creating atmospheric, colorful sceneries that artists can radically change up until the last days of development.

Speakers:

Dominik SchönManaging Director & Game Designer at kaleidoscube

Dominik started developing games when he was still in school. During his studies at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg he founded the development studio kaleidoscube together with his study friends. Together they are working on atmospheric story games like A Juggler's Tale (2021).

Elias KremerTechnical Artist at kaleidoscube

Elias Kremer is a technical artist based in Stuttgart, Germany. After finishing his studies at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg and having already worked in the realtime departments of bigger studios like Goodbye Kansas and Mackevision, he and his study friends founded the game studio kaleidoscube.

Creative Talents Hiring: A Recruiter's Perspective

Topics that will be covered:

What hiring trends can be observed in gamedev
Portfolio tips & tricks
Portfolio review session
How to retain staff
How to join Microsoft, Moonray PBC, TOAST, or Myrkur Games

Speakers:

Viktoria SteshinaMarketing Manager at 80 Level

Fiona CherbakTalent Acquisition Lead at Xbox Games Studios

Jonathan BradleyLead Artist at Toast VR

Halldór S. KristjanssonCEO & Game Director at Myrkur Games

Rodrigo EtchetoFounder and CEO at Moonray PBC

How procedural Generation and Machine Learning will shape Games and 3D in the Future

Speakers:

Avi LatnerCo-Founder of Sloyd

Andreas EdesbergCo-Founder of Sloyd

Co-Founder at Sloyd and user-centric business guy with Big 4 consultancy experience. Building digital products, and having fun doing it. An avid games (Btw: he's a musician and podcast host, too.)

Spine Rigging & Animation: most common Mistakes and how to avoid them

Bit Egg is one of the world’s top Spine animation studios. It’s portfolio of international clients includes some of the biggest names in game development. In this talk, Richmond Lee, Bit Egg’s Co-Founder and CEO, will explain common mistakes made by Spine animators, as well as how to spot and correct them.

This talk is ideal for beginner and intermediate level artists and animators, and will also include useful tips for art directors and advanced Spine users. For those who have never used Spine before, the talk will be a good introduction to the capabilities of the program, and will also include tips applicable to any kind of 2D animation.

Speaker:

Richmond LeeCEO / Art Director at Bit Egg

Richmond Lee is the Co-Founder of Bit Egg, a leading indie game developer and art outsourcer based in Thailand. Richmond originally majored in animation, but has worn many hats in his 14 year long career in games which has spanned several startups and enterprise level companies. His goals are to make great games and to help the Thai game development scene grow in a healthy direction.

Growing Beyond Animation

Speakers:

Michael JungbluthAnimation Director at BioWare

Tasha SounartAssociate Creative Director of Theme Parks and Interactive at Pixar Animation Studios

Jalil SadoolCEO & Co-Founder at Steamroller Studios

Zach Lowery

How to make all your Assets and keep your Sanity

Asset development for a 3D adventure game.

In this session we will cover a complete artistic workflow of a 3D development pipleline. I will share my experience in process organization when working with limited resources.

Prototyping for adventure games. When prototyping it is logical to look into ready assets, however, it isn’t always the case when you are working on an adventure game. Let's decide when it is best to invest time on your own asset creation, rather than money on a ready asset or asset packeage.

Project style can be a tough choice for some artists. Especially when you are a well-rounded professional who can work in many techniques. Many ask themselves: “What to choose, at what time in development should I make this choice, how much time should I spend going back and forth?“ I’ve been through this myself and I believe that my experience will save you both time and artistic struggles.

Social media is a great tool that will help you raise awareness about your project and will provide that necessary feedback in the process. But when should you start your SM channel and how to manage it to get best results for your project? Sometimes the answer is more difficult than “as soon as possible”.

Speaker:

Anna MimikGame Developer at 2FOR2

I am a game developer for a family-based team 2FOR2. After a successful Kickstarter our first adventure game "KAPIA" was released 2021. My role in the project included: Concept development, writing, 2D/3D modeling, marketing, and social media management. My prior 10 years of experience revolved around architectural visualization, game asset development, and educational simulation. I plan to stay in game development professionally and continue making games. This career choice not only intrigues me, but it also challenges me just enough to keep that initial spark of interest in this career.

FROM STORYBOARD TO PIXELS: Animation in games and African Creators

In this panel, we will discuss the role of animation as a key stage and crucial skill for African creators in 2D and 3D animated games and animated films.

Speakers:

Thomas ShivaFounder & CEO at Digital Realm Entertainment / President at Enter Africa Org Rwanda

David OlamideCTO & Lead Gameplay Engineer at Dimension 11 Games

Dickson Agyei Jnr.Founder & Game Developer at Gridlogos.com

An IT enthusiast, a student engineer, a full-stack web developer, a game developer with extensive experience and good knowledge in computer programming. Always open to learning new technologies.

Oluwatosin OgunyebiCo-Founder of Africacomicade

FROM STORYBOARD TO PIXELS: Animation in games and African Creators

In this panel, we will discuss the role of animation as a key stage and crucial skill for African creators in 2D and 3D animated games and animated films.

Speakers:

Thomas ShivaFounder & CEO at Digital Realm Entertainment / President at Enter Africa Org Rwanda

David OlamideCTO & Lead Gameplay Engineer at Dimension 11 Games

Dickson Agyei Jnr.Founder & Game Developer at Gridlogos.com

An IT enthusiast, a student engineer, a full-stack web developer, a game developer with extensive experience and good knowledge in computer programming. Always open to learning new technologies.

Oluwatosin OgunyebiCo-Founder of Africacomicade

NFT - A Myth or Reality?

In this fireside chat we will be discussing the concept of NFTs: what "non-fungible token" is and the technology behind it. Furthermore, how can artists and game creators expand their business opportunities in the NFT market but also what are the challenges ahead one should be aware of. This session will have an open discussion about concrete experiences in working with the NFTs, from creating own IPs to working with big brands.

Speakers:

Natasha SkultCEO & Creative Director at MiTale Ltd.

Natasha Skult is the CEO & Creative Director of MiTale, a game development company from Finland focusing on narrative-driven experiences in mixed reality and gamification. She is an active member of the Finnish and international games industry as Board Member of IGDA.org and Chairperson of IGDA Finland. She is also one of the founders and elected Chairperson of The Hive – Turku Game Hub (game business center in South-West Finland). Besides industry work, she is active in academic research and teaches courses in game design and game (digital) art production at University of Turku.

Jari PaunaCEO and Co-Founder of Supremacy Games

Jari is CEO and Co-Founder of Supremacy Games, as well as Board Member of Finnish Game Developer Studios' Association.

Producing Realistic Portfolio Shots with Substance 3D Stager

In this creative jam session, powered by 80 Level, we’ll go over some tips and tricks in Substance 3D Stager to make your portfolio stand out. First, we’ll borrow from traditional photography practice to learn how to frame the camera and operate different lights in a scene. Then, we’ll explore how to create a simple studio environment where you can stage your 3D model. Finally, you’ll learn how 3D models can be seamlessly composed with a backplate photo, to produce a highly realistic result.

This session will be streamed live on Twitch:
Tue, Dec 14 - 5:45 - 6:45 pm (CET)
https://www.twitch.tv/devcom_global

Speaker:

Vladimir PetkovicCreative Director at Adobe 3D&I

Vladimir Petkovic is a Creative Director at Adobe 3D&I, specializing in end-to-end workflows. He is actively engaged in the product design of Adobe’s 3D tools, teaching and evangelizing 3D technology through art.

Raid Visual Improvement in "Pokémon Go"

"Pokémon Go" is a location-based game that was launched in 2016. In 2017, the game added more battle mechanics to the gym and introduced the raid system where players can battle the raid boss. In 2021, we added more features to the raid and also updated the appearance of the gym to make the raid and the gym experience look more exciting. This visual update also gives the possibility for special events in the future. This talk will go over how we improved the latest visuals for the raid and gym in "Pokémon Go". I’ll walk through the process from start to finish of how the workflow and the iterations look like, as well as how we work with people across disciplines and the IP owner along the way.

Speaker:

Unna PussayapaiboonTechnical Artist at Niantic

I come from a computer engineering background; working as a software engineer in Thailand for 2 years and came to the US in 2017 to pursue my dream of becoming a game developer. My journey starts from a master program of interactive technology in game development specialized in art creation at Southern Methodist University. After graduating, I joined Niantic as a technical artist on Pokemon Go and have worked on many features. I enjoy problem solving ,making art, as well as learning about the process and technique behind creating beautiful games.

Storytelling through VFX: The making of the Reactor sequence in Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales

Big VFX spectacle moments can be a powerful tool in your narrative, but it can be easy to miss out on opportunities to push the emotional storytelling too. How can you maximize your storytelling through VFX?

I’ll show you how on "Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales", our VFX team at Insomniac Games was able to define a clear emotional goal, take that foundation, and ground it to achieve clarity and believability.

To illustrate this process, I’ll be walking you through the development of the finale Reactor sequence in "Miles Morales". My goal is to give you the tools to think about narrative like a VFX artist, so you can harness that power of visual storytelling in your work.

Speaker:

Jenna RuthVFX Artist at Insomniac Games

Los Angeles native Jenna Ruth is a VFX artist at Insomniac Games and has worked in the Games Industry for 5 years. She started her career as an environment artist but quickly fell in love with VFX. She also loves painting and anything horror related.

Growing Beyond Animation

Speakers:

Michael JungbluthAnimation Director at BioWare

Tasha SounartAssociate Creative Director of Theme Parks and Interactive at Pixar Animation Studios

Jalil SadoolCEO & Co-Founder at Steamroller Studios

Zach Lowery

Storyboarding Videogames: Creativity & Career

This is a mega highlight - a clear "MUST NOT MISS"!

This session will be streamed live on Twitch:
Wed, Dec 15 - 5:00 - 6:00 pm (CET)
https://www.twitch.tv/devcom_global

Speaker:

Klaus ScherwinskiFreelance Storyboard Artist

Amsterdam-based Klaus Scherwinski is an expert in the field of story-driven illustrations. After working on IO-Interactive’s HITMAN and the soon to be released Horizon Forbidden West (by Sony’s Guerrilla Games) he’s currently storyboarding Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora for Ubisoft's MASSIVE studio in Sweden.
He likes sharing his creative and professional insights during in-person and online masterclasses and via his instagram channel @storyboardklaus.

Pivoting your career – staying agile as an Artist

I will talk about the reasons why you would want to change your career in the arts. My own personal experience of switching careers multiple times. And how to do it successfully.

Speaker:

Stefanie SchmiedelLead Game Artist at Kolibri Games

Stefanie started as a traditional Animator in the movie industry about 20 years ago. Since then she has moved careers several times to go with the ever evolving creative industry. Stefanie worked in Traditional and digital 2D Animation, moving to 3D character animation and VFX Animation. As well as illustrating children’s books and now working as a Lead Artist at Kolibri Games.

A Juggler's Tale - A Game restricted by Puppet Strings

Speakers:

Dominik SchönManaging Director & Game Designer at kaleidoscube

Elias KremerTechnical Artist at kaleidoscube

FROM STORYBOARD TO PIXELS: Animation in games and African Creators

In this panel, we will discuss the role of animation as a key stage and crucial skill for African creators in 2D and 3D animated games and animated films.

Speakers:

Thomas ShivaFounder & CEO at Digital Realm Entertainment / President at Enter Africa Org Rwanda

David OlamideCTO & Lead Gameplay Engineer at Dimension 11 Games

Dickson Agyei Jnr.Founder & Game Developer at Gridlogos.com

An IT enthusiast, a student engineer, a full-stack web developer, a game developer with extensive experience and good knowledge in computer programming. Always open to learning new technologies.

Oluwatosin OgunyebiCo-Founder of Africacomicade

Natasha Skult will be speaking at 2 sessions during devcom Art & Animation Summit.

Please use the switch below to choose between the sessions.

Session: NFT - A Myth or Reality?

Roundtable: Concept Art

NFT - A Myth or Reality?

Speakers:

Natasha SkultCEO & Creative Director at MiTale Ltd.

Jari PaunaCEO and Co-Founder of Supremacy Games

Jari is CEO and Co-Founder of Supremacy Games, as well as Board Member of Finnish Game Developer Studios' Association.

Concept Art: Tradition, Progression and Practise (Presented by the IGDA Game Art SIG)

At this roundtable, hosted by Natasha Skult and Chris Solarski, game artists from around the globe are invited to come together to explore the artistic heritage, future trends and challenges working in the field of concept art for game development.

Please note:
An All Access Pass or Recruitment Pass is required for this roundtable.
➡️ Go to Ticket Shop

Speakers:

Natasha SkultCEO & Creative Director at MiTale Ltd.

Chris SolarskiArtist-Game Designer and Theorist at Solarski Studio

Chris Solarski started work in video games at Sony Computer Entertainment’s London Studio as a character and environment artist before making a career-defining detour into figurative oil painting. The unusual mix of game art and classical art eventually resulted in Chris authoring Interactive Empathy and Embodiment—a sensory design method that adapts traditional craft to interactive media with the aim of heightening kinaesthetic empathy and embodiment. Chris has also authored two books on game art and storytelling in games that are endorsed by the likes of Assassin’s Creed founding member Stéphane Assadourian, and Cyberpunk 2077 level designer Max Pears. Chris’ work has been described as gaming’s equivalent to Robert McKee’s screenwriting classic, Story (1997), and compared to Joseph Campbell’s universal storytelling structure. Chris has had the pleasure of presenting at the Smithsonian Museum’s landmark The Art of Video Games exhibition, Disney Research, SXSW, Google and FMX, to name a few.

Concept Art: Tradition, Progression and Practise (Presented by the IGDA Game Art SIG)

Please note:
An All Access Pass or Recruitment Pass is required for this roundtable.
➡️ Go to Ticket Shop

Speaker:

Natasha SkultCEO & Creative Director at MiTale Ltd.

Chris SolarskiArtist-Game Designer and Theorist at Solarski Studio

Growing Beyond Animation

Speakers:

Michael JungbluthAnimation Director at BioWare

Tasha SounartAssociate Creative Director of Theme Parks and Interactive at Pixar Animation Studios

Jalil SadoolCEO & Co-Founder at Steamroller Studios

Zach Lowery

WORKSHOP: Sculpting for Concepts

Born in the 70's, Erik started to sculpt when he was 5 and never stopped. Later, photography and illustration were added to this art fanatic's life. Erik has been teaching art for over 20 years.

In his workshop, he will create creature concepts by quickly sculpting shapes and creatures.

Please note: An All Access Pass or Recruitment Pass is required for this workshop. ➡️ Go to Ticket Shop

Speaker:

Eric StaubCreative Director at MESO

Creative Talents Hiring: A Recruiter's Perspective

Topics that will be covered:

What hiring trends can be observed in gamedev
Portfolio tips & tricks
Portfolio review session
How to retain staff
How to join Microsoft, Moonray PBC, TOAST, or Myrkur Games

Speakers:

Viktoria SteshinaMarketing Manager at 80 Level

Fiona CherbakTalent Acquisition Lead at Xbox Games Studios

Jonathan BradleyLead Artist at Toast VR

Halldór S. KristjanssonCEO & Game Director at Myrkur Games

Rodrigo EtchetoFounder and CEO at Moonray PBC

Advice for Your Journey in the Video Games Industry

In this session, Kirill Tokarev talks about important pieces of advice from the 80 Level community that will help you excel and thrive in your video game career.

Speaker:

Kirill TokarevCEO & Editor-in-Chief at 80 Level

Kirill Tokarev has been writing about games for most of his career. Having worked at major publications in Russia and Ukraine, he made a successful transition to an English-speaking audience by helping to create 80 Level - a media publication dedicated to covering game development and technical questions of game art production.

Motion Capture Pipelines for Indies (and AAA)

Speakers:

Eric JacobusHead of Studio at SuperAlloy Interactive

Christian DeAndaProduction Supervisor at SuperAlloy Interactive

Mark JohnsonStudio Manager at SuperAlloy Interactive

Zac SwartoutCo-Founder at SuperAlloy Interactive

How to be a professional Art Performer

In this session, I'd like to highlight the following questions, which are really important for every artist working with clients:

How to connect with the client?
How to understand what they want?
How to read the feedback?
How can we help the client?
When do we have to defend our position and how can we do it correctly?

This information could help you save time, energy and, at the end, build the best communication possible and achieve better results in your career.

Speaker:

Vera VelichkoCEO at OWL Studio

Vera is a professional artist, and has been drawing for 27 years, last 10 of them in the game industry, and since 2013 as a lead artist. In 2015, she founded OWL Studio, an art outsource company working with major Russian and European game development companies. For now, it’s more than 50 artists and 15 projects in development at the same time. In 2016, she started an online school for artists, running weekly art podcasts and life drawing sessions, and regularly participates in several educational programs as a lector.