Gilles Ketting | gilles-ketting.

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2 Firestarter Mag #3 3 Firestarter Mag #3 4 5
Gilles Ketting | gilles-ketting.com
 1 Artillery

2 Creativa

3 CTIAF

4 d2 conferences

5 DAC-FRA 6

21
6 Edge Control
12

7 FUTURO 15
9

8 IAMAG.CO
IAMC

9 Icon Manila

10 IFCC
3

11 Industry Workshops

12 LiK: MeetUp

13 NonStop

14 Nordic Game

15 Pixelatl 19
1

16 Playgrounds
14

17 Promised Land 11
16
17
5 18
8

18 Splash 4
10

19
7
Theme Park
13

20 Trojan Horse Was A Unicorn 20

21 ZBrush Summit
 Artillery: St Petersburg | Russia | 8th–9th of September 2018 artillery-event.com

Creativa: Mexico City | Mexico | 18th–22th of May 2018 creativamexico.com.mx

CTIAF: Cape Town | South Africa | 2nd–4th of March 2018 ctiaf.com

IAMAG.CO

d2 conferences: Vienna | Austria | 24th–25th of August 2018 vienna.d2conferences.com

DAC-FRA: Frankfurt | Germany | 5th–7th of October 2018 dac-fra.com

Edge Control: Toronto | Canada | 25th–26th of August 2018 edgecontrolexpo.com

FUTURO: Varna | Bulgaria | 20th–24th of August 2018 futurovarna.com/en

IAMC: Paris | France | 16th–18th of March 2018 itsartm.ag/iamc-18

IAMAG.CO

Icon Manila: Manila | Philippines | 14th–15th of September 2018 iconmanila.com

IFCC: Zagreb | Croatia | 28th of May–2nd of June 2018 ifcc-croatia.com

Industry Workshops: London | England | 17th–19th of August 2018 industryworkshops.co.uk

LiK: MeetUp: Taipei | Taiwan | 24th–26th of March 2018 likmeetup.com

NonStop: Barcelona | Spain | 10th–12th of May 2018 nonstopbarcelona.com

Nordic Game: Malmö | Sweden | 23rd–25th of May 2018 conf.nordicgame.com

Pixelatl: Cuernavaca | Mexico | 4th–9th of September 2018 elfestival.mx

Playgrounds Blend: Breda and Amsterdam | Netherlands | 9th–11th of April 2018

Playgrounds: The Art Department | Netherlands | 3rd–5th October 2018 playgroundsfestival.nl

Promised Land: Lodz | Poland | 29th of Sep–2nd of Oct 2018 promisedland-artfestival.com/en

Splash: Prague | Czech Republic | 22nd–23rd of September 2018 get-splashed.cz

Theme Park: Kouvola | Finland | November 2018 themeparkfinland.com

Trojan Horse Was A Unicorn: Valletta | Malta | 24th–29th of September 2018 trojan-unicorn.com

For details check out the calendar

at firestartermagazine.com ZBrush Summit: Los Angeles | USA | 27th–30th of September 2018 summit.pixologic.com
Not all dates are set yet. Alphabetically sorted.
As a digital artist, it can be tempting to hide behind the computer, avoiding contact
with the outside world. This is what I did for the majority of the time that I have been
drawing digitally. That's not to say that I wasn't part of an artist community - I did in-
teract with other artists, finding inspiration and learning from those around me. How-
ever, for me, this all took place on the internet: forums, drawing boards, Deviantart,
and social media all formed an artist community that I loved being a part of, but which
sometimes felt so very far away.

I didn't realize that something was missing until, suddenly, things began to change. I
started getting invitations to events, and was asked to give workshops and talks. I was
terrified - I was someone who liked to hide behind my computer, not go out into the
world and meet new artists. I have really bad stage fright, as well, so the idea of getting
up in front of people and telling them about myself felt like a living nightmare. At the
same time, saying ‘no' to these invitations felt like it would be a missed opportunity. I
knew that the time had come for me to conquer this fear. I had the feeling that it would
be worth it in the end. Now, a bit less than two years later, I can say with confidence that
it was absolutely worthwhile to go out into the world, and meet artists face-to-face. I've
given workshops, talked at events, spoken to students at various schools, and met so
many new artists in person. This has given a totally new dimension to my experience as
an artist. The main thing I've learned is that every artist has a completely different rela-
tionship with their own art and creativity. Some artists are confident and determined to
pursue very specific goals, while other artists are forever exploring and searching for
their voice. In my workshops, I've learned that the best way to help and support artists
is to sit down and talk with them about how they see their own art, and what their goals
are. This setting creates the most inspiring conversations about the different dreams
artists have, and the paths they take to achieve them.

The main lesson I have taken out of my experiences is that it's essential for an artist com-
munity to exist, whether online or in real life. Many artists are in a unique position in life:
they are able to craft their own style, find their own path, and make their own decisions -
they have a lot of freedom. This can be daunting and terrifying! An artist community
brings structure, inspiration, ideas and support to people who are participating in a very
competitive industry. For me, it has given me a new purpose and drive in my career - to
connect with artists, share knowledge, and understand what pushes us forward. Initia-
tives such as Playgrounds Festival, where I met Spiridon, who created this magazine, and
of course, Firestarter itself, are incredibly valuable additions to this community.

To all the artists who, like I once did, hide behind their computers and avoid real-life
meetings with fellow artists: I hope you will also come into contact with an inspiring
event and meet your colleagues and heroes face-to-face. I can assure you that it's
absolutely worth it!

Lois van Baarle, otherwise known by her nickname Loish,

is a digital artist and animator. She has been working as
a freelance artist and animator since 2009, creating con-
cept art and character designs for animations, games
and toy designs. She has designed characters for LEGO,
Guerrilla Games, Amazon and Coca-Cola. She is very
active on social media, and tries to share her knowledge
about digital art and drawing through workshops, tuto-
rials, live demonstrations, lectures and books.

Instagram: @loisvb | facebook: @loish.fans | twitter: @loishh | contact: info@loish.net

1
 1 Intro by Lois 'Loish' van Baarle
4 #LetsTalkArt: Gilles Ketting
12 Feature: Cristian Chihaia/Firecast
16 Interview: Geoffrey Ernault
24 Lecture: Sebastien Hue
30 Interview: Iris Compiet
36 Interview: Johnson Ting
44 Feature: Simone Mändl/Spelkollektivet
50 Interview: Stéphane Wootha Richard
56 Lecture: Dan LuVisi
62 Lecture: Mark Molnar

20 % 70
74
Interview: College of X
Lecture: Almu Redondo
off
Marketplace 80
86
Lecture: Steven Cormann
Interview: Stuart Aitken and Sava Zivkovic

96 Artillery
100 CTIAF
Boost your creativity and get 20 % off on 104 Creativa
software licenses on marketplace.wacom.com* 108 d2 Conferences
112 DAC-FRA
Wacom Marketplace offers a great collection of software 116 Edge Control
and services. All in one place. 120 FUTURO
124 IAMC
* Valid for all products from March 1st until December 31st 2018. Go to marketplace.wacom.com 128 Icon Manila
and enter the voucher code from below in the check-out process. This voucher cannot be used
132 IFCC
retroactively, combined with other discounts or special offers or paid out in cash. Only valid for
the purchase of one product. 136 Industry Workshops London
140 LiK: MeetUP
144 Non Stop
148 Nordic Game
152 Pixelatl: El Festival
Firestarter-2018 156 Playgrounds
160 Promised Land
164 Splash
168 Theme Park
172 Trojan Horse Was A Unicorn
176 ZBrush Summit

180 Firestarter Team
184 Imprint & Special Thanks

2 Firestarter Mag #3 3

#LETSTALKART
GILLES KETTING
BY DIEGO GISBERT LLORENS
Well, well, we meet again, sir! And as
invited cover artist, no less. I hope you
are ready to write about yourself a bit,
because I am going to shoot you a few
questions about things like the beauty
of the Netherlands and the subtleties of
Kurosawa's filmmaking.
For those of you who don't know Gilles,
he comes originally from the Nether-
lands, and has been working for the
game industry since 2005, for clients
such as Sega, Ubisoft, and Sony; now-
adays he resides in Brighton, UK, paint-
ing, composing music and watching sa-
murai films.
Where did we meet last time? Was it at
Promised Land, or IFCC?
Thanks for having me! We met at the
wonderful 2017 edition of IFCC. I believe
we were introduced while we had lunch
at the small vegan restaurant in the cen-
ter of Zagreb. This is probably not the first
4 Firestarter Mag #3
time you've heard this, but it's what makes
going to these events so cool – you get
to hang out with amazing artists whose
work you've admired and followed for a
while. So, it was a pleasure to meet you.
From the festivals you visited last year,
which one would you most definitely vis-
it again in 2018? Also, any new ones you
would like to take a look at, and why?
Last year I was fortunate enough to at-
tend IFCC, Industry Workshops, and Play-
grounds Festival. I've been going to In-
dustry Workshops since the first year and
most of the regular attendees and orga-
nizers I'm honored to now call friends.
Before I went to Industry Workshops,
I'd never been to anything similar and it
blew my mind meeting so many people
that are interested in and actually making
a living out of the same thing I do. I liked
how it also wasn't just focused on con-
cept art alone but also featured motion
graphic artists, VFX artists, matte paint-
gilles-ketting.com
ers and illustrators. I really dig how un-
forced and open it feels; you can walk up
to anyone and have a chat. It also helps
that after each day the drinks are held at
the same venue so you get to bump into
someone you might have missed during
the day. This year was the first time I at-
tended IFCC and I really loved the atmo-
sphere. There was such a great mix of
people from all over the world, so it really
felt like an international festival. I felt real-
ly silly for not having attended it before!
Playgrounds Festival in the Netherlands
was a great closer for a year of amaz-
ing digital art events. I couldn't believe
the amount of people that attended
(1400!!!) but it never felt too crowded or
uninclusive. I think the organization did
an amazing job considering the sheer
number of people there. This year I hope
to attend all three again and maybe even
add a few more to the list if work and my
bank account permit.
#LetsTalkArt
In terms of networking and pushing
your career further, would you say those
events have been of help?
You'd like to think that just with putting
good art out there you'll get enough
work to pay the bills. Unfortunately, this
isn't always enough, especially with all
those hungry artists out there. Every-
body wants to get a slice of the cake. So,
it helps if you meet the people that bake
those cakes. Though I think that most of
my clients come from contacts I've built
up over years of working at game stu-
dios, this year, however, I was asked to
work on a film as a direct result of meet-
ing the art director at an event. Word of
mouth and networking are still the best
way to get work so meeting people in
real life is always a good thing. Here's a
little bit of advice when you're going to
an event with the intention to find clients
or a job. Make sure that if your work is
digital you have your portfolio on a digi-
tal device, like a laptop, tablet or even as
PDF you can email. Print is only worth it
if you do a lot with actual paint, pen and
pencil. Have enough business cards with
you, and including a photo of you and/
or your work on it helps a lot for people
to remember you. I always bring too few
cards which is embarrassing when you
meet the dream client but can't hand
them a card. I've also seen people wear
t-shirts with their own work on it or hand
out little booklets of their portfolio. Those
things work surprisingly well, too.
I CAN NAME MANY PEOPLE THAT
I MET AT EVENTS FOR THE FIRST
TIME AND CALL THEM GENUINE
FRIENDS NOW.
What about the more personal side of
things? Because we all know festivals
are way more than just interesting talks
and well-thought networking; there's a
strong component of just spending time
with nice people.
5
 Totally! For me it's the reason I come
back to these events. The lectures and
talks are great but actually being there
and afterwards being able to say hello is
awesome. Like I said before, I can name
many people that I met at events for the
first time and call them genuine friends
now. I know it sounds totally corny but it's
amazing to find out that someone whose
work you admire and follow turns out to
also be a great person to hang out with
(or the other way around, which might
even be more awesome). Also great are
the random situations you find yourself
in, like having a drink in a bar with some
folks after a day at the event and the qui-
et bar all of a sudden turns into a roar-
ing burlesque show. Or, being trapped
in a bar during a heavy thunderstorm
with some nice people when a lightning
strike blows out the power and every-
one's sketching by candlelight and iP-
ads. Okay, now I made it sound like I only
hang out in the bars...
What made you choose the gaming sec-
tor as your professional field? Did you
ever consider other options?
You know, it was kind of by accident.
There was a time I wanted to become a
lifeguard in California. I also wanted to
solve crime from a van together with a
team of friends, and I really really, want-
ed to be Michael Jackson. Luckily, I was
also really into comic books, films and
games when I grew up. When I was 18, I
6 Firestarter Mag #3
even managed to blag myself a meeting
with an art director at DC Comics in New
York. She fortunately told me to go to art
school first and when I did, I found that
there was more that I could do with my
drawings and paintings. I first had a go at
an animation and illustration course. By
that time, I had found an online commu-
nity of game mod makers, just a bunch
people from all over the world that spent
their free time building upon existing
games. I did some work for a mod for
Half-Life 2 and someone in the commu-
nity said I should get paid for doing this
kind of work. He passed me the email
address of an art director in Amsterdam
and after a clumsy but successful attempt
at introducing myself to him, I was asked
to come round for an interview. They
hired me after a three months internship.
The rest is (a rather boring) history.
Could you point out any moment in time
or a particular project as your "Eureka!"
moment, when you felt finally consoli-
dated as a professional?
It was at a drink and draw in Utrecht, The
Netherlands about twelve years ago. A
friend of mine pointed out that I and a
few others, now that we got paid to do
concept art, could now officially call our-
selves professionals. It made me feel
incredibly cool and chuffed. However, I
think real professionalism is something
I continue to strive for every day and
sometimes it pays off. Like when a client
Images: ©Gilles Ketting
returns to you with more work or my ex-
tra effort made a real difference to some-
one's pitch or project. I sometimes take it
for granted what I do and call it just an-
other desk job. But you know, it's rather
fortunate to share glimpses of how you
imagine things to be for a living.
Also, what was your first project as an art
director? How does it feel to be on top
of the artistic pyramid for a change?
I don't think I can officially say that I've
been an art director yet. Maybe if you
count my personal projects you can say
that I'm an art director. I've worked on
a number of games as an associate art
director which often means you do the
day to day with the team while the art di-
rector is stuck in meetings and high-lev-
el decisions making. The first time I did
that was on an Assassin's Creed game
because the art director had to go home
early each day but the team often had to
stay late. I really enjoyed that and it made
me look more into what it takes to be an
art director.
Do you prefer to have an art directing
position, or to work as a concept artist
with a fair degree of creative freedom?
That's a tough one. What helps me to be
a concept artist also helps me whenev-
er I'm doing art direction; there are a lot
of skills that are transferable and useful.
However, I found it's not all about com-
ing up with an artistic vision and devel-
#LetsTalkArt
oping that. There's a huge degree of
management involved, technical knowl-
edge, and trying to get the best out of
your team. I've worked with art directors
that had the most amazing artistic vision
but struggled to get that across to the
team and motivate them (and the other
way around happens, too). It's a mas-
sive balancing act but it is that challenge
that I find really interesting. The role of
a concept artist often stops after they've
had their concept art signed off. What I
find so exciting about art directing is that
you're an important part of the concept
art process but also of what comes be-
fore and after it.
Speaking of which, what was the process
of creating the wonderful cover piece for
this issue?
I was incredibly shocked and honored
to have been asked to do the cover. It
was one of those moments that after you
hang up the phone, you do a little dance
in the room and want to find someone to
scream the news at. Unfortunately, I was
home alone so I screamed it into a fam-
ily WhatsApp group and I guess they
thought I was talking about doing a mu-
sical cover of a Prodigy song… anyway,
they were delighted for me even though
they had no clue what I was talking about.
As far as the actual process of creating
the cover goes, the timing was a bit tricky
as it was a week or two before the holi-
days when I was asked. I had to squeeze
7

it in between work for clients and visit-
ing friends and family in Holland. What
helped was that Spiridon was adamant
that I should do whatever I wanted to do
as long as it stayed within the theme of
Firestarter Magazine. I ended up going for
one of my comfort zones; I love this idea
of showing an alternate past where may-
be a few things have gone differently from
our own past. So in this piece, religion has
developed into a worship of science, the
universe and our place in it. I wanted to
set the illustration in the late Renaissance
but scientific research and knowledge
have progressed much further ahead.
There are a few Easter eggs in there, and
I would like to hear if anyone spots them.
Having a personal project is the perfect
bubble of creative freedom we artists
need, and you have at least one of your
own, a pretty sexy one. Tell us about
Ashen Falls.
It kind of started as a benchmark, as a way
to measure what I was really capable of
as a concept artist and aspiring art direc-
8 Firestarter Mag #3
tor. I had just gone freelance and thought
it a good way to build up my portfolio. I
had planned to do a series of three, or
so images based on a personal project
from years earlier with the working title:
"My own private Silent Hill". However,
when I sat down to find reference and do
research, I stumbled down a rabbit hole.
I collected all these little bits and pieces
of things I love, find fascinating or terri-
fying. I started to piece together a world
and a story, sketch by sketch and paint-
ing by painting. I found that I wanted to
tell a story that wasn't often told through
the medium of games. Sure, we've seen
a lesbian protagonist before (Gone
Home for instance) and losing a partner
or loved one is also not the first time that
plot's been used to draw a character to a
strange town (Silent Hill series, Resident
Evil, Evil Within  2, etc.). However, I think
that the premise and the character devel-
opment of Ashen Falls will turn out quite
differently from what's been done before
in games (I hope in a good way). The sto-
ry of the game and its protagonist are a
Images: ©Gilles Ketting
facade, however, a metaphor to tell a sto-
ry of the struggles of forming and find-
ing your sexual and gender identity in a
world that doesn't always seem to care or
accept. It's about getting so used to wear-
ing a mask that one day you mistake it as
your true face, and what happens when
you try to peel that mask off. I know, it's
a bit heavy but it's probably why I can't
quite let it go and keep thinking about it.
Likely that's because I'm still able to put a
lot of myself and the experiences of my
friends into it. I'm quietly continuing with
it. I have a folder full of unseen concept
art for it and hope to pick it up full-time
again at some point in the near future.
Any basic tips for people trying to start
their personal IP (intellectual property)?
I don't know. I think that you have to do it
for the right reasons and, although mon-
ey and fame sound like two good ones,
those will not be enough to see it through.
I think you need to be genuinely interest-
ed and invested in it. I've come up with
ideas for games that could probably have
a made a nice bit of money but I never put
the work in because deep inside I didn't
care enough for the world, characters or
stories. What I like to see in other peo-
ple's IPs is a sense of authenticity. For me
the difference between something being
authentic and something being original
is that everyone can be original in a way.
For instance, you can take three sticks,
paint them purple and call them Woo-
boopucks. Sure, that's original but what
would make that authentic in my view is if
I can then see why you did it that way and
why it matters to you that you did that.
It seems to me that some of the biggest
questions one must face when start-
ing a personal project is "is this origi-
nal enough? Does it add anything that
hasn't been said already?". How do you
deal with those, if at all?
Originality is often just a slightly different
approach or view on something that al-
ready exists in one form or another. If you
look at it that way, being original is easy
and maybe not what you should focus
on too much. "Does it add anything that
#LetsTalkArt
hasn't been said already" is good to ask,
but I'd like to think that your interpreta-
tion of something that has been done or
said before is still incredibly valuable and
interesting. But maybe personal projects
don't have to be so original or authentic,
maybe they just need to be something
you enjoy and learn from. A way to ex-
periment with new tools or mediums.
Maybe personal projects are just an out-
let of creativity and the next time some-
one asks you to do something similar for
money, you're better at it.
Speaking about facing obstacles, have
you had any low moments, professional-
ly? Creative blocks, burnouts, dry spells?
Oh, too many. I'm plagued by the impos-
tor syndrome like so many others I know.
There's a lot of unwanted self-reflection
and doubt while I work. It comes in waves
and often towards the end of a painting
or concept I tend to come around and
feel a bit more confident again. Luckily,
it's not the case with everything I do and
I guess it's the classic curse of being an
artist. I think that it's really interesting to
hear how a lot of artists go through the
same thing but deal with it in complete-
ly different ways. For my own happiness,
I noticed that I needed to share less of
my personal work on social media. I was
surprised, for instance, to find that the
number of likes could quite negatively
influence me. I ‘d like to think I'm a very
logical creature but clearly it affected me
more than I liked to admit. Now when I
9
 share something, I do it less as a search
for validation but more in the way of,
"Hi, I liked how this turned out, thought
I would share it with you". I miss the days
of the art forums; I've had some amazing
critique and advice there. It unfortunate-
ly doesn't work like that on social media.
I guess your music is a good refuge. Is
that only a hobby, or have you taken/
would you take it further?
Haha, I've met so many artists and game
developers that consider themselves
failed musicians and had their current
occupation as a second choice. For me,
making music became more important as
painting and drawing changed from be-
ing a hobby into a profession. I went from
sketching every spare minute in the day
to feeling it was work. There's a voice in
my head when I'm sketching or painting
telling me, "You're terrible, do better". I
don't hear that voice while making mu-
sic. Music always stayed a hobby and has
therefore always felt like a form of creative
ies that you do not see in newer films?
Oh, Seven Samurai is probably one of the
best films I've ever seen and by one of my
favourite directors, Akira Kurosawa. His
films feel like you're watching a master
at work who has total control over what
he's showing you. Apart from his techni-
cal brilliance, he makes you feel and inter-
pret the emotions of the character in the
situations they find themselves in. There's
something about how he uses longer
takes in which the camera follows the
actor around the environment showing,
you different angles and frames without a
single cut. It makes you feel like you are
there and that every shot is meaningful.
I don't think it's uniquely something for
older samurai films but it often feels like
they are commenting on the then cur-
rent-day society of Japan. But I think in
general, it is the storytelling and the way
action scenes are done in those films.
By the time the protagonist and the an-
tagonist have a sword fight, for instance,
in (probably my favourite samurai film)
we're talking about an existing IP, I would
really like to see if there's more we can do
in terms of massive space operas. I feel
it's being, rightfully or not, completely
overshadowed by the big two. However,
the marvelous Three-Body Problem trilo-
gy or the Expanse series are books that I
would love to sink my teeth into. Hell, if
they decide to do a Mass Effect reboot,
I'd be really keen to get in on the action!
Some of your works (personal ones, I bet)
are fairly solidly based on ancient histo-
ry. Do you do your fair bit of research be-
fore starting one of those pieces?
Yes, I try to do as much as possible. It's
something that I think is definitely one of
the most fun parts of my process. I like
to delve into research and see if I can
find information that helps to ground
the piece in a way. However, I also ac-
cept that you need to take some artistic
license but the more it's based on ref-
erence and research the better I think it
comes across. Also, I love making refer-
ence sheets in Pureref that I keep open

WHAT I LIKE TO SEE 1962's Hara-Kiri you know exactly why

IN OTHER PEOPLE'S IPS IS
A SENSE OF AUTHENTICITY.
expression that had no pressure (or audi-
ence). I also find that there are so many
similarities in the creation of digital music
and digital art. I can fill a whole talk on
how they are similar and how knowledge
of one can fortify your knowledge of the
other. Just the parallels between musical
scales and a colour palette is fantastic to
ponder on. Anyway, would I like to take
it further? I think it would be amazing to
release a record, tour the world, and have
my songs on the radio. But for now I like
that my music is all mine and only for the
few people that I share it with.
Your taste for good ol' samurai movies hit
me in a soft spot. I love Throne of Blood
and Seven Samurai, as well as the older
version of 47 Ronin. Who is your favourite
director? What do you find in these mov-
both men are standing in a field with
their swords raised. It isn't just an action
scene, it's an emotional scene.
Do you also think there's a pandemic of
visually impressive films with little to add
in terms of script writing and filmmaking?
I often feel like I'm watching a marketing
plan unfold instead of a story someone
wanted to tell. And there have been a few
films in recent memory where the visuals
were great but I wouldn't be able to recall
the story or traits of any of the characters.
As a concept artist these films are still ex-
iting and interesting but as a film lover,
I often feel underwhelmed. Luckily, there
are also a lot of films made that have both
great visuals and story; two recent favou-
rites are Arrival and The Red Turtle. Oh,
and Blade Runner 2049 was good, too.
If you could art direct the movie or proj-
ect of your dreams, what would it be?
Oh wow, there are so many things that
come to mind. I would love to finish
Ashen Falls or one of my other IPs. But if
while I paint. If you haven't checked out
Pureref yet, you should!
Would you describe your usual workflow
as being very painterly, or do you lean
towards a more technical and cleanly or-
ganized approach?
It's a bit of both, I tend to be more or-
ganized if I use 3D to setup a scene. For
the cover I did a super quick sketch that I
then turned into a really basic 3D model.
I mainly used it to check if the perspec-
tive and proportion worked. I also did a
quick lighting pass… I mean, you might
as well. But I found that the more I relied
on 3D renders, the more my personal
style suffers. So, I still use 3D a lot but it's
become less of a crutch and more a nice
pair of running shoes.
Does your passion for samurais extend
to martial arts as well? Do you practice
any of those? Do you balance your work-
ing hours with any physical activity?
Haha, no. I did a bit of judo when I was
younger but I think I preferred to draw
cool fighting dudes than being one my-
self. I try to focus more on eating well
than spending time in a gym. I do a short
workout routine most mornings and pre-
fer to walk or cycle everywhere I need to
go. Still, I should probably exercise a bit
more especially considering the time I
spend at my desk.
What can you tell us about your upcom-
ing projects? Anything exciting soon to
be revealed?
There are quite a few things I've been
working on but I'm not sure when I will
be able to share them. Businesswise I'd
like to explore a few ideas this year but
that, too, is still too early to talk about. I
did start working on a short VR game that
I hope to have out this summer. I guess
the answer should be, stay tuned!
Find more content like this
under #LetsTalkArt

10 Firestarter Mag #3 Images: ©Gilles Ketting #LetsTalkArt 11

 INTRODUCING THE
FIRECAST
BY CRISTIAN 'SICKBRUSH' CHIHAIA

Podcasts have been around for a very
long time in our community, with a wide
range of complexity, guests, topics and
regularity. They're a great tool to connect
professionals with their audience and
oftentimes reveal surprising facts about
the industry or someone's path to be-
coming an artist.
look into a piece and what to take into
consideration, for example, how to man-
age your life balance or how to pursue
growth continuously – all these and more
I've learned from interviews, this open
door into another artist's world, and it's
been both exhilarating and humbling.

I've always been a fan and a major con-

sumer of interviews. I've lent my ears to
hundreds of podcasts, vodcasts, inter-
views, chats and much more. I've also
had the pleasure to be a guest on some
and it really struck a chord. They felt like
such a straightforward means of commu-
nication in a stress-free environment and
the information I've been handed from
listening to them has been a jewel. Of-
tentimes it felt like even a small phrase
thrown about for a seemingly random
question yielded an amazing reply or
dealt with an issue I was faced with at the
time, making the whole video more than
worth it. The little details about how to

12 Firestarter Mag #3 Cristian "Sickbrush" Chihaia by Even Mehl Amundsen for Firestarter | tegn.shop Photos ©Willeke Machiels at Playgrounds Firestarter Talk 13
 We've decided to have a go and lend a
hand in enriching this pool of informa-
tion with a podcast of our own. Along
the years, we've met wonderful people
with incredible stories to share and we
feel they should be heard. In the tens of
events we've attended, we've touched
bases with some of the world's finest,
most experienced and skillful artists and,
boy, do they have some stories to tell.
Our purpose is to contribute in tearing
down the fourth wall by demystifying suc-
cess and creating informational content
for people seeking the knowledge these
artists have acquired in their careers.

We'll do our best in learning more about

the subtle nuances of an artist's career
and life. The tough choices, the balanc-
ing acts, the epic highs and unavoidable
lows, mental fortitude, navigating trends,
industry tendencies, predictable shifts  –
these are all small parts to be examined
and learned from. We hope to bring you
a raw slice of the ups and downs of pur-
suing this career with both great things
to expect and shaky corners to avoid.

I've always felt that even with an over-

whelming amount of tutorials and how-
tos detailing every step of the process,
there was something missing. So many
other things that are hard to learn, things
that come from sheer experience or by “A fantastic art book
having close friends willing to share their
adventures with you. I've been on a re-
that provides a glimpse
lentless hunt for the "eurekas" and al-
though scarce and far-between, they've
into a massive universe”
been game changing – from the way I -THE VERGE
perceive our business, our creativity, or
even those oh-so-needed pat-on-the-
back, "Eureka!" moments. This is what
we hope to bring you through the kind
collaboration of our peers. A small slice
of their time can have a massive impact
on your development.

One thing I know for sure – we've met

people who simply left us dumbfound-
ed through their intelligence, passion
or skill. They are out there, all around
us, and it's my deepest wish that we can
bring you a piece of their world.
Martin Deschambault’s Project 77.
Foreword by Sparth. Stories by Jeffrey Campbell. Design by Brent Ashe.
BUY IT NOW
Visit ArtStationMedia.com for the latest news on this and all our new books.
14 Firestarter Mag #3 The Firecast will be announced on firestartermagazine.com Amazon, Amazon.com and the Amazon.com logo are registered trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. 15
 INTERVIEW
GEOFFREY ERNAULT
BY VERONICA SOFIA NITU
So. You and I met in Cambridge, back
when you were at Guerrilla Games. Since
then, you've relocated to Riot Games
in LA. What have you been up to since
then? How's everything going?
It's really great. I'm in R&D now, which is a
natural continuation from Guerrilla, who
hired me for a new project, to help figure
out new stuff with new teams. It's pretty
easy to rotate around, so I've been work-
ing on a bunch of different things. We'll
see if they end up going somewhere or
not, but it's really, really fun. The team is
awesome. We have a really good dynam-
ic, so it's very easy for us to discuss ideas,
potential things we want to try out… there
aren't a lot of limits because we're all very
aligned and excited to try things out.
It sounds like Riot set up a workplace
that encourages that.
Yeah, for sure! That's kinda what I was
really looking forward to the most, that
Riot is very gamer-oriented. What I love
about them is that they're very play-
16 Firestarter Mag #3 Geoffrey Ernault by Kev Chan for Firestarter | artstation.com/kevchan5 Artwork ©Geoffrey Ernault | geoffreyernault.com
er-focused. You can see it when you
work there because, since the people
that they hire are pretty much gamers,
you can go talk to anybody. I'll just start
talking and start sharing ideas and all
that, so that's really fun.
Is that work environment unique to LA or
have you encountered that at Guerrilla,
too? Did you know to expect it?
I knew I could expect that because I had
been to LA before, and that's kinda the
vibe that I got, but it's very, very differ-
ent from Europe. I feel like here, they're
a lot more people-oriented, as opposed
to work-oriented. Don't get me wrong,
they're still very passionate about the
work itself, but they care a lot about what
people think, sharing ideas, and making
sure we stay very open. You don't feel
the hierarchy that much. When I say that,
I know a lot of people love being able to
just do their job and focus on their craft,
but to me it's very important to be able
to have those discussions. As much as I
17

love art, I'm a gamer at heart, so being
able to discuss what's fun and what's not
(talking outside of just visuals) can be re-
ally refreshing and interesting.
I've talked in the past with people, tried
to discuss ideas with them and compare
them with games that were out, and they
had no idea what games were out there.
They hadn't played games in years.
When you go to the movies, you've got
brands and names but a director appeals
to people, right? Good directors know
about composition, they watch movies. If
you know what's out there, then it's eas-
ier to avoid mistakes that have already
been done; to build on top of things that
have already been successful by under-
standing where they take their inspira-
tion from and why they do certain things,
whether that's gameplay, or visuals, sto-
rytelling… I think that can really help you
make a better product. It's important
to know what other games or products
have a similar approach so that you can
know what ground you're standing on.
18 Firestarter Mag #3
I guess they also reflect the wants of
the people buying them. You follow the
general consensus and kind of lead your
product in that direction.
For sure! Like right now, it's all about
the 'battle royale games' and PUBG and
Fortnite. We'll see what the next trend is.
Are you into that stuff? What have you
been playing recently?
Recently, I was playing Kerbal Space Pro-
gram and also a ton of Rainbow Six Siege.
I love those games. I play a ton of games.
How do you find the time for them?
Well, again, it's all a balance. Now that I'm
in LA, my main focus is honestly just making
art and playing games, and hanging out
whenever I get time. I kinda split my time
between all of those games. It's not like,
"Hey I'm gonna play 50 hours of Dread-
nought, 50 hours of Empire of the Ants." It's
more like, 30 minutes here, an hour there...
Would you say that's part of your creative
process or is it separate from your work
life? Does it feed into your creativity?
It totally does. To me, the big difference
is that games really feel like complete
worlds. If I look at artwork, it's easy for me
to imagine the world behind it, but when
I play a game, I'm really in that world,
which really feeds into my creativity and
makes me want to build a world similar
to that; to achieve the same depth with
concepts or ideas. I don't just play games
to look at pretty things, I play them to
transport myself into a new world.
That's interesting, that you play games
but the cogs in your mind are still turning
during the process. Some play them just
to distance themselves from daily life.
For sure, and it's kind of secondary, as
well. For example, if I'm playing Rainbow
Six Siege, maybe I'll have to breach a
door and then I'll think, "Oh, if they had
a device that looked like this, and did
this, maybe it would open the door fast-
er." Or if I'm playing Kerbal I'll think, "It's
interesting, Tesla with their new Falcon
Heavy, if they did this with this kind of
engine, then they could reach Mars fast-
er…" Even though I don't have that much
knowledge into it, the creativity is there,
and the want to create those concepts
starts erupting in my head.
Have you had the chance to implement
anything you've seen in games into your
own art? Also, have you had a chance to
do any personal art lately?
Yeah, but I don't post a lot of that because
I've been trying lately to do more glob-
al, less 'one-off, 30-minute' images. I've
been working on my own stuff at home.
Like an IP?
Kind of. There's this thing I've been
playing around with for a while and we'll
see where it goes. I experiment with a
lot of things at home, and what I've
been learning recently is how to build
games from the ground up. As a con-
cept artist you work on games but very
often you make concepts without think-
ing about how they're going to be exe-
cuted. To me, it's very important to also
understand how to make something in a
game. I've been in cases where I would
just make an image and then it turned
out very different in-game, which is very
disappointing. You make something,
you're like, "Wow, this looks so pretty!"
but then in-game it's either not fun or
#LetsTalkArt
doesn't look as good, or we don't have
the tech… What I've been trying to learn
from that and from games is, how is this
game making that? How can I replicate
this same type of vista, or interesting an-
imation, or coding? I really try to grasp
how that's made from the ground up. I
set a goal for myself to try to execute all
the different roles of a game production
at a junior level. I'm trying to be able
to solve almost any problems that you
would throw at a junior developer, in
any branch—animation, rigging, coding,
world-building, environment art, etc.
This is what I've been recently trying to
implement into my art.
I remember while you were at Guer-
rilla, you were trying to do more 3D. Is
that where it started or were you always
looking to develop your skills in multiple
branches?
Yeah, it kinda started there, you're right.
At Guerrilla, on RIGS, I did the high-res
models and I was lucky to have Dave [Hil-
born] do the low-res and clean up after
me. Poor Dave... now I realize how much
work that can be, so I am so thankful that
he was helping me back then. At the time
I had a different role, so it was harder for
me to talk about what I thought would be
19
 better changes for the product and for
the game. I was lacking this knowledge
of game development. I wasn't able to
communicate why things would work
better or not. As a gamer, I could tell why
it wasn't working; as an artist I could tell
what looked good and what didn't, but I
was lacking that technical aspect. I didn't
have this sort of language that I could
use to communicate my ideas.
Did all of these developments in your
workplace feed into your personal style?
Your work has changed a lot compared
to the beginning, going from darker pal-
ettes and more dystopian compositions
towards fantastical and whimsical art.
What direction is your work headed in
now? Do you notice any change?
I'm actually trying to reconcile all of that
together into an "updated version" of all
those styles, if that makes sense. The big
difference back then is that it was a lot
about the tool; about "Cool! This looks
gritty, this looks modern, dark…" Then
arrived color!
You left the emo stage of your artwork.
Yeah! I always loved color, I just wasn't con-
20 Firestarter Mag #3
fident enough to use it in my work back
then. That became a bit easier but now I'm
at a point where I want to introduce more
functionality and reasoning behind what I
do. A lot of the images I post are my per-
sonal work. A lot of them are very organic
and straightforward, whereas what I'm try-
ing to head more towards is, what is this
place, why is it there, who built it and why
did they build it? It's a lot more narrative,
world-building, functionality and reason-
ing behind what I'm doing. Before, I was
doing a lot more speed-painting whereas
now I'm going more towards higher-level
design behind what I do.
So more like illustration, kind of?
Kind of, but I always see illustrations as
images that take a lot of time to be craft-
ed because of the technique, whereas
what I'm trying to describe are more im-
ages that take a long time because of the
thought process behind them and the
problems that you're trying to solve.
Are you going to any industry events
this year?
I'm not sure. Every year I try to go to Tro-
jan Horse Was a Unicorn, so hopefully
I'll still be able to go this year, but out-
side of that I don't have anything specific
planned.
What do you like most about these kinds
of gatherings? Do you go with a certain
purpose?
It depends if I go with the company or
not. I'm always excited to meet new art-
ists and, if possible, help them avoid
mistakes that I made when I was start-
ing art. Back then, I didn't have as many
straightforward talks as I wish I could
have had, so I'm trying to give back
to the community by doing portfolio
reviews and stuff like that. It's not nec-
essarily to say, "I like that you're doing
this, do more of that;" it's more like,
"What are you trying to solve? What's
your goal in life? How can I help with
giving you the tools to go in the direc-
tion you want to go towards?" That and
it's always fun to hang out with interest-
ing personalities.
Image ©Simon Bastow
What are the recurring questions people
ask during a portfolio review? What are
the most common problems you see in
their approach?
What happens very often—and it's very
funny—is that people already have the
answers, they just don't want to admit
it. Very often I just end up asking some-
body "What do you want to do?" and
they're like, "I wanna work at Blizzard," or
whatever. Then you look at their portfolio
and they do top-down isometric mobile
game fan art and it's like, "Do you feel
like this is what you're to expect right
now from those companies? Do you en-
joy doing this?" and they're like, "No, this
isn't what I want to do." ...and you just
stare at them for like, a second, and they
realize, "Oh right. If that's what I want to
do, then why am I doing something dif-
ferent?" It's very straightforward.
What questions should they be asking to
help lead them to their goal?
"This is what I'm trying to shoot for. Do
you feel like I'm successful at that and if
not, how can I get to that point?" This is
the best and most straightforward ques-
tion you could ask. If you just show some-
body your portfolio, they're just looking
at art; they don't know what you want. I
can point out mistakes in construction or
#LetsTalkArt
in ideation or whatever, but that's as far
as that can go. I think it's important to be
honest with yourself about where you're
trying to go and how you can achieve
that. You don't necessarily need to know
your trajectory, but you need to know
your end goal at least—or at least a short-
term goal—and not just say, "Look, this
is my art. What do you think?" because
that's not very constructive.
Have you been keeping track of new re-
sources coming out in the art community?
Yeah, there are actually four main ones
I've been using a lot. The first one is the
Epic Games Marketplace, because that
helps me prototype and build things
very easily in-engine, so then I can just do
paintovers or I can try gameplay around
it. It's absolutely awesome if you're inter-
ested in game development, but if you're
interested in it just for concept that's fine
too, because you can think of it as being
kind of similar to SketchUp. The second
one is 80 Level. They post a lot of really
nice tutorials and things about concept
art and making art in general for video
games, which is very helpful. The third
one is Gumroad, ‘cause it helps you buy
tutorials and resources at a really cheap
price, which we didn't really have back
then. Finally, there's ArtStation for being
21
 able to see what's out there, how you can
make things better and get inspired by
people, which is pretty important.
So you definitely wish you had had these
resources at the start of your journey?
Oh yeah, 100%. I mean, back then we
had tutorials for Unreal Engine, we just
didn't have access to those resources.
I definitely feel like if I'd had that back
then it would have been a lot easier.
Back then it was a lot more about men-
tors and mentorees. It was more about
trying to find somebody that could teach
you something, whereas now you kinda
jump straight to, "This is the content that
I need, it's out there, I can find it and I've
just gotta pay for it".
I want to talk about mental health and
art, which has become a more important
and open topic in the past few years, es-
pecially the topic of burnouts and over-
working yourself. Do you have art blocks
or burnouts? How do you approach and
deal with those?
I do, actually, if I'm honest, and I think it's
due to the fact that I'm not as organized
as I wish I was. I think the big culprit here
is that back then I had a goal—to get to
Riot and to the US – so I really had to work
every day to achieve that. Now that I'm
22 Firestarter Mag #3
here and I've done that, any concepts I'm
doing are just going out there. That was a
weird mindspace I was in when I moved
here, but then I slowly realized that wasn't
the end. I set up new goals, which were
to try to start on my own project, learn
about new things, and try to be able to
do everything at a junior level. Because
of that, I always have something to look
up to. There's always something new
to learn which brings me back to those
days of passion. There are a lot of days
when I've just gone three weeks without
touching Photoshop because I've been
learning about 3D, or environment de-
sign, or gameplay or whatever. It's a hard
balance. What's really hard is figuring out
how much to do of each. The other diffi-
cult thing is that now I feel like with the
more knowledge you have, the more dif-
ficult it becomes to make images natural-
ly. Back then I had the innocence where
I wouldn't see the mistakes I'd made,
whereas now I can put 20 hours into an
image and be like, "This looks terrible be- work on. I find that the more goals you What's the best advice you've ever re-
cause..." Everything becomes a problem. have and the more opportunities you ceived that has influenced you?
So this is difficult for me lately. It's about have to explore, the easier it is to get out Just do what makes you happy and don't
being able to let go and enjoy what I'm of a rut because you'll have more that try to do things for others. Be honest
doing, while at the same time staying gets you excited and motivated, instead about what you want to do with your art
goal-oriented and going towards a di- of being like, "This is the one thing I've and with your life, because life is short
rection. The moment I get burned out, I gotta learn right now but I don't want to and you really gotta take advantage of
already have things in front of me I can so I'm just going to keep procrastinating every day possible to do what makes you
until I get around to actually learning that happy. Don't try to pursue things that
thing." It's about asking, "Right now, do I don't make you happy just for the sake
want to learn more about concepts? Envi- of it. There's no point.
ronments?" You just gotta take your pick.
Finally, any parting words of encourage-
So you don't back away from the pres- ment to the people reading this?
sure of a burnout, you use it as momen- The only people that never "made it" in
tum to move forward. the industry are people that stopped. So
Yeah, and more specifically, if you are I know that it might be hard at the begin-
really burned out, don't hesitate to ning, you go through fundamentals and
take a break. That's also something I've try to understand how everything works
learned; if I'm really burned out, I know and it might be very overwhelming, but
that forcing myself would only make me it's just like working out. You just gotta
want to paint and work even less. So I just keep doing it, you just gotta keep going
take a break and play games to a point and it becomes easier every day, and
where I've played so many games that I then you'll wake up one day and you'll
feel horrible, and all I want to do is work. be at a company you love doing what
It's realizing that because you're taking you love. Just gotta keep going.
a break, it doesn't mean that the world's
going to end. Taking breaks actually re-
freshes your views.
#LetsTalkArt 23
 WHAT IS IT LIKE TO BE A
SELF-TAUGHT ARTIST?
LECTURE BY SEBASTIEN HUE
Self-taught, what does it mean? Does
it mean I am a genius who guesses ev-
erything from instinct and observation,
a force of nature who needs nobody to
learn but himself? Does it mean I am
the student and the teacher at the same
time? Does it mean I am skilled enough at
learning quickly that I can avoid any kind
of formal schooling? Or does it mean I
will probably fail to start a career in art
without the discipline and background a
solid art school education can provide?
There are no real affirmative answers on
any of those questions because there
are no real sides to take, as we are all
different in terms of sensitivity, skills,
intellect and much, much more. Being
self-taught is, most of the time, not real-
ly a choice but just the easiest, cheapest
or most convenient way to achieve what
you would love to achieve in terms of
education. It is somehow a way of func-
tioning that some are good at and some
others are not.
24 Firestarter Mag #3 Sebastien Hue by Marco Wulfr for Firestarter | artstation.com/marcowulfr Artwork by ©Sebastien Hue | shue-digital.com
That is why some will succeed in follow-
ing the dark path's direction naturally
and accessing the vault of knowledge
by themselves, and some will probably
have a hard time at learning on their
own because they need that direction a
mentor can give them. What is certain, is
that, at some stage, either path should
take you to the same destination toward
building up a good career and fulfilling
your ultimate goals in art. Just like Lara
Croft in Tomb Raider, let's jump into the
the jungle, the ins and outs of starting a
self-apprenticeship in art.
WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE 
Back in the late 80s, I remember giving
Guns 'N Roses' "Welcome To The Jungle"
a listen. I was 12 and did not know how
this title would resonate so much in my
future professional career. Even more
chaotic music came to my ears later with
stuff like Slayer and Metallica, announc-
ing my chaotic quest to know which di-
rection to take for my future job. While
25
 not a bad student, I was not the best one,
either, and my grades decided for me at
some point that private school was also
not an option. At that time, saying to your
parents you wanted to go to an art school
was like saying, "Mum, Dad, I don't really
care about earning money. As long as I
can do art, I'll be happy and fulfilled." And
the answer, "Sure, boy, you'll be a pauper
junky with no future. At least you'll do a
job you can actually live from (smile). No
offense to those who actually went to art
school at that time, but that was pretty
much the mentality. Self-teaching tradi-
tionally was very hard, unless someone in
your family, a good friend or your neigh-
bor showed you some stuff. At least,
that's what I did with the guitar.
Then, the internet arrived and everything
changed. Accessing information became
much easier, faster and above all world-
wide, which was extraordinary to me. No
boundaries anymore but…
Help! I don't know what to start with?
Online education was made possible
then. You can find whatever you want on
the internet. The other side of the coin is
probably that the internet is an ocean of
many, many resources and thus, it's pretty
hard for a novice to know and find exactly
what they'll need to start their self-educa-
26 Firestarter Mag #3
tion. Many people came to me asking for
advice as to how I became a self-taught
artist and managed to change my career
(yes, at one time I worked as logistics op-
erator in the oil industry). Due to the over-
flowing amount of images made by great
artists everywhere on the net - environ-
ments, characters, mecha, 2D concepts,
3D models, etc. – newborn artists don't
know where to go to develop their skills
because everything is appealing and you
want to do the same stuff you see from
others. At school, you have the chance
to practice a bit of everything – anatomy,
characters, environments – and then you
know a bit more about if you are better
at perspective than anatomy, or some-
thing else. On the contrary, being on your
own is like being in front of so many tasty
cakes that you don't know which one to
pick first. You need to taste them one by
one to know which one you like most and
those you totally disliked.
My advice would be to listen to your guts
and to go where your instinct natural-
ly tells you to go. What kind of stuff do
you naturally like to draw? Characters?
Ok then, go for it. Starting a self-taught
training has the extreme advantage of
allowing you to go straight towards what
is more appealing and important to you,
even though you will still have to cover
subjects that come less naturally to you at
a later stage. It will be a stepping stone to
your full education.
Then, what's next, you might ask?
High objectives for high ambition are
key to your self-learning.
Fixing objectives for yourself is really im-
portant sets you up to carry them out.
Some just can't, that's why school is a
better choice because the curriculum is
compulsory and, in the end, determined
by its teachers. You have to stick to the
plan while being self-taught, evolve ac-
cordingly over the years, and push your
motivation to the top to reach your goals,
because nobody but yourself will kick
your ass and say you didn't work enough
and failed at your objectives. Your only
motivation is to be better and better and
better again so your hard work pays off
one day. The most important thing is to
keep a positive mind when looking at
other artists' gorgeous work. High ob- Networking, being involved into a com-
jectives for a high ambition will motivate munity will help your artistic development.
you even more to carry on your training. To be self-taught is to be the coach, the
When you see eye-candy and high-cali- teacher of yourself, so try to look after the
ber artwork, of it as the top of the moun- foundations you need, to start your stud-
tain, which you can try to reach with hard ies properly. Sometimes it is very hard to
work. Don't feel crushed by the level. judge your own work and get feedbacks,
even on the internet. That's part of the
Back to the net, look for high-level artists backdrop of being self-taught, and is the
and quality content, even if you have to reason why social networks are so im-
pay for it. It is worth it because you will portant in this kind of education. Share
simply learn from the best, even though your work on the net and analyze the
you probably won't be able to apply good, but most of all, the bad critiques
their techniques and learn everything of your work. It hurts… yes, but those are
from them at once. Your brain needs to indicators of what you need to focus on.
mature to understand everything. With You might feel comfortable at painting a
years of practice, things that you saw in cityscape but if most of your critics stress
a tutorial, maybe too hard to grasp im- the fact that your perspective is wrong,
mediately then, will make sense later on. one building is off, etc… take good note
It's a normal feeling. I remember looking of it and fix those issues by digging into
at Dusso's Gnomon DVD when I started good foundational perspective tutorials.
10 years ago and, sure enough, I was Test stuff until you get a headache, get
so blown away by him that my brain got punched and have a good cry, but then
fried with the amount of skills and tech- get back on your feet, and learn harder.
niques he was showing. I was not ready At least now you know what to learn to
to process them, but unconsciously I saw get better, which is very important. The
a guy doing this magic, so the motivation other thing is to get involved with a group
was, "Damn, we can do such things with or a community of artists. If somehow you
Photoshop, crazy! I want to learn more...!" can't access an art school because, per-
#LetsTalkArt 27

haps you're too old, for instance (which I
experienced), try to have the school come
to you like with online workshops (which
I did) or by surrounding yourself with art
school students on the net (which I expe-
rienced, too, with DeviantArt's commu-
nity or Art Collectives). I have learned so
much, thanks to them.
Is making a living from a self-taught artis-
tic background possible nowadays?
Some will say the biggest problem in
being self-taught is the lack of the grad-
uation and art diploma that companies
rely on to hire your services. Particularly
in France, most companies do not nec-
essarily hire you for your experience or
skills but for your diploma, which some-
how labeles the way you work, your skills,
intellect, and so on. Being self-taught
tends to change and evolve you more
towards an Anglo-Saxon spirit of setting
forth skills, behaviors, motivation and
organization, rather than just focusing
on diplomas. Sure, you won't get any di-
plomas during your training but you can
perfectly get hired thanks to the work
you show, preferably on your website
portfolio or any other CG platforms like
ArtStation, DeviantArt and Behance, for
instance. That, is once again, the internet
revolution which makes it possible and
faster. Even portfolio reviews with poten-
tial recruiters can occur online.
Your artwork shows what you are capa-
ble of. Of course, a diploma on top of
it would make you an even more inter-
esting candidate, but nowadays, to be a
non-graduate, self-taught artist is not an
obstacle, I think. Your visuals testify of
28 Firestarter Mag #3
[ CHARACTER DESIGN | ENVIRONMENT DESIGN | FOUNDATION & DESIGN ]
2D.CGMASTERACADEMY.COM
your skills to those you'd like to work for,
from big studios to independent clients.
CONCLUSION
To answer the question of our subject
matter here, "What is it like to be a self-
taught artist?", I would say it is a deep,
personal investment in which free will can
be your best friend or your worst enemy.
Depending on when you decide to start
your own training program, at 20, 30 or
Marco Nelor Mitchell Malloy
40, small or big sacrifices will have to be
made in terms of time, money, family, etc.
to have some good results. The higher CG Master Academy, the leading online art school, offers art students over 100 courses exploring concept art,
your level of determination is, the fast- modeling and texturing, VFX and gaming. Tailored for artists of all skill levels, CGMA's course offerings directly
er you can develop into a good coach, speak to the industry's current demands and trends. The instructors of these courses are working professionals
knowing exactly where to go inside your
in the entertainment industry, with some of the biggest motion pictures and games on their resume. The quality
comfort zone, as well as outside of it.
Thus, it's important to define what is like-
of education CGMA has cultivated can truly be shown in the talent enrolled at the academy. With their affordable
ly your Achilles' heel. Plan exercises and prices and high-quality curriculum, CGMA has made their name as the leading online provider in arts education.
studies to do, chase after good, founda- For portfolio reviews, information on registration, and individual payment plans, reach out to the admissions
tional tutorials from artists you admire, department via email registration@cgmasteracademy.com or phone (818) 561 –9542.
and practice addictively in art styles and
genres you love the most, as this is the
privilege you probably wouldn't have in
any art school. Being a self-taught artist
does not mean you are alone. On the
contrary, there are many other artists go-
ing through the same adventure, or those
able to help you out with solid advice
they learned at school. Check out quality
resources like CGSociety, ArtStation, IA- Peter Han
MAG or 3DTotal. You can find many tuto-
rials, resources, and inspiration.
Personally, my curiosity and thirst to learn
more and more stuff made this adven-
ture something incredible when started
at the age of 31, ten years ago. I still have
so much to learn and looking backwards
I think I would do the same.
Melanie Delon Aaron Limonick
facebook.com/shue13 29
 INTERVIEW
IRIS COMPIET
BY VERONICA SOFIA NITU
Iris Compiet is an artist and illustrator
from the Netherlands. Whether it's for art
galleries, book covers or concept art, her
work is centered in the realm of fantasy.
Currently, she is working on her book, Fa-
eries of the Faultlines, for which she ran a
successful Kickstarter campaign last year,
with an estimated print date of February/
March 2018. Faultlines introduces a vast
world of creatures and stories that have
never been seen before, and proves that
hard work and persistence in the pursuit
of personal art pay off.
Iris, it's been a pretty big year for you.
You've had a crazy successful Kickstarter
campaign for your book, Faeries of the
Faultlines. I think when it's released, it's
going to blow up.
Let's hope so! I mean, it already blew
up. The campaign was a huge success. It
was my first Kickstarter ever. It's scary to
ask for money in advance for a product
you haven't finished yet, because you're
asking people to trust you. I asked for
30 Firestarter Mag #3 Iris Compiet by Pauline Voß for Firestarter | skadivore.artstation.com Artwork ©Iris Compiet | eyeris.eu
€15,000—a lot of money—and I
said, "That's never gonna happen
in 30 days..." and it happened in
48 minutes after launch. Within
the hour, the project was com-
pletely funded.
How has that unexpectedly colossal suc-
cess impacted your journey towards the
project's completion?
It's a whole different ball game. You nev-
er expect to have such a success. You say,
"Hey, I'll print 500 books..." and now I have
to print 2,500. You have all these other
things to take into account, like where do
you store those books? I'm doing this all
on my own so I have no warehouse to put
them in, no fulfillment company behind
me. I'm packaging everything myself.
My holidays were spent packaging post-
cards, signing prints and grouping them
into sets of 3. I'm overseeing the design,
printing process, promotion, art; I write...
My house is filled with shipping boxes. If
I put 2,500 books in my home, my house
31

would collapse under the weight of them.
I have to rent a space to put them, I have
to insure them.
There are all these things that nobody
tells you about when you're running a
Kickstarter. That's something you have to
figure out by yourself. I'm lucky I did, with
help from friends who had run a success-
ful campaign before me. Also, Jon from
ArtOrder was a wealth of information. I
want to acknowledge the fact that were
many wonderful people who supplied
me with information and advice.
That's such an intense process for your
first Kickstarter campaign.
I wish I had tested the waters for how this
works because when you run a Kickstart-
er, you have to factor the shipping costs
into your funding goal. My funding goal
was €15,000 and almost €9,000 of that
money was just for shipping. Imagine
having to ship 2,000 books... that's a huge
chunk of money. Everybody's like, "You've
been so successful and you've got money
to spend on your art," and I actually don't.
I have money to spend on this book. I'm
going to make it the highest quality I can
possibly get, and then I'll ship it. I'll have
32 Firestarter Mag #3
enough to pay myself for the months I
worked on Faultlines, but it's not a lot
because everything went to printing and
shipping. I don't really care, though. It's
not about the money; it's about the book
and the art. I want to show people what
the possibilities are for designing and
printing books.
It costs a lot to make something that high
quality, but that quality will elevate your
artwork even further. You want something
you can treasure; something that will pass
on to somebody else when you're done
with it. I like the idea of personally pack-
aging the book for people, so they know
it's from me, that my hands touched it.
I think that's important. I set out to do a
book that people would love like I loved
Faeries by Alan Lee and Brian Froud. I
hope they will. We'll see what happens.
Is printing something you're familiar with
or something you've had to discover on
your own?
It is, but that's because I did graphic de-
sign as my day job for 16 years, so I've
worked with printers and publishers quite
a lot. For my book, I decided to work with
a local printer because I know the quality
is very high and they love doing artbooks.
If there's ever a problem, they just ring me
up. They've saved my ass so many times,
when I forgot a page number or whatev-
er. They saved me €10,000. I don't think
something like that happens if you print
somewhere like in China.
How much creative control do you, as the
creator, have over the printing process of
your material?
I can go and look at the presses because
I chose a local print shop. I've been there
many times and these people know what
they're doing. They know when they need
to put a bit more red or green into some-
thing, and it's possible for me to say, "Hey,
that page needs a little less red," and they'll
just change it. I think I'm going to cry when
the first page rolls off the presses.
How did your experience as a graphic de-
signer help you on this project?
I studied graphic design at art school. I
decided to get an education that gave me
a real job, was still in the creative field, had
me thinking conceptually, and had me
working with deadlines. I learned all the
programs like Photoshop, Illustrator and
InDesign which I can use in my job as an
illustrator as well, because I can not only
illustrate the story, I can also design the
book. I can whip up a leaflet for pre-order
in half an hour. I quit my day job to pursue
a full-time career because I couldn't really
do the two jobs at once. I've been a full-
time freelancer for one year now.
I think that's some-
thing that a lot of people
struggle with, that balance
between having a day job
and pursuing what they love.
Absolutely. My advice is just to
find a job that you enjoy doing.
There's no sense in pursuing a job
that you hate, because that takes out
all the energy you need to spend in the
#LetsTalkArt
evening on your art. Find something you
like and find out how much money you
would need at a minimum to make it
work. I started out full-time and then grad-
ually cut back hours until I worked three
days a week and had two days for illustra-
tion. That meant I earned less money but
enough to pay my bills and have a little
extra for supplies.
By having a day job, that took away the
anxiety of "I need to make enough mon-
ey to get through this month." That meant
no vacations or luxury but I was able to
do what I wanted to do—pursue my ca-
reer as an artist. If you know what you're
going for, it's a sacrifice that's easier to
make. Knowing I needed to make a cer-
tain amount of money per month gave
me the opportunity to take the jobs I real-
ly loved so I could work my way into that
area of artwork that I wanted to work in.
It took a while but if you want it and do it,
don't worry about having a day job. Many
people have one. Just make sure that
you don't hate it, that you can put all your
energy into pursuing your career as an
artist. Everybody's path is different. You
can't compare yourself with some crazy
talented person that just came out of art
school and draws like a pro already. That's
awesome for them, but personally I'm not
like that. I need years and years of prac-
tice. We all do it at our own pace and we'll
all get there. For some, it might take two
years, for others five years or more. It
doesn't matter which road you
take or how long it takes;
the fact is you're gonna
get there and that's the
most important thing. Please
stop comparing yourself with others. It's
human to compare yourself to others but
there's no sense in doing it.
I think we create expectations for ourselves
that are in line with "traditional jobs,"
whereas art is more intuitive and tailored
to each individual. It's unique to every-
body and you must go at your own pace.
It's totally silly. Everything takes time to
learn and some people catch on quickly,
others don't. In the end we're artists and
33
 we don't finish learning until we die. What
if you don't get there? Fine, you tried. If
you make the process towards the goal
fun and enjoyable, it doesn't matter if you
reach the goal. It's all about enjoying it.
You don't have to go to art school and be
a successful artist right after you graduate.
You're not a failure if you start out your
career later in life. Everybody's always so
focused on age. "That person is so young
and talented already!" That doesn't di-
minish the talent or ability of someone
that's 20 years older! It's just a number,
nothing more.
Let's talk a little more about Faeries of
the Faultlines! What's the origin of this
project?
At the beginning of 2016, I had a day job
and I was overworked. I had a burnout,
everything was too much and I devel-
oped carpal tunnel syndrome. That's the
worst nightmare of an artist: not being
able to draw. I was unable to draw for
about 6 months. I went to physical thera-
py but nothing really worked except time.
After I got better, I decided I needed to
do something because I'd been out of
the game for so long. I saw an Instagram
hashtag trending in May 2016—#MerMay.
I challenged myself to do one mermaid
sketch a day. Then May was over, and
#JuneFae came along in June.
I had vowed never to do faeries because
when you tell people you're a fantasy art-
ist they all say, "Oh, you draw faeries!"
34 Firestarter Mag #3
Even though I used to love faeries, I didn't
want to do stereotypical fantasy. Then I
thought, "What the heck, let's just figure
out faeries that are weird and wonder-
ful," and I fell down the rabbit hole. Since
then, I've never stopped. The Instagram
followers kept growing and friends kept
asking me, "What are you gonna do with
all these faeries?" I'd never thought about
it, so I said, "Okay, I'll just do an artbook."
As soon as I announced that, it just went
crazy. I decided to go all or nothing. I
needed €15,000 and I ended up with
€111,000. People like Tony DiTerlizzi,
Bobby Chiu, Guillermo del Toro; they all
tweeted about it, they all spoke about it.
Many influential people backed it.
Those are some big names. Did their sup-
port affect your process?
Well, Guillermo del Toro bought an orig-
inal, as well and he said, "Make it excep-
tional." So that was my brief: "I want a
Green Man and make him exceptional." It
was too much pressure, but in the end I
decided, "I'm not making this for you, I'm
making this for me." By taking away the
pressure of having to perform for him, I
think that's the best way to go about it.
That's the biggest thing I'm battling with at
the moment. I ended up with nearly 2,000
books sold, and I don't want to disappoint
people. I have sleepless nights when I lie
awake and think, "This is too much." There's
a lot of pressure to perform, but I'm doing
my best. I try not to think about all those
people waiting. There's no sense in me
trying to predict the outcome. I can only
make something that I'm really satisfied
with. You don't need to impress anybody.
If you try to impress one person, another
might not be impressed. You'll always dis-
appoint someone. Can you imagine living
up to every expectation out there? Why
not try to just live up to your own expec-
tation? Don't expect things from yourself
that you wouldn't expect from others. You
wouldn't expect a friend to be the best
at watercolors in a week, but you expect
yourself to be the best in a day, because
in your mind you're already there. You al-
Photo ©Marcel Kentin Photography
ready know what your goal is. You think "It
should look like this" because you have
that image in your head, but you forget
about those months and years of training
between the beginning and the image in
your head. Try to live up only to your own
expectations and make those expectations
reasonable, and then you're set.
You've mentioned a few notable figures
who got involved with this project, and
one of them is Brian Froud, whose book,
Faeries, set you on this life path. How did
you meet him, and how did that working
relationship start?
To be honest, we've never met. I've seen
him a couple of times and I was always
too starstruck to ask him anything. I was 7
years old when I first found his book and
told everybody I want to be an illustrator
like him, and 30 years later in 2016, I was
in the same show as him and his wife,
Wendy. After I made some money selling
a piece, I ran downstairs to buy a sculp-
ture of Wendy's but it was sold out. Brian
wasn't there, but I got to talk to Wendy,
who said, "Email me and I'll make you
something special." When I later received
the sculpture, I sent her an email to thank
her. By that time I had decided to do the
book and I knew I needed a foreword, so I
asked if Brian would be able to do some-
thing like that for me. She said that he "re-
ally, really, really liked my art"—I still have
that email printed out—and that he would
be honored to do so. Basically that was
how things went from there.
You've had a heavy workload this year.
Have you had to tackle a burnout yet
or have you managed to stay on top of
things?
Recently I had that little spill of being
overworked. I was tired. I had two books
to finish, a gallery showpiece to finish,
Faultlines to finish... Everything was piling
up and I was like, "I can't do this." I was
working on some illustrations for a pub-
lisher and—normally I do this in one go
because it's very easy for me—I did some
illustrations five times because I knew
they weren't good enough. For some rea-
son I was just battling myself. When that
#LetsTalkArt
happens, I just walk away and do some-
thing completely different. Get yourself
out of that mindset because you're
just fighting yourself. Get your head
somewhere else, put on some music,
dance weird—and go back to it. If it
means you have to start over, then
start over. Don't get bent out of
shape if you have to start over. If
it's not good enough, just start over!
Failure is important.
Embrace the failure and fuck the fear!
Your failures are the biggest tools of
learning. If something goes right, you
can't really express how that happened; it
just happened, a happy little accident. But
if you fail, you learn what to not do any-
more. Failure is more important. Fail a lot
and learn a lot.
What are your goals for 2018 beyond the
release of your artbook?
Sleep! I don't really make goals. I know
those people that write down their goals
for a certain year but I'm more like, "Let's
see where the wind takes me. Whatever
happens, happens."
I want to go back to Scotland to contin-
ue this exploration of the Faultlines,
because the book isn't finished.
For me, Faeries of the
Faultlines is a very
big world. It's not
just a book. I
created this
world with
countless
possibilities
and side stories.
2018 will be a continu-
ation of this. I'm 39 this
year and I need to live
until I'm 111, so there's
a lot to be learned. I just
want to do cool stuff and
have cool experiences,
and meet great people
and learn from them. I
want to be inspired, and I
want to inspire. Whatever
comes my way.
35
 INTERVIEW
JOHNSON TING
BY DIEGO GISBERT LLORENS

Ah, this Johnson guy... I am still mind-
blown by your work and your talk at IFCC
2017 (since I missed the one in Promised
Land, although I made it to the more in-
timate talk afterwards). For those of you
who might not be familiar with Johnson
and his work, he is a digital artist specializ-
ing in illustration and concept art, and he
is often invited to international events as
a speaker from his basecamp in Malaysia.
nical, because it's a physical product
instead of digital. In digital mediums,
there are ways to get around certain
technical issues like how a transformer
would transform on film, and there are
parts where you can just hide and inter-
cept one with another, but on a physical
product it has to be solved, which is why
toy designs are usually different from
their digital counterparts.

I think we first met in Zagreb during

IFCC. Was it your first talk?
Yep, we did! Nope, it was not my first talk,
but it was my first talk outside of Asia. I of-
ten give lectures around the Asian region
but back then never beyond it, so it was
very exciting for me and it was my first
time traveling to Europe back in 2016!

I also had a chance to learn more about

your toy design process during Prom-
ised Land. How is that different to regu-
lar concept art for games or movies?
I would say toy design is way more tech-

36 Ting
Johnson by Daniel
Firestarter MagM.#3Chavez for Firestarter | artstation.com/danielmchavez Artwork ©Johnson Ting | johnsonting.net 37
 So, it is pretty challenging to have to
solve a lot of technical problems, from
LED wiring and battery placement to
joint articulation. I usually imagine toy
design as extremely detailed concept art
with minimal technical errors, however,
for statue designs, it is a different case,
since they are in a fixed position so you
don't have to solve a lot of problems like
joint movements. It is still possible to get
around some of the design flaws, but the
challenge of a statue design is to find
that exact one pose and base design that
brings out that particular subject's per-
sonality and traits, because they are not
posable figurines, so you have to find the
right one that fits well and one that fans
will be happy with.
When working with such technical and
physical limitations, do you find yourself
often arguing with the client to find solu-
tions to your concept ideas?
For collectible designs, usually the clients
are pretty chill and open-minded, so I
can always throw in a lot of crazy ideas to
hear what they think about them and how
they could be made, but the main issue
is always just the budget of the project.
That usual dictates the whole design to
be honest, and sometimes I have to solve
problems like working on a statue on a
limited production budget, and finding
a workaround for solutions like making
it look a bronze statue instead of a fully
painted one to save some costs while
maintaining the quality, etc. For game
38 Firestarter Mag #3
designs, when working with technical
and physical limitations, I would never ar-
gue with the clients and would just try to
achieve what they have in mind, since I'm
hired to translate their visions into reality.
So, I try to do that as much as I can, and if
the client has given me free rein, then I
would throw in suggestions and propos-
als, but at the same time also ask for the
client's honest input.
The first word that came to my mind
when looking at your gallery was 'crisp'.
Do you prefer a very technical and clean
approach, or is it a result of your artistic
background?
I guess I would always try to refine and
add details as much as I could, but these
recent years I have tried to refrain from
doing that as often. Personal portfolio
art is fine, but for commercial concept
art jobs, its usually more focused on ex-
ploration and design rather than a very
refined illustration. That would really be
more on the marketing illustration side.
More recently, I've preferred a quick and
loose approach rather than adding lots of
details on one painting. I studied illustra-
tion for a couple of years at art college
and I think that's why I always focused on
producing detailed and pretty paintings
when I first started in concept art.
What are your thoughts about using pho-
tobashing and 3D renders as a base for
illustrations and designs? Do you also use
them for anatomy surfaces, in addition to
mechanical/hard surfaces?
It's totally fine and acceptable to use
photobashing and 3D renders. Some
might call it "cheating" for some reason,
but I think those who said so are kind of
missing the point of the definition of a
concept artist. It's perfectly fine to use
these techniques to become more effi-
cient in producing and exploring designs
in a typically short time, and using 3D
renders as a base can greatly lower the
risk of spending more time on correct-
ing errors in a tight production timeline.
That's why it's getting a lot more popu-
lar in game/film development in recent
years compared to many years before. I
would also use them on anatomy surfac-
es, as well, depending on what I want to
achieve or the client's needs. On some
days, I still like to sit down and paint por-
traits from scratch just to relax a little bit
from doing photobashing stuff.
Back to the topic of figure design, there
seems to be a strong industry for that in
Asia. How long have you been working
for that sector, and how do you like it?
It seems like it's a stronger industry in Asia
because the majority of the toys in the
world are made in China, so it definitely
makes a ton of sense that lots of people
would want to start off their toy compa-
nies in Asia, especially the China region.
Big toy companies like Hot Toys and
ThreeZero are stationed in Hong Kong,
due to reasons like convenient shipping
and better rates, easy access to Shenzhen,
China for the factories, and many more.
I've been in the collectibles sector for the
past 3 to 4 years, which makes up about
30-40% of my work, and the other 60- painted, then opened for pre-order, all
70% of my time is spent doing concept extremely quickly. That's why it's satisfy-
art for games. I really enjoy working on ing, because you'd most likely still be ex-
collectibles, and it's absolutely amazing cited and interested in the project by the
to see your 2D designs translated into a time you see the physical product.
3D physical product. When you see the
finished piece and hold it in your hands, But you also have strong illustration
it's extremely satisfying as me, working skills. Tell us about your work for Milky
on games does not feel as satisfying as Overdrive.
working on collectibles, to be honest. In Thank you! Extremely flattered you think
games, it could take up to 2-3years after so. Milky Overdrive was a really fun proj-
preproduction has wrapped up, mean- ect. Basically, a couple of my friends and I
ing a concept art you did for a charac- wanted to do something together just for
ter would only be realized by the public the heck of it, so we placed bookings for
many years after it's done. By the time the artbooths in a comic convention in Ma-
game is released, I wouldn't be as excit- laysia, even though we had no idea what
ed compared to when I was working on to do with the booths or what to sell. We
it, and technically, that concept art piece just went even thou decided to publish
would most likely not represent your cur- a book about what we all love – girls and
rent skillset, as it was done years ago. But sci-fi, and that's basically it., 'Milky' stands
working on collectibles, it's usually a lot for the girls and 'Overdrive' stands for the
shorter from concept art to prototype, science fiction theme, and at the time it
taking anywhere from 4 weeks up to 6 was all about having fun without worry-
months. There was one time when I fin- ing too much about how it would sell, the
ished a figure design and sent it over, that backlash we would probably get from the
it was already 3D sculpted a few days lat- contents, etc. We poured a lot of love into
er, 3D printed a few days after that, then the paintings and I think it ended up per-
#LetsTalkArt 39

fectly in line with what we first envisioned
it to be, a book we all had fun with. It was
never about making money or going big
with it; we didn't even profit on it because
we spent the profit on a single big, satis-
fying dinner. It's all sold out now and no
reprints will be made, so those who have
it have the only copies left. Volume 2,
Milky Overload, was recently published
in Dec 2017. The book got a lot bigger
and thicker, was hardcover and around
90 pages this time, and the number of art-
ists almost doubled. The theme was girls
and steampunk this time, hence the word
'Milky' remained and 'Overload' replaced
'Overdrive'. Milky Overload will most like-
ly be the last book done for the series, as
we all agreed that it's time to put the se-
ries to rest before it becomes something
we don't want it to be. It was not about
profit, it was just about having fun without
being restrained by business decisions
or having to change the content due to
controversies about stereotyping women,
and we didn't want that to happen, which
is why we thought it was the perfect time
to end it.
40 Firestarter Mag #3
Pretty ladies and dangerous killing ma-
chines is a theme that always works;
what else would you like to work on in
your personal work?
I definitely enjoy doing fantasy stuff, too. I
know it may not seem like it judging from
my gallery, but I'm a huge fantasy fan, as
well – it's just that Neo Japan managed to
gain its own traction it so I had to keep
it going by developing the series. I really
like zombie games, too, so hopefully I will
get some time this year to produce more
fantasy and zombie themed pieces.
That leads me to the next question: how
do you balance professional and per-
sonal work? And while we are at it, how
do you balance personal and profes-
sional life?
I get this question a lot and I think it's al-
ways fun to hear how others do it, as well.
For me, I have always been extremely
passionate and eager to paint, and still
paint at least 8–10 hours a day, everyday,
even on weekends. My typical day goes
like this – wake up at 10 am, work on free-
lance until 1 pm, have lunch for 15 mins,
go up to painting until 7 pm, pick my
girlfriend back from work and have din-
ner until 8–9 pm, paint personal artwork
or work (if in a crunch time) until 2–3 am,
sleep and repeat. I enjoy painting a lot,
so when I paint I don't really feel stressed
about it. The only thing I do is try to bal-
ance out the theme – for instance, recent-
ly I've been getting more freelance jobs
on hardcore AAA games and detailed
design jobs, so I like to paint something
more relaxing and quick after I'm done
with those, like a simple portrait painting
to balance myself back out.
Of course, and unfortunately, I still have
a life other than just painting stuff, haha. I
enjoy watching movies or playing games
during the weekends, a relaxing date with
my girlfriend and playing with my cats, or
sometimes not doing anything at all, and
just staying at home all day. I'm also an
enthusiastic food hunter (I used to be a
cook), so sometimes on the weekends I
go out with my girlfriend and friends to
hunt for good food we see on the inter-
net, which is extremely rewarding.
Some artists like to take time off playing
music, doing some physical exercise or
just hanging out with friends. What's
your favourite way to vent off steam after
many hours of work?
As mentioned in the previous answer, I
would definitely say its either with food or
games! I used to play a lot more games
a few years back but recently have been
playing a lot less, so when I get to play
games with my mates, it's definitely re-
laxing. Unfortunately, as I can't push my-
self to do any major exercise other than
casual cycling, I have an extremely weak
body and can't handle that much.
I forgot to ask you about your artistic or-
igins. Was it hard for you to get some art
education? Did your family support your
passion?
It was hard to get art training where I
grew up. Malaysia is typically divided into
the East and West, and I grew up in a tiny
city/town in the East, where it is a little be-
hind in terms of economy, education, and
#LetsTalkArt
standard of living compared to the West.
So, I had to leave my family to go west to
get an illustration education. Fortunate-
ly, my parents were, and are, extremely
supportive, even though we weren't do-
ing that well financially, or maybe it's be-
cause they knew that there weren't many
other things that I'm good at, hah.
What about your breakthrough mo-
ment? Did you have to be patient and
survive on cheap noodles for a while
before being able to make a living with
your work?
Yes, of course! For years, in fact. During
my time in college in the early days, I had
to find so much money to support myself
just for the tuition fees and for food, so I
took a student loan out but it was barely
enough. I had to juggle between part-
time odd jobs, freelance commissions
and college assignments, which was
extremely hard and tiring. I only slept
3-4 hours on most days, surviving with
just sandwiches for years before I finally
had enough to pay the rest of the tuition
fees. I was so malnourished at the time
and weighed only 45kg (now I'm 70kg).
I was able to land a job in a studio soon
after I graduated, and life has been a lot
easier compared to back then, and I'm
extremely grateful to not have to live
through those years of starvation again.
Illustration, concept art, or figure design?
I'm a greedy man, so all of it! I love all of
it them equally.
41
 Do you have your own little collection of
figurines and other merchandise?
Yes, of course! That's why I'm so inter-
ested in the collectibles sector, anyway.
I collect mostly game-related figurines,
like game collector's editions or exclu-
sive statues. I also like to collect full-scale
replicas of stuff like helmets, weapons
and costumes.
If you could choose an existing universe or
IP to work on, which one would that be?
I would definitely choose Patlabor, a Jap-
anese anime about giant, mechanized
police. You can see that the whole of Neo
Japan is dedicated to it and pays a lot of
homage to it, as it's one of my favorite
anime of all time.
What about future projects that you al-
ready have in mind? Anything you can
talk about? Any project you are especial-
ly looking forward to?
I'm currently working on an artbook for
the Neo Japan series. The book title will
be different and will definitely not just be
about Japan – it's going to visit a lot of
countries and planets.
I would like to end the whole series with
a book and move on to other projects,
since it's been so many years since I start-
ed it and I think it's time to come up with
a conclusion. I'm currently hoping to ful-
ly dwell on the movie sector instead of
games, for a change of pace and just to
see if it works out.
42 Firestarter Mag #3
Malaysia is a place far, far away for us
Europeans, and nevertheless, you come
here often to attend art events. Are there
any festivals on your schedule for 2018,
either in Europe or somewhere else?
Yep! It was my first time travelling to Eu-
rope back in 2016, when I was first invit-
ed by Marko to IFCC, extremely nervous-
ly, imagine being the only Asian guy that
literally flew in from Asia to a non-Asian
country, all alone! I sat through two days
of flights and when I landed, I was already
missing home and was feeling extremely
nervous about being with a whole bunch
of people I'd never met before and about
speaking English. I remember I wanted to
buy a ticket back right away after the first
two days of being there, just because I
was so stressed out, but fortunately, ev-
eryone was very nice and I managed to
join up with a gang of friends that ac-
companied me the whole trip. We had so
much fun and I'm so glad to have them
as some of my closest friends abroad.
2017 was already crazy for me – I flew
to ten different countries that year and
was flying almost every month or twice
in a month, so I decided to cut down the
amount of flying this year. There are some
planned trips to Mexico, Canada, and the
US, or Croatia again (if Marko wants to :P)
this year. I think I will limit it to two because
I still have to travel to other countries for
work this year. Thank you so much for the
interview, Spiridon and Diego, I really ap-
preciate it and am very grateful for it. Stay
awesome!!
43
 MAKING GAMES
IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE
Simone is a concept designer and art
director from Germany. She worked as
a media designer and level designer
until she decided to study game design
at the Media Design School Munich.
During and after University, Simone
worked as a graphic designer, before
becoming a freelance concept artist in
April 2017. Currently Simone is working
on multiple game projects for clients as
an art director and concept designer. In
her free time, she's creating small indie
games together with her partner, Josef,
under the name "DU&I".
Spelkollektivet is the home for game
developers from all over the world who
want to live and work with like-minded
people. While living in Spelkollektivet,
you don't have to deal with everyday
tasks such as cooking and cleaning. You
therefore have more time for your game
development dreams. All you need is
included in the rent. Healthy breakfast,
lunch, dinner, a private bedroom, shared
44 Firestarter Mag #3 Simone Mändl by Ayran Oberto for Firestarter | ayranoberto.blogspot.de Photos ©Simone Mändl | artstation.com/simone
BY SIMONE MÄNDL
office, consumables such as toilet paper
and laundry detergent. You'll have ac-
cess to a gym, virtual reality room, pool,
jacuzzi, sauna plus various professional
hardware and software.
When you go to the Spelkollektivet web-
site and read through the description of
what the place is, your first though may
be like mine, "There is no way this place is
real…" And you are right to think so. But
I can assure you it is… and I have been
living there for over three months. Now,
let's turn back the time a bit. It is April
2017, it's cold and my boyfriend, Josef ,
and I are sitting on a beerbench at the
A MAZE. festival in Berlin. We both have
a slight cold and our general outlook
on life is not too good. We were plan-
ning on moving from Munich to Vienna,
but our plans got canceled right before
this Berlin trip. We wanted to move in
together and find someplace afford-
able, to also have the freedom to make
our own games. I had just started doing
45

freelance work and Josef had just come
back from Slovakia, where he had been
employed as a full-time project manag-
er. So now we are sitting in Berlin, with
no guaranteed income and no options to
start a gaming studio in Munich because
of the high living costs. Then suddenly,
a friend of ours drops by and introduces
us to this guy called Patrick. We talk for a
couple of minutes… about games, about
traveling and about food.
Then Patrick drops the magic word
"Spelkollektivet". We find out that it's
a place where we can not only move in
together for a very low cost, but we also
get food, internet and a working space.
We instantly applied and half a year lat-
er, we packed our bags in Munich and
moved to the secluded house in Frida-
fors, Sweden.
OUR EXPECTATIONS MOVING IN
Our expectations were very low, the only
requirements being internet, a place
to live, and food. We checked out the
address on Google Maps© and went
through some of the pictures on Face-
book to see who was living there at the
moment. That was it. We had no idea
if the people there were crazy or if the
house even had working heating. Look-
ing back, it may have been a bit risky to
just pack and go to this random place in
Sweden. But now I can safely reassure
you, yes, the people here are crazy and
no, that's not a bad thing.
46 Firestarter Mag #3
THE FIRST IMPRESSION
Our first impression of the Spelkollek-
tivet house and inhabitants was certain-
ly an interesting one. We got picked up
at the train station by two Italians and
one Canadian who took us to the liquor
store because, "That's the only one in the
area" and they needed to pick up wine
for cooking. From there it was a 30-min-
ute drive to the house. Seeing the house
for the first time was also... interesting.
James, the owner, puts a lot of work into
the living space itself. From the outside,
though, that is not immediately clear. The
house is in good shape, but the window
frames are missing…
Even though the house doesn't make
the best first impression from the out-
side, the inside and its inhabitants made
all of that redundant. After arriving, it was
time to check out our room. Josef and I
rented a double room in the house. To
start, we were given some IKEA furniture,
some blankets, and towels. A week later,
our boxes from Germany arrived, and
we started unpacking and setting up our
PCs in the office. We also got to choose
plants for our desks!
IT'S NOT LIKE LIVING IN A HOTEL
Life at Spelkollektivet is more like having
11 roommates at once. You have your
own room to put your stuff and hide in
from others, but generally you share the
kitchen, the living room, tv, the sauna,
and the co-working space with the oth-
spelkollektivet.com
er inhabitants. Meals are eaten together LIVING IN SWEDEN
most of the time and after eating, you In the beginning, I was very afraid that it
should put your stuff in the dishwash- would be freezing in Sweden, however,
er, just like you would at home. You are that is only in the north of the country.
also responsible for your own room and There they have a polar climate with a
there is no cleaning lady that folds your lack of warm summers. Spelkollektivet,
bed sheets every day. The rest of the however, is in the south of Sweden and
house (bathrooms, kitchen and so on) is so far, the temperature has been decent
cleaned by the staff once per week. for the winter and I heard that they even
have a few warm summer days in which
Also, keep in mind that Spelkollektivet we can use the pool!
is still a very young project. There is cur-
rently a lot of work being done on the THE SWEDISH LANDSCAPE
house itself, to make everything more The view around the house is just amaz-
convenient for the inhabitants. Just two ing. If you are into landscape painting,
weeks ago, James and the co-owner, you don't need to look far to get some
Rasmus, tore down a wall to make our amazing inspiration, whether it be beau-
gym bigger. So it's good to keep in mind tiful sunlight that breaks through the for-
that some things may not yet be perfect. est in the morning, fog covering the sur-
rounding area, the traditional, colorful
THE FOOD Swedish landhouse architecture, or just a
The cooks at Spelkollektivet try to plan whole lot of nature.
the meals to be suitable for as many as
possible, and if they cannot make it work
for everyone they will make separate
dishes. Don't expect 5-star gourmet dish-
es, but the food ranges from ok to very
good. We also have a Taco-Tuesday and
pancakes on Monday morning to get ev-
eryone jump-started into the week!
THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE
What is there in Fridafors except
Spelkollektivet? Nothing. And I only
say that with a bit of sarcasm, because
there aren't that many things to do in
the town. You can take walks, explore
the forest and watch the sunrise and
sunset. For everything else, like going
to the cinema, ordering pizza, or spon-
taneously buying doughnuts, you have
to drive to the nearest town.
WHAT ELSE CAN YOU DO
AT SPELKOLLEKTIVET
Activities are entirely dependent on the
inhabitants. We have board game nights
on Friday, boxing on Monday and Thurs-
day, a Spelkollektivet Minecraft server to
play on, spontaneous anime watching
marathons, mushroom picking adven-
tures, collective Christmas baking and
crazy Halloween and birthday parties.
#LetsTalkArt 47

WHOM WOULD YOU RECOMMEND
MOVING THERE?
Moving to Spelkollektivet makes the most
sense if you have a project you want to
work on. If you want to spend half a year on
your portfolio or finish illustrating a book
or something similar, then this would be
for you. You have to keep in mind that the
place really is in the middle of nowhere
and that there isn't much happening out-
side of the house. It will take you 30 min-
utes to get to the next big town and 2.5–3
hours to reach the airport. If that does not
seem like a big problem for you and you
just want to hang around some awesome
people and do creative work, then you
are more than welcome to apply!
James Newnorth is the creator of
Spelkollektivet. He started programming
back in 1999 after playing Shadows of
Riva, thinking that there had to be a way
to expand the world, as he wasn't ready
to give the game up after finishing it.
Since then, he's made several game proj-
ects on the side of his career in software
and web development. At 21 years old,
he became the CTO of a group of com-
panies, but always felt like he was missing
something since he wasn't working with
what he truly loved, games. Nowadays,
James makes soups, server applications
and games, when not taking care of the
people living in Spelkollektivet.
Why did you create Spelkollektivet?
The idea came quite a few years ago, but
I first started writing down my ideas and
goals with the project back in 2014. Back
then, I was doing my best to do both game
development in my spare time and manage
a more-than-full-time job. It wasn't just me,
it was a bunch of my friends, too, all working
day and night trying to fulfill their dreams of
making a living creating games. Some had
to postpone their dreams for jobs, so they
could continue to pay the bills. We all had
our own separate apartments, but we rent-
ed an office and we spent most of our time
there. I thought that if we would just pool
our resources together and live together,
we could accomplish our dreams. So that's
basically why Spelkollektivet was created. It
is everything I wished my friends and I had
at the time we were trying to make it.
How will you choose who will get to live
there?  48 more people by the end of 2018. This
There is, of course, a limited number of
rooms, so we might not be able to house
everyone that applies. We aim to get a
good mix of people and game develop-
ment skills living with us. After your ap-
plication has been approved, you could
move in as soon as there is a room avail-
able for you.
How many people will be living at
Spelkollektivet?
We estimated somewhere between 8 to
12 inhabitants, initially, depending on if
people would share rooms. With time,
we will continue to develop the house
to allow for additional occupants. Occa-
sionally, there will be more people in the
house since we are hosting game jams
and other events, but, your room is your
private area, at all times.
What are the future plans for the house?
We are currently considering expanding
the project to new houses. If everything
goes well, we might have room for 24-
would mean that we would separate the
living quarters and the working quarters,
creating more and smaller rooms for
people. Teams would be able to have
their own private rooms, while people
who works alone can work together in a
bigger, open space. Other than expand-
ing the amount of people we can have
here, we also look to employ program-
mers, graphic artists and musicians to
help the residents with publishing their
games. This service would be available
for those interested, and they would get
help with everything from development
to marketing and managing the adminis-
trative work of their company.
Is Spelkollektivet like a reality game
show, such as Big Brother?
No. Even though past inhabitants have
requested there to be a livestream of the
office so they can watch their old house-
mates, we don't record or stream.

Will I have my own room and how much

space is there?
You will have your own room, unless you
decide to share a room with someone
else. The rooms come with 1 or 2 beds,
a cupboard and space for all your be-
longings. The house itself is pretty big,
so there is plenty of space to play games
or find a quiet corner for drawing.

Do I have to work in game development?

In general, our target audience is people
working within the game development
area, but we do not require it to be your
main profession.

48 Firestarter Mag #3 #LetsTalkArt 49

 INTERVIEW
STEPHANE WOOTHA RICHARD
BY CRAIG GOMES

Wootha is a leading concept artist and

illustrator for TV, advertising, anima-
tion,  video games and publishing.  He
had been a professional musician for a
decade, after which he became a soft-
ware developer in his early 30s. At age
36, he decided to get back with his child-
hood passion of visual storytelling, and
then began learning 2D and 3D comput-
er graphic art. Since then, he has spent
several years freelancing for production
houses like Netflix Originals, YouTube
Red Originals and Legendary Digital
Networks. He's contributed to publica-
tions such as ImagineFX, 3DCreative,
Ankama Editions and Ballistic Publish-
ing's Exposé.. He is now focused on shar-
ing his knowledge with young aspiring
artists and creating his own visual stories.

As a young kid, he never had any ambi-

tions before he was 16. People around
him, his parents, and professors kept tell-
ing him he was a failure. He never really
thought about himself and his ambitions

50 Firestarter Mag #3 Stephane Wootha Richard by Daniel Bolling Walsh for Firestarter | artstation.com/danielbolling Artwork ©Stephane Wootha Richard 51

until he was old enough to rebel. While
his ambitions for making art as a living
manifested when he was around 16-17,
its roots are even older. His father was
an artist. He grew up with a man whose
only socially recognized virtue was to be
an outstanding painter, or, so said the
people who knew him. Unfortunately, as
his father was also a gambler, Wootha
never had a chance to see his work to
form any of his own opinions. After leav-
ing his father, he never had any other
choices aside from trying to be a better
artist. This was the only positive memory
left from his father, and the only thing he
believed he could use to build himself a
good career and life. So, this is where it all
started. Drawing had been a big part of
his childhood. He spent countless hours
in his room, sitting at his desk, trying to
create stunning pieces of art that would
let people know that he could be an out-
standing artist, too. But it didn't work out,
because the challenge was biased from
the beginning.
At 17, music took over drawing, and for
the next 13 years, he dedicated himself
52 Firestarter Mag #3
to it. In the meantime, school was a total
nightmare. He never, ever managed to
understand why he should learn some-
thing he wasn't interested in. This was
psychological torture for him, not be-
cause he wasn't understanding, but be-
cause he couldn't bear the frustration,
the boredom and the anxiety generated
by learning uninteresting things. As soon
as he was old enough to read, he started
spending hours learning random things
from the dictionary and encyclopaedia,
then moving from one interest to anoth-
er. He enjoyed learning by himself so
much, that soon people started to offer
him even more books of knowledge for
birthdays and Christmas presents be-
cause it was always a perfect hit.
He dropped out of school around 16,
and ended up in a professional school
learning cooking for two years, until he
was old enough to decide this wasn't
his career path at all. So, from there, he
learned viticulture because he enjoyed
working outdoors and had found a job
as an agricultural worker.
wootha.com
A few months later, he decided that he
would live for music, or die trying. He
lived for 2 years in Senegal and West Af-
rica, where he studied Sabar and Mand-
inka percussions, two musical forms that
he was really interested in. He played
music from village to village with a griot
band in weddings and other traditional
events, such as Sabar (street dance) and
Lambu (traditional wrestling). He says,
"The number of things I learned there has
been tremendous, not only about music,
but also about languages, thought pro-
cesses in oral cultures, people and just
life in general. I think I owe half of what
I am today to this experience." When he
came back to France, he started to play
professionally in several bands, ranging
from jazz to world music and folk rock.
At 30, he moved to software engineering.
He needed to find something creative to
work on that would also work out for the
family. He loved computer and program-
ming and started a more in-depth ap-
proach as a musician, experimenting with
sound processing and generative music
with software like Pure Data and Max MSP.
After months of learning ActionScript for
Flash, he started freelancing. He kept
freelancing and learning about web tech-
nologies, server security and software
engineering, and ended up working as
a project manager in a small web agen-
cy. But at some point, all the creative part
of the job was gone, and all that was left
were deadlines, recipes, reusing libraries
and invoicing fast. One day at a com-
ic book convention, he realized he was
drifting away from a long-forgotten child-
hood dream. He and his boss came to an
arrangement and he managed to leave
with a couple months' salary with him.
At 36,  he opened a subscription to The
Gnomon Workshop and Digital Tutors.
He worked hard, without any rest, put in a
lot of dedication, and has now become a
leading concept artist and illustrator.
At 36, Wootha joined the industry where
he met a lot of "fantastic" people, who
helped him learn even further and taught
him new things all the time. "When I step
aside and think for a minute, I realize how
incredible this is to make a living out of
imagining creatures, cities, characters
and stories, and then bring them to life
visually", says Wootha. After one year of
hard training at home, he knew he need-
ed something that would help him get
his feet wet in the art industry while al-
lowing him to keep learning, in order to
reach his next goal. That's when he also
started as a comic book colourist. "Com-
ic book colouring is fantastic. It's real
art and a perfect way to solve hundreds
of small composition problems each
#LetsTalkArt 53
 week", Wootha says. He started to work
with Ankama, Editions Soleil, and later,
Delcourt on several series for around
20  months. From here, he learned the
skillset needed to become an illustra-
tor, and as soon as he was ready, he
started looking for opportunities. That's
when Geek and Sundry contacted him
for Titansgrave – a perfect combination
of chance and proactive job searching.
combination of chance and proactive
job searching. He was posting his work
often and things started to happen.
Soon, he was asked to do art direction on
an illustration production. This freaked
him out at first, because he was just start-
ing illustration and wasn't exactly the
best artist on the team. But, opportunity
doesn't knock twice, so he accepted it
and gave his very best. "I didn't know if I
could be a good art director, but I knew I
was working with great artists who knew
their jobs and only needed clear guid-
ance about what the production wanted",
says Wootha. So, it was a lot of communi-
cation with the producer, Adam Lawson
and the team. After that, Wootha worked
for many clients, like Hex TCG, Brian Gra-
den, FFG and Future Publishing, ranging
from board games and publishing, to
video games and TV. During this time,
he was also studying fundamentals of
design to meet his next goal of moving
into concept art and visual development.
He started working with various compa-
nies in the USA, UK and China, like Pow-
erhouse Animation, Atomhawk Design,
Axis Animation, and PsyOp as a concept
54 Firestarter Mag #3
artist and visual development artist for
animation, TV and video games. Wootha
has started a new venture called The Art
Hacker, which delivers free education-
al content regarding concept art. How
does he plan to expand this initiative in
the future and help reach out to more art-
ists? He started The Art Hacker because
he wanted to reach people who failed at
the traditional way of learning. "I've been
through this, being told I'm a failure,
when it's actually the educational system
that failed me. I wanted to share my ex-
perience with young people who are full
of creative potential but who can't thrive
on the classical way of learning", Wootha
remarks. He's been able to learn things
he thought would never be within his
reach. "I'm no genius, I'm just an average
person with an average brain. How come
I can still learn at 40 when I was incapable
of grasping the fundamentals of gram-
mar or mathematics at 7? Because I'm an
enthusiast, and because I love learning
in chaos." Wootha loves to pick random
articles about random things whenever
he's inspired to learn something new and
wander the paths of knowledge.
Another very important thing in which
Wootha believes is to give to the com-
munity more than you take. Share pro-
cesses, tips and tricks, secret recipes,
useful discoveries, brushes, PSDs, tem-
plates, and what not. Give insights on
struggles that you've been through and
that you now know how to solve.
In a simple word, teach.
55
 LECTURE
YOU HAVE ONE SHOT.
BY DAN LUVISI

It's daunting to think about and to

imagine with all of the opportunities
that surround you daily. As children, I
believe we all began as artists in some
shape or form. These endless palettes
of information and creativity had yet to
be suppressed or removed by growing
up. Once you pass through the stages
of school, you're molded and prepared
for your future where you will continue
through the forthcoming years of either
a college or university, and hopefully in
the end, you'll receive your diploma and
move onto the next chapter in life - the
most daunting of all.

Becoming an adult.

A lot of people always said to me, "Dan-

ny, have you always known you wanted to
be an artist?" and to which I respond, "It's
all I was ever good at." That's the truth I
still feel to this day, though, yes, maybe I
can pride myself on a few oven-fit meals
and the ability to hold a good kill-death

56 Firestarter Mag #3 Dan LuVisi by Jomaro Kindred for Firestarter | kindredconcepts.com Artwork ©Dan LuVisi | artstation.com/danluvisiart 57

ratio in a video game. But outside of that,
art had always been this crystal-clear en-
deavor that I had wished to not only en-
dure its journey, but also learn from what
it had to offer me.
My parents were both artists, each in their
own separate medium. Before becoming
a banker, my father had been a painter,
and my mother had positioned herself in
interior design. I always say that I got the
OCD-details from my mother's design
side and the painter-vibes from my fa-
ther. I remember the first time my father
uncovered a massive painting of a cave
woman he had done in his youth. Hav-
ing put that dream behind him to instead
take care of his family after his own father
had passed, there was a pining in me to
continue that dream.
My mother had an array of tools, devic-
es, and other various artistic graphs that
I had no idea about what they were as a
child. But she would sit there, late into
the night, and coax these amazing blue-
prints out of nothing.
58 Firestarter Mag #3
Watching them inspired me to again
continue that journey they had taken, but
to also fuse my own personality with it as
they had with their work — though, first I
would have to actually learn how to draw
and muster such a skill.
It began with my dad testing me to copy
a Ninja Turtle character he had drawn.
When he arrived home after work, my
mom proudly held up the image — col-
ored-in and all. From there, he had cre-
ated a monster. I would lock myself away
in the "upstairs basement" or, my room,
where I would create these visual "what
if" scenarios involving all of my favor-
ite characters. Pitting foes like Batman
against Judge Dredd or Darth Vader,
I'd then write little stories to accompany
them on this dinky-writing program, Cor-
al Writer, with MS Paint covers, and all.
I loved to dream and to go into these
realms that didn't exist in my backyard.
While I had numerous friends that did
bring me outside, drawing and writing
had always been a place of comfort for
me. After my parents divorced, it became
a nest and eventually a safe-haven to
escape depression or anxiety. Let's just
say Cinderella's stepmom was decent in
comparison to my first.
But art allowed me to grow and evolve.
Through elementary, middle school and
even high school, all of my teachers,
while respectful of my work, had worried
that I wouldn't make it in life. My school
grades were sub-par, and I failed mid-
dle-school and was nearly held back.
ADD was there inside me, but I had re-
fused to use it as an excuse. While yes,
it was challenging to focus, and as deli-
cious as Twinkies are, shoved with con-
centration medicine (I couldn't swallow
pills as a kid), school was just not for me.
Courses such as history and English were
the only classes I could focus on. Things
that, again, allowed me to escape — to
traverse to Omaha Beach, France during
D-Day, or experience the golden-age era
of architecture—though all in my head.
These classes inspired me to go back
home and build my craft, regardless of
the naysayers or bad grades.
Hell, I remember freaking out about not
having a college-degree; never once
have I been asked for one in my career.
When I entered high school, I had moved
away to live with my father because, as I
stated above, I had failed middle school.
Transferred to a new school, I was intro-
verted and hard-placed to make friends. I
hung out by myself, and listened to Limp
Bizkit, Linkin Park, 2Pac, DMX, and John
Williams like a fiend. And, as you might
have guessed, I drew.
I drew a lot. Every day. On sketchbooks
or random pieces of paper. If a student
wanted a drawing of them being eat-
en by a T-rex? We were doing it. If a girl
wanted herself drawn as Princess Leia?
Done. How did it probably look? Awful.
Art allowed me to make friends and make it work. It helped reminding myself
gave me something that didn't make of all the naysayers and negative things
me feel like a nobody or a loser - names I had heard. Also, the idea of ‘flipping
my teachers or other students would burgers' one day, like my kindergarten
often call me as a child. I never tried to teacher said I'd do if I was lucky, wasn't a
be popular, and never went to parties or path I really wanted to take.
prom. Hell, I never even really had much
of a girlfriend. But I had this dream. This Even though my high school teachers
dream of one day becoming this famous were no fans of mine and gave me D's
artist and working on all the projects that and F's for my digital art of Neo and
once inspired me. Agent Smith, I was learning something
new. Digital art began to inspire and
So, my father went and bought me a push me in new ways that even drawing
tiny Graphire tablet after I had seen this on paper didn't. I eventually became ob-
amazing digital-painting by the ever-so sessed with it, and took it to its furthest
skilled Justin Sweet. I tried teaching my- reaches, until one day I could proudly
self and it was near impossible at the say that painting was paying my bills.
time. Being 32 now, I was 15 at the time
and there were no such things as Gum- That wasn't enough, though. My father
road, Brainstorm or Schoolism. Instead, always told me, never work under some-
there was DeviantArt anime and poems. one's thumb for too long. Build your
own empire and be your own boss. I
I gave up several times. I felt that may- loved that. Of course, you could say,
be this road wasn't right for me. My art "but wouldn't you be the thumb?" Nah,
wasn't being seen or viewed by anyone, I wanted something else — a common
and I began to feel that so-called fear: ground for other artists who dreamed
doubt. Over the weeks though, I would of building their own worlds. Stephan
continue to go back to it and try and Lokotsch, my business partner, who I had
#LetsTalkArt 59

met in my twenties, also had that very
same dream. After numerous failed gigs,
I was running out of money after gradu-
ating high school. Having saved up most
of my lunch money and allowance, I was
able to move out very soon and throw
my hat into the ring. I got hired, but also
fired quickly after by several studios, as
deadlines didn't get along with me.
After meeting Stephan, though, we both
spoke of stepping outside of the box
and building something new. A platform
that would allow the artists to be up front
and in the spotlight, not hidden among
a sea of names. If we designed and built
these worlds, then why couldn't we tell
their stories, as well?
This pipe-dream of ours would take
years, but about 12 years ago, I agreed
to it. We fought hard, and through many
challenging and rewarding situations,
we prevailed until eventually we built our
company, Section 9 Entertainment. How-
ever, to become known and established,
we would first need a brand and some-
thing to show off.
In 2008, I began designing several char-
acters who were nothing more than ba-
dasses doing badass things. I didn't put
60 Firestarter Mag #3
too much thought into their backstories
other than the aesthetic of how they
looked. But when I began posting more
of them, the attraction grew for this prop-
erty I knew nothing of.
It wasn't until I painted a masked and
blacked-out bounty hunter named Ga-
briel that all of that would change.
It would be called LMS: Killbook of a
Bounty Hunter and also one of the most
challenging journeys I had ever gone on.
When the idea was conceived, I pulled
Stephan into his home and said that we
may have something here. I didn't know
what exactly, but I set a deadline and a
goal for a pitch. When I hit it, we pitched
it to Heavy Metal where Kevin Eastman
agreed to publish.
I was ecstatic and thrilled, but now I had
to make a book.
What was supposed to only be 30 pag-
es morphed into a sprawling near-300
pages of world-building, characters,
lore and all. I became obsessed with it,
pushing aside everything to build what
I felt could become something big one
day. I couldn't help it. I had never felt
so attached to a world or the characters
inside, that it soon became a part of my
life. Ten years later, we've been fortunate
enough to have been optioned for a film,
merchandise, such as toys, publishing
deals, and above all, an amazing, dedi-
cated, sincere and outrageously hum-
bling following that I hope can one day
see what I've been working on for the
past several years.
Though, even above all of that, what I've
learned through this journey and experi-
ence — it now having been ten years since
I began LMS on January 2nd, 2008  — is
that I have never felt happier with my
decisions when it comes to building my
own worlds or having others put their
own talents and skills into helping build-
ing it alongside me. Never limit yourself.
Never stand down. Never give up, and
always continue to push through the
bullshit and doubt. Life is full of it, and it
will constantly try to take you down. You
will be taunted, judged, and mocked for
your bold decisions.
#LetsTalkArt
You will be ridiculed and laughed at if you
stumble or fall, but that's the whole point
— to continue to get back up and fight
for what you believe in. I used to think,
"Ha, that's all talk. People just say that to
lift your spirits." But I'm living proof that
it's possible. Bust your ass, make connec-
tions, lead by example, and make sure
you put in your all. Like I said, you got
one shot to make something of your life.
You don't have to make a huge book, or
have toys built. Just do it for you. Do what
makes you happy, and build a legacy, so
one day someone can hold your art, your
writing, or watch your show or film and
go, "Wow. I'm going to do that one day."
Just like I thought when I watched Star
Wars: A New Hope for the first time.
And if not, I'll leave you with something
my father once told me:
"Danny, it's either going to be you, or
someone else, who wants it more."
Godspeed.
Dan LuVisi
61
 RUNNING IN CIRCLES
OR MY COMPLETELY RANDOM JOURNEY
LECTURE BY MARK MOLNAR
ART SAVED MY LIFE
I have always drawn, and as long as I
can remember back, drawing was a part
of playing for me since I was very little. I
was drawing gigantic battle scenes with
ninjas, knights, helicopters, and tanks
around castles guarded by robots and
loved it. The only problem was that I
was doing this instead of my homework
or school assignments, which is not the
best thing if you are in primary school.
Then, there was a point where hanging
around the block with other kids became
more important than drawing. Even if I
was only a kid, my way of life started to
become more and more damaging to
my learning and family life. As the final
result, I ran away from home because I
could not face my parents and, more
importantly, my own faults. After a few
days on the streets at the age of twelve, I
went home because I realised what was
right and what was wrong in my life. I was
really lucky, because I had super under-
standing parents and they knew I need-
62 Firestarter Mag #3 Mark Molnar by Halil Ural for Firestarter | artstation.com/mrdream Artwork ©Mark Molnar | markmolnar.com | pixoloid.net
ed a purpose in my life. My mom worked
at a cultural centre back then and they
had a life drawing course there, so they
thought, why not try that? I always loved
drawing, anyway.
It was kind of a revelation for me, as I
realised that art was more than just a fun
way to spend my afternoon, and actually
a real thing that people could do for a
living. I was absolutely hooked the very
first time and never looked back since.
HIGH SCHOOL AND THE REAL LIFE
A couple years later, I ended up going to
a special fine art class in one of our local
high schools. Thanks to my really support-
ive art teachers there, I had the chance to
experiment with various mediums and
techniques and they also introduced me
to design and illustration. At the age of
18, I moved away from my parents to
Budapest, and managed to get into the
main design university in Hungary. I am
not from a particularly poor family, but I
63
 not handle all the pressure and at age
22, I had my first burnout. Everybody in
my surroundings thought I was crazy to
move away from all the awesome work
and the prestigious school, but I knew I
had to step off of this insane treadwheel.
So I moved to the farthest place I could
find from home, New Zealand...
NEW ZEALAND V.01 – THE ESCAPE
I was making good money compared to
my fellow students, but I was also spend-
ing a lot, so I did not have much savings.
I could manage to buy my return flight
ticket (valid for a year) and had around
$500 in my pocket when I arrived with
one of my friends at the most beauti-
ful place on Earth. We were doing any
work we could find in the first couple
of months – I was picking apples, doing
gardening, chopping huge bushweed
with a machete, packing avocados and
kiwifruit – and I was absolutely loving it.
Dune - The Baron © Centipede Press / Mark Molnar
Everything was out of my comfort zone
and was totally different than what I was
doing before. But the biggest plus was
that in my freetime I could finally focus
on my own art again. A few months later
my girlfriend (now my wife) also joined
me and together we managed to save
up enough money to hit the road and
just live from our art.
After we traveled around both islands,
we ended up settling down in Wellington
at a huge hippy house. One of our flat-
always had to pay for my apartment, bills, mates was a sculptor, who was working
food, etc. At first, I did any jobs I could in Peter Jackson's King Kong back then,
find, including working in cold storage and he offered to make a recommenda-
packaging yogurts and stamping enve- tion in the production for me. So I found
lopes at a post office to name a few. After myself working with the set finisher team
I got a bit more experience in graphic de- of King Kong the very next week.
sign, I somehow ended up working for an
event planning company. First I was do- HOLY SHIT! WTF IS CONCEPT ART?!
ing small graphics, then the entire thing When working on the amazing sets of
picked up and I was designing the visual King Kong, one day I found a reference
appearance of whole corporate events. I folder full of printed-out mood concepts
was doing multiple jobs, working at fes- and set designs done by the incredible
tivals, designing sets for theatre pieces, artists at Weta. I was totally blown away.
and doing my own personal paintings I created visuals and drawings for my set
plus trying to manage all my classes and designs before, but this was a totally dif-
homework at uni at the same time. Well, it ferent level. This combined all the things
wasn't the best idea. After a point I could I loved in art – storytelling, figurative il-
64 Firestarter Mag #3
lustration, design, movies – and I realized
that people actually did this for a living!
I did not know this was 'concept art' or
'concept design', though. Back in 2003,
those terms barely existed. It was funny
that I had to go to literally the other end
of the world to rediscover myself as an
artist and also find something that I could
be truly passionate about. So I closed
this circle and went back to where I start-
ed, but with a purpose.
BACK TO UNI AND GOING DIGITAL
Fortunately, I'd had the chance to skip
a year at uni, so I was going back to the
same school, just to a year behind my
previous class. During the year I spent
away from academic studying, I realised
the only one stopping me from really
enjoying my studies and school assign-
ments was myself. From this point on, I
tried to focus all my energy on channel-
ing my studies towards concept art and
digital illustration. The funny thing was
that I knew about artwork created digital-
ly, and I did not know that graphic tab-
lets were a thing. I tried to draw and paint
with a mouse, but I even enjoyed the pain
in my wrist at the end of a long day…
Back then, there weren't any online tu-
torials, and I did not even have internet
at my student apartment at first. I tried
to dig myself into the freshly-started fo-
rums of Conceptart.org and was lurking
around the speedpainting threads of
Sijun, where art heroes like Sparth and
Levi were posting daily updates.
Beside my art, I also had to work, of
course, but I pushed my personal art
much harder. I was still making a living
from graphic design and theatre-relat-
ed jobs mainly, but after about a year I
slowly started to get a bit of freelance
concept work through Conceptart.org.
At first, I was doing gigs for free or very
little money, but it was great to get ex-
perience with real clients. Slowly, but
surely, I managed to build up a portfolio
and transition from being a fairly alright
graphic designer to a beginner freelance
concept artist / digital illustrator.
Photo ©Industry Workshops
NEW ZEALAND V.02 –
THE FIRST REAL JOB AND MORE!
Not long after graduating from my mas-
ter's at uni, I started to work for game
company in New Zealand as a freelancer.
Luckily, they were really happy with my
work and about 5–6 months later they
wanted me to join the team. I accepted
the offer and closed another circle in my
life – back to where I let off, again. It was
a small team of young guys, a great team
with a bit too ambitious of a project. I
learned a lot there, always tried to pick up
new techniques from my peers and was
drawing and painting like crazy the whole
day. Unfortunately, I moved to the com-
pany just a year before the credit crisis hit
the global economy. After the financial
backing started to disappear, they had to
close down the studio, like many others
at that time. Besides my day job I kept
some of my freelance work, so I was lucky
that I could go back to full-time freelance.
As a result, I also started working for the
hobby game industry, doing illustrations
for books and cards for IPs, like Warham-
mer and Warhammer 40k.
And then came the cherry on top. I was in
touch with the great folks at Weta, send-
ing them my updated portfolio once ev-
ery year since I'd left New Zealand the
first time. And this time they called me in
to work there for a short period. But this
was a crazy period financially for them,
as well; this was the time when they'd al-
ready finished the concept phase of The
Hobbit movies, but could not start the
actual production, because of copyright
issues between production companies.
65
 When I finished my time there, I had a I woke up at 6 every day, did my home-
chat with Richard Taylor and he said he work till around 10, worked on the pitch
was really happy with my performance and other ‘real' work from 10 to 6 with
and would like to keep me on board… a short lunch break, then to school from
but not this time. That they would call me 7–10, then a bit of practice on what we
as soon as the production on The Hobbit learned in class till around midnight or
started, though this could be a month, or 1, sometimes 2 in the morning, and then
six. On the personal side of my life, there again… for 4 months. It was a crazy peri-
were some serious health issues with my od, but I think I grew the most as an art-
ist in that time. I had the chance to learn
from guys like James Paick, Bryan Wyn-
ia, Jerad Marantz, Vaughan Ling, Carlo
Arellano and Andy Chung, and to attend
the workshops of Jamie Jones, Nathan
All the work I had found in LA somehow
kept going, and I was doing covers and
interior illustrations for publishers main-
ly in the States, and had the chance to
create artwork for the promotional cam-
paign of movies, like Riddick, Godzilla
or Planet of the Apes. This was the time
when recruiters started to approach me
with job offers. I did not talk about this
before, but I'd applied to hundreds of
jobs at game and VFX companies and I
can tell you being the worst at doing in-
terviews and trial work. I can seem really
self-conscious, sometimes even cocky

Guardian Towers © Mark Molnar

Fowkes and Chris Appelhans.
Somehow all the energy I was pumping
into my own art came back to me through
various ways and I had the chance to
work on projects that I never dreamed
of. I ended up creating covers for the
hobby game line of Star Wars and, out of
from the outside, but I can tell you that it
all comes from that I am super-introvert-
ed and insecure, and thinking that most
of the stuff I do is a pile of crap and that
I honestly have no idea how to talk with
people at all. So basically, I have had
lots of chances to get into companies
through some messy interviewing pro-

Senua - Hellblade Marketing Art © Ninja Theory

the blue, I was painting matte paintings cesses, but I always fucked it up some-
Leviathan Wakes - Cover Art © Editora Aleph

Time Warner commercials. I also started
my Dune Project here as a school assign-
ment for James Paick, and I created some
creature designs in class that were by the
editors at ImagineFX mag on my blog. As
a result, I became a regular writer / con-
tributor for IFX for years and just recently
I had the chance to work on the upcom-
ing, fully-illustrated special edition of the
original Dune. Stepping out of my com-
fort zone helped me again and made me
girlfriend's mom, so I considered this a a different person.
sign that we had to move back home. I
also think that I just wasn't good enough CO-WORKING FREELANCE
to work there as a full-time artist back But I had to close this circle, as well, and
then, but it was a great experience to see return back home. It would have been
where I needed to improve. Another cir- great to stay in LA, but my fiancée was
cle closed and I was back home again, a back home and there are things, that
little more experienced, but also ready to are more important than the coolest
push myself even harder... gig. I knew I would go back to the solo
style of freelance work, but even after
LOS ANGELES - THE REAL ART SCHOOL a few weeks, I was missing all the cre-
I spent a bit more than a year in Budapest ative input I got in LA from my teachers
working as a freelancer, mainly doing il- and friends. I felt isolated and alone.
lustration jobs and sometimes helping Then suddenly, I started to bump into
out in film and animation pitches. When artists who were talking about the exact
I was approached to work on a bigger same thing. It did not take long, once
pitch for an animated feature for a client we teamed up, to rent an empty flat in
in LA, I thought that it would be the per- downtown Budapest, which we turned
fect opportunity to go back to school. into a co-working office.
how. I was blocked completely during an
interview, did my worst-ever work for a
character design test, you name it. That's
why I was really sceptical about these
offers from recruiters and turned them
down instantly most of the times.
NINJAS OF ALBION
What happened after this was abso-
lutely random. I was in the middle of a
deadline, when I got a call from an agent
about a role at a really cool company.
Then, I totally forgot about the the whole
thing till about 6 weeks later, when I got a
call from the agent – "I have good news!
You are going to have a phone interview
tomorrow morning!" "Wait, what?" From
that point on, everything happened re-
ally fast. I had the phone interview, then
another one through Skype, then anoth-
er two-hour long one with all the depart-
ment heads from the company. And in
the end, I got a job offer and that's how
I ended up working as a senior at Ninja
Theory a few months later. Circling back
to game development again…
Originally, I signed up to be a lead con-
cept artist for a major comic adaptation,
but the publisher pulled the plug only
a month after I arrived. Imagine how I
freaked out! I had just moved all my stuff
there, signed a contract for an apartment
for a one-year minimum, and was still on
my trial period. Luckily, the team really
liked my work and already had plans, so
that was the point when we started work-
ing on Hellblade. I am super proud that I
could have been part of that project and
I am really glad that the team managed
to achieve what the directors and what
we wanted to achieve at the beginning
– creating a beautiful and meaningful
experience. Unfortunately, my fiancée
had some serious issues in her family
and could not move to the UK with me,
so after over a year of a long distance re-
lationship and travelling back and forth,
I felt I had to be beside her. I was really

66 Firestarter Mag #3 #LetsTalkArt 67


sorry I could not stay at NT longer, but I
stayed till we finished the main pre-pro-
duction phase of Hellblade and another
game pitch for a big publisher.
BEHIND THE PIXELS
During my time at NT, I really missed
teaching, but it wasn't realistic with my
full-time job and occasional freelance
work. That's when I was thinking about
putting together a tutorial book. After
years of doing tutorials and Q&A arti-
cles for ImagineFX and putting togeth-
er some videos, it seemed like a good
idea. I wanted to put together the book
that my younger self wanted when I was
starting out in concept art. It was pure
coincidence that IAMag (ItsArt, back
then) was looking for projects to crowd-
fund through their website, and after a
few Skype calls, we teamed up to do the
project. I realised that using only my art-
work and tutorials would not reflect the
industry, so I tried to invite guest artists
into the book and their responses just
blew me away. I wrote to 32 working
professionals whose work I absolutely
admire and who I know personally from
workshops or from online forums, and
each one of them replied in a only a few
hours saying, 'yes'. I am really thank-
ful for them, because without their ini-
tial support and contributions later, my
book would not be what it is. So what
was planned to be a 100 page small,
turned out to be a nearly 300 pages long
book with 400+ full-color works of art,
covering nearly all aspects of concept
art in the industry.
68 Firestarter Mag #3
Bamboo Forest Duel © Mark Molnar
PIXOLOID STUDIOS
After closing my latest circle and mov-
ing back home again, I moved a bit away
from social media and wanted to focus on
my private life. I also felt I needed some-
thing different on the work side. I loved
the creative buzz of working in a studio
environment, but I also enjoyed the ver-
satility of the freelance life, so I was hop-
ing to combine the two somehow. One
of my long-time friends from uni (also a
freelancer doing art direction and digital
art, just on the tv and advertising side,
mainly) and I had already talked about
starting up a company before, so we de-
cided to team up and try to channel our
work through this new enterprise. I hon-
estly never thought that this whole thing
would pick up this fast, but since then
we've grown from the two of us, to six or
seven awesome artists working in-house
and we've done concept design work for
companies like Universal, Paramount, Li-
onsgate, Sony, National Geographic and
Digic Pictures, to name a few. So, I can't
wait to see what the next year brings...
I never imagined that I would have a
chance to work on the projects I work on
now and most of my journey happened
accidentally, to be honest. The only thing
that was constant was my drive to learn
more and be not just a better artist, but
a better person. So, the most important
advice I can give to young artists is to
never give up on their dreams, work hard
and just be persistent. Life will sort out
the rest - even if you feel you are running
in random circles sometimes. :)
69

INTERVIEW
COLLEGE OF X
BY MASH BAITMAN
College of X - Interview by Mash Baitman
with Herwig Kopp, co-founder, director
and CEO of Berlin's new institution for
teaching Visual Arts
What is College of X? What are you go-
ing to be teaching there, and why does it
need teaching?
College of X is tackling the "Art of Visual
Storytelling" as an upcoming private insti-
tution to enrich the Berlin scene with long-
term courses and an international scope.
It's for talented individuals after their leav-
ing exams, students battling with the uni-
versity system or young professionals who
want to enlarge or change their arsenal of
skills. Powered by 40 years of know-how
from an Italian chain of art schools, Scuola
Internazionale di Comics, it is set up as an
innovation lab and independent brand to
blend the traditionally strong background
of illustration and comics in Italy with the
vision of a contemporary digital capital,
Berlin. We believe that art, storytelling
and tech are the future.
70 Firestarter Mag #3
This means teaching the nuts and bolts in
comics, illustration, animation and game
design in part-time private courses – in
English – starting in Fall 2018. Traditional
teaching is still needed because of the
ongoing digital transformation, which
tends to overwhelm with too many op-
tions and gives the impression you have
everything at your fingertips. But focus
is difficult and procrastination through
social media a common habit. We think
that a local professional community and
structured, long-term continuity does
develop a singular artistic path sustain-
ably. We also believe that community
and continuity are the best remedies for
self-motivation, which poses one of the
biggest challenges in learning. To keep
you on track, saving time and headspace
in the long run, we offer you a family,
challenges and a gateway to the inter-
national scene, with quiet space to work
at putting your new skills into practice.
We live in very exciting times. What does
"cyberpunk" mean to visual art? What is
collegeofx.com | mashabaitman.com
the role of the individual artist in all that?
Maybe the answer lies in taking tradi-
tional methods and skills seriously and
applying them in new formats with new
technology. Nevertheless, drawing, mix-
ing three colours, perspective and rules
about how to tell a good story might still
be valid nowadays, as we are still human
beings who have not changed so much
in the last 50,000 years. We sat around
campfires and handcrafted cave paint-
ings – now we have virtual reality.
Everyone likes the story of a man with a
calling! How did you to decide to create
this school?
It sparked because I told my story. My
personal and professional path led to this
development and helped me to form a
team. I guess trust was built up because
of my diverse background, ranging from
graphic design and new media art, to
brain science, and live-action roleplaying.
I worked more than 10 years as a graphic
designer starting with a private course (a
bit like the ones we are creating now), but
also organised and finished an individual
study plan, "Cognitive Neuroscience" – es-
sentially brain science – at the University of
Vienna. Later, I added new media art and
conceptual art at the Academy of Fine Arts
to the mix, and I am an avid live-action
roleplayer, Nordic-style, playing charac-
ters on Swedish battleships or Polish cas-
tles. My partners, with their experience of
building up nine schools – one of them in
Chicago – may have thought that this was
the right mind to team up with and create
something new, together. Once I was giv-
en the advice that I should probably start
my own institute by a professor during my
studies of brain science. That was more
critique than praise – the suggestion there
was to be more humble. You probably
could not, and should not, start your own
institute when you're still in the midst of
your own studies, but somehow the idea
stuck. I was then following my own path,
teaching transmedia storytelling (Torino
Film Lab, Peking University, etc.) and work-
ing in the film and games industry since I
came to Berlin ten years ago. Now, there is
an opportunity to head back into applied
#LetsTalkArt
©Elena Casadoro
brain science, adding the whole spectrum
of what I have done so far, and pour it into
the art of visual storytelling.
Comics and illustration are about cre-
ating visual stories. Why are stories im-
portant?
To put it shortly, what our senses and our
cognitive system do to understand and
interact with our environment all day
long is storytelling. Meaning is not creat-
ed through perfect comprehension, but
through adding and leaving out and dis-
torting and bending and filling the gaps
– mostly with our memory, which is far
from being reliable. We understand the
world through stories. We invent, weigh
and concatenate concepts all the time
and express them in sequences, calling
it communication. That might be obvi-
ous to some, but actually it's not easy to
argue in a scientific way, and it's much
more difficult to prove, because proof
I consider storytelling, as well. You may
guess that many scientists might not be
happy with my view.
There seems to be a sentiment in science
that stories are, by their nature, fanciful
and cannot express reality in a way that's
scientific. In a sense, stories are opposed
to what science presumes to stand for.
That's just another story they like telling
and that's totally fine. Science is particu-
larly good at producing coherent stories
and setting standards, which then change
71
 and evolve over time. Paradigms do shift.
But concerning absolute proof, I would
contest that we have an ultimate world-
view now and will not be any wiser in 500
years. I don't say "I have truth" – I don't
trust any truth that is being brought to
us as "the one and only truth", but I trust
storytelling because it may tell us at least
something, giving us options for interpre-
tation. So, storytelling is everything.
What is the best way to learn art skills?
[laughs] Well, again, it's storytelling.
It's the human base – we're not getting
ourselves into a circular logic here, it's
elementary and often still undervalued.
Teaching is all about telling a story, as
well. It has to be fun and meaningful to
capture attention and stick. The best way
to learn is with compelling storytelling
on multiple levels to generate a passion
for learning. No method can help you if
you do not want to learn. In our times of
digital transformation, there are myriads
of options to reach out for knowledge –
that's not a problem. It's not just about
the fire of inspiration; it's about meaning-
ful application. You can wind up cooking
a dull bean soup, or a burned one like
you see desperadoes eating in Wild West
movies, but you can also have a 3-Miche-
lin star recipe unfolding on your palate.
Tough question time: pretty much any
info needed to become a top-tier artist
exists for free on the internet as tutorials,
articles, and forums. Why does a mod-
ern, aspiring artist even need to go to a
college to study their craft?
©Herwig Kopp
72 Firestarter Mag #3
They don't need to go to a college to
study their craft. There are many ways in
which to reach one's destination, many
"Romes." Actually, our partner's network
was founded in Rome and the current
artistic director is Paolo Eleuteri Serpieri,
world-famous for his Druuna series. We
are a private institution, not a university,
offering private courses for developing
your portfolio. Certificates do not count
much anymore, but your portfolio and
experience does – the quality of your
work. This partnership with the Scuola
Internazionale di Comics has shown that
learning through good teachers and in
a community can teach students more
than just how to create and execute
standard artwork. Developing inside of
a local community is much more joy-
ful – you meet people, work with them
and set up activities together. We offer a
plan which lets you work and learn and
gives you tools to help you go on by
yourself. Practice and projects matter, as
well as teamwork.
What do you intend to impart to your pro-
spective students that sets you apart from
similar programmes, analogue or online?
Skills alone are not enough. We teach
skills, as well, but again, skills alone will
not bring a piece of art to its point. It
might look nice and look beautiful, but
you need a human component to bring
the point home. In the end, you gotta tell
a good story. Better yet, a very good sto-
ry! Even with the details. Teaching means
to give opportunities to find out, "What is
a good story? Do I tell something interest-
ing and fun?" It gives you additional value
for your own work and for storytellers and
worldbuilders who ask you to give them
a matte painting or a character design.
These skills will come in handy because
they are human skills which cannot be
modelled easily by machines, so you are
less likely to be replaced by a robot.
Young people often are. I realize in retro-
spect that my art academy's job was pri-
marily to widen my horizons. How is Col-
lege of X going to widen the students'
horizons?
Find College of X on Facebook and Instagram
I think the main goal is to enlarge vision,
perspective and the horizon for people
attending our College. I think it's not
enough to give people tools; you have
to give people multiple perspectives
which interest them – some for the mar-
ket, some for their personal growth. You
can work and study from home and not
even want to interact with the visual arts
community and the market, but at a cer-
tain point you have to. And at that mo-
ment, one has to know what to do to sur-
vive or even make a good living.
I feel like in certain circles of the online
concept art community there can be very
narrow definitions of what is good art and
what isn't – that was very much the culture
I brought to the academy I went to. It puts
most of the emphasis on how nice your
drawing looks, and how well executed it
is vs. how expressive it is and how good
of a story it tells – the emotion it conveys.
Nowadays, I think it's important to place
story, meaning, and emotion on the same
level of importance as the execution.
I totally agree. If you're only following
down the path of cherishing resem-
blance with reality, then we might lose all
the options and expressions we can put
forward through abstraction and simpli-
fication. A stylistically narrow drawing
may even express more "reality." A mir-
ror perspective on art – favouring only
techniques which replicate and repre-
sent the world "realistically" – is only one
possible way. We can excel at that, but
we already have inventions that recre-
ate "reality" – the mirror and the camera.
Those work very well and were technol-
ogies challenging artistic production. I
think a broader spectrum is more inter-
esting, and might have led to comics, for
example, which is an artform that reduc-
es and simplifies so you can tell a story
even more efficiently than with realistic
representations or adding movement
with animation.
Who are the teachers at the college?
The best people we can find here, and
we're bringing international ones in, too.
#LetsTalkArt
Berlin is a hive, and it's abuzz with in-
teresting minds and talent from all over
the world. We are searching for people
who can teach in English, but we are also
looking closely at how they teach – like I
said, it's important for us to inspire and
evolve a taste. We are still in negotiation
with our teachers, so I can't give more
details at the moment without spilling
the beans. So, stay tuned to find out what
diamonds we find as we dig through Ber-
lin's visual art scene!
I'm really excited to see this new school
come together.
We are, too! We started in 2017 with a
series of events around comics & VR, and
did a sci-fi themed life-drawing class and
party in collaboration with Drink & Draw.
There is more to come before we open
this year – for example, one can also join
the Nighthawks Berlin, a series of casu-
al meetings (check out the Nighthawks
Berlin Facebook group). It's all very awe-
some to me. I know some of the people
involved, and how amazing and talented
they are. I think there's a real opportunity,
especially here in Berlin, for us all to real-
ly inspire each other and kindle each oth-
er's fires. So, you guys are doing great!
About the interviewer:
Mash "Bard" Baitman is a verbal and vi-
sual storyteller, a curious weirdo, and a
character designer living in Berlin. He
has been creating characters and their
fashions and life stories for as long as he
can remember, but also professionally
for over six years.
©Herwig Kopp
73
 STYLIZATION WITH SOUL
LECTURE BY ALMU REDONDO

Almu Redondo is a storyboard and
concept artist, architect in a past life,
passionate and endlessly enthusiastic
about stories. She has worked for VFX
and Animation companies like Axis/
Flaunt Productions, Lighthouse Studios
or Blue Zoo helping develop films and
international animated TV Series to be
announced. In VFX she worked for com-
panies like Outpost VFX and The Mill, for
clients like Disney, LucasArts, The Wein-
stein Company or Universal, in titles like
Jason Bourne, iBoy, Stratton or Star Wars
Battle Quads advertisement.
and its soul (psychology, story, gesture,
acting, principles of animation applied
to this). In this number we will glance
over some of the concepts developed in
her lecture.
Creating stylized characters and worlds
is fascinating but "strength is nothing
without control". Stylization is nothing
without soul and story. Every decision
counts and the challenge to make a sol-
id, relatable and "living" character is the

In this year's Industry Workshop, she

talked about how to create stylized char-
acters with soul and how to apply "Intelli-
gent exaggeration", giving them the 4th
dimension and personality that our sto-
ries demand. These concepts can apply
to designing, sculpting and storyboard-
ing. We talked about the techniques for
stylization applied to character design
(construction, principles of appeal…)

74 Firestarter Mag #3 Almu Redondo by Lalanda Hruschka for Firestarter | lalandadraws.com Artwork ©Almu Redondo | almuredondo.com / Photo @Rob Davies 75
 most difficult and exciting part of it. To
achieve this, our guide will be the Walt
Stanchfield mantra: "Draw ideas, not
things; Action, not poses; Gestures, not
anatomical structures" To communicate
the greatest amount of story and per-
sonality, with the fewest number of lines
should be our objective and that is what
we will try to accomplish with this talk.
To that end, we will apply what I called
"Intelligent Exaggeration". Cartoon ex-
aggeration can be our best ally to create
mind bending characters full of feelings
and story or our arch-nemesis if it's done
without a clear purpose or direction. This
could be achieved with a fine balance
between two core ideas: Techniques
(the OUTSIDE; Construction, principles
of appeal and style) and Soul (The IN-
SIDE; Psychology, Story, Gesture and
acting). Too much story in our design
would make it become a storyboard, and
too much construction would lead to an
interesting, but lifeless character.
76 Firestarter Mag #3
These two core ideas will be present in
all stylized characters, from storyboard,
to design, to sculpture, emphasizing in
each step different aspects. Techniques
and construction are more important
and fundamental in sculpture. Character
design is the perfect balance between
both, where we need to show the charac-
ter's construction as well as their person-
ality and backstory.   And in storyboard,
story is king. Here characters should be
on model as much as possible, but we
should focus on the acting, the story
moment and the emotion. A good sto-
ryboard could move us just with drawn
stick figures.
CHARACTER TECHNIQUE:
CONSTRUCTION
For stylization we need to apply both de-
scriptive anatomy and what we could call
"stylized anatomy", anatomy thought for
animators, related to movement and sto-
ry. Of this we won't talk here as there is a
great number of better teachers on the
internet, being Scott Eaton or Glenn Vilp-
pu some of the best ones. Today we will
focus in the different features and tech-
niques that we can use to bring extra life
to our stylized characters.
One of them is the face triangle or mar-
ble theory. It comes from caricature de-
sign and it helps immensely to know what
to push in a face and how we can tell a
story with it. It starts from the bases of
the "perfect human face", with the thirds
and half divisions of the face. Well, this
perfectly proportioned guy doesn't exist
in real life, but thanks to him we can see
in people's faces when a nose is longer
than usual, and what feelings and per-
sonality that brings to it. Also, there is an
imaginary triangle in the face built from
a string that connects both eyes and that
gets pulled down as we get older which
makes the eyes get together. This is
something that you can use to your ben-
efit in order to bring some age, wisdom,
appeal or evilness to your characters.
Proportions and relative proportions are
the key to bring appeal and style. Keep in
mind one of the most important things:
"avoiding the ladder". This is, keeping
away from even distributions. Sometimes
inspiration won't come alone, so you can
generate random "proportion boxes"
that you can then fill in with the 3 parts of
the body: head, torso and legs. Relativity
is a main player here, if you want to get
the feeling of a big head, the next part of
the body, the torso, should be shorter so
the head will look bigger. Same with long
legs/ short torso, big chest (hero type) /
shorter legs, etc...
The balance between complexity and
simplicity is often determined by the kind
of production: animation usually needs
simpler, clearer characters, especially in
2d animation. More complex characters
are only affordable in video games usu-
ally, or sculpture, as often the animation
is minimal or a looped one and the need
for "acting silhouette readability" is lower.
Spiky, straight, broken lines, angular
lines, flowy lines... They can evoke differ-
ent emotions. This can be extremely use-
ful for us. You can combine them creating
more straight and righteous characters or
more friendly and rounded ones. In the
image in the side we compare the angu-
lar character of Ronald Searle against the
softness of line of Fred Moore.
#LetsTalkArt
CHARACTER SOUL: PSYCHOLOGY
To give this dimension, we can make use
of an extremely interesting technique
used by actors and psychologists to de-
fine the personality of their roles or cli-
ents. This is the "Enneagram", a theory
that states that every human being can
be classified in 9 personality types and
that we all have a main "fear" and a main
"passion" that would determine our ac-
tions and reactions to the world. It also
adds that each one of us has a hero and
a demon inside of us, we can be the
brightest hero when we are in our best,
or we can be the worst psychopath when
we are under the most "stressful" levels
of our personality. Fascinating, isn't it?
This will give us straight away the key
motivations of our character, as well as
their growth (or decadence) arc.
CHARACTER SOUL: STORY
Having the main conflict and the arc of
our character pretty well defined with
the Enneagram, the next question  to ask
is: Who is our character? Where does he
come from? Our characters are defined
by 3 dimensions; the External Appear-
ance (external features that we can see,
body posture, clothes, age, race, gender,
way of speaking...), their Backstory (we
are the result of what we have lived, trau-
77
 mas, conditioners) and their Actions (Be-
haviour, revealed in the crysis moments,
contradictions with their "social mask"...)
How we play these 3 is what makes our
character interesting. Look at Tyrion
Lannister. He is rich with a limited body
complexion (1/ External Appearance),
with a big past of suffering ang bullying
on his shoulders (2/ Backstory), and has
the biggest guts and brains (and heart
sometimes) of the whole series (3/ Ac-
tions). Isn't this a winner combo?
CHARACTER SOUL:
ACTING AND GESTURE
For this part of the design, we can find
everything we need in the awesome
78 Firestarter Mag #3
book "What everybody is saying" by Joe
Navarro. It is the best compilation and
best explained guide for body language
ever done in my opinion. Written by an
ex FBI agent, Navarro explains these
concepts applied to real cases he solved
in real life thanks to being able to read
body language. In our drawings, acting
and gesture will be given by the line of
action, and the underlying and apparent
acting of the character (what the charac-
ter is saying, and what he or she is really
meaning or feeling) This is extremely im-
portant for us when posing our charac-
ters, building their expression sheets and
it is FUNDAMENTAL for storyboarding.
Photos ©Industry Workshops
INTELLIGENT EXAGGERATION
Now,  having clear the story, personality
and world of our character, you can push
and pull shapes and volumes applying
the construction techniques to make
a great and attractive character. The
most important thing is to focus on the
strengths and key ideas of the character.
In the 2 examples that I created, we use
worldwide-known characters, so we can
all be in the same page and be familiar
with the script. These are Snape and Her-
mione from Harry Potter. We can see how
we have clearly defined their personali-
ty and essence, and have constructed
the character around it, designing from
the inside out, creating shapes and lines
emerging from the soul of the character.
This way be have breathing characters
with loads of story in them.
Finally, applying this to production , we
can see how these concepts are present
in all phases of design from the early sto-
ryboards to the final sculpt of the charac-
ters, each step emphasizing story or con-
struction. Applying these ideas will help
you balance your design and focus your
intentions and your story in awesome
rocking design! Best of luck!  
#LetsTalkArt 79
 REWIRING YOUR BRAIN
FOR SUCCESS
LECTURE BY STEVEN CORMANN

This is summary of my talk at IFCC 2017.
The main idea of it was to give people
something a bit different than the "usual"
motivational speech, something that is not
abstract, and a few principles that anybody
can apply to any aspect of life, including
the pursuit of a successful art career.
and vaguely motivating quotes. And why
would you be interested in knowing this?
Well, because life is short, if you haven't
noticed yet, and you are busy, so you
have no time to waste, and want results as
quickly as possible.

I'm a newcomer in this industry. I bought

my Wacom tablet on January 1st, 2014, so
it's been four years as I write this and it had
been a little over three years since I came
up with this talk. I thought I could try to
talk a little bit about my personal journey,
and how I decided to go from metal drum-
mer without a cent in my pocket to matte
painter in the entertainment industry at
the age of 30 – quite a radical change, but
I'm happy to say that it worked out. Now
even if I consider myself nowhere close
to where I want to be, what I discovered
and learned during those years is that
you can reprogram your brain for success
using very real and scientifically proven
methods. So this is not about abstract

80 Firestarter Mag #3 Steven Cormann by Aleksandar Ignatov for Firestarter | artstation.com/ignatov Artwork @Steven Cormann | artstation.com/stevencormann 81

If you're not familiar with the concept
of goals, this is where you should start.
You need to have a clear goal and a very
strong and emotional reason for why you
absolutely must achieve that goal. If you
don't know where you're going, you'll
probably end up nowhere, and it's as sim-
ple as that. Action without planning will
cause you to fail. And believe me, I know
a thing or two about failure. We spend so
much time planning our weekends, our
parties, our vacations, so why wouldn't we
also plan our life? We know time is limit-
ed, so why not be smart about it?
Goals with a strong emotional foundation
and properly planted in your subcon-
scious provide direction and stimulate ac-
tion. That goal is the first thing you abso-
lutely need to have. When you have that, I
promise you that you'll never want to sleep
late on Sunday, you'll never want to pro-
crastinate anymore, and you'll keep going
even when you want to quit. That "oh no,
it's Monday" will turn to "Yes! A new week
to move closer to my goal!" You'll never
look forward to sleeping for ten hours,
because you'll want to sleep just enough
to get back to work. That is the secret of
staying motivated all the time. Having a
goal with a purpose is the fuel that propels
82 Firestarter Mag #3
you forward. You need to write down that
goal now. And it has to be specific, not
vague. If you don't have that goal, think
about it. In my case, I had always wanted
to work on films and do art, but never had
the confidence to do it or a clear vision of
how to get there. That lead me to pursue
something with no real goal behind it. At
the age of 29, I found myself broke, with-
out any goal in life – the lowest I had ever
been. That allowed me to think, and think
a lot, and reconnect with myself and who
I really am, and what the future was go-
ing to be. I discovered I had a vision for
the future, and a goal I needed to achieve
no matter what. That goal was strongly
connected to what I was and what I really
liked when I was a kid. I discovered that
it had always been there but I just didn't
give it enough attention.
That goal also needs to be big. It has to be
the thing you really want to achieve, and
you cannot settle for less than that, other-
wise that goal will not be strong enough to
motivate you, because the point of this is
to see that goal as a reality, as something
that you will achieve without a shadow of a
doubt. Now let's talk about science. Your
mind has two components, the conscious
and the subconscious. The conscious
mind is logical, analytical; it's the think-
ing part of the brain. The subconscious is
responsible for storing memory and for
automatic behaviors, reflexes, and habits.
Remember that your subconscious does
not reason. Think about your brain as the
Enterprise. The conscious mind is Captain
Kirk, who sends orders to the people in
the engine room. The guy in the engine
room will execute any order coming from
Kirk, even if it's stupid and makes the ship
crash into an asteroid. Your subconscious
is like a computer that will obey any com-
mand, whether true or false.
Example:
"Don't think about flying monkeys."
You have to think about flying monkeys
because your brain can't process nega-
tion, and you always move toward what
you think about the most. Knowing that,
we can consciously send the right orders
to the subconscious. Always use posi-
tive affirmations. Always think and talk to
yourself in the present, and practice pos-
itive self-talk. If you have that goal, if you
know what you need to do but for some
reason can't get yourself to do it, it's
probably because you're sending con-
flicting messages to your subconscious.
#LetsTalkArt
© kitbash3d.com
Example:
See yourself as an artist, not as an "as-
piring" artist. If you talk to yourself that
way, your subconscious will move you
towards something that will always be in
the future and will never happen. I'm ex-
aggerating a little, but you get the idea.
Other examples:
Instead of saying, "I'll always suck",
change that to, "I'm 100% responsible
for my results."
Instead of, "I wish I could paint like Craig
Mullins.", say, "I can paint like Craig Mull-
ins". Don't be afraid to lie to yourself. It's
not being arrogant, it's just positive self-
talk in order to "hack" the computer that
is your subconscious mind.
Instead of "I can't", say "I can."
Instead of "I'll try", say "I am doing it."
83

Practice this positive self-talk as much as
possible. Top athletes have being saying
the same things forever, that they have
learned the ability to live in their visions
and see their goals as if they were al-
ready achieved.
"Since I was five years old, I saw it over
and over and over again in my mind.
When I walked on the court that day, it
was my exact vision. I felt like I was step-
ping into the role I was made for, and I
just demolished them."
Andre Agassi
84 Firestarter Mag #3
Practicing this positive self-talk and prac-
ticing seeing your goals in the present
will help you develop habits, because
achieving goals is about the little things
you do everyday that add up slowly and,
after a decent amount of time, make you
who you are. Habits, good or bad, can be
formed in less than 28 days, and that is
why it is so important to give 100 % effort
in the beginning. I remember that during
my first year on this new journey, I was
so motivated, my goal was so clear, that
I was like a machine, working 16 hours a
day, running from one place to the oth-
er, not wasting a single second of every
day. During that time, I was able to form
completely new habits that I still have
now and couldn't get rid off without great
effort. Another thing about your goals,
they need to be big as I said, but they
also need to be measurable and written.
You need to write down your ultimate
goal, your long term goal, and maybe
weekly and daily goals.
You need to read those goals often, as
much as possible, until that goal, that
vision, appears as real as anything else.
When you are able to combine this very
strong goal, that strong emotional why,
the positive self-talk and the good hab-
its, that's when you reach that point of
insane motivation and work ethic that
always seems impossible to attain.
Once you have all that, you still need
one last element, a mentor. You need
to model yourself after an expert. You
don't have to do this alone. Chances
are someone else went down that path
before you, so find those people, look
at what they did and do it, too. With the
right mentor, the right goal, the right
why, you can bypass years of trial and
error. During these last four years, I was
able to achieve so much more than I
ever did during the first 30 years of my
life. It was very hard at times, but I was
always going from point A to point B,
so then it was only about figuring out
what's inbetween. Now I'm on my way
to point C, but I apply the same prin-
ciples. So to sum it all up, you need a
goal, a clear vision of where you are
going, you need a why, a very strong
and emotional reason for why you are
doing it, and you need a mentor. Hav-
ing those three elements figured out
will allow you to be driven and to plant
new habits in your subconscious by us-
ing positive self-talk and affirmations.
WHY?
(A strong and emotional reason why
you're going to do this)
WRITTEN GOALS
(Big, scary, specific, and measurable)
MENTAL TRAINING
(Positive. repeated affirmations)
MENTOR
(Follow the same path a master had fol-
lowed before you)
And at last, classic but still true, don't be
afraid of failure. It is not easy, but remem-
ber that you have never failed, you just pro-
duced a result. My "failures" were the result
of not having the right goals and habits,
for example. As long as you take efficient
daily actions, you're good. You'll produce
results, so just produce the results that you
want. Don't forget to reward yourself, to
enjoy the journey, keep a list of achieve-
ments, and set new goals.
85

INTERVIEW
SAVA ZIVKOVIC & STU AITKEN
We recently visited a UK creative col-
lective that has studios in three of the
country's most vibrant cities – Glasgow,
London and Bristol. Introducing Axis
Studios, a VFX and animation power-
house, filled with talent both young and
old, all coming together in the name of
art. For these artists, flying spaceships,
battling warriors and killing zombies is
all in a day's work.
The award-winning 2011 Dead Island an-
nouncement trailer is a graceful example
of what Axis Studios is capable of, but its
work straddles projects of all shapes and
sizes. In just the last few years Axis Studios'
various arms have contributed to some of
the world's most ambitious and much-
loved projects, including Doctor Who, Ear-
ly Man, Happy!, Destiny 2, Horizon: Zero
Dawn, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War,
Halo and more besides. We wanted to
learn more about how Axis Studios oper-
ates, and from where the creative life force
that drives these projects originates.
86 Firestarter Mag #3
Axis London
Stu Aitken, director of the famous Dead
Island trailer and co-founder of Axis Stu-
dios, is a certified animation veteran,
with 25 years of experience across the
breadth of digital creativity. We decided
to sit him down with Sava Zivkovic, an
award-winning 3D artist and designer
who also happens to be the most recent
addition to Axis Studios' impressive slate
of an in-house directors.
axisanimation.com
Here's what comes when old meets new
at one of the UK's most prominent ani-
mation entities.
Sava Zivkovic
(Stu:) Hey Sava, let's start with you telling
us about your background and how you
started in the industry.
Well, my background doesn't actually
have anything to do with animation or
CG. I studied interior & furniture design
at the University of Arts in Belgrade. I
quickly learned that 3D was a very useful
skill to have in interior design. As soon as
I started to use it, I fell in love. Combin-
ing this newfound love with my passion
for video games, I knew I wanted to do
something in 3D and CG. My initial intro
to the CG industry was architectural vi-
sualization but it quickly veered off into
motion graphics work. Game trailers and,
©IFCC Titles
Photos ©Axis Studios
specifically, directing, was something I
kept getting more and more drawn to,
but had no experience in. So, essentially
I had to create my own experiences with
personal projects.
Did you have access to 3D tools and
software while you were at university?
No. The school was quite old fashioned
in its teaching. New technology definite-
ly wasn't on the curriculum. We had to
go out and find courses on our own and
learn those skills independently. I did an
introductory course in 3D, that's what
started it all. There was only a couple of
us in the class who actually pursued any-
thing relating to 3D.
So, given the fact that you graduated in
interior and furniture design and didn't
always have access to new technologies,
how do the skills you learnt in that field
translate to film and animation?
I think spatial awareness is an important
transferable skill, as well as the ability
to present your work in clear, interest-
ing and desirable ways. Of course, the
designs were always the most import-
ant thing, but I quickly realized the im-
portance of presentation skills and how
much they can elevate the work.
It sounds like you started to gravitate
towards the presentation of the ideas,
rather than the design itself?
Absolutely. I definitely enjoyed design,
but I was always more intrigued in the
87
 actual presentation. I was always think-
ing of ways I could make my interior de-
signs into short films, or thinking about a
simple story they could tell, even though
I didn't have the resource at the time to
render it all. The irony is that today it is
actually very easy to render out architec-
tural animations, it is the idea itself and
the concept of the piece that sets it apart.
What are some of the projects you're
most proud to have worked on in your
career?
The most recent one that comes to mind
is the 2017 title sequence for the Inde-
pendent Festival of Creative Communi-
cation (IFCC), a concept art conference
in Croatia. I teamed up with a couple of
close friends and decided to create this
ambitious opening title sequence for
the festival, which grew into a six minute,
fully CG, short film. It aimed to promote
the conference and the speakers, but the
real story we wanted to tell was an artist's
creative journey. I think that's why most
of the people from the industry found it
relatable and it's definitely a reason why
the whole experience of making it still
feels very important to me. It is a very
personal story of our journey as artists.
How did you come to work at Axis Stu-
dios?
Well, you guys saw that film and that's what
essentially got me to where I am now!
So, those trailers were a way of explor-
ing the avenues you wanted to work in.
But, how did you end up getting those
jobs in the first place?
It was a perfect storm of things I guess. A
good friend of mine, Milan Nikolić, who
Twitch
88 Firestarter Mag #3
worked on the IFCC project as a concept
artist, has given lectures at IFCC for the
past two years. He knew the organizers
so we thought of pitching for the title se-
quence based on a short proof of con-
cept animation we created. But it turned
out that the organizers actually saw that
proof of concept ahead of us actually
presenting it to them! Marko Prpic, fes-
tival director, ended up asking us to do
a lecture, and after presenting him the
idea for the sequence, he was more than
stoked to give us creative freedom with
the opening titles.
What's it like to work independently for
so long, and then make the move to work-
ing at a studio with a reputation like Axis?
It's overwhelming in the most positive
way possible. The biggest change for
me, and the one I appreciate most, is not
having to worry about all of the produc-
tion specifics. When I was working alone,
or in a very small team, I was having to
manage client calls and do the admin
side of the job, as well as handling the
actual production and working on the
creative elements. I think a lot of things
suffered because of that. It's very liber-
ating to be able to focus on the creative
and knowing there's an incredible team
working on the other aspects.
Sometimes I do miss the days of fiddling
around with cameras and lighting rigs,
especially because I come from a CG
generalist background. But, at the end of
the day, I know that the people who are
actually working on that are way better
than me at those jobs.
What is your role at Axis and what proj-
ects have you worked on?
I'm currently working on my first major
project at Axis. Details are still under
wraps, but I can tell you it's a trailer for
a AAA game. I'm really excited! My role
at Axis is a director, so I guide the whole
creative side of the process. The exper-
tise I bring to directing is my 3D back-
ground. The fact I can do a lot of quick
3D animatics and previews helps me get
ideas across at a very early stage, before
savazivkovic.artstation.com
©Playgrounds Titles
we've started to really delve into the tra-
ditional 2D animatics. This way we know
what the scope limitations are and what
creative workarounds we need.
You've just described one in particular,
but can you tell me about some of the
other skills do you bring to Axis?
Being able to communicate ideas to the
team clearly. I can't emphasize enough
how important it is to build clear commu-
nication with, and within, your team. Also,
being able to listen to your team and not
get stuck in your way of doing things, but
keep exploring every possible option.
Filmmaking is a hugely collaborative ef-
fort and no matter how strong your vision
is, you'll be surprised how many times
it'll be improved upon by the talent you
work with. That was the single biggest
lesson I learned on the IFCC project and
I think that got me prepared for working
with a bigger team.
What about your internal creative pro-
cess, what's your approach to storytell-
ing or how you construct scenes?
Having not trained in this field, this re-
mains something I have trouble articulat-
ing. Honestly I tend to rely on gut instinct.
At Axis, the project has a defined script,
and it depends on the client how close-
ly we have to adhere to that script. We
still have a lot of freedom with exploring
different ideas, but the upside of script
constraints is that sometimes they paint
images very clearly in your head, and the
subsequent scene construction comes
naturally. Whereas the IFCC project had
#LetsTalkArt
no script at all. For those type of projects I
usually start off by pulling out images for
some key words from the synopsis of the
project. Those images then inform further
word associations and more images, and
slowly but surely your film is born.
What excites you about the creative pro-
cess at Axis? What do you feel you have
to do to make it unique to you? I think
one of the main reasons we brought
you on board was because you have a
unique voice and we want to make sure
that doesn't disappear at Axis.
It really excites me to work with these
huge brands that I admire and have
grown up with. Also, working with an in-
credible team of artists excites me, the
ability to bounce ideas around and work
in a creative, constructive environment.
In terms of maintaining my unique voice,
as I'm still at the relatively early stages of
my career, I'm still trying to find my clear
voice and way of doing things. I think
some of the approaches that feel natu-
ral to me go back to the fundamentals of
filmmaking – show, don't tell; using met-
aphors and subtext to convey your story
and the ark of the characters is some-
thing I definitely feel strongly about and
what I love pursuing. Also, music is very
important. I think being able to have a say
in the music choices and collaborating
closely with the composer is definitely
beneficial. That's another very important
lesson I learned from personal projects,
and one that often gets neglected – the
impact the music has on the storytelling.
89
 Were you at all apprehensive about join-
ing a studio like Axis after working inde-
pendently?
I definitely was a little anxious when I first
joined. I never thought this would happen
the way it did. I thought to get to a direc-
tor's position in a studio, you had to work
your way up through the ranks, but this op-
portunity felt like it came along overnight.
Working from home for a long time,
naturally makes you a bit of an intro-
vert, even if you might not be. With that
comes a certain amount of self-doubt.
I wasn't sure I was necessarily the right
fit, but all of those fears were cast aside
when I started. Everything has fallen into
place and any uncertainty I once had in
my own ability has disappeared.
Stuart Aitken
(Sava:) So, it's your turn Stu! Tell us about
your background and how you got start-
ed in the industry.
Well, ironically enough, I also did a de-
gree in interior design in Glasgow, but
it was a long time before you did yours.
When I was at college, computer graph-
ics were a thing but were a very, very ex-
pensive thing to get your hands on, that
you could only afford if you had very,
very expensive workstations to run the
applications on. Just as I was finishing my
degree, packages like Lightwave and 3D
Studio were becoming readily available
for mere mortals. It was through this and
seeing work on shows like Babylon 5  –
where they were using these technolo-
90 Firestarter Mag #3
gies to create effects - that I really got ex-
cited and interested in the field. Similar
to you Sava, the thing I liked doing best
in my design course was the presenta-
tion, rather than the actual design work.
Because I'd always liked science fiction,
illustration, and animation, I decided not
to pursue being a designer. I thought
there might have been a more suitable
outlet to my creative urges.
I started getting really excited using a
computer to create images, and luckily,
at that point, it was a much smaller world
and there were far fewer people doing
it. In fact, it was the early days of the in-
ternet, so I just posted a couple of the
images I did online and a local Glasgow
company who specialised in architectur-
al visualisation were transitioning into
trying to become a games company, and
hired me based on those few images!
To cut a long story short, the four of us
who founded Axis all worked at Digital
Animations Group (DAG). They weren't
really very good at being a games com-
pany, but they had a great team of art-
ists, and we ended up doing cinematics
for other people's games. There came
a point where DAG were shifting focus
commercially, and we didn't neces-
sarily feel we were part of the vision of
the company's future. So, we decided
to jump ship to a much larger Scottish
games company called VIS (Van der
Kuyl Interactive Systems). The idea was
that we were going to take some of the
IP that they were making games off and
take that in new directions, for example
an animated series. That also didn't work
out. VIS went bust. But, by that point
we'd become semi-independent, and
we'd become much more focussed on
servicing an external market again.
What we knew how to do was game cin-
ematics and trailers, and we started to
build a reputation for them. That's what
we naturally gravitated toward. We suc-
cessfully networked for new business
and once you've done a couple of piec-
es of work in a particular field, you tend
to get more pieces of work in the same
field, because people see the results.
That was probably 12 years ago now, and
since then Axis has become bigger and
bigger. We've had a few scrapes over
the years, but we've overcome them all,
we've become a much stronger busi-
ness - a much larger business for sure. In
terms of my role, it was always four artists
creating an animation studio and I think
all these years later it still maintains that
at its core.
Do you ever miss the days when you
could just fiddle around with the tiny,
specifics of a project?
I still do a lot of fiddling around, but I
imagine I'm someone who's not very
popular for it. Every director is different,
not just in terms of their ideas but also in
terms of how they become a director. For
me, I'm very much a ‘doer'. My job is to
bring people with the right skills in and
guide their work. However, I still feel it's
important for me to be part of the cre-
ative process. I don't want to be an opin-
ion on the outside, passing judgement
on others.
The parts I always gravitate towards are
things like cinematography and the per-
formances, what the characters are doing
in the scene is really important. Unlike
real life where the director and actors can
be on set together, in 3D, unless you're in
the application and looking through the
viewport, you don't get to see it. So part
of my job is looking at what the possibili-
ties are in the world we're working in.
What are your views on virtual reality, do
you think that will become more promi-
nent in the industry?
In my career I've spent a number of years
on set as a visual effects supervisor, as
well as a director, and it's very interest-
ing to compare live action filmmaking to
animation production. It's not like I think
one's better or more difficult than the
other, but there are different processes.
In CG, you discuss the theory of some-
thing, then lots of people go away and
#LetsTalkArt
do some work. You then recovene and
talk about what you've done. Then that
process is reiterated over and over again.
VR might enable us to all get together,
work and create in the same ‘world'. So, I
think the potential of VR is very exciting.
There are people trying to make things
like that happen, but it's not quite there
yet. Hopefully in the next five or so years,
we might be using VR in the creative pro-
cess - I think that might enable a more
collaborative, creative experience work-
ing with other artists, where you can all
see and discuss what you are doing col-
lectively and in context. - more like the
live action world.
What are some of the projects you're
most proud to have worked on in your
career?
There's a couple of big ones, but there
are also some less obvious ones. Weird-
ly enough, one of the things I'm most
proud of is the art that got me my first
job. I was a huge fan of a show called
Blakes 7 in the late 1970s. I helped cre-
ate a fan film, and was asked to redesign
the main spaceship, the Liberator. It was
something I used to draw all the time
when I was a kid. I spent literally months
redesigning it. I'm still really proud of
those images I did. I learned a lot, taught
myself a lot.
At Axis, I think there's one particular
job that I'm proud of, which was the
Killzone  2 Demo back in 2005 for E3.
It was a real baptism of fire for our stu-
dio. It was by far the biggest job we'd
ever done at that time. I think it made
us grow up as a studio and was a huge
quantum leap in terms of what we were
capable of as a studio. Ultimately, I think
it set the direction for what we strived
towards after that.
I think the other thing I really enjoyed,
even though it was a lot of hard work, we
did 60 minutes of work for Halo 4 for this
spin-off called Spartan Ops. Microsoft and
343 Industries asked us to create 10 epi-
sodes; it was episodic content rather than
91

Destiny: Rise of Iron ©Bungie Inc
game trailers. They were releasing new
maps and missions every week, and each
week there'd be a new five minute CG
piece that helped tell the story. We were
working closely with the writing team, but
apart from that they trusted us to go away
and make it. It was also one of the biggest
things we'd ever done at Axis, our team
got much bigger during that project.
Do you feel that the more freedom you
get in the creative, the better the results
are? I think that's definitely the case for
Dead Island for example.
It's interesting. I think the games indus-
try is very conservative in terms of how
it views the storytelling genre. It's quite
hard to break out of the mould, especial-
ly if you're trying to remain faithful to the
games. A great example of a game doing
storytelling right is The Last of Us. Even
though I don't think it's massively innova-
tive in terms of gameplay, it is innovative
in its storytelling and drama. They treat
Destiny: Rise of Iron ©Bungie Inc
92 Firestarter Mag #3
the drama in a mature way, you can see
the love that went into it. The feeling of
playing that game is something emotion-
al and dramatic, unlike anything I'd ever
played before. Dead Island was similar.
We were trying to create something that
has some impact to it, and I think tonally
that made it different from the game.
Why is it important to strive to work with
new talent?
There's a personal answer to that and stu-
dio answer to that. One thing, for good
or bad, is that we don't tend to have a
specific house style. Instead, each proj-
ect is tailored to the job. I think part of
that approach is about finding the right
creative voices to match that. That means
we're always on the lookout for a broad
pool of directors.
As a studio it's important for us to have a
breadth of creative voices in the mix, par-
ticularly in the director level, but we need
to know they'll be easy to get along with
and have the ability to liaise with clients.
Touching on something that you men-
tioned before Sava, you said you found
it surprising that you didn't have to ‘pay
your dues' in the studio to become a di-
rector  –  I'd encourage any of our staff
who are reading this, that if they want to
be a director then say so! Being a direc-
tor is very different to being an artist, we
don't even expect our directors to know
anything about CG really, even though
most do to some degree or another. Your
job is to be the visionary, to come up with
ideas, to work out how to tell the story and
to communicate that to the team - it's not
necessarily to work out how the team is
going to execute the work, though I do
find it hard to stay out of that conversation.
What do you look for in new talent? What
attributes do you feel makes them "Axis"?
What we're ultimately looking for is a
unique voice in terms of approach, vi-
sual feel, atmosphere, look, narrative,
and storytelling. Our work tends to be
genre-focused and, particularly with our
games work, tends to have a hyper-real-
istic, naturalistic feel. So, we're looking
for someone who can bring a photo-
graphic sense of lighting, or a cinematic
approach to camera work. Both of those
things are definitely significant.
In terms of storytelling, we're interested
in ideas, so we want somebody keen to
explore the narrative. Ambition is some-
thing that's hugely important, especially
at director level. It sometimes surprises
me that although you may have a very
talented artist, someone who innately
has the right kind of creative instinct or
judgement, that person might not have
the inclination to put themselves in the
director's seat – I guess it takes a certain
amount of hubris, or at least a comfort
level with being center stage that not ev-
eryone will share.
At Axis you work with a mix of in-house
and external directors, what are the ben-
efits of having both?
I think you can argue from a business
perspective that all directors should be
external and you hire them on a need-for-
need basis. In an ideal world everybody
would be full-time, but the commercial
reality is that you need to constantly
change, if not the number of people, the
type of people you need. One month
we might need 50 animators, then two
months later we might need only need
10. We can't keep 50 animators around,
even though we'd love to. This model can
lead to a lack of consistency, because if
somebody works for you full-time there's
a reliability to that relationship. You can
invest in them and they can invest in you.
There's a clear long-term benefit. We en-
courage all of our freelancers to come
back if we have space.
Some of our directors want to be exter-
nal, they want their independence and
don't want to be tied down to a partic-
ular studio. I think it's good to be able
to create new relationships with new
people, because it refreshes your own
vision. Specifically to you, Sava, one of
the things I really liked when I watched
your IFCC trailer was your command of
the visual language. I admired the skill
#LetsTalkArt
and talent, but I also felt you could bring
something to Axis. The way you saw the
world, the way you used lighting and de-
signed your shots, for instance. You had
qualities in your work that I felt we would
could really benefit from as a studio.
Thanks Stu! What excites you about the
creative process at Axis? What makes it
unique to you?
I guess unique to me is that I'm used to
working how I want to work. I tend to be
more hands on at certain parts of the
process, and I get away with doing that
because I'm a co-founder. I think we've
got a really strong team of artists here
who produce amazing work. The capa-
bilities that Axis has is awesome, and
we've also built a really strong manage-
ment and production team that organis-
es everything and makes sure everything
works perfectly. The most exciting thing
at the moment is where Axis could po-
tentially go and what we're capable of
doing. If someone came along 10 years
ago and said ‘do you want to make a fea-
ture', I'd have said of course I want to, but
it wouldn't have been realistic for Axis to
do that at that time, but now I think that's
a realistic proposition.
Do you think there's a skills shortage at
the minute in the industry?
Yes. It always seems quite hard to find
the right people. There are lots of people
doing 3D, but when you're trying to drill
down to finding the ones that are really
good, the pool suddenly becomes much
smaller. There's also other roles, like VFX
artists who know Houdini, and they're as
rare as hen's teeth, because they're so in
demand and there's not enough of them.
So, yes, there's a massive skills shortage
and I worry about the effects of Brexit.
Our entire industry in the UK relies mas-
sively on being able to employ people
from a very broad catchment area, and at
the minute that stretches across the EU,
including all of those people who can get
visas. A significant proportion of our work-
force are from outside the UK. We have
lots of different nationalities all bringing
93

their own cultures, and I truly believe in
the creative environment that brings.
Purely from a logistical point of view, we
would hire someone locally, because we
don't have to worry about where they're
going to live, where their family will go,
or where their friends are. But the fact is,
it's difficult to hire locally. So, in Scotland
there is a massive skills shortage, just as
there is across the whole of the UK. Every
studio, including ours, is looking out to
the EU to hire. Just look at the credits list
for any studio who's worked on anything
really, there are lots of nationalities there.
You were one of the founders of Axis Stu-
dios, did you feel the industry was miss-
ing something that Axis could deliver?
Honestly, we founded Axis because we
wanted to keep ourselves in the job we
liked doing! We were always aware we
wanted to start something in Scotland,
even though it wasn't the most sensi-
ble place to start an animation studio,
because there wasn't much of a native
industry there. We were four artists who
loved the work we did. Funnily enough,
outside of the games industry there's
not a lot of people who are prepared to
pay a lot of money for 3D or CG work in
genre mediums. We also started to fo-
cus on the USA for business, and that's
one of the best decisions we made. Even
though there's a great industry in the UK
for games, film and TV, I still believe the
industry is still centered in the US.
94 Firestarter Mag #3
and it'll be interesting to see where that
will go. We still want to keep our identi-
ty as a studio and to maintain the type of
work we do, but we want to see if there's
a wider market for it. I think because of
games, a lot more of the potential market
Halo Spartan Ops ©Microsoft Corporation
has been exposed to a certain type of an-
imation content. We can bring a different
kind of approach to aesthetic and genre,
and we have the capability and scale to
do big things, and there's a market that's
showing signs of potential crossovers and
ways of us getting our work out there. So
that for me is part of the significant radar
of the future of our studio.
Personal IP is definitely something that's Axis Glasgow
How does Axis serve the artist? exciting to look towards. What are the
I think, and hope, we serve the artist most important qualities for a budding art-
very well. We're an artist-centric studio, ist looking to make a start in the industry?
run and owned by people who are still That's an interesting question. There's a
CG artists. The whole company is de- lot of skills that are quite hard to define be-
signed to focus around how we execute cause they're internal – powers of obser-
the work. We try to treat people with re- vation, judgement, creative instincts, all
spect and dignity including freelancers, of those things come from a set of skills
who get sick pay and paid holidays like which you learn over time. The process
everyone else. I won't claim we've never of observing something and trying to
worked without doing long hours, but we recreate it is hugely important. It's not
do try and keep a lid on that, especially about being good at drawing, it's about
as we've got bigger. I think creating an the process of actually looking and deter-
environment where people are happy mining how the light falls, rather than just
to work with their colleagues, that's very assuming. It makes your brain go through
non-hierarchical is important. We're al- this process of how you look at the world
ways learning though; finding out what and then you internalise that over time.
we are doing well, and more importantly I'm concerned that schools are starting to Axis Bristol
what we could do better. drop the ball on art. Are we heading for
a generation of kids who don't have that thing instantaneously. But, especially
And what do you think sets Axis apart in skill, because they were never encour- with creative and artistic tasks, these
the industry in 2018? aged to sit and look at something and try things take time and patience. Your taste
It's an interesting time for Axis, there's a to recreate it? I hope not. takes time to develop, your artistic eye
couple of projects we're working on – for takes a while.
instance, Happy! from SyFy and a Netflix/ Interpersonal skills, a positive approach I totally agree. The fastest route to get-
Channel 4 production, Kiss Me First. Nei- to issues and enthusiasm for getting your ting all of that, is by doing. If you want
ther of these shows are aimed at children teeth into something and making some- to be an animator, start doing animation.
and both feature our work heavily. Both thing work are also hugely important. It sounds like really simple advice, but
are treading new ground in terms of the it's important. If you want something, go
work our studio does. The work takes The holistic approach! I would also just for it. That's my biggest piece of advice.
things we've learnt in cinematics, and add patience. To younger people who You're always going to be starting out
applies them to drama. It's exciting see- are just starting out, I'm only recently in with not much knowledge and it might
ing animation being used in much more the industry, but I remember in my first be overwhelming, but dive in, set targets
dynamic ways and I hope we get to do days of 3D, renders took a while, and that aren't stupidly ambitious, work out
more projects like them. We're also at a now with the technological advances, what you need to meet each target. At
point where we're developing our own IP especially for kids, they all want every- the least you'll learn something.
#LetsTalkArt 95
 ARTILLERY
ST. PETERSBURG
Grafit studio is an outsourcing How it All Started this momentum to continue. If our
company based in Russia. With We were admittedly not profes- first shot was a cozy art meet-up,
a ten year history of making all sional event planners, but our lack the next one needed to be louder,
sorts of art, it started as a small of formal training didn't hinder our bigger, and epic. As we gained the
business launched by a group of ambition or our desire to make the trust of our attendees with our first
close friends – and now it is one fantastic happen. After the success event, we recieved a high demand
of the best outsourcing studios in of our first Artillery, there was no for tickets in turn, which was both
Russia. We work primarily in the doubt in our minds that we needed encouraging and frightening.
video game industry, but among
our portfolio are book illustra-
tions, movie posters, concepts,
and more.

When we opened a new office in

St. Petersburg two years ago, we
launched an art event with the
hope it would become the great-
est that Russia has ever seen. As
the studio keeps growing, so too,
does the festival. This year, on
June 24th, the second Artillery art
festival drew twice as many par-
ticipants as it did last year.

96 Firestarter Mag #3 8th–9th of September 2018 | artillery-event.com 2018 97


Speakers
Last year, we had a perfect lineup
of friends, as well as amazing art-
ists, including Even Mehl Amund-
sen, Jesper Ejsing, and Mike
Azevedo. This time, however, we
wanted to gather artists from all
corners of the vast world of art.
We summoned 2D and 3D mas-
ters whose styles, experiences,
mindsets, and choice of media
created great variety.
As a result, we had an impressive
roster of professionals. For 2D art,
we had one of the most notable
CG artists in the world, Ruan Jia,
discuss his experience and his
methods using light and color.
Ayran Oberto, well-known for his
extraordinary portraits of warped
faces, regaled us with how it all
started for him and his use of clas-
sic concepts and composition.
Along with new friends and end-
less questions, Ayran recieved
an unexpected gift created by
Mikhail Chavushyan: a clay sculp-
98 Firestarter Mag #3
ture inspired by one of his art
pieces that later went home with
him to Madrid. This is a perfect
illustration of what we try to do:
bring together not only artists, but
also blend different disciplines to
create unexpected matches.
Lip Comarella is perhaps the fur-
thest out of the box: a multi-media
specialist who crafted his own little
world with light and vivid colors in-
spired by the dreamy Alps where
he spent his childhood. Lip told us
about the charming indie game
his small company, Salon Alpin,
created, Old Man's Journey.   masterclass. Even though many
As for 3D, Andrea Chiampo, the
youngest speaker on the stage,
gave a speech about the many
forms of software he's been us-
ing. He gave us a fantastic de-
scription of Lego, pizza, and life
as a freelance artist. Despite An-
drea's age, he has conquered
many challenges that have trans-
formed him into a formidable
artist. We can all see that he is
our world is with digital now, or were inspired by the atmosphere terclasses throughout the day.
how much art is created for video and speakers, and before long, Many from the audience praised
games and movies, there will al- they grabbed the book and start- it as the best anatomy course
ways be people interested in tradi- ed sketching. We brought in nude they had ever been to. The guests
tional art. There is still such a strong models and cosplayers for hands- had an opportunity to work with
connection between the old and on figure drawing, giving every- clay and sculpt alongside skilled
the new. As such, we decided to one an opportunity to use their instructors. Andrea Blasich, an
engage traditional artists, as well. newfound knowledge, show what esteemed traditional and digi-
At first, we were referring to our they've learned, or take pictures tal sculptor from San Fransisco,
event as a "festival of digital art", for reference. was scheduled to not only give a
but soon realized we didn't want lecture but also joined in on the
to paint ourselves into a corner Sculpture sculpting class, which made ev-
by dividing the two. We gave our A huge portion of Artillery was eryone love him even more.
each of our guests a sketchbook dedicated to traditional sculp-
as a little gift to sketch and make ture. Grafit studio's friends at And last, but not least: A presen-
notes with, even though many SculptArt studio (also based in tation of our Alien sculpture creat-
of them didn't arrive planning to St. Petersburg) had space in their ed by Grafit Studio co-owner and
draw at the event. As a result, they hall to perform lectures and mas- art director, Lev Boyko, and the
SculptArt team headed by Alex-
ander Spiridonov. It was a dream
brought to life by a team of sculp-
tors, artists and engineers. The
sculpture is a perfect lookalike
of the original alien from Ridley
on his way up. Mickael Lelièvre Scott's movie, and we think H.  R.
gave us the opportunity to watch Giger would agree with us. It took
how he creates his little monsters, us three long months of hard work,
spending a great deal of his time night shifts, several buckets of
answering questions from the clay, and many unexpected mate-
audience. It was heartwarming rials. Our mistakes and challenges
to watch people come up to the became the 2.5-metre-long mon-
stage to look over the speaker's ster, reaching out of a hole in the
shoulder, breaking the imaginary wall. We still can't quite believe we
line that divided them. made it happen, but this huge tes-
tament to our hard work makes us
In order to go back to our roots, believe.
we also had traditional art on the
menu. Local academic tutor, Vita- What's Next?
ly Ekleris, joined the sketch-party Since the second 'shot' is over we
(life drawing session) to instruct a are thinking about the next one.
We need to fix and realign some-
artists work digitally in the mod- thing here and there, but what we
ern age, artists are still expected don't want to change is the high
and encouraged to have a strong standard we set for ourselves.
foundation in drawing and paint- In 2018, what we want to make
ing. is not a bigger event but a bet-
ter one, so we'll host up to 450
Meanwhile, in the next building guests within two days and make
over, Sergey Kurbatov, a world-re- the schedule a bit more loose.
knowned watercolorist from Rus- We'll still have lectures and work-
sia, sat surrounded by people shops as before, but be ready for
who watched him cast his 'water something brand new this time.
magic'. No matter how entwined See you in St. Petersburg!
grafitart.com 99
 of South Africa. CTIAF has also
partnered with Annecy Interna-
tional Animated Film Festival
and Animate Africa.
"We have a stellar line up of
speakers, featuring some of the
best creative and business minds
in animation, screenings of the
world's top animated films and a
range of free events that are fun
for the whole family," says Festi-
val Director Dianne Makings. "We
are delighted to be collaborating
with both our long-standing and
new partners to bring you the
best Festival yet."
Big Bad Fox, directed by Acade-
brations in South Africa, the Jap-
anese Embassy and Consulate
in Cape Town have partnered
with CTIAF for a second year.
President and CEO of Polygon
Pictures, John Shuzo Shiota, re-
turns to join the speaker lineup
and there will be screenings of
the Japanese animated film Mary
and the Witch's Flower directed
by Academy Award-nominated
animator, Yonebayashi Hiromasa.
John Shuzo Shiota participated
in the launch of Dream Pictures
Studio in 1997 before he moved
to Polygon Pictures two years
later. Mary and the Witch's Flow-
er is the first animated film from
Studio Ponoc. A strange flower
The handover ceremony of the
award will take place at CTIAF
2018.
Pear Cider and Cigarettes was
nominated for a 2017 Academy
Award for Best Animated Short
Film. It will be screened at CTIAF
and its creator, Canadian animator
and visual graphic artist, Robert
Valley, will attend the programme
to talk about this brutally honest
story of a turbulent relationship
with a self-destructive, yet charis-
matic friend from childhood.
The 2018 CTIAF programme
will also include a selection of
screenings of work by interna-

CTIAF my Award-nominated French di-

rector Benjamin Renner, will have
its local premiere at CTIAF. Adapt-
grants a young girl magical pow-
ers, which leads to the adventure
of a lifetime.
tional artists curated by the An-
necy International Animated Film
Festival. Director Alexandre Hey-

CAPE TOWN ed from Renner's own books  Le

grand méchantrenard  and  Un
bébé à livrer, the Hollywood Re-
There will also be a workshop
with animation artists, including
boyan will also take part at CTIAF.
He has animated characters on
Kung Fu-Panda (2008) and Mon-
porter called the film "wacky, South African manga group, Um- sters vs. Aliens (2009), worked
heartwarming, and wise." It fea- lando Wezithombe, who won the at Dreamworks and he directed
tures a collection of animals on a bronze medal at the 11th Japan the CG movie, Mune, the Moon
Proudly presented by Animation farm like no other. International Manga Award. Man- Guardian, which was selected
SA, the seventh Cape Town In- ga is a popular art form in Japan. in Annecy film festival, and won
ternational Animation Festival From the creators of BAFTA
(CTIAF) takes place from 2 to 4 award-winning and Academy
March, 2018 at the River Club in Award-nominated Revolting
Observatory, Cape Town. Rhymes, comes The Highway
Rat, a delightful animation of the
With something for all ages, popular children's story by Ju-
the Festival presents the best lia Donaldson and the illustrator
of local and international films Axel Scheffler. Produced by Mag-
by award-winning animators, ic Light Pictures and animated
as well as providing a unique at Cape Town based Triggerfish
platform to engage with global Animation Studios, The Highway
industry leaders in a series of Rat tells the tale of a ravenous rat
insightful workshops, talks, and who craves buns, biscuits, and all
panel discussions. sweet things.

The CTIAF has become a signif-
icant fixture on the international
festival calendar as a market-
place for the fast-growing and
internationally acclaimed African
animation industry. The Festival
also hosts live drawing classes,
business-to-business sessions,
producer events, networking
opportunities and government
panel discussions, in addition to
student competitions and an out-
reach programme.
The CTIAF is proudly presented
by Animation SA and is made
possible thanks to generous
support from sponsors the De-
partment of Arts and Culture,
the City of Cape Town, Wesgro,
Nickelodeon, the High Commis-
sion of Canada, The Japanese
Embassy and Consulate in Cape
Town and the French Institute
Tearing along the highway, he
searches for sugary treats to steal,
until his sweet tooth leads him to
a sticky end. The film premiered
on BBC 1 in England on Christ-
mas Day and stars David Tennant,
Rob Brydon and Tom Hollander.
As part of their centenary cele- John Shuzo Shiota and Wendy Spinks.

100 Firestarter Mag #3 2nd–4th March 2018 | ctiaf.com Images ©CTIAF 101

Ree Treweek of Tulips and Chimneys
the Best Feature in the Tokyo An-
imation Award Festival. A special
highlight for trade visitors, Lorna
Withrington, Director of Creative
Affairs at Entertainment One, will
be sharing her insights, exper-
tise and experience about the
industry. With a career spanning
Thomas & Friends, Bob the Build-
er, Fireman Sam, and Peppa Pig,
Lorna has worked with some of
the biggest brands in children's
television and brings this knowl-
edge to finding and creating the
next generation of hit children's
TV shows.
Following the overwhelming
response last year to the CTI-
AF Outreach Programme at the
Isivivana Centre in Khayelitsha,
there will again be screenings of
films, drawing classes with An-
imate Africa, and various work-
shops to teach the fundamentals
of animation.
"There are a number of free
events to be enjoyed – from the
Artists Alley showcasing the work
of some of SA's most talented
graphic artists, to drawing and
stop-motion workshops for chil-
dren aged 7–12 years, and free
screenings and drawing work-
shops at the Isivivana Centre,"
102 Firestarter Mag #3
says Makings. "Students also have
the opportunity to bring their
portfolio to the Artist Alley for free
advice from our industry experts."
The popular CTIAF Student
Awards Programme celebrates
both team and individual projects
across various categories. For the
incredible third year, Nickelode-
on is sponsoring the phenomenal
opportunity for one student to
do an internship at Nickelodeon
in the USA as part of the student
competition. The winners will be
announced at an event on Satur-
day, 3rd of March.
"Other exciting events in our
packed programme include a
virtual reality (VR) and augment-
ed reality (AR) component again,
ADOBE demo sessions and talks
from our supporters, such as
the Department of Arts and Cul-
ture and the City of Cape Town.
Thanks to the award-winning
team at Muti, who have created
our innovative look for the CTIAF
2018 design."
"Cape Town. as the ideas capital
of Africa, is fast emerging as a
new media hub on the continent.
The creative economy, and espe-
cially animation, has the ability
to provide differentiation in the
international marketplace and
unlock competitiveness. Its val-
ue is not only in economic terms,
though. Through the products
and services generated in the
creative industries, Capetonians
explore their heritage, identity
and values. Building an economi-
cally resilient city, which can grow
in the face of adverse econom-
ic conditions, requires a certain
level of innovativeness and cre-
ativity. These are characteristics
that Cape Town is increasingly
becoming known for. The City
of Cape Town is proud to be as-
sociated with an event that high-
lights to the world the richness
of our creative industries and the
cutting-edge work that is being
done here." says Executive May-
or of Cape Town, Patricia de Lille.
"The fourth industrial revolution
creates significant opportunities
for economic growth and job cre-
ation in the Western Cape, and
we believe that the growing an-
imation sector in the province is
an obvious case in point. The val-
ue chain of animation is wide, with
one single production resulting
in several years of work by large
teams of artists and technicians.
This has already been witnessed
in films like Triggerfish Anima-
tion's Khumba and Adventures in
Zambia. Of particular interest to
us is that there is a low barrier of
access for future potential anima-
tors, as talent can easily be identi-
fied with a merely a pen or pencil.
If we nurture this talent, and fur-
ther develop coding and IT skills
in the province, we will have an
increasingly large pool of citizens
who will be able to access the ex-
cellent opportunities that await in
the world of animation." says Tim
Alexandre Heboyan
Harris, Wesgro CEO.
"The High Commission of Cana-
da is proud to support a Canadi-
an focus at the 2018 Cape Town
International Animation Film Fes-
tival. Canada is a global leader in
the animation and digital effects
industry and well-known for top
innovation and creativity. Fes-
tival audiences for the Canadi-
an short films and the Academy
Award-nominated Pear Cider and
Cigarettes are in for a treat!" says
Sandra McCardell, High Commis-
sioner of Canada in South Africa.
The Cape Town International An-
imation Festival takes place from
2nd to 4th of March 2018 at The
River Club in Observatory, Cape
Town.Visit www.ctiaf.com for the
full programme details. Screen-
ings cost R40. A full Festival pass
(valid 2nd to 4th of March) costs
R100 for ASA members, R250 for
students, and R500 for a regular
admission.. A day pass costs R350
(tickets include all events). Book-
ings can be made at Webtickets
www.webtickets.co.za
Now in its seventh year, CTIAF
(previously called Kunjanimation
Animation Festival) has enjoyed
great successes in its goal of creat-
ing a platform for the art and busi-
ness of South African animation.
These successes have included:
• In 2014, they hosted a delega-
tion from France and, through
that partnership, launched the
special SA MIFA call to pitch at
the Annecy Festival 2015.
• This resulted in a special pitch
platform at MIFA for several SA
studios.
• Bugbox studios won the pitch
and is now partnered with Folim-
age Studios in a co-production to
produce the series.
• In 2013, a formal partner-
FB: facebook.com/CTInternationalAnimationFest | Twitter: @CTanimationfest
ship was createdbetween the
world-renowned Parks-based
Gobelins, l'École de l'image and
the Animation School in Cape
Town, with a contract for the next
three years.
• Successful talks between the
NFVF, GFC, DTI and Animation
SA towards adopting an incuba-
tor/cluster model for animation
development and production,
with a research delegation spon-
sored by French Institute of South
Africa planned to coincide with
Annecy in June 2015.
• Ties strengthened between the
French and South African anima-
tion industry with a successful Lorna Withrington
delegation of French producers
having visited in November 2013 filling jobs.
and 2014. It seeks to facilitate the growth
and evolution of South Africa's
• It has also been successful in the animation industry by:
building of social capital within
the SA animation industry, where • Creating new business oppor-
many studios have historically tunities by identifying and co-
been competing. The results can ordinating export missions to
be seen in the white papers Ani- key markets
mation SA drew up for the DTI in
February 2014 on how incentives • Conducting and participating in
for the industry could be altered global market research
to help SA become more globally
competitive. • Creating knowledge-sharing
opportunities to upskill our ani-
ANIMATION SA mation professionals
Animation SA is a non-profit or-
ganisation mandated by the in- • Helping bring our studios and
dustry to develop, promote and their original properties to mar-
represent South African anima- ket-readiness
tion. It believes that animation
has a vital role in transforming • Consulting with government on
South Africa by articulating val- policy and strategy, building the
ues to ourselves, our children framework that will enable  the
and the rest of the world. In this animation industry to thrive.
way, its vision is to help build
the South African brand through
the medium of animation. It is
dedicated to creating a healthy
self-sustaining animation indus-
try which provides South Africans
with creative, challenging and ful-
103

Transfusion is a space mainly for
students or aspirants to a career
within the creative industries,
born under the idea of perfect-
ing the process by which you
perceive what you see and learn,
in order to understand your way
of accepting the world and your
artistic work.
104 Firestarter Mag #3
CREATIVA
MEXICO CITY
Through a three-day festival we
immerse our audience in a world
filled with international speakers,
top studios, industry profession-
als, teachers, and students. We
want to give them as many op-
portunities as we can, so that they
can achieve their personal goals.
This year's event is taking place
in Mexico City from May 18th to
May 20th, and some of the guest
speakers already lined up are:
• Tony Bancroft
• Michael Dante DiMartino
• Joe Ansolabehere
• Paul Germain
• Patrick McHale
• Finnian MacManus
OUR BACKSTORY
Back in 2012, we were just a
bunch of friends going through
college. We had enrolled in an
18th–20th May 2018 | creativamexico.com.mx
animation program, looking
ahead with countless dreams and
goals for our future. However, we
soon realized that Mexico, our
home, lacked information and
industry events on the subject.
Animation as a career (and some
related areas) had only started
taking shape. In a way, the enter-
tainment industry was divided. A
lot of work needed to be done
before it could really thrive and,
with it, all the talent in the nation.
Some facts caught our atten-
tion. First, there were no spaces
to meet your peers; no sense of
community for animators. Sec-
ondly, studios didn't recruit at job
fairs, as animation still wasn't rec-
ognized as a formal professional
career (for economic reasons, un-
til that point most animators were
self-taught). And thirdly, there
was no way for emerging ani-
mators and studios to showcase cause of their energy and talent, than 30 animation studios and 20
their work. Clearly, a change had every year we strive to create new schools internationally, and to-
to be made and we wanted to be opportunities and alliances with gether we've given away almost
part of that movement. So, we studios and schools all around $300k in scholarships and re-
founded our own festival that No- the world. viewed more than 1200 portfolios.
vember, Creativa. Since our first
edition, Creativa aims to broaden Through the years, many new THE POWER OF IDEAS
our country's growing passion for studios are showing interest in Since our very first edition, we've
animation and creative industries collaborating with the festival, to had the pleasure to get to know
through a festival packed with make a public activity or a project amazing artists, producers and
lectures, workshops, masterclass- inside and outside of the event's directors. We believe that what
es, screenings, exclusives, show dates. Currently, our festival has a makes an artist great is the way
floors, and more. productive relationship with more they are able to share their ex-
We strive to build the perfect en-
vironment to create ties between
emerging and established ani-
mators and professionals, for stu-
dents to learn from the best talent
the industry has to offer and to
create a community that will con-
tribute to the growth of Mexico's
animation, video game and film
industries. Something that makes
us proud of our event is the con-
nection that is generated among
the students that come from all
the states of the country, and be-
Images ©Creativa / Kevin Mancilla Benavides 105

periences and feelings, so we re-
member each one of them with a
lot of appreciation and gratitude.
They have inspired us by exam-
ple, by being humble. We keep
remembering this one time Jeff
"Swampy" Marsh had a touch-
ing moment with one of our at-
tendees, because it help us re-
alize how much impact art and
this type of events can have on
106 Firestarter Mag #3
people. This girl and her mother
came from very far–- she had au-
tism – but both made the effort to
travel to Mexico City to meet the
creator of the only animated se-
ries that made her laugh and re-
act. Phineas and Ferb was a very
important part of this girl's life; to
her mother it was a way to com-
municate with her, and maybe
the only way to spend valuable
time with her daughter.
Obviously, we told Jeff about
this girl, shared her story, and
he immediately wanted to meet
her. And so, he did; we remem-
ber each person of our team
crying. Everyone in that room
felt something really special
was happening, but the way
Jeff handled the situation, the
way he gave himself complete-
ly to this girl, was life-changing
to all of us. Fortunately enough,
we've had speakers which in-
spire you to be better every day,
to tell your own story because
it's worth telling, and we can't
be thankful enough for all of
them. The thing is, that we as
organizers can't measure the
impact our events have on our
attendees. It's not just about
teaching them about a topic, it's
about changing their perspec-
tive, giving them tools for the
outside world and helping them
to achieve their dreams.
OUR NEXT STEP
This year we're going even fur-
ther as we enter a period of trans-
formation, we need to change
in order to fulfill our audience's
expectations and to meet new
industry standards. Our festival
is now called Transfusion, based
on the idea that speakers trans-
mit their ideas to the audience
and the audience learns from that
same process.
Transfusion 2018 is taking place
in Mexico City from the 18th to
the 20th of May, with a new for-
mat that will explore the themes
that are most intriguing about
the industry through exciting
learning activities and social en-
counters. We have invited even
more studios to join the portfo-
lio reviews and recruitment, to
showcase their upcoming proj-
ects and technological advanc-
es to keep the experience of the
event in full force.
Moreover, like every year, we fusion one of the most important
collaborate with a local studio to creative festivals in the nation,
create a small short that acts as that it can be fully recognized in-
an ad for the event, that will rep- ternationally.
resent the values and vision of it,
as it grants the tone that opens Hopefully we'll see some of you
the discussion before, during here in May, but if you can't make
and after the festival. In 2018, we it, we'll tell you all the stories from
joined forces with Jugando en this edition in July!
Serio, a 2D animation studio that
is located in Mexico City, which
is helmed by one of the most vi-
sionary animators in our country,
Luis Manuel Villarreal. We've put
in his hands the challenge to tell
a small story that pays homage
to the characters and cartoons
from the era of the 20's and 30's
- we're sure it's gonna be a great
visual experience.
Our ultimate goal is to build the
best experience animation en-
thusiasts and professionals in
Mexico could wish for. Year by
year, we work hard to make Trans-
107
 D2 CONFERENCES
VIENNA
For two days each year, the d2
Conferences in Vienna hosts one
of the largest gatherings of archi-
tectural visualization artists in the
world. Converging from 26 coun-
tries worldwide, attendees from
visualization studios, architecture
offices, advertising agencies, and
software companies come to-
gether to share knowledge and
meet fresh faces in the industry.
From our humble first conference
in 2014, with just over 50 attend-
ees, we have grown to over 300
at the 2017 event.

HOW IT ALL BEGAN
In 2013, one of our co-founders,
Fabio Palvelli, felt that there was
something missing in the arch-
viz community. He teamed up
with Christian Kobierski and a
couple of others to organize a 3
day conference (under a differ-
ent name) for architectural visu-
alization. It was a success, but as
always, there were things to im-
prove. In 2014, Jason Bergeron
joined the team with the prom-
ise to help take the conference
to the next level, and d2 Confer-
ences was born.
THE D2 OVER THE YEARS
In 2014, we started strong, bring-
ing speakers from talented stu-
dios from around the world. The
venue, the Impact Hub Vienna,
was relatively small but provid-
ed a cozy space for both the lec-
tures and workshops. 2015 was
our breakout year, not least be-
cause of the speakers, who were

108 Firestarter Mag #3 24th–25th August 2018 | vienna.d2conferences.com 109


headlined by Trond Greve from
MIR. We used a new, larger space
from the Impact Hub, but quickly
ran out of space and were sold
out quite a few weeks before the
event. This was a turning point for
us, as we realized that we would
need to find a new spot for the
2016 event. After visits to many
locations around Vienna, we came
upon the Metropol Theater. We
just knew that this was the place
with its quirky main theater and a
cozy beer garden-style courtyard
that was perfect for our evening
festivities. In 2016, we were able
to double our number of attend-
ees, and because of the great
new space, were able to raise the
number even more in 2017.
We pride ourselves on bringing
talented speakers from around
the world. Here are some speak-
er highlights from the previous
years: 2014 – Matt Reid and Pe-
dro Botelho from Pixelflakes (UK),
Ryan Cohen, Hao La, and Rodri-
go Lopez from Neoscape (USA),
Victor Bonafonte Morales from
Beauty and the Bit (Spain), Thom-
as Vournazos from Slashcube
(Switzerland), Paul Nicholls from
Factory Fifteen (UK), Thomas Du-
bois (France), and Armin Hess
from Isochrom (Austria). 2015 -
Trond Greve from MIR (Norway),
110 Firestarter Mag #3
John Sellings from Squint/Op-
era (UK), Cristian Farinella and
Lorena Greco from Atelier Crilo
(Italy), Uroš Nešić and Igor Kožić
from EDiT (Serbia), Joost van
Rossenberg from WAX (Nether-
lands), Lasse Rode from XOIO
(Germany), Paul McMahon from
The Rusted Pixel (Ireland), Marcin
Jastrzębski from Nebula Grafi-
ka (Poland), and Andrea Paloni
from Moka Studio (Germany).
2016 – Christiaan Klaassen, Da-
vid Cairney, and Quincy Quartey
from DBOX (UK), Alex Hogrefe
from Design Distill (USA), András
Káldos and Attila Cselovszki from
Brick Visual (Hungary), Johannes
Lindqvist (Sweden), Hrvoje Čop
and Dean Niskota from Studio
Niskota (Croatia), Sandra Milena
Arciniegas and Sergio Garzon
from Ekoomedia (Columbia),
Nikos Nikolopoulos from Cre-
ative Lighting (Greece), Victor En-
rich (Spain), Christoph Schindelar
from Real Displacement Textures
(Austria), Steffen Riegas and Mi-
kolaj Bazaczek from Herzog & de
Meuron (Switzerland), and Danilo
Micic and Nebojsa Zaklan from
Case3D (Serbia).
2017 WRAP-UP
Last year's event was our best yet.
We began to strategically break
out of the narrow field of architec-
tural visualization. It is our experi-
ence that we learn the most from
people who are not working in the
field of architectural visualization.
To that end, we made it a point to
bring more speakers working in
adjacent industries with the goal
of providing a more varied set of
tools and techniques from which
the attendees can learn. Case in
point, in 2017 we were lucky to
have Mike Winkelmann, a.k.a. Be-
ple (USA), take the stage as one
of our main speakers. He is well-
known for his everyday project,
where he produces a piece of art
each day. He was also generous
enough to show us his everyday
live, as a part of a pre-party the
night before d2 started. Other no-
table speakers from adjacent in-
dustries were Tomasz Wyszołmir-
ski​from Dabarti (Poland), and
Martin McDonnell from Soluis
(UK). Tomasz's company produc-
es high-quality, fully-3D stock
animations and Martin's com-
pany works in the emerging AR/
VR space. We were also happy
to bring back a favorite of ours,
Thomas Dubois from France. An
architect by training and trade,
he spends his free time creating
amazing stories in 3d and paint-
ing. Of course, we could not have
d2 without the architectural visu-
alizers. Some great talent was on
the stage, like Ben Bancroft and
Bret Fisher from ArcMedia (UK),
Sebastian Lupea from Tegmark
(Romania), and Dušan Vukčevič
from Vudumotion (Slovenia). To
round things out, we also had
speakers from two UK agencies,
Mark Lee and Toni Buzolic from
Uniform (UK) and Rebecca Wat-
son and Michelle Obayda from
Squint/Opera.
WHAT MAKES D2 SPECIAL?
Ask any attendee what they like
best about d2, and the answer is
almost always the same: The at-
Images ©CTIAF Franco Garzarolli and Kevin Nilles / Bio photo ©Maria-Theresia Bergeron
mosphere. Being visualizers our-
selves, our focus is on the com-
munity and providing them with
a place to meet, talk, and learn.
During the day, there is a full slate
of inspiring speakers from some
of the best talent in the CG indus-
try. The mix of arch-viz artists and
artists from other 3D industries
provides just the amount of learn-
ing and positive reinforcement
for attendees of any background.
It's not just attendees that love
d2. We get overwhelmingly pos-
itive reviews from our sponsors.
We have been lucky to work with
the best in the industry and their
support helps us continue to
bring great artists to d2 and cre-
ate its positive atmosphere for
networking and learning.
It is very important for us to have
the focus on the artistic and
technical work produced by our
speakers. There are no product
presentations on the stage at
d2, just the work of great artists
from around the world. After a
long day of lectures, attendees
can gather in the courtyard for a
complimentary grill party and as
much beer as you can drink. It is
networking on steroids, and the
reason people keep coming back
to d2 each year. See in you Vien-
na on August 24-25, 2018!
For more information, visit our
website vienna.d2conferences.
com or write us an email at of-
fice@d2conferences.com.
ORGANIZER BIO
d2 Conferences is organized
by Christian Kobierski, Jason
Bergeron, and Fabio Palvelli, an
Austrian, an American, and an
Italian. What could go wrong?
Christian is a software reseller and
has a background in event orga-
nization. Jason is a US licensed
architect, but he doesn't much
need it these days with his job
at Luxigon Vienna. Fabio studied
architecture and created the plat-
form, 3D Dreaming, before going
on to work for various companies,
including Vray for C4D.
111

Digital Art Conference, in the
heart of Frankfurt, has the aim of
keeping a close connection be-
tween speakers, attendees and
the organisation. Artists of all lev-
els can come and learn cool stuff,
meet new people and enjoy three
days of inspiring talks, workshops,
portfolio reviews ,and more.
INSPIRATION:
I never thought that I would end
up in Frankfurt, but in 2017, I
started working and living there.
Working at a creative agency, I
quickly discovered that beyond
the typical few, there were also
other many hidden layers to the
city. I felt there was a lot of cre-
ativity in Frankfurt, but it seemed
to be overshadowed and discon-
nected. Designers, dancers, art-
ists, VFX studios, game studios –
the city has it all. It fed an impulse
that maybe something should
112 Firestarter Mag #3
DAC-FRA
FRANKFURT
happen that would liven up the
artistic scene and bring people
together, especially in a city not
recognized for its creativity.
The second part of the inspira-
tion came from Daniel Lieske and
Kemane Ba. I had the great plea-
sure to meet and work with them
for some projects for my online
platform, Quickposes. During our
conversations, they would tell me
wonderful stories about their old
adventures and the digital art fo-
rum meetups they used to have
in Frankfurt.
When these two paths crossed in
2017, I felt inspired to try and start
something that would hopeful-
ly bring artistic people together
and inspire the local community.
I told myself it shouldn't be that
hard, and with those words an
underestimated challenge and
emotional adventure started that
culminated into the first DAC-FRA
Conference.
EVENT OVERVIEW:
The first edition took place on
the weekend of 8–10 September,
2017 at the DJH Youth Hostel
right near the center of Frankfurt.
The hostel has one of the most
unique conference settings in
Frankfurt. Their old cinema room
has been transformed into a
beautiful conference hall that was
used as the main hall for the Dig-
ital Art Conference.
We had around 175 attendees,
including staff and speakers,
come to the first edition. We had
attendees from about ten differ-
ent European countries, ranging
from the ages of 18 to 50. It was
also incredible to see that a lot of
people that are part of the digital
5th–7th October 2018 | dac-fra.com
art forum came to the event, and
they had, in some sense, a fami-
ly reunion. Some of our speakers
were also back in the country for
the first time in years and were
reunited with their former friends
and teachers, so for some peo-
ple, there was a lot of nostalgia in
the air and it was very cool to hear
all their stories from their past ar-
tistic experiences and adventures
together. I think a big part of the
magic was seeing these old con-
nections reforged. It served as
big inspiration to everyone see-
ing these old artistic relationships
blossom again.
One of the unique parts of the
conference is that we had almost
all of the speakers stay together
at the hostel, in addition to 60
attendees and organisation staff.
For almost the entire duration of
the conference, you could stay
there and be surrounded by oth-
er artists and speakers and be in
touch with them at any time.
PROGRAM:
For our first edition, we had the
pleasure to welcome speakers
from Airborn Studios, Crytek,
Images ©DAC-FRA
Ninja Theory, Star Citizen and
some amazing freelance artists.
Topics ranged from 2D, 3D char-
acter and environment art, to VFX
and 3D character animation.
Our day program followed a
more conventional approach,
whereby we had two rooms in
which speakers gave their talks,
followed by a round of Q&A in
a more formal setting. We had
small breaks between talks, a
long lunch, and dinner breaks so
people did not feel rushed and
had time for personal connection.
After dinner, we transformed the
main hall into a more informal
chillout/party atmosphere with
cosy couches, seats, LED cubes
and music. There we held a fire-
side talks, live demo sessions
by the speakers, and live model
drawing. In the second room, we
had speakers doing live demos
with the lights turned down and a
beer in their hand, which gave the
moment a very intimate and inclu-
sive feel. During the evening, all
drinks were free but if people felt
inspired they could also donate.
Almost all of the talks, except the
evening ones, have been record-
ed and uploaded onto the DAC-
FRA YouTube channel, where you
can watch them for free. There are
also more videos and pictures of
the event on our Facebook page.
During the conference, there was
also an art competition called ‘Al-
chemy' whereby attendees had
to randomly draw three words
from a big pile and compose
an art piece inspired by them.
Some very interesting combi-
nations were drawn and it was
cool too see so much creativity
in the entries. In the end, three
entries were chosen for the 1st,
2nd and 3rd prizes. The 1st prize
won a new Wacom Intuos Pro M,
while for 2nd & 3rd there were
art books and other goodies re-
served.
On the last day, we held an all-day
portfolio review event in the main
hall where you could just walk in
an and sit together with other at-
tendees and speakers and listen
in on reviews and have your own
portfolio reviewed. At 5 pm, the
show was finally over and people
went to freshen up and pack their
113
 stuff before dinner. Most of the at-
tendees had to leave right after the
conference ended or during the
day, but those who stayed were
invited to join the organisation [ CHARACTER & ENVIRONMENT ARTS | FX/HOUDINI | GAME DESIGN | RIGGING | COMPOSTING & LIGHTING ]
and speakers for dinner at a local,
3D.CGMASTERACADEMY.COM
traditional Frankfurter restaurant.
So many people joined that we
almost completely took over the
whole restaurant. It was probably
one of the highlights of the event,
sitting together with the speakers,
volunteers and other attendees,
and just having dinner and talking
about art and whatever else came
to our minds.
Boon Cotter Anthony Vaccaro
After dinner, we had a big group
picture and then some of the real
hardcore speakers and a bunch
of the organisation and attend-
ees went out for drinks until
the middle of the night. Finally,
somewhere around 2 am after a
lot of drinks, laughs and hugs, we
all said goodbye to each other
and promised we would all keep
in touch and would see each oth-
er again at the next edition.

Adam Skutt Pete Zoppi Jerad Marantz

THE NEXT EDITION:
After looking back and listening
to all the valuable feedback we CG Master Academy, the leading online art school, offers art students over 100 courses exploring concept art,
received, we are happy to an- modeling and texturing, VFX and gaming. Tailored for artists of all skill levels, CGMA's course offerings directly
nounce the second edition of the speak to the industry's current demands and trends. The instructors of these courses are working professionals
DAC-FRA on 5–7 October, 2018. in the entertainment industry, with some of the biggest motion pictures and games on their resume. The quality
We are going to take all the posi- of education CGMA has cultivated can truly be shown in the talent enrolled at the academy. With their affordable
tive aspects of the first event and
prices and high-quality curriculum, CGMA has made their name as the leading online provider in arts education.
improve them, and use all the
suggestions to make the event
For portfolio reviews, information on registration, and individual payment plans, reach out to the admissions
even better, while still retaining department via email registration@cgmasteracademy.com or phone (818) 561 –9542.
the warm and personal feeling.
Keep an eye out on our website or
Facebook page for more informa-
tion and announcements about
the event. For those interested,
you can also visit our YouTube
channel (Digital Art Conference
Frankfurt) where you can see re-
cordings of the talks, and on our
Facebook page (Digital Art Con-
ference Frankfurt), you can see
videos and images of the event.
Clinton Crumpler Ben Keeling

114 Firestarter Mag #3 115


EDGE CONTROL
TORONTO
Edge Control Expo is a local, two-
day event in Toronto, Canada, that
we began last year. We bring in
six art industry professionals from
around the world to share their
knowledge and experiences with
the community. Our guest speak-
ers give lectures and demos, and
provide portfolio reviews along-
side other industry veterans that
we invite to the event.
For our 2017 event this year, the
guest speakers lined up were:
• Jana Schirmer
• Mike Azevedo
• Even Amundsen
• Nacho Yague
• Alex Brady
• Joon Ahn
Jana is a self taught artist based
in Germany. Her highly detailed,
illustrative work has given her
credit with some of the biggest
116 Firestarter Mag #3
Even Mehl Amundsen
fantasy RPG properties, such as
Legend of the Cryptids (Appli-
bot). She continues to present
workshops globally, and is always
developing her style as an artist.
Mike is an illustrator and concept
artist based in São Paulo, Brazil.
He has worked on many notable
projects like League of Legends
(Riot Games), Hex (Cryptozoic),
August 2018 | edgecontrolexpo.com
and Legend of the Cryptids (Ap-
plibot). He has had many presti-
gious clients like Blizzard, Guerril-
la Games, Games Workshop and
Direwolf. Mike also works as an
educator at a school in São Paulo.
Even is a Norwegian artist that
has been working in the concept
art industry for seven years. His
experience includes Volta, a well-
known studio in Quebec that has
done work for Ubisoft and Riot
Games. Now he is working as a
freelance artist, and has gained a
substantial following over the last
year with his character and sto-
ry-driven series, Tegn.
Nacho is a Toronto-based senior
concept artist working at Ubisoft.
Prior to his work in this industry,
he studied graphic design and
website building. He has done
Mike Azevedo
Images ©Edge Control
work for multiple game studios
and rose to an art director posi-
tion within Ubisoft.
Alex is a freelance concept artist
based in Cambridge, UK. She has
a wealth of experience within the
field, working for gaming power-
houses like EA, and on big mov-
ies like Guardians of the Galaxy.
Alex additionally puts out tutori-
als for various magazines and art
outlets. She does workshops fair-
ly regularly, and currently works
in advertising. Alex has a unique
body of work with incredible
pieces that push the boundaries
of design and art standards.
Joon, originally from Korea, is a
senior concept artist, currently at
Riot Games on the world-building
team. He also teaches a class at
Brainstorm in Pasadena, Califor-
nia. He has an incredible design
sense, a uniquely gorgeous body
of work, and a wealth of technical
knowledge.
The event spanned two days, for
up to twelve hours a day, with
three different artists. Each pro-
vided a lecture and demonstra-
tion for every day. All the invited
artists were given two hours to
show their presentation. During
the demo half of the presenta-
tion, the audience was afforded
a chance to ask the presiding
speakers questions directly. The
attendees got the chance to re-
cieve portfolio reviews from not
only our presenters, but six equal-
ly amazing artists who generously
shared their time and expertise.
We made sure that every attend-
ee was afforded the chance to get
a personal review without having
to rush away from their favourite
artist and the others.
We started by bringing guest
speakers that are not only badass
artists, but those we felt stood
out from the crowd and offered a
unique perspective of their pro-
cess, this industry, and the jour-
ney accompanying it.
We started Edge Control partial-
ly because we felt there was not
enough happening in Toronto.
The impact of physically being
in a room with like-minded peers
117
 was something we hadn't really
felt before until we attended a
Schoolism Live event in Toronto.
That alone sparked the catalyst
for us to realize the great value
of live events. There is so much
talent in Toronto! It's ridiculous!
But people don't have many op-
portunities to connect with each
other and form a community.
At the time, we were students
of RobotPencil, classes created
by Anthony Jones. Kalen Chock,
also a teacher at Robotpencil,
was hosting a livestream one
day, and mentioned how some
of his students in the past had
managed to gather artists from
around the world for their event,
Creative Juice Expo. The stu-
dents planned it all. They took
care of flights and itineraries,
managed logisics for lodgings,
and anything they needed. He
told the stream that they didn't
care where they slept or any-
thing, "Just buy us some burritos
and it will be all good."
Of course, it was a lot more work
than we anticipated, but in the
end, the effort we put in was defi-
nitely worth it.
2016 (and our very first) went far
better than we could have ever
hoped. We had more in atten-
dance than we expected, and
the lectures were both informa-
tive and highly motivational. We
owe a lot to the guest speakers,
our portfolio reviewers, and our
supporters, who were so interac-
tive and helpful during those fan-
tastic two days. Speakers were
drawing during the after-party,
Crush Visual brought prints, and
attendees brought art books to
share with other guests. We were
very pleased to learn that some
of our participants were even of-
fered jobs.
118 Firestarter Mag #3
The 2017 event was even better.
Each talk was informative. Each
speaker had something truly
unique to share with the audi-
ence. We had a highly motivating
presentation from Mike Azevedo
that hyped us all up for the rest of
the event. Even Amundsen gave
us a witty and informative talk
about world-building, and the
power of character archetypes.
And at end the first day, there
was a surprising and heartwarm-
ing joint presentation from Jana
Schirmer and her husband Mathi-
as (an art director at Blizzard).
By the second day, people were
already getting into the swing
of things. It started with Nacho
Yague giving us some real talk
with a universally appreciated
lecture that gave us some life ad-
vice. Alex nonchalantly dropped
a mind-blowing 3DSMax demo.
And to finish off the lecture seg-
ments, Joon Ahn presented us
with a brilliant art breakdown,
demonstrating his knowledge by
hitting an instant painting button!
His demo was that quick! And
these were just the lectures.
Being a relatively new event, we
wanted to try something different,
and introduced a one-hour panel
with some of the guest speakers
and portfolio reviewers on both
days. The casual discussion for-
mat gave the artists the ability to
speak on a variety of different top-
ics, but also share their personal
experiences and philosophies on
art and life. It was refreshing and
informative to hear so many differ-
ent points of view in response to
the same questions. Of course, no
event is complete without a sweet
after-party. For this year's event,
we reserved a family-owned pub
with a homey, relaxed interior. It
gave everyone a chance to chill,
unwind, and simply enjoy one an-
other's company over good beers
and chicken wings. The purpose
of these events isn't just for lec-
tures or seeing favourite artists. It's
a place to connect with the same
kinds of people who hole them-
selves up day and night in their
homes drawing, painting, and
modelling. It's almost guaranteed
that you will meet people that will
help foster your growth as an art-
ist. You may be talking to the CEO
of some game studio, or maybe,
you might meet a future business
partner. Organic connections like
these just don't happen over the
internet.
At the same time, however, you
realize that it isn't just about net-
working, and learning. At some
point, after spending so much
time here, you remember that
we're all people. Artists in the in-
dustry can sometimes be so glo-
rified by the community that it is
easy to disassociate the fact that
they are the same as you. Human.
They all go through the same
struggles on the same paths, and
some of them might even have a
similar personality. But until you
meet these people that many
consider heroes, it's hard to ful-
ly grasp that concept. To us, this
is probably the most important
thing. We want everyone to be
seen as equals. Every year that
ECE is hosted, we will learn that
more, and apply that knowledge
to create an even better event
that is even more memorable.
Our primary goal is to build and
connect with the local commu-
nity, then bridge them with the
global one. But when it comes to
event specifics, we'll aim to keep
it a personal experience by limit-
ing our seat capacity. That gives
everyone a chance to speak,
breathe, and have fun without
being too overwhelmed.
Some of the things we'd like to
experiment with are not only ways
to make ECE an event to make
friends at, but a place where we
can connect you with studios, job
opportunities, and more. This will
be a more complicated aspect to
incorporate into our endeavors,
since it will depend entirely on stu-
dios' job openings, the time of the
openings, the location of the stu-
dio, etc. It is an idea of many, and
not a guaranteed aspect of the
event. Spreading awareness about
the creative industry is something
we're focused on. To quote Mike
Azevedo, we should be grateful
that we get to draw every day for a
living. We hope that Edge Control
can eventually grow into some-
thing that does much more than
merely offers knowledge and con-
structive criticism. We want to give
people an experience that truly
contributes to their growth, both
as an artist and as individuals.
119

The festival FUTURO is based in
the beautiful Bulgarian city, Var-
na, which is located on the Black
Sea's coast, with thousands of
years of cultural and historical
traditions. More than anything
else, this art event is motivation-
al, opening the doors for young
artists searching for answers, and
introducing them to profession-
als working for the entertainment
industry.
Varna is the third largest city in
Bulgaria and the largest city and
seaside resort on the Bulgarian
Black Sea Coast. Situated strate-
gically in the Gulf of Varna, the
city has been a major economic,
social and cultural centre for al-
most three millennia. Historically
known as Odessos, it grew from
a Thracian seaside settlement to
a major seaport on the Black Sea.
Varna is an important centre for
120 Firestarter Mag #3
FUTURO
VARNA
business, transportation, educa-
tion, tourism, entertainment, and
healthcare. The city is referred to
as the maritime capital of Bulgar-
ia and headquarters the Bulgari-
an Navy and merchant marine. In
2008, Varna was designated as
the seat of the Black Sea Euro-Re-
gion by the Council of Europe.
In 2014, Varna was awarded the
title of European Youth Capital
2017. The oldest gold jewelry in
the world, belonging to the Var-
20th–24th of August 2018 | futurovarna.com/en
valier, Pierre Alary and Viktor
Kalvachev. Michael Defeo is a
sculptor whose specialty lies in
translating 2-D character designs
into fully-fledged 3-D models.
He hand-built the modeling and
sculpting studios at Blue Sky Stu-
dios and served as the head of
each for 15 years. While with his
pals at Blue Sky, Michael brought
countless characters to life for
Ice Age, Robots, Horton Hears A
na culture, was discovered in the Eddie Bennun
Varna Necropolis and dates to
4200–4600 BC.
FUTURO 2017 was the third con-
secutive edition and with every
year passing it gains more and
more power. The event was cre-
ated from the idea of the sculp-
tor, Zhivko Donchev, and the
famous artist, Viktor Kalvachev.
Lecturers in the first edition were
Michael Defeo, Igor-Alban Che-
Who, Rio, and Epic. With the help
of Illumination Entertainment, Mi-
chael spent the better part of two
years in the city of Paris, helping
to create characters for Despica-
ble Me 2, The Lorax, Minions and
The Secret Life Of Pets, as well as
many other characters.
For the past 20 years, Igor-Alban
Chevalier/The Black Frog has
provided a considerable amount
of designs, illustrations, sculpts
and storyboards for films such as
X-Men, Brotherhood Of The Wolf,
Harry Potter, The Flintstones, and
Dracula Untold, to name a few,
and worked for some of today's
leading companies in the vid-
eo game industry. Some of his
clients include DreamWorks,
Warner Bros, Marvel, Disney and
many more.
The meeting of young artists with
these great names sparked the
spirit of the event and set the
stage for the FUTURO festival. At
the second edition, our guests
were Igor-Alban Chevalier, Darek
Zabrocki, Alfonso de la Torre,
Leo Haslam, Nikola Matkovic and
many more. The lecturers shared
a wide range of knowledge, their
skills that they have developed
over the years, and tips and tricks
to get into the industry with the
audience. From concept art to
3D printing, the event was satu-
rated with quality education and
lots of fun. Also, there were many
young artists who showed up
and proved to the audience that
everyone has something to show
in the world of digital art.
Last year the festival grew big-
ger and we invited artists such
as Darek Zabrocki, Michal Kus,
Mathias Zamęcki, Aris Kolokon-
tes, and our special guest,
Jean-Baptiste Monge.
121
Darek Zabrocki
Jean has been a French illus-
trator, author, and painter since
1994, creating his own illustrated
stories in books. He lives now in
Montréal, Canada and nowadays
is a character designer and visual
development artist for CG anima-
tions and movies. He is member
of the Society of Illustrators NY.
Some of his clients include Walt
Disney Imagineering, Sony Pic-
tures Animation, Digital Domain,
Blizzard Entertainment and many
more. Jean and Aris are the favor-
ites of thousands of artists work-
ing in the digital art world. Their
work is the subject of searches
and inspiration, and many young
artists try to reach them in their at-
tempt to achieve similar success.
Jean and Aris brought books,
Jean-Baptiste Monge
122 Firestarter Mag #3
prints, and sculptures to the fes-
tival, so the audience could di-
rectly interact with the masters'
artwork. Another rare thing to see
was the lecture of Ubisoft's art di-
rector, Eddie Bennun. He showed
the audience not only what is to
be in the industry but also shared
his personal path and the strug-
gles that got him working for a
AAA studio.
Darko Markovich, Mathias Zamęc-
ki and Stefan Atanasov showed
their thought process and demon-
strated to the audience how they
each approach a problem and
most importantly, how to solve it.
Michal Kus and Darek Zabrocki
gave inspiring lectures demon-
strating skills and knowledge that
Images ©FUTURO / George Kazakov, Ivailo Kostadinov
Nikolay Stanev
EXCEPTIONAL
which every artist wants to learn.
They also did a combined lecture
DESIGN NEEDS
EXCELLENT
showing the audience the aspects
of working in a team environment.
Darek also had a private work-
shop revealing, not only his tips
and tricks, but also his experience
that he's gained over the years.
PRINT WORK
Besides lectures, live demos,
private workshops, portfolio re-
views and art talks, there are
also parties on the beach where
everyone is together in a close,
friendly atmosphere. FUTURO is
a festival where the participants
receive quality education and a
chance to have a great time with
their favorite creators.
Do you need advice concerning paper quality, design
of file specifications? Contact us and we take care of it.
From quotation to delivery, we take care of your printing!
info@q-promotions.nl +3113 582 09 68
Stefan Atanasov
123

IAMAG Master Classes is a yearly
snapshot of what the best artists
have to offer, whether they're
animators, concept artists, VFX /
FX artists, or directors, all during
three days in Paris, the city of art
that never sleeps. Artists who at-
tend are be able to join the mas-
terclasses, have their portfolios
reviewed by artists, as well as,
potentially be recruited by com-
panies seeking new talents.
For its fourth edition, IAMAG
Master Classes will push this ac-
claimed event to the next level!
With a new, live streaming option,
we'll open the event to a larger
audience, offering a global view
of some of the best digital artists
and companies in the world.
This year we're very proud to
have some of the best character
designers on the planet, Peter de
124 Firestarter Mag #3
IAMC
PARIS
Sève and Carter Goodrich, who
have created many beloved char-
acters in modern animation, from
films like Ratatouille, Brave, Find-
ing Nemo, Ice Age, Transylvania
and The Croods, just to name a
few.
In addition, we've made greater
efforts to get more artists involved
in VR. We have brought in true
trailblazers who are up to the task.
We're happy to have Goro Fujita
back, along with Jama Jurabaev
and Maggie Oh (ILMxLab), to give
you new insights about the future
of art and virtual reality.
This year, we have also added two
amazing sculptors to our roster,
Kris Costa and Mike Defeo. They
work with both traditional mate-
rials and digital software. The list
is long, however, and there are
many more! Other special guests
16th–18th of March 2018 | itsartm.ag/iamc-18
include James Paick, George
Hull, Bastien Lecouffe-Deharme,
Pascal Campion, Sam Nielson,
John Nevarez, and Victor Navone,
among others.
George Hull
Born in India and raised in the
U.S., George started his creative
path with a BFA Degree in In-
dustrial Design. Growing up in a
small Midwestern town, a career
in the film industry seemed im-
possible – a "ridiculous" pursuit
he was told by his instructors. But
George's dreams for film design
became reality when the Lucas-
film's prestigious visual effects
company, ILM, noticed his talent
and offered him a position on
their creative team right out of
school. At ILM, George's earliest
credit was Oscar-winner Forrest
Gump. He then quickly climbed
to be a lead visual effects art di-
rector working on films like Mis-
sion Impossible, Jurassic Park
2, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes
Back, and the special edition of
Return of the Jedi. After 6 years at
ILM, George left to form George
Hull Design. As an independent,
he is always pursuing the most
creative stage of a film's visual
development. As one of Holly-
wood's leading film conceptual
designers, George specializes in
creating unique and imaginative
worlds including the cinematog-
raphy, settings, and vehicles that
live within them.
Peter de Sève
Peter de Sève's work spans over
three decades in various forms
of media, including magazines,
books, print and television adver-
tising, animated films and maga-
zines. He is perhaps best recog-
nized for his many covers gracing
The New Yorker magazine, and
his character designs for the
blockbuster Ice Age franchise (its
character, Scrat, is a veritable in-
ternational celebrity).
Carter Goodrich
Carter Goodrich began his ca-
Images ©IAMC
reer in New York City, working as
a freelance illustrator in 1983. At
the time, he shared a studio with
fellow illustrator, Buck Lewis. His
book and editorial pieces led to
twenty-one published New York-
er covers and counting, as well
as the opportunity to work as a
character designer for Dream-
Works' first animated film, The
Prince of Egypt, in 1995. Shortly
after completing work for The
Prince of Egypt, Carter moved to
Los Angeles, where he continued
to contribute character designs
to various feature animated films.
Some of those films include Find-
ing Nemo, Monsters Inc., Shrek,
Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron,
Sinbad, Open Season (director
of character design), Despicable
Me (lead character designer), Ho-
tel Transylvania, The Croods (lead
character designer), Ratatouille
(character designer), and Brave
(lead character designer).
Kris Costa
Kris Costa is currently a creature
modeling lead at Industrial Light
& Magic, and has been contribut-
ing to their blockbusters for the
past 10 years. An award-winning
Brazilian CG artist, Kris has par-
ticipated as a character animator,
texture artist, and a digital mod-
eler in productions such as Star
Wars: The Force Awakens, Kong:
Skull Island, Warcraft: The Begin-
ning, The Avengers, Transformers
2–5, Pacific Rim, Rango, and Pan's
Labyrinth. His tools of choice are
ZBrush and Maya.
Ian McQue
Ian is a concept artist and il-
lustrator. He has spent over 20
years working in the video game
industry as lead concept artist
and assistant art director for the
best-selling Grand Theft Auto se-
ries. He is now freelance, mainly
working in visual development
for film. His recent clients include
20th Century Fox, Paramount Pic-
tures, Warner Bros, and Sony Pic-
tures.
Anthony Eftekhari
Anthony is a concept artist and
matte painter in the VFX and
games industry. With a decade
of production experience, his
talents have led him to work with
feature films, commercials, tele-
vision features, and AAA game
125

cinematics. He currently works
as a Senior Artist at Blizzard En-
tertainment, contributing to their
award-winning cinematics team.
His work can be seen in World
of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor,
StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void
and Diablo III. His most recent
work has been on the animated
shorts from Blizzard's smash hit
game, Overwatch.
James Paick
James Paick is the founder and
creative director at Scribble Pad
Studios, with over fifteen years
of design experience. Under his
direction, Scribble Pad Studios
has been responsible for creat-
126 Firestarter Mag #3
Ian McQue
Goro Fujita
ing some of the most memorable
environments and moments in
entertainment design. James has
developed many projects within
the gaming, film, theme park, il-
lustration, entertainment, and ad-
vertising worlds. His clients have
included Riot Games, Naughty
Dog, EA, Sony, Respawn, Epic
Games, Activision, NCSOFT,
Crystal Dynamics, Wizards of the
Coast, and many more.
Jama Jurabaev
Jama Jurabaev is a profession-
al concept artist, illustrator, and
matte painter. He is currently
employed at Industrial Light &
Magic as a senior concept artist.
Jama's talents have contributed
to a number of massively popular
box office hits: Marvel's Aveng- C ONC EP T A R T A ND
ers: Age Of Ultron, X-Men: Days P R ODU C T ION DES IG N
of Future Past, Guardians of The
Galaxy, and Kong: Skull Island.
Sam Nielson
Sam Nielson is a concept art-
ist and illustrator. Sam's diverse
experience has given him an in-
depth view of creativity, as well as
artistic storytelling. With over two
decades of work in the animation
industry, among his many cred-
its are game, film, and television V IS U A L DEV ELO P MEN T
work for studios such Walt Dis- OF P ITC H PA C K AG ES
ney, Blizzard, DreamWorks, and
Sony Pictures. His work has been
published in Spectrum, Imag-
ineFX, 3DTotal, Scholastic Books,
HarperCollins Books, and more.
Sam currently teaches for the
award-winning animation pro-
gram at BYU, in addition to giv-
ing online classes for Schoolism. C H A R A C T ER A ND
His classes cover lighting, digital C R EATU R E DES IG N
painting, character design, visual
development, gesture drawing,
digital sculpting, and animation.
He has taught these subjects at
workshops around the world.
John Nevarez
John Nevarez has been an artist
within the animation industry for
over 20 years. First working at
ILLU S TR ATION A ND
Disney Television as a storyboard
revisionist and storyboard artist M A R K ET ING A R T
on such shows as Pepper Ann
and Kim Possible, he then transi-
tioned over as a designer for Dis-
neyToons, where he worked on
Tinkerbell, Kronk's New Groove
and Brother Bear 2. John pro-
vided storyboards for the pro- “ Creativity, in touch
motions group for Illumination with tomorrow”
Entertainment's The Secret Life of (Online Slogan Generator)
Pets. John has been an art direc-
tor for Duncan Studios and is cur-
rently at Sony Pictures Animation
providing both story and art for
numerous features.
www.pixoloid.net
127
 ICON MANILA
MANILA
Once again, Icon Manila has gath-
ered a veritable powerhouse of
animators and designers for their
4th international design confer-
ence. The event was held on the
30th of June until the 1st of July,
2017 at the De La Salle College
of Saint Benilde, right in the heart
of beautiful Manila, Philippines.

The ICON Manila Entertainment

Design Conference caters to all
who work in the fields of anima-
tion, film, games, illustration, fine
art, and other visual design.

ICON 2017 featured five out-

standing speakers with decades
of proven design experience, fur-
ther solidifying Southeast Asia's
growing impact on the global en-
tertainment design industry.

Once again, the event has been

a smashing success. The 500-seat

128 Firestarter Mag #3 14th–15th September 2018 | iconmanila.com 129

auditorium was packed for both
days with visitors from Malaysia,
Japan, Singapore and as far as
the United States.
Mulan and Animal Crackers Di-
rector Tony Bancroft talked about
his experience directing feature
animated films. Oculus Art Direc-
tor, and VR pioneer, Goro Fujita,
did an amazing Oculus demo us-
ing the Quill application, for which
he is a main developer. The ex-
tremely talented German illustra-
tor, Jana Schirmer, demonstrated
her prowess by creating fantastic
scenes with colour and light. The
prolific Norwegian illustrator, Even
Amundsen, presented his philos-
ophies in creating believable char-
acters, and performed a demon-
stration of his process, showing
us how he builds his iconic Nordic
warriors. Lastly, veteran Visual De-
velopment Artist Armand Serrano
presented an array of his envi-
ronmental design work in feature
films, and explained the thoughts
and design principles behind
130 Firestarter Mag #3
them. A special, local guest artist,
Pauline Bautista, who's known to
her fans as simply Punziella, also
did a quick demo of of her distinct
style and technique.
SPEAKER INFORMATION:
Tony Bancroft
Tony Bancroft is one of the most
prominent supervising animators
in the industry, notable for his
role as co-director of Walt Dis-
ney's Brother Bear.
With over 29 years in the indus-
try, it's easy to see that Tony loves
animation. As a Disney animator,
he assisted in the creation of be-
loved characters like Cogsworth,
from Beauty and the Beast, Iago in
Aladdin, Pumbaa in The Lion King,
and Kronk in The Emperor's New
Groove. He won an Annie Award
for his co-direction in Disney's
Mulan. Additionally, Tony was a
supervisor for animation in the
production of Stuart Little (Sony
Pictures) and also supervised an-
imation on Stuart Little 2 for Sony
Pictures. Now independent, Tony
is currently directing the animated
feature film, Animal Crackers, set
for release later this year. To top it
all off, he literally wrote the book
on animation direction, Directing
For Animation. He co-hosts a pop-
ular podcast with his twin brother,
Tom, called The Bancroft Brothers
Animation Podcast. In his spare
time, Tony enjoys making balloon
animals out of bubble gum.
Goro Fujita
Goro is an art director, illustrator,
and visual development artist
based in the Bay Area, California.
After graduating from the German
Film School for Digital Production
in 2005, majoring in 3D animation,
he started work as a freelance
character animator and visual de-
velopment artist for various com-
panies in Germany. In 2008, he
joined DreamWorks Animation as
a visual development artist and
worked for properties such as Mer-
ry Madagascar, Megamind, and
Images ©Icon Manila
Boss Baby. Goro has illustrated
numerous book covers, and has
published children's books and
mobile games. He is currently an
art director at Oculus Story Studio,
and oversees art direction for the
Emmy award-winning VR expe-
rience, Henry. Using innovative
software, such as the VR painting
tool Quill by Oculus, and Medium,
he is truly a pioneer of the VR field.
Even Mehl Amundsen
In Even's own words, "I come
from a land to the north, with epic
landscapes, old sagas and a tra-
dition of exploration. A land of
trolls and Vikings, of kings and...
well, even more Vikings. I have
had experience working in most
of the relevant disciplines of the
field, though my personal love
lies with character art and large-
scale illustration work, both of
them being vehicles that create
and tell stories. The key strengths
I have are a good understanding
of anatomy, craftsmanship, de-
sign, and composition."
Jana Schirmer Hotel Transylvania. In 2013, Ar-
Jana is a self-taught concept mand joined Disney for a second
artist and illustrator, born in Co- time. His latest film credits include
logne, Germany. She currently Big Hero 6 and Zootopia. Armand
lives in Irvine, California. Her cli- is an accomplished scholar in an-
ents include Applibot, Bioware, imation design. He published his
Karakter/Guerilla Games, WB first art book, Vignettes, in 2016.
Games, Massive Black, Sony, Mar- His newest book, Inked, was re-
vel Comics, Riot Games, Wizards leased last year in July. Armand
of the Coast, and many more. is an adjunct professor at Biola
University in La Mirada, Califor-
Armand Serrano nia, and an online instructor at CG
Armand Serrano is a Filipino- Masters Academy.
American visual development
artist known for his work at Walt 2d.cgmasteracademy.com
Disney Animation Studios, and
Sony Pictures Animation. He has
been in the industry for more than
two decades. Starting with Hanna
Barbera Productions in 1990, he
then worked supervising layouts
for Marvel TV three years later. Ar-
mand joined Disney in 1997 and
worked on properties like Mulan,
Tarzan, Brother Bear, and Lilo &
Stitch. In 2004, he joined Sony,
and became involved with the
production of Surf's Up, Cloudy
With A Chance of Meatballs, and
131

"It's been absolutely amazing
and spectacular!"
Tom Paul
Concept designer, Australia
"I hope I can come back like ev-
ery single year and just have fun!"
Johnson Ting
Concept artist, Malaysia
"IFCC is a super-charming and
intimate conference. It's unlike
anything out there!"
Kenny Carvalho
Riot Games, United States
IFCC, or Independent Festival of
Creative Communication, is the
most notorious Boonika/Boonar
project and the biggest indie
festival of its kind in the region.
Its primary goal is to promote au-
thorship and creativity through
education and acknowledge-
ment, especially in the field of
132 Firestarter Mag #3
IFCC
ZAGREB creative collaboration or a fund-
ing opportunity and publishing,
IFCC 2018 will help you get on
the right track.
art and design within the enter-
tainment industry, publishing SOME THINGS
and advertising. The festival grew WILL NEVER CHANGE
through the years and garnered Lectures, demos, parties, work-
an almost cult-like following, shops, recruiting sessions and ex-
from both speakers and audienc- hibitions are standard ingredients
es. Anyone who's ever been to of the IFCC program. By partic-
an IFCC main event and experi- ipating in the various events, at-
enced all it offers, won't forget it tendees receive valuable informa-
anytime soon. tion directly from some of the best
creatives on the planet. Speakers,
WE'RE SLOWLY recruiters and attendees hang out
CHANGING OUR WAYS together through all the days and
This year's novelty will be a focus nights of the festival, communicat-
shift from breaking records in the ing formally and informally. Con-
number of guests to providing gregating in this manner is typical
as much knowledge and infor- of every IFCC festival.
mation to attendees to efficiently
support their aspirations con- THE IFCC SHOW-OFF
cerning finalizing and launching The IFCC Show-Off is a unique
personal projects. Bring the ideas chance for recruiters, profession-
and IFCC will do it's damnedest al artists and beginners to inter-
to find you someone to talk to act and see what everybody has
about bringing it life. Be it find- to offer. Every year, more than 60
ing associates and partners for IFCC attendees are allowed to
28th of May–2nd of June 2018 | ifcc-croatia.com Images ©IFCC / Juraj Vuglač
present their work to everyone in
the audience, increasing the po-
tential of getting hired by some
of the best studios out there. The
Show-Off is also a great way to
get your portfolio reviewed by
the industry's top professionals.
IFCC ACADEMY / IFCCA
ifcc-academy.com
The IFCC Academy was founded
to make the IFCC program big-
ger, better, and most importantly,
more accessible. The Academy's
program is meant to accommo-
date all those that are not able
to attend the festival's program,
but are interested in its content
and learning possibilities, none-
theless. Or, those that just wish
to learn from some of the world's
leading creatives in digital me-
dia and beyond. IFCCA wishes to
provide learning environments
that are apart from, yet part of,
the IFCC program. Along with
live workshops, the Academy will
bridge the time between festivals
by offering knowledge shared
by professionals at official events
online. The curriculum will cover
a wide array of topics delivered
live or directly to participants ev-
erywhere, through the wonders
of the internet.
The Academy's ultimate aim is to
allow direct access to knowledge
that is shared by our speakers, lec-
turers and at our workshops. The
new education platform began in
2017, marking the beginning of a
new IFCC chapter that is meant to
broaden horizons by expanding
the scope of the IFCC festival. The
IFCC main event is certainly some-
thing to experience, but if you
can't make it, enroll in the IFCC
Academy and be part of the next
best thing. Learn, collect experi-
ences and grow so that someday
we may learn from you.
LIVE WORKSHOPS
With 2017, IFCC expanded its
activities to include live educa-
tion seminars that took place
prior or after the main festival
133
program. These IFCC Academy
workshops featured prominent
industry figures that taught and
worked with a smaller group of
attendees. The smaller workshop
classes ensured a more personal
approach with every student, di-
rectly concentrating on individual
needs, while also handling group
dynamics in a more focused man-
ner. So far, the IFCCA's live work-
shops have been taught by Jama
Jurabaev, Aris Kolokontes and
Renaud Forestié.   massive and ever-evolving of
Marta Nael
ONLINE COURSES
A new addition to IFCCA are its
online courses. Everything is done
live and the specially prepared in-
ternet classes will be available on
the world wide web for anyone
looking to up their knowledge and
game on various topics ranging
from character design to environ-
ments. All this will be done using
the latest tools so that you won't
only be learning new approaches
and modes of work, but also get-
ting involved with the newest set
134 Firestarter Mag #3
of creative add-ons to known pro-
grams. The courses are currently
being developed, so stay tuned
and sign up for the IFCC newslet-
ter to stay in the loop.
THE GAME WORKSHOP
thegameworkshop.net
The IFCC team is never idle.
When they are not keeping busy
working on the next festival line-
up, they are devoted to several
current side-projects. The most
Noah Bradley
them is The Game Workshop.
Are you working on a game, art
book or something of the sort?
Developing creative tools? Or
maybe you just like to write ar-
ticles about art and design and
join some amazing art challeng-
es every now and then. In any
case, the IFCC collective would
like to invite you to become an
active member of TGW!  The
main mission is to help you de-
velop projects and promote
them  to potential customers
and/or investors. The project is
meant to encourage you to team
up with other members of this
community, submit articles, pro-
mote your services and to join
TGW challenges.
IFCC 2018
IFCC 2018 will be all about learn-
ing, teaching and finding the best
possible choice for your career –
a springboard for those looking
to develop their projects and
take them to new levels. The fes-
tival is always partnering up with
amazing art schools, top creative
studios, some of the most inno-
vating young companies and nu-
merous professionals.
All this will be condensed and
will take place in your favorite city
with a weird name, at locations
you've come to know and love,
at the festival where knowledge
rules, but hanging out at the bar
with a pad and pen is a close sec-
ond. You know, what happens in
Zagreb during IFCC stays in your
head forever! Come on down!
Learn, draw, drink, and make pals!
This year's main event will take
place from 28 May to 2 June.
135

INDUSTRY WORKSHOPS
LONDON
Industry Workshops is a collective
of London-based creatives, with
a shared interest in establishing
a broad-based and vibrant visual
arts community through contin-
ued education.
Founded by Levente Peterffy, Rich-
ard Burns, Daniel Matthews and
Alex Heath, it now involves many
experienced VFX professionals
from advertising, film, games and
music videos in freelance and stu-
dio capacities. Artist-inspired and
artist-driven, Industry Workshops
brings together leading visual ef-
fects talents to share their unique
approaches. Spanning three ex-
tensive days in vibrant London,
the event showcases both techni-
cal and philosophical aspects of
concept art, film, 3D, traditional
sketching, digital matte-painting,
and life drawing (to name just a
few). Industry Workshops also
136 Firestarter Mag #3 17th–19th of August 2018 | industryworkshops.co.uk
connects the attendee and the
lecturer. Through personal inter-
action, discussion panels, recruit-
ment and portfolio reviewing,
we strive to build a learning and
thriving VFX community.
IW_17 included free beers from
some of the best craft brewer-
ies in East London, speciality
coffee made by the great folks
from Mother's Milk, and amaz-
ing breakfasts with morning teas
made by our favourite cafe, Em-
bassy East of Hoxton. Attendees
got a swag bag, and merchan-
dise, too – all included in the tick-
et price of £320. Our venue is the
East London institution, The Old
Truman Brewery, London E1 6QR.
Our early announcement artist
lecturers this year were Cristi-
na Laviña (currently working at
Blackbird Interactive), the ever
prolific Mathias Zamęcki, Star
Wars Model Maker Alexander
Hutchings, Jan Urshel, and 3D
Master David Lesperance. The
roster quickly expanded, and the
artists on this awesome lineup in-
cluded ILM Senior Concept Artist
Jama Jurabaev, Game of Thrones
Concept Artist Floris Didden, Axis
Animation Art Director Kan Muf-
tic, and concept artist and illus-
trator extraodinaires, Even Mehl
Amundsen, and Jana Schirmer –
just to name a few!
Whilst insightful lectures graced
the main stages of IW, the demo
stages are also not to be missed.
This year's incredible roster of
artists who showcased their tech-
niques included Jon McCoy,
Richard Anderson, Sean Sevestre,
Miles Johnston, and many more.
The relaxed format of these demo
stages allows the audience to ask
specific questions about thought
processes and workflow, whilst
seeing them in action.
For those who were on the hunt
for their next big job, the studios
looking to recruit new talent this
year included ILM, Framestore,
Splash Damage, Creative Assem-
bly, and more.
Besides guests simply being audi-
ence members, IW_17 also provid-
ed a series of exceptional drawing
sessions throughout the weekend
for those wanting to get sucked in.
Bodies in Motion and the pre-em-
inent sculptor, Scott Eaton, fea-
tured a dynamic figure drawing
workshop, and the Art Model Col-
lective held a generous three-hour
life drawing session, along with
Jennie Webber of Wildlife Draw-
ing, providing an extraordinary
live animal drawing experience.
IW_17 marked our fourth year
running, and it's been quite a
Images ©Industry Workshops / ©Natalia Jaclin Kareta 137
ride, each year being bigger than
the last, involving more interest
both from an artists' perspective
and a professional studio one.
What started off as a meeting
between a small group of friends
after a life drawing session in
London, discussing how cool it
would be to have everyone get
together to talk about their ca-
reers and workflows, turned into
an international event with hun-
dreds of attendees. It's a big task
to organise something like this,
but somehow miraculously we've
managed to keep the team quite
small, so we can make things
happen, and make sure the event
doesn't become too corporate
or watered-down. All of our art-
ists represent what we think are
some of the very best elements
of the entertainment and design
industry, from 3D product design,
138 Firestarter Mag #3
to 2D character design, to motion
graphics and everything in be-
tween. We've had Oscar-winning
costume designers and art direc-
tors, mech designers, and algo-
rithmic programmers.
We love to involve friends, or
people we feel can contribute to
the energy of the event in a pos-
itive way. This can be quite dif-
ficult, but is very necessary. We
like to keep our stages for artists
and creators, and remove barri-
ers that can sometimes be put up
by other big events, so we search
for artists who can teach on both
a technical and philosophical
level. Buying a ticket to IW will al-
ways ensure that you experience
a mind-expanding weekend with
like-minded artists, forge new
friendships and perhaps reunite
with old friends. It is a way to
meet talented people whom you
might admire, without having
to spend a tremendous amount
of money, in a relaxed social
setting  – attendees are right in
amongst it with leading profes-
sionals. IW also provides a plat-
form for you to show your work
and get portfolio reviews from
some of the industry's leading
artists, and all your fellow peers.
We're all there to help each other
grow and improve!
We have had software develop-
ers on-site to introduce you to
some of the latest tech around,
and recruiters from world-class
studios where many attendees
have found their dream job (or
at least found a great place to
start out.) In a very basic way, it's
just great to get people together,
where they can discuss a thing
that they are really passionate
about (that doesn't get to hap-
pen very often).
At IW the format is very simple –
one venue, three days of lecturing
and presentations. Our most re-
cent event saw two lecture stages,
and a demo space where people
work in real-time. That's nearly
1000 man hours of screen and lec-
ture time! After the event we have
a party, and with a bit of social lu-
brication, it's a great time to show
your work around! If you're ever
planning to come to IW, expect to
have your mind broadened and
your vision stretched. Expect to
make new friends and learn from
some of the best around. Expect
to have early mornings and late
nights. It'll be three full days of
awesome artistic fodder for your
eyes and ears, and most of all, ex-
pect to be inspired!
If you want to know more, please
email us at
info@industryworkshops.co.uk
139

LiK: MeetUP is based in the sun-
ny country of Taiwan. It is orga-
nized by LiKStudios, a visual de-
velopment studio that works for
high-profile game developers.
Since its very first session, LiK:
MeetUP has been going on ev-
ery month since June of 2015,
followed by the first annual
workshop that December, and
a second workshop in October
of 2016.
140 Firestarter Mag #3
LIK: MEETUP
TAIPEI
The purpose of the workshop is
to help bring valuable experi-
ence in the visual arts industry to
Taiwan. Ultimately, we hope to
have more artists in Taiwan, which
will help us stay connected to the
global creative industry. Through
these events, we hope to inspire
and motivate younger artists to
achieve their dreams and to know
they can receive income doing
what they love.
24th–26th March 2018 | likmeetup.com
LIK: MEETUP WORKSHOP
Since the conception of the work-
shop, we had the honour to in-
vite industry-experienced speak-
ers such as Jonas De Ro, Darek
Zabrocki, Wojtek Fus from Level
UP, Kekai Kotaki and Jama Ju-
rabaev to share their invaluable
knowledge with us. We also invit-
ed several guest speakers from
related design industries, such
as Victor Sue, who designs for
the Interactive Media & Creative
Installations and Charles Chen,
who is a technical art director for
3D software. Our objective is to
have small speaker groups with
a targeted objective or theme
for each workshop, from ideation
and harnessing new technology
to aid designing, to projecting
your concepts on new mediums
like VR or specifically designed
physical installations.
Images ©LiK: MeetUP
Bringing set design to Taiwan by
Sean Hargreaves
This year, we decided to have a
workshop with a more focused
theme and a main speaker to
share his knowledge. The topic
we focused on this time around
is set production design and we
have the honour of inviting Sean
Hargreaves to be the speaker for
this workshop. Sean, being the
concept and production design-
er for many blockbuster mov-
ies, will have a lot of invaluable
knowledge to share with us!
Sean Hargreaves is originally
from Blackpool, England, and
subsequently moved to the Unit-
ed States with his parents at a
young age. He then moved to Los
Angeles to attend the prestigious
Art Center College of Design.
Sean graduated with a Bachelor
of Science degree and went on
to design concept cars at General
Motors for 2 years. In 1991, his in-
terests moved to the film business
where he has had a prolific career
working on films for Steven Spiel-
berg, Ridley Scott, Michael Mann,
Luc Besson and many more. He
has also worked as a produc-
tion designer at George Lucas's
Industrial Light & Magic, James
Cameron's Digital Domain, as
well as a matte painter at Rhythm
and Hues Studios. His talent en-
compasses production design,
concept design, illustration and
photography. Sean has worked
on such diverse films such as
Seven, Batman Forever, Heat, Ju-
rassic Park: The Lost World, The
Fifth Element, Shrek, Toy Story
2, The Seventh Son, 300: Rise of
An Empire and many others. His
latest work includes Star Trek Be-
yond, Guardians of the Galaxy 2,
Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers Infinity
Wars, Pacific Rim 2 and last but
not least, Star Wars Episode 9.
Sean's book, Places, was pub-
lished in 2011 garnering great
reviews. The book focuses on his
personal design work using cut-
ting-edge software to express his
ideas and showcases them with
lavish illustrations. Sean has lec-
tured at the Art Center College of
Design, Apple's industrial design
team Microsoft / Nokia Design
Beijing, Otis College of Art and
Design, The National Academy of
141

Chinese Theatre Arts, The Beijing
University of Technology, Jian
Qiao University in Shanghai, and
Siggraph. He has won the AICP
Award twice and has been nom-
inated for four Art Director Guild
Awards, winning one. His work
is in the permanent collection of
The Museum of Modern Art in
New York City and has been fea-
tured in the exhibition, Pixar: 20
Years of Animation, at MOMA in
New York City.
ABOUT WORKSHOP 2018
In this workshop, he will talk
about his work, showing us many
examples, and will talk about
his design process and how he
was inspired, as well as his tech-
niques. He will also talk about
techniques relative to time, sub-
ject matter and budgeting, which
is the main factor that affects his
process in set production design.
One of the highlights will be go-
ing through a series of subjects
with Sean, beginning with an
142 Firestarter Mag #3
emphasis on design, then mov-
ing into how it's applied to cur-
rent designs before turning them
into concept designs. One of the
many problems young aspiring
concept designers face is the lack
of foundational design, therefore,
they have to close up the gap by
relying on techniques. However,
the major problem with this is that
a lot of the resulting concept de-
signs are similar. Sean will shed
some light in this area by sharing
insights on how to distance our
work from others, and to not use
existing design work from other
designers as references too much,
but rather trust in themselves.
Sean will also talk about photog-
raphy and how photos can in-
fluence our designs, in terms of
composition and lighting. He will
talk about his life and where he
comes from, his education and
how he got to where he is today.
He will share his insights on the
design industry, both good and
bad. Between the cold, hard facts,
there are silver linings and there
is a huge positive to being in this
industry. He hopes that through
the workshop, the attendees will
know that design and art is fun.
The workshop also covers a lot of
live demonstrations where Sean
will talk about techniques from
sketching and photos to pho-
to-bashing and 3D. He will demo
how to create works with painterly
looks and effectively show design
& details from smart economy of
brush strokes.
Similar to the previous sessions
of the workshop, he will give
critiques and paint-overs of se-
lected works, showing how they
can be improved. The workshop
will last three days from the
24th to the 26th of March, 2018.
Tickets can be purchased on-
line here: https://likmu.kktix.cc/
events/201803-likmu The price
of each tickets ranges from $280–
$340. More information will be
available at www.likmeetup.com
WHAT HAPPENED 2017?
Right after the workshop in 2016,,
we decided to do something dif-
ferent in 2017. With the collabo-
rative effort from Taiwan's tourism
board, we invited several artists
from numerous countries over to
Taiwan for a nature hike through
the beautiful mountain of Alishan
in Taiwan, followed by a sharing
session. The main objective we
had hoped for, was to showcase
the beauty of the scenery, get in-
spired from nature, and lastly, learn
from everyone's different cultural
backgrounds. In the sharing ses-
sion, we had Simon Weaner, Rux-
ing Gao and Noah Kuang Hong
explain their design processes
and insights on art. The nature hike
was a success, as the subsequent
photos and artwork from the art-
ists are stunning. These works will
be compiled into an archive for ev-
eryone to see at a later time.
Last Words
If you are interested in sharing
with us, feel free to contact us.
You can also check out our video
that we made for the workshop,
more of snapshots of what we
did and feedback from speakers
and participants at youtube.com/
watch?v=2ZX9chy3nl0
Contact us at: lik3studios@gmail.com 143
 The endeavor is supported by than 25 of his movies, from the We have been fortunate enough
the city council of Barcelona, the hands of directors suchs as Ste- to witness the production and
Generalitat de Catalunya, the Au- ven Spielberg and Tim Burton, making-of movies like The Secret

NONSTOP diovisual Production Associations,

local schools and institutions like
the French Institute of Barcelo-
among others.

Edu Martín is an expert lighting

of Kells, Chico and Rita, Ernest
and Celestine, The Illusionist, Do-
fus, The Prince of Egypt, Corpse

BARCELONA na, and the Barcelona Libraries

Network. The festival has allowed
us to enjoy the presence of vari-
artist that has worked on various
Pixar movies such as Brave, Cars
and Monsters University.
Bride, Boy and The World– and
the chance to watch some of
the best animated film produc-
ous entertainment industry artists tions of this last year, in addition
from all over the world right here We've also hosted animator and to over 500 short films that have
in our city. storyboard artist, Aya Suzuki, been screened in our interna-
From the Art NonStop Drawing who has worked previously with tional competition section and
and Movement Association, a Just a few of our highlights in- Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli, special programs.
non-profit organization ded- clude names like: Michel Ocelot, Mamoru Osada, the director of
icated to the investigation of creator of various feature films, Wolf Children, and Sylvain Chom- Our innate teaching roots have
drawing, movement, and audio- from which Kirikou and the Sor- et of The Illusionist, along with led us to develop various for-
visual relationships with young ceress became a cornerstone of other productions. mats and environments in which
creators, we propose different French film production.
activities throughout the year as
workshops, conferences, and two We have also included Anthony
major events the International Roux, creator of Ankama studio,
Animation Film Festival and the where the Wakfu and Dofus vid-
NonStop Visual Development eo games originated with millions
Seminar. of players around the world, and
that later appeared onscreen as
The first event began eight years both television series and films.
ago and has since evolved to Jacques-Rémy Girerd is the found-
become the International An- er of the studio, Folimage, one of
imation Film Festival, with the the most prominent production
main objective of integrating the companies in France.
entertainment industry, starting
with the younger public, all the The well-known character design-
way up to professionals. We are er, Carlos Grangel, has produced
focusing specifically on young several masterclasses, where we
talent, digital art, and its relation- were able to experience the char-
ship with the industry. acter creation process in more

144 Firestarter Mag #3 10th–12th of May 2018 | nonstopbarcelona.com Images ©NonStop 145
to share and expand our knowl-
edge. Our many masterclass-
es, workshops and conferences
have led us to fulfill these goals.
Within these processes during
the festival, we presented for the
first time in Spain, the NonStop
Concept Art: Visual Develop-
ment Seminar.
The seminar is focused primar-
ily on the visual development of
movies, video games, and illus-
tration – with the help of inter-
national artists from the industry
currently working worldwide.
It's a new, exciting, and differ-
ent event that has allowed us to
broaden our horizens and ex-
pand into other fields.
Henceforth we would like to
highlight a few defining charac-
teristics that set us apart as an in-
novator. We believe these offer a
great and unique experience:
•
Being located in Barcelona, the
first city in Spain to offer this
brand and particular format, has
been fundamental for our project.
146 Firestarter Mag #3
•
The attendees: young artists
with completely new visions
and new ways of thinking, who
have given us a lesson in collab-
orating with kindred spirits and
sharing our knowledge without
jealousy or holding back, and of
course, that brings us closer to
people, students, and peers.
• The speakers have direct inter-
action with each attendee in a
one-on-one portfolio session at
the end of each day.
•
We plan various dinners and
networking for everybody in at-
tendance, as well as workshops
for the opportunity to get a
deeper understanding of spe-
cific questions.
• We present various guest pro-
fessionals, who have worked on
several projects for companies
such as: Blizzard, ILM, Dream-
Works, Marvel, Paramount, and
Walt Disney, among others.
• We propose an event focused
towards young artists, their re-
lationship with the digital age,
the audiovisual industry, and
video games, that contributes
towards an environment for de-
velopment and creativity, and
a chance for them to use more
tools for building their road to
an international audience.
We have the support of various
entities, including Wacom, Saku-
ra, various schools such as Escuela
Joso, video game companies with
a home-base in Barcelona such as
King, Social Point, Gameloft, and
more. They are constantly partic-
ipating by sending their artists to
the event, conscious of its impor-
tance and value in our communi-
ty. In the future, we hope to count
on many more video game com-
panies to attend.
After two consecutive years and a
very positive reaction from all of
the parties involved, we are again
providing the opportunity for three
intense days of learning, sharing,
networking, portfolio reviews, and
a chance to enjoy this unique ex-
perience in the magical city that is
Barcelona. With only two years in
existence, we have been able to
grow at a steady pace, conserv-
ing these closely cultivated rela-
tionships with our attendees and
speakers. We will be in Barcelona
for the 3-days main event from the
10th to the 12th of May at the Mo-
bile World Center, which is located
right in the center of Barcelona.
Among the confirmed speakers
for 2018, we are proud to bring
Jama Jurabaev, Jomaro Kindred,
Anthony Jones, Jana Schirmer, Jad
Saber, Virginie Bourdin and others
to be announced soon enough. We
will continue to grow our speaker
list as we get closer to the event,
along with a few special surprises.
The schedule will be presented as
follows: we will have three speak-
ers per day, each being alotted two
hours for their demo and Q&As.
Each speaker is responsible for
organizing their own time, so they
are given full liberty and creative
freedom. The demos are gener-
ally given in English, but may also
be in Spanish (not to worry, we will
have translators and recieved pos-
itive feedback for these in our last
two events). Afterwards, we will
have on-site portfolio reviews and
networking (drinking, talking and
hanging out). Later on, we'll go out
into the city and enjoy what Bar-
celona has to offer. Our dream is
a united community that creates a
constant, enriching experience. For
this dream to become a reality, we
must move forward with the same
willpower and energy that we have
poured into it, so that we may con-
tinue to grow, and each year build
a better, stronger environment.
147
 their peers from across Europe
and around the globe. NG18
will feature loads of network-
ing events and parties, as well
as Discovery Day on Friday, 25

NORDINC GAME May, dedicated to experimental

and artistic games, and created
in cooperation with Copenhagen

MALMÖ Game Collective.

The Nordic Game conference
is held annually in Malmö, Swe-
den. The 2018 edition of Nordic
Game will take place on 23-25
May at Slagthuset, a beautiful
venue near the Malmö city cen-
tre, and only minutes away from
Copenhagen Airport.
NG18 will build on the founda-
tion established by the Nordic
Game brand and the keywords
"Knowledge, Emotion, Business",
but also expand and evolve in
numerous ways, including:
KNOWLEDGE
Expect a world-class speaker
program, with trending topics,
inspiration and a range of new
workshops and round-table dis-
cussions. More than 140 speakers
will inform and entertain NG18
attendees in 100+ sessions over
the three days. New for 2018 will
be an enhanced focus on expert
sessions and "impact" topics, in-
cluding talks about serious and
educational games, as well as
games for change and diversity.
Another exciting program addi-
tion will be a half-day audio track
hosted by Dolby.
EMOTION
As with previous editions, one
of the most valuable parts of the
NG18 experience will be "intima-
cy," i.e. the socialising and fun,
only possible due to the incredi-
ble Nordic Game audience, con-
sisting of game developers from
all over the Nordic countries, and
BUSINESS
The MeetToMatch business
matchmaking system was a huge
success story last May, with an
incredible 2790 meetings held,
cementing Nordic Game's rep-
utation as one of the world's
absolute hot-spots for gaming
business. At NG18, this focus will
also expand into the speaker pro-
gram, with a new publisher-orien-
tated business track as one of the
new editions.
FROM NORDIC TO GLOBAL
The Nordic Game conference
is still very much the only annu-
al gathering place for the en-
tire Nordic games industry, and
NG18 will be no exception. At the
same time, outreach to the rest of
the world will grow in 2018, with a
range of new, as well as returning,
country delegations exhibiting in
the NG Expo. Also, the new Dis-
covery Contest Finalist Expo on
23-25 May will be a great show-
case to experience and meet with
the best development talent from
across Europe and the MENA re-
gion. Check out the NG Discov-
ery Contest Tour Plan, as well as
qualified finalists, here: discov-
ery-contest.nordicgame.com.
HIGHLIGHTS & MILESTONES
2003: Nordic Game "Potential"
conference is founded in Malmö,
Sweden. 150 visitors
2006: Dropped the "Potential" part
of the title to just Nordic Game.
The first Nordic Game Awards
become a part of the conference.
600 visitors
2008: Harmonix demoes Rock-
band in their keynote. 850 visitors
2009: Suda 51 (Grashopper),
Alex Evans (Media Molecule)
are among the speakers. Passed
1,000 attending visitors mark
2010: Venue to Slagthuset, and
first Nordic Game Indie Night oc-
curs. Rovio and Unity as keynote
speakers. 1200 visitors
2013: Second largest developer
conference in Europe. Double
Fine's Tim Schafer and Naughty
Dog veteran Richard Lemarchand
are among speakers. 1880 visitors
2016: Largest game developer
conference in Europe. Hideo Ko-
jima as keynote speaker. 2000+
visitors

148 Firestarter Mag #3 23rd–25th of May 2018 | conf.nordicgame.com Images ©Nordic Game 149
 TESTIMONIALS
"I want to thank everyone for
making me so welcome at this
year's Nordic Game event. It was
an invaluable experience for me.
Everything about the event made
me realize once again that there
are many people out there who
genuinely love games, and just
how many fantastic game cre-
ators there are in the Nordic area.
It also made me very aware of
how the Nordic area has the ide-
al conditions to develop a wide
range of games spanning AAA
games to mobile titles. Personnel,
environment, and technology can
all be found in the area, which will
prove vital in gaming's future. I
look forward to seeing what you
all come up with."
- Hideo Kojima
Lead Designer, Founder, Kojima
Productions
"Nordic Game offers the best
event to meet high-level repre-
sentatives in the Scandinavian
development community within
a tight and relaxed environment.
I always come away with new
learnings and an enhanced con-
tact list of stimulating people."
150 Firestarter Mag #3
- Nick Parker
Owner, Parker Consulting Ltd
"My first time at Nordic and I
have to say that I was absolutely
impressed by the professional-
ism and passion with which that
event has been organized. And
I've been to many game confer-
ences around Europe. For exam-
ple, for the first time ever, I've par-
ticipated in a sit-down dinner for
so many people! You guys make
video game developers look and
feel like rock stars and that is what
attracts so many people. I wish
you best of luck in your future
endeavors and I hope to visit you
also next year. Keep up the good
work."
- Stan Just
R&D Manager, CD PROJEKT S.A.
"The Nordic Game conference of-
fers a friendly and relaxed atmo-
sphere; a perfect foundation to
meet talented developers from
all over the world. I am amazed
by all the creativity and product
quality I have seen at the event." -
Patrick Rose
Business & Product Analyst, BAND-
AI NAMCO Entertainment Europe
"It was my first time in Scandina-
via, and I got to enjoy it attending
this great conference of gamers,
artists, programmers, and educa-
tors from across the globe. It was
a fantastic experience to be under
the same roof with such talented
people and able to inspire the
next generation of game devel-
opers. I was happy and honored
that my matte painting talk reso-
nated with so many people at the
event in the great city of Malmö.
Thank you for the memories!"
- David Luong
Visual Effects Artist, Blizzard
"It was an amazing experience. It
was my first time at Nordic Game
and the organisation was awe-
some, there were a lot of interest-
ing people to network with and
the audience was also very inter-
ested in the topics. I really appre-
ciate the invite to be a speaker
and I hope that someday I can
come back!"
- Sabrina Carmona
Producer, King
151
 PIXELATL – EL FESTIVAL
CUERNAVACA
Pixelatl is an association that pro-
motes the professionalization and
internationalization of the Mex-
ican creative industry through-
out the world. Some of their ini-
tiatives include Pixelatl Festival
(6 editions), Ideatoon (a contest
to develop original intellectual
property that can be exported to
foreign markets), and Secuenciar-
te (a call for comics where Pixelatl
has printed 12,000 indie comic
books), among others.
El Festival Pixelatl is the main
event linking Mexican artists and
global industries of animation,
comics and video games. For six
days, it brings together execu-
tives, professionals, students and
amateurs from all areas of the au-
diovisual world, in order to:
• Encourage the exchange of
knowledge and experiences be-
tween international and local art-
152 Firestarter Mag #3
ists and producers
• Promote creative projects
• Build an international collabora-
tion network
But first and foremost, El Festival
Pixelatl is a space that helps en-
courage a spirit of community,
while allowing producers to inter-
face with the national market and
international artists and investors,
as well. Henry Selick, Phil Tippett,
Jhonen Vasquez, Koji Igarashi,
Bill Plympton, Hal Hickel, Mark
Osborne, and Jorge Gutierrez,
amongst other speakers, have all
been a part of Pixelatl.
We have several activities:
• Screenings: This space is used
to inspire. We hold an interna-
tional call for animated shorts,
and last year, we received entries
from almost 100 countries.
• Workshops and masterclasses:
4th–9th of September 2018 | elfestival.mx
Our classes aim to transfer knowl-
edge and best practices from ex-
perienced creators to younger
audiences.
• Networking events: Dynamics
like gamification, happy hours,
drawing competitions, paint-
ing skateboards & walls, cock-
tails, coffee sessions, and even
a Mexican party where you can
eat worms and ant eggs are the
types of networking activities that
we foster so that our audience
can interact.
• Pitching: There's a designed
area where broadcasters and
producers see pitches from inde-
pendent studios and young cre-
ators in order to develop their IPs.
• La Feria: This space is where our
sponsors show their latest technol-
ogy and where major companies
recruit talent and also where young
creators show their illustrations,
comic books, or video games.
153
 In 2017, we had over 100 speak-
ers fom 19 countries. These are
some of the speakers for 2018:
Joan Lofts
Executive Producer of Peppa Pig
and other properties
Prior to stepping away from full-
time work, Joan Lofts served as
Director of Television at Con-
tender Entertainment Group and
was responsible for developing
and overseeing the television
production division. Recent ani-
mated hits that were shepherd-
ed by Joan include Tractor Tom,
Peppa Pig, Humf, Little Kingdom
and the Channel 4 special Lost
and Found. She started her ca-
reer in television production with
ITN and spent 12 years working
for ITN and Thames TV. Joan then
took a different career path to be-
come a social worker for 10 years
before returning to television at
ITV and then moving to the BBC.
Her role at the Beeb was Deputy
Head of Acquisitions and Devel-
opment for CBBC, and she was
also responsible for producing
a number of children's animat-
ed series. After leaving the BBC,
Joan worked for The Children's
Channel (later to become TCC)
and also launched the teen chan-
nel, Trouble. She did a stint at
Disney Channel UK; worked as
a freelance channel consultant
for clients including UK, Nursery
Channel, Dutch children's chan-
nel, Kindernet, and Sky, and was
also director of broadcasting for
ITV2.
Joel Kuwahara
Co-Founder/Principal/Executive
Producer
Emmy award-winning producer,
Joel Kuwahara, is a co-founder
and principal of Bento Box En-
tertainment, producers of the
animated hit shows, Bob's Burg-
ers, Brickleberry, Bordertown, and
154 Firestarter Mag #3
The Awesomes. Joel oversees the
production of the company's pi-
lots, special projects, visual devel-
opment and technology. In addi-
tion, he also oversees the studio's
digital production pipeline and
work-flow. Not many entertain-
ment industry professionals can
list Homer Simpson and the Da-
lai Lama among their clients, but
Joel surely can.  Prior to forming
Bento Box, Joel produced a num-
ber of animated series for vari-
ous studios over his 20+ years in
the industry including, The Critic,
The Simpsons, Mucha Lucha, The
Goode Family, Men In Black, Ex-
treme Ghostbusters, and Godzilla
to name just a few.  Mainframe Entertainment, and
In a fascinating and unexpected
turn of events, Joel was asked by
the 14th Dalai Lama to preserve
and digitize His teachings by set-
ting up a self-sustaining digital
lab at His Holiness' monastery
in Dharamsala, India. Joel cur-
rently serves as Animation Exec-
utive Producer on Bob's Burgers
on FOX and Comedy Central's
new animated series Legends of
Chamberlain Heights. Follow his
adventures at Bento Box on Insta-
gram @joelkuwahara.
Rick Mischel
Producer at Sony Pictures Anima-
tion
Rick Mischel currently is the ex-
ecutive producer of Hotel Tran-
sylvania: The Series. He serves as
a Producer at Sony Pictures Ani-
mation, the Sony division behind
such animated features as Cloudy
with a Chance of Meatballs and
The Smurfs.  Prior to his role as a
producer, Mischel served as se-
nior vice president for Sony Pic-
tures Imageworks, the animation/
vfx facility in Vancouver, BC, with
work on such films as Hotel Tran-
sylvania, and The Smurfs. Sony
Pictures Imageworks is the divi-
Images ©Pixelatl
sion of Sony Pictures Entertain-
ment that produces Sony's fea-
ture-length CGI animated motion
pictures, as well as visual effects
for feature films.  Prior to his posi-
tion at Sony, Mischel served as ex-
ecutive vice president of Techni-
color, leading their business unit
that specializes in the creation of
digital assets for the gaming and
animation industry to clients like
Activision, Konami, Nickelode-
on, and Warner Brothers, includ-
ing audio, localization, and art
and animation content. Before
working at Technicolor, Mischel
served as founder and president
of Reach Games, was CEO of
served as president and COO of
The Harvey Entertainment Com-
pany, where he was in charge of
managing the business and cre-
ative affairs for some of the most
lucrative intellectual properties in
the family entertainment world,
including Casper The Friendly
Ghost and Richie Rich.
Mischel began his career as an
entertainment attorney with
O'Melveny & Myers in 1987. Two
years later, joined Electric Pictures
Corporation as a vice president.
From 1993 to 1997, he served as
the senior vice president of Live
Entertainment.
Heather Kenyon
Senior Vice President, Develop-
ment & Production at Citizen Skull
Productions
Heather Kenyon is Senior Vice
President of Development &
Production at Citizen Skull Pro-
ductions. She is also a creative
consultant for Kid Glove Creative,
a division of B. Wooding Media,
and a small group of individuals
and companies, including Sprite
Animation & OLM, the BFC, Dis-
covery Latin America and Snow-
ball Studios. Previously, she was
Vice President, Project Devel-
opment & Sales, at Starz Anima-
tion Toronto, producer of such
films as Focus Features' 9 and
Miramax's Gnomeo and Juliet.
Representing this high-end CGI
studio, she was responsible for
development, as well as co-pro-
duction and co-venture oppor-
tunities.  Prior to this, she was a
consultant specializing in anima-
tion and children's media. From
helping numerous individuals
and companies with the devel-
opment of their projects, to pro-
ducing cartoons, to recruiting, to
doing seminars and workshops --
it was a very busy year that found
Heather in China, Brazil and ev-
erywhere in between! She is the
former Sr. Director of Develop-
ment, Original Series at Cartoon
Network, where she helmed the
development department for all
animated and live-action series
for children 6–11 years old.  Prior
to joining Cartoon Network, she
was editor-in-chief of Animation
World Network (www.awn.com),
a leading internet publisher of
animation news, information and
resources.
Over the years our festival has
been built around important
themes:
• Hope, in 2012, because our
event touched hope as a way to
ignite the local industry.
• Celebration was our 2014
theme, because our festival was a
celebration for the art and craft of
animation.
• In 2015, our theme was Con-
necting the Dots.
• In 2016, we focused on story-
telling and our theme was Story-
telling Makes Us Human.
• In 2017, we targeted diversity as
a way to nourish creativity.
• In 2018, our main focus will be
on epoché, putting our prejudic-
es apart to be able to see reality
with a new set of lenses.
155
 For more than ten years, Play-
grounds has worked as a con-
nector between makers, indus-
try, the educational system and
audiences. It provided a stable
fundament to boost new and rel-
an intensive festivity in autumn,
Playgrounds 2017: The Art De-
partment, featuring more than 40
artists coming from all corners of
the world. We've welcomed an
amazing 3,000 attendees from 15
LEON VAN ROOIJ
Director and curator, Playgrounds
Leon van Rooij studied anima-
tion at the Academy of Fine Arts
in Tilburg. He has worked as an
art director, animator and VJ on

PLAYGROUNDS: BLEND evant developments in the mov-

ing image fields, showcasing the
most innovative productions in-
countries to The Art Department.

This spring, we're engaging on an

commercials, projections and
special events for several studios.
He is the founder of Playgrounds

BREDA AND AMSTERDAM volving animation, visual effects

WELCOME TO PLAYGROUNDS
BLEND! The essence of Play-
grounds! A meeting hub for some
of the most remarkable artists but
also a place where they can in-
teract with students – the talents
of tomorrow – and fans. A series
of events that have inspiration
as a currency. We're extremely
proud to present yet another new
Playgrounds event, Playgrounds
Blend. This time around we're
looking at the relationship be-
tween art and innovative technolo-
gies and we've gathered the most
talented and innovative creative
professionals in animation, games,
interactive design, robotics and
creative technology to discuss the
'blend' over a four days fest and
conference in Breda and Amster-
dam. We're very excited to devel-
op Blend and of course very curi-
ous about your feedback. So, let's
talk about it! Share your thoughts
at Playgrounds Blend. Where cre-
ativity meets technology.
and sound design. Every year,
during events spread over two
to five days, thousands of visitors
and artists are invited to join the
series of workshops, presenta-
tions and masterclasses. Over its
lifetime, the festival also started
including cutting-edge audiovi-
sual installations, and exhibitions
featuring props, sketches, illustra-
tions and VR projects. In order to
reach wider audiences, locations
have always been distributed all
through the Netherlands, yet stra-
tegically aiming at cities playing
an important role in the design
and innovation landscapes. In
2017, Playgrounds changed the
rules of the game and it dramat-
ically expanded. It not only show-
cased talent, but also nurtured it.
Through the Playgrounds Next
project, it created opportunities
for a group of young talent to
gather resources for creating and
exhibiting their work. The fes-
tival's artist talks were split into
the Playgrounds session events
and spread all throughout the
year. This all culminated with
exciting new chapter focused on
the synesthetic relationship be-
tween art and technology. During
our conference, Playgrounds
Blend, we'll be exploring the in-
fluence of creativity in technol-
ogy together with showcasing a
catwalk of inspiring and innova-
tive makers who are known for
stretching outside of a genre and
mashing things together. You will
be able to pick their brains, see
how they did it, how they start-
ed, what they studied, how they
became famous, as well as what
amazing projects they are tack-
ling at the moment. And that's
not all! We're very excited to have
a second edition of The Art De-
partment! It will take place on 3rd
to 5th October, 2018 in Eindhoven
and focus on the concept stages
and design processes of anima-
tions, films and media. A long
time ago, Playgrounds stopped
being just a festival. It became a
way of thinking, of creating, and
of being. Imagine everything, we
said. And thus, we turned the cre-
ative world into our Playgrounds!
Thank you for joining it!
International Digital Arts Festival
and a former curator at the STRP
Biennial in Eindhoven. He also
advises institutions and organisa-
tions on post-digital culture, is a
jury member at Het Gouden Kalf (
Dutch Film Festival) and he teach-
es animation and interaction de-
sign at the Bachelor and post-
graduate departments of AKV|St.
Joost in Breda, the Netherlands.
PLAYGROUNDS BLEND
A FEST AND CONFERENCE
ABOUT CREATIVITY,
DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY
Imagine everything! An important
guideline for all the Playgrounds
events and especially for the new
conference, Playgrounds Blend.
Playgrounds Blend is all about
new developments in art, design
& technology and the interna-
tional creators that test and bend
their genre and put creativity and
technology together.
We've prepared an exiting and
inspiring program for you, fea-
turing a line-up of 30+ interna-
tional artist talks, an exhibition,

156 Firestarter Mag #3 9th–11th of April 2018 | playgroundsfestival.nl Images ©Playgrounds 157

presentations of the Playgrounds
Next tailor-made talent program,
several VR and immersive instal-
lations, workshops, portfolio re-
views and, of course, good food
and drinks!
JUST 3 AMAZING HIGHLIGHTS
All good things come in threes
(or is that just the case in The
Netherlands?)! Since Firestarter
Magazine hosts so many industry
events with our ever-creative and
amazing colleagues around the
world, we wanted to share the
three artists we think mirror the
essence of Playgrounds Blend.
158 Firestarter Mag #3
MARSHMALLOW LASER FEAST
Marshmallow Laser Feast are
a London-based design stu-
dio always looking to create
ground-breaking experiences that
immerse and amaze in complete-
ly unexpected ways. They employ
a wealth of creative disciplines,
from photo-real virtual reality
to robotic performance and re-
al-time mapping, pushing bound-
aries, redefining expectations and
exciting audiences worldwide.
Playgrounds has been following
MLF for several years and even
programmed their virtual reality
installation, Treehugger: Wawona.
This installation reveals the se-
cret life of the giant sequoia and
never-before-seen inner work-
ings of the world's largest tree.
Treehugger uniquely illustrates
the sequoia's immense scale and
questions our relationship with
the natural world at a time of crisis
and change. We're excited to wel-
come them as our guests!
DAVID OREILLY
David OReilly is an artist working
in design, animation and video
games. He created of the ground-
breaking animated films Please
Say Something (Golden Bear
Berlinale 2009) and The Exter-
nal World. His film work has won
numerous awards and been the
subject of several retrospectives
internationally. He has served as
writer for the TV shows Adventure
Time & South Park, and created
the fictional video games in Spike
Jonze's Academy Award winning
film Her. In 2014 he released his
first independent game Mountain
and followed up with Everything
in 2017. Everything won grand
prizes at A MAZE & Ars Electron-
ica and was featured as Game Of
The Year by Wired, Polygon, AV
Club, The New Yorker and others.
Its trailer became the first ever in-
teractive project to qualify for an
Academy Award. Super excited to
have David OReilly as our guest at
Playgrounds Blend.
POLYMORF
Polymorf is an interdisciplinary
Dutch design collective. In their
work, they engage audiences by
creating fully-embodied immer-
sive experiences. As an interdis-
ciplinary, cross-media collective,
Polymorf designs with any me-
dia necessary. This is reflected in
their body of work, which consists
of VR experiences, theatrical per-
formances, and installation piec-
es. In their current projects, they
explore the possibilities for scent
and touch to create multi-senso-
ry strategies for story and expe-
rience design. By directly influ-
encing the affective response,
Polymorf incorporates the vis-
ceral meaning in their designs.
Polymorf's projects reflect on the
now, the (post-)human condition
and relationships between hu-
mans and technology.
FUTURE EVENTS
3rd–5th October, 2018
Playgrounds: The Art Depart-
ment – Klokgebouw Eindhoven
Year-round: check our site for
Playgrounds sessions and expos
in 2018. We'll be around in sever-
al Dutch cities to meet you!
Tentative program, all rights reserved.
PARTNERS
Playgrounds thanks our partners
and friends!
Provincie Noord-Brabant, Stimul-
eringsfonds Creatieve Industrie,
Gemeente Breda, bkkc, Wacom,
Maxon, MK2, Firestarter Mag-
azine, Chassé Theater, Klokge-
bouw, MediaMachine, Avans
Hogeschool, AKV|St. Joost, HP,
Q-promotions, Staynice, Jochem
de Vet, Stijlbreuk.
"Events like these are really im-
portant to people like me, be-
cause it's good to see the kind of
potential that you can live up to in
this industry."
- Loish
Character designer and illustrator
"I would say that I think it's going
to be a very valualable experi-
ence for a lot of people, right? I
feel that there are so many peo-
ple with so many different experi-
ences to share."
- Jesse van Dijk
Art director at Bungie
"It is one of my favourite festivals
to come to. Great location, inspir-
ing talks. Everything I could pos-
sibly want, really."
- Rex Crowle
Character designer on Littlebig-
planet and Tearaway
159
 PROMISED LAND ART FESTIVAL
LODZ
Bringing together professionals
working in film, gaming, and oth-
er creative industries, Promised
Land is a place for the exchange
of knowledge and experience,
for networking, and crossing the
divide between digital and tra-
ditional art. Organising the fes-
tival, in cooperation with the city
of Łódź, Poland, is a studio at the
heart of the Polish video game in-
dustry: CD PROJEKT RED.

PROMISED LAND 2017

During last year's edition, Prom-
ised Land welcomed nearly 500
participants and played host to:
• 50 hours of lectures, discussion
panels, and meet-the-artist ses-
sions
• 30 hours of workshops and
masterclasses in digital art using
cutting-edge creative software
• 12 hours of sculpting work-
shops with world-renowned

160 Firestarter Mag #3 29th of Sep–2nd of Oct 2018 | promisedland-artfestival.com/en 161

 Tomek Radziewicz, Aris Kolokon-
tes, and Romain Van den Bogaert
• 18 hours of live drawing ses-
sions with professional models
Leading and collaborating in all
these activities were more than
50 speakers from some of the
most recognizable names in
games, films, and lifestyle, includ-
ing members of Guerrilla Games,
Platige Image, Blizzard Entertain-
ment, Industrial Light & Magic,
Sean Daniel Company, Ubisoft,
Converse, and CD PROJEKT RED.
LOCATION & VENUE
The festival takes place in the
stunning EC1 Łódź — a former
power station, now fully mod-
ernised and serving as a centre
for culture and science. During
Promised Land, the halls of EC1
Łódź become transformed into a
modern artist's playground. Last
year's event took place across:
• a VR area powered by HTC Vive
technology
• VICON's motion capture work-
shop
• a computer room equipped
with 40 workstations
• a drawing classroom, featuring
a dedicated stage, Wacom Cintiq
hardware and traditional drawing
equipment
• a sculpting room that can host
up to 50 people
The festival also makes use of the
venue's spacious expo hall and
numerous small spaces — both
perfect for formal meetings, as
well as casual networking be-
tween participants and speakers.
TRACKS
Promised Land Art Festival covers
all areas of art powering today's
film, game and advertising indus-
tries. The majority of activities re-
volve around four disciplines:
• Animation — specialists at put-
162 Firestarter Mag #3 Images ©Promised Land / Jacek Kamiński
ting art into motion share their
knowledge on keying, rigging,
motion capture, and VFX
• Illustration — activities that focus
on covering a whole spectrum of
illustration-related topics, from
classical drawing courses to dig-
ital matte painting and image
post-production
• Modeling — workshops and lec-
tures aimed at providing insight
into a broad range of topics, from
hands-on classical sculpture to
low-poly modeling of game char-
acters and objects
• Production — industry profes-
sionals discuss all things produc-
tion, planning, pipelines, etc.
Promised Land also aims to
broaden its participants' hori-
zons by taking on topics that go
beyond what is considered ‘tra-
ditional' by the entertainment
industry. Whether it's Bryan Cioffi
(Converse) discussing bringing
new and exciting clothing and
footwear to market, or BEHOLD-
ER's Nick Slough walking the au-
dience through his philosophy of
building a game UI — Promised
Land is ready to embrace new,
emerging, and unconventional
areas of the arts.
PRESENTATION FORMATS
Presenting attending artists with a
variety of activities to take part in,
Promised Land features:
• Lectures — industry profession-
als touch upon subjects such as
descriptions of creative tech-
niques, analyses of complet-
ed projects, their own creative
philosophies and processes etc.
• Workshops and masterclass-
es — hands-on experiences which
offer a chance to learn from mas-
ters, either by watching first and
following after, or receiving guid-
ance as you go — all while utilizing
high-end digital and traditional
equipment
Johnson Ting
• Discussion panels — groups of
artists and industry professionals
meet to talk about selected top-
ics in front of the festival audience
• Meet-the-artist sessions — taking
place after every talk, allowing
participants to learn more about
the speaker, their background,
education, and their path to suc-
cess, and also provide the audi-
ence with a unique opportunity
for a more personal discussion
with the speakers;
• Live demos — chances for at-
tendees to watch speakers show-
case their skills while walking the
audience through their creative
process and answering questions
• Portfolio reviews — throughout
the event, speakers discuss par-
ticipant's work and share their
experiences with them, providing
invaluable experience and per-
spective in the process
NETWORKING
Networking is a key part of Prom-
ised Land. The event features
many opportunities to sit down
and talk with other festival attend-
ees, as well as the speakers them-
selves. Each day, the conference
concludes with a photographic
get-together. Finally, on the last
day of the conference, all partici-
pants are invited to take part in an
epic party that marks the close of
the event.
...and more!
If you want to learn more about
Promised Land Art Festival, make
sure to to visit the festival's official
website: www.promisedland-art-
festival.com. There you can check
out 2017's highlights video, a
photo gallery, as well as select
lectures from last year's event.
It's also a great way to stay up-to-
date on all news regarding Prom-
ised Land.
ABOUT CD PROJEKT RED
CD PROJEKT RED is a game de-
velopment studio founded in
2002. It develops and publishes
video games for personal com-
puters and video game consoles.
The studio's flagship franchise,
games from The Witcher series,
has sold over 25 million copies
worldwide. Its newest release
– The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – de-
buted in 2015 for the PC, Play-
Station 4 and Xbox One, and has
since received over 800 awards
and accolades, including 250
Game of the Year awards. Togeth-
er with GOG.com, a game store
offering hand-picked titles for PC
and Mac, CD PROJEKT RED is
part of the CD PROJEKT Capital
Group. CD PROJEKT S.A. is listed
on the Warsaw Stock Exchange
(ISIN: PLOPTTC00011).
Promised Land is held under the
auspices of Łódź City Council as
part of the Łódź Creates (Łódź
Kreuje) and EC1 Łódź – The City
of Culture (EC1 Łódź – Miasto Kul-
tury) promotional programmes.
163

Fourteen years of education and
inspiration with the leaders of
creative industries.
Whether computer graphics are a
hobby for you, a career, or a life-
long obsession, don't miss the
Splash festival! Every year, lead-
ing artists of the industry join us
from around the world. This year,
the festival ran from September
22th through September 23th,
and took place in our usual loca-
tion of Prague, Czech Republic.
In this article, we'll present just a
few of the things that make Splash
a worthwhile event. Space fills
up fast when registration opens!
If you are interested in learning
about our venue, presentations,
and future workshops, check out
our website and get involved
next year!
164 Firestarter Mag #3
SPLASH
PRAGUE
Splash isn't just for education
and lectures, though. It presents
a unique opportunity to meet
and speak with like-minded in-
dividuals working in the same
fields face-to-face. This offers you
a much more organic, personal
connection, and we guarantee
you won't get anything like that
on the internet!
Conference program
In addition to lectures within the
main conference hall, visitors for
our event were able to attend
many different workshops. Attrac-
tions included a showroom with
the latest and greatest state-of-
the-art technology, along with a
gallery and a lounge. The lounge
served as a place to relax and take
part in discussions with other at-
tendees. Reel, a portfolio review
service, was present throughout
the 13th Splash festival, standing
22nd–23rd of September 2018 | get-splashed.cz
by to offer feedback for those
who elected to bring their work.
As always, a massive after-party
with all our special guests and at-
tendees followed the festival on
Saturday.
A series of talks and workshops
were held in the main lecture hall
on Saturday and Sunday. Every,
day a total of six talks, each lasting
one hour, took place in the hall.
Four workshops ran simultane-
ously throughout the day. At the
workshops, attendees were able
to work in a hands-on, education-
al setting under the guidance of
industry veterans. And, thanks to
our sponsors, the guests who at-
tended these sessions were able
to learn with some of the best
hardware and tools available on
the market. The cherry on top?
A traditional tombola game was
held on Sunday, plus, three lucky
165

visitors took home prizes and
gift items (think hardware)! Don't
miss out on these perks next year
– make sure you get your Splash
ticket – it's totally worth it!
The stars of the festival
Each year there is an assortment
of top-level guest artists from all
over the globe. Splash 2017 was
just as exciting. Our shining star
presenters included:
Stuart Penn
Bursting Into New Territories with
Alien: Covenant
Stuart studied phyiscs and
worked as a researcher in the field
for ten years, before finally join-
ing Framestore as a CG artist for
the award-winning series, Dinoto-
pia. He has worked on numerous
projects as a model supervisor,
lighting supervisor, and environ-
ment supervisor. Projects like the
digital oil refinery, Hell's Gate,
166 Firestarter Mag #3
for James Cameron's Avatar, the
Hong Kong sequence for Christo-
pher Nolan's The Dark Knight, the
Extremis effect for Marvel's Iron
Man 3, and the Knowhere envi-
ronment for Marvel's Guardians
of the Galaxy are among some
of the many notable marks on
his impressive record. He worked
as a CG sequence supervisor on
Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity, and
was instrumental in the project
from the beginning. He helped
develop the techniques neces-
sary to shoot the film's stunning
zero-gravity scenes, working with
motion-capture robots and inno-
vative LED lighting known as the
"lightbox."
Hugo Guerra
Supervising a VFX Shoot: Onset
Tips and Tricks
Hugo is an award winning direc-
tor and VFX supervisor. An indus-
try giant, he has worked in the
field since 1998. After finishing
his degree in fine art, his career
path has led him through Portu-
gal, Sweden, and the United King-
dom. In 2010, he joined The Mill
as a a VFX supervisor, and head
of the Nuke department. Since
2014, Hugo has been working for
Fire Without Smoke as a VFX su-
pervisor and cinematics director.
Other credits of Hugo's include
Homefront: The Revolution (Deep
Silver), The Crew: Calling all Units
and The Division (Ubisoft), Just
Cause 3 (Square Enix), and Butter-
fly Effect – Until Dawn (Sony).
Why Prague? Splash is an ideal
opportunity to merge educa-
tion and fun in one of the most
beautiful, storied cities on earth,
Prague. It has long been a cultural
and historical bastion of Europe
and its timeline spans thousands
of years. First a paleolithic settle-
ment, then, it was occupied by the
Images: ©Splash
Celts, who were eventually over-
taken by Germanic tribes. The city
grew, and gave way to the King-
dom of Bohemia. The coronation
of Charles IV marked the city as
part of the once far-reaching
and mighty Holy Roman Empire,
whose influence can still be seen
today. Showroom Splash isn't just
for tech users. We bring in the
people who make the tech, too!
An area of the conference room
is dedicated to showing the lat-
est and greatest in hardware and
software. Everything on display is
there, not only for you to look at,
but to play with, test, and hold, as
well! If you have any questions,
or just want to see what might be
worth your next upgrade invest-
ment, this is the place.
Portfolio and reel consultancy
Portfolio and reel consultancy are
a popular part of Splash. Visitors
can have their work evaluated by
knowledgeable profesionals in
their own field. They learn not only
about their strengths, but weak-
nesses, too. In addition to con-
structive feedback, attendees get
specific advice on how to increase
their value on the market and cre-
ate a balanced, attractive portfolio.
Recruitment
The Splash festival can also pro- Large format prints of notable Conclusion
vide working opportunitites. If graphic artists are put on display The Splash conference is more
you still aren't sure that it's worth to kindle inspiration while you than just talks and lectures. The
the trip, consider that Splash rest up for your next adventure. goal of the organizers remains
might just be the key to opening This keyed-down space gives the same - to offer a rich program,
the door to the job you've been guests a chance to mingle with full of opportunities to meet cre-
dreaming of. At Splash, you can newfound friends and the pre- ators, make connections with col-
meet representatives for interna- senters themselves. As with every legues, and form new friendships.
tional companies like MPC, Dou- year, we end the festivities with a When our visitors manage to cre-
ble Negative, Framestore, Juice, party. Say goodbye to formalities, ate these contacts or obtain job
UPP, BlueZoo, and many more. and experience true networking. offers, it gives us the kind of ful-
2017's evening was hosted by fillment we have strived for since
Relax, it's an exposition and party! Klub C, right on the grounds of its inception. When all is said and
If you need a minute to cool your the Czech University of Life Sci- done, that's what this whole con-
jets from all the workshops and ences, where the event itself was ference is about. We hope you'll
lectures, you can chill in the relax- held throughout the weekend. join us at the next one... and the
ation area of the Splash gallery. next one!
167
 Theme Park 2017 took its place
in Kouvola, Finland, on the XAMK
University campus. The program
included speeches from profes-
sionals from companies like Rem-
edy Entertainment and Rovio En-
tertainmen art workshops from
Finland's Drawery Workshop and
the Smirnov School in Russia, life
and still-life drawing and sketch-
ing sessions discussions on in-
dustry trends and peculiarities
live demos and more. More or
less, the same format will happen
again next year.

Our ambitions are great and

there's hope to some of Theme
Park to become a good alternative

THEME PARK for the best art events in Europe,

while keeping the attending price
at zero. But, we had to start rela- Veli Niström

KOUVOLA tively small — our first event only

had a bit more than 80 attendees
(which isn't too bad for Finland).
THEME PARK - A REVIEW
Written by Nick Sweetman
Event Overview
Theme Park is a digital art rally
Next year, however, in addition to I'm a freelancer and Udemy on- that took place over two days in
Finnish industry professionals, we line game art instructor with nine the city of Kuovola in Finland, at
are planning to invite well-known, years of industry experience. My the XAMK campus. It included
Theme Park is a group of art-pas- worldwide names, along with or- passions include online teaching, a host of Finnish character and
sionate game industry profes- ganizing more small workshops in where I currently have over nine concept artists, art directors and
sionals and students from XAMK between yearly rallies. That, hope- thousand students worldwide. teachers. Organised by the game
University Finland creating the fully, will widen our audience. artist, Ivan Lugovoy, and his team
first digital art rally in Finland. We (students and teachers from
are aiming to create an interna- XAMK university, Kouvola), the
tional digital art event where pro- workshop's schedule enabled
fessionals in the entertainment you to attend workshops to learn
industry can meet and share their specific skills and also listen to
knowledge with other profes- tips and workflows from industry
sionals, hobbyists and students. professionals. Life drawing was
The main idea of this project is to also included so you could quite
narrow down the gap between easily move between industry
education and professional life, lectures and chances to sharp-
to give beginners more insights en your drawing skills. The event
about visual the development only required registration and
process in different studios, bring was completely free. During this
fresh blood into industry and to review, I focused on some of the
build a stronger art community in lectures that were given during
Finland. the conference.

There is a thing that makes our ral- have a chance to follow it and into it. And we are happy that our
ly stand out among analogs — it is draw inspiration from community speakers share our attitude and
free. We wanted to make sure that gatherings without the necessity are willing to discuss their knowl-
anyone who has passion would of investing huge sums of money edge and experiences for free.

168 Firestarter Mag #3 November 2018 | themeparkfinland.com Images ©Theme Park / Nam-Anh Lê 169

Building A Character:
Eliza Maria Jäppinen
Visible Realms
Eliza was the first to open the
event and is known for her very
distinctive character design for
the band, Studio Killers, a twisted
mix of fresh colours and inventive
character design. The lecture was
informative and engrossing, and
a key topic included the main dif-
ferences between western and
Halil Ural
170 Firestarter Mag #3
eastern design aesthetics, from
the more structured and linear
lines of manga to the flowing and
organic lines of Disney charac-
ters. Eliza looked through the his-
tory of character design picking
out details that most would miss,
such as the subtlety of designing
characters' eyes, looking at exam-
ples from the design of the evil
queen in Sleeping Beauty to the
more stylised Simpsons cartoon.
She also gave us an overview of
her most recent project, Cat 'S'
Trophy, a new virtual reality racing
cat game based in a fantasy world
governed by a mystical cat god. It
was a well-rounded lecture with
some real gems of information in
there for the aspiring and profes-
sional character designer.
Visual Storytelling:
Tatu Petersen-Jessen
Art Director at Rovio
Tatus' presentation brought up
important design questions that
you should ask yourself when de-
signing characters or props for
a game. For an example using
props, how long has it been in the
world? Who made it and why is it
there? These are key points that
Caurette Editions presents
Kim Jung Gi
KIM Jung Gi is a world-famous artist from South Korea, whose
skills have attracted the attention of millions over the last few years.
He has the incredible ability to visualize h  is drawings before putting
his pen to paper. His brain can summon 3D representations
of every object, animal or people he has memorized, and then
arrange them in scenes of beautiful and incredible complexity.
His sketchbooks (totalizing more than 3000 pages !) are
a precious collection of the sketches, doodles and drawings
that are a source of inspiration for every artist.
students often miss and it's usual-
ly down to a lack of reference and
design-thinking. The overall pre-
sentation demonstrated that Rov-
io, as a brand, was branching out
into new areas with the humorous
Angry Birds Evolution game with
some characters heavily inspired
by action heroes of the 80's, giv-
ing older players a trip down
memory lane. Iron Maiden and
metal fans will be happy to see
their trademark character, Eddy,
that blazoned the front of so
many of Maiden's LP covers from
the 1980's, has also been trans-
formed into a bird for the game.
Veli Nyström & Halil Ural
Concept Art Demonstrations
Bibliography
During the two days, concept SKETCHBOOKS [No Text] COMICS
artists Veli Nyström and Halil
Ural gave live digital demonstra- 2007 – 1000 pages - ISBN : 978-89-959732-0-2 - 69 € Spy Games, vol 1 [French language / English transl.] - 48 pages
2011 – 700 pages - ISBN : 978-89-959732-1-9 - 89 € ISBN : 978-27-234870-2-3 - 14 €
tion's of their character and back-
ground process. Watching the 2013 – 536 pages - ISBN : 978-89-959732-2-6 - 89 €
canvas progress gradually over 2015 / Omphalos  [Erotic] - 320 pages - ISBN : 978-89-959732-4-0 - 99 € McCurry, NYC, 9/11 [English language] - 136 pages
ISBN : 979-10-963150-1-7 - 25 €
time is always magical as every 2016 – 446 pages - ISBN : 978-89-959732-6-4 - 89 €
digital artist has his own unique Terada Katsuya + Kim Jung Gi Illustration Book - 127 pages
ISBN : 978-89-959732-9-5 - 35 €
approach. The two artists com-
plemented each other very well
from Velis' atmospheric and de-
tailed approach to Halils' more
For more information, videos, portfolios and details, please visit KimJungGi.net in Europe or KimJungGiUS.com in the USA
spontaneous and painterly style. or get in touch with the European branch of Superani :
Jean-Christophe CAURETTE / jc@kimjunggi.net or Marine CHARMASSON / marine.c@kimjunggi.net
171
 TROJAN HORSE WAS A UNICORN
VALLETTA
THU2018: This year, one of the
most important things we're try-
ing to focus on is our target: we
really want people to know that
THU is for everybody, not just
artists. Other areas like manage-
ment, programming, and market-
ing are essential to the communi-
ty ecosystem. We believe that if
all these creators from different
areas come together, we can ap-
proach the industry in an unprec-
edented way and really make an
impact through all these skills
and tools.
wanted to change some of the bring different mindsets and a
Embracing Uncertainty & Looking things that made us a success, in- special diversity to it. Scott tried
For Answers – by Andre Lourenço cluding the perception of being a to show me that the small num-
2017 started with a huge cloud of small event for digital artists. ber of attendees was not the rea-
uncertainty and challenges that son why THU was successful but
we knew we had to overcome if I must admit that for two years I rather its atmosphere and power
we wanted THU to help the com- fought against Scott Ross about to change mentalities. Despite all
munity and bring it together. The these changes. He always told my fears, I was full of new ideas
risks and fears were huge (truth me that more people would en- and questions just kept popping
be told, they still are) because we rich the Tribe because they would in my head:

172 Firestarter Mag #3 24th-29th September 2018 | trojan-unicorn.com Images: ©Trojan Horse was a Unicorn 173

• How do we bring the less cre-
ative areas that are fundamental
to the community ecosystem,
such as management, marketing,
or programming?
• How do we stop being seen as
an art event and explain that we
are neither a conference nor a
congress?
• How do we get introverts to re-
alize THU is for them?
Here's how we tried to answer
each one of these during 2017.
174 Firestarter Mag #3
The Community Ecosystem –
Business Meets Art
Year after year, we find ourselves
under a lot of pressure because
of our urge to surprise. 2017 was
the year we welcomed 900 partic-
ipants and decided it was about
time art and business met, shook
hands and became acquainted.
As a result, B-sides was born to
shed a light on the business side
of art, which was one of my favor-
ite things at THU this year. In ad-
dition to B-sides, we welcomed
work in the digital entertainment
industry. Everything is an experi-
ence: the schedules, the activities
and the way they're sequenced,
and the way the venue is orga-
nized. All of these details have a
common purpose: the creation of
a true network – the Tribe.
Every year, we create something
different and build the activities
in a way that, when the seven
days pass, all masks, walls and
defenses fall and are replaced
by an honest conversation in an
intimate atmosphere where there
are no formalities. This frank and
genuine mentality defines us.
There are no VIPs and we're not
looking to give you a pat on the
back. If there is a problem with an
programmers, managers, and idea or portfolio, we encourage
marketers to THU, which was chal- honest feedback. This is the only
lenging but inevitable. Creativity way to truly improve and effect
is everywhere and our goal was to change. We don't want people
bring all creators and players to- to perceive THU as an art event
gether in the same place to speak mostly because we feel like artists
the same language and start ap- associate those with boring con-
proaching the digital entertain- ventionality. It's human nature to
ment industry differently. Digital seek a safe place and we want to
artists shouldn't fear the so-called be that safe place. A place with a
"suits" anymore, but rather con- soul where you can get inspired,
nect with them and understand create and be yourself, especial-
how they can create projects, jobs, ly if you're shy or insecure. We're
and help the community together.  very aware that events may not be
In 2018, we will welcome more
people from different back-
grounds because we believe
we're all just creators who want to
succeed in the digital entertain-
ment industry and are passionate
about it.
THU: NOT AN ART EVENT
THU is not an art event, a con-
gress or a conference. "What is
THU then?", you ask. This year we
discovered the word that best de-
scribes it: experience. That's what
it's all about, creating an expe-
rience for creators, for our com-
munity and for all of those who
Images ©Trojan Horse Was A Unicorn
the place for introverts, but they're
a big part of the Tribe and we
need them. How do we explain to
an introvert that the THU experi-
ence is for them, even if it includes
participating in a karaoke battle?
I am an introvert, so I know what
it's like to go to an event and feel
like you can't talk to anyone, al-
ways leaving with an awkward
feeling and the certainty that
you don't belong there. That's
exactly one of the reasons why I
had to create THU. We're work-
ing hard to make people realize
THU is and will always be a haven
for creators, where there are no
judgments and no one feels left
out. THUTV helped us spread the
message that THU is a safe space
for all creatives but this mission is
still far from complete.
The most important thing for us is
to provide all the tools you need
to find the answers you seek and
help you make the most of seven
intensive days filled with person-
al and professional challenges.
There's one thing we can prom-
ise: you will have to step way out
of your comfort zone and go to
that unknown area where cool
stuff happens if you're brave
enough. Sounds terrifying, but
we can assure you it's awesome
and the best thing you can do for
yourself and your art.
LAST THOUGHTS...
2017 was a very special year –
the year of big decisions, one of
which will be announced very
soon. It was, indeed, the Epoch
of Belief  – we knew we had to
believe that it was possible to
change and still succeed.
We feel infinitely grateful for the
Tribe and all the people who sup-
port us. We know that creators
now feel like there's space for
them and the THU symbol already
represents something important.
With the Tribe by our side, we're
confident that THU2018 will be
an unforgettable edition and we
can't wait to see you all there!
Trojan Horse Was a Unicorn (THU)
announced that Malta, an island
country in the middle of the Med-
iterranean Sea, will be the festi-
val’s new location. The 6-day dig-
ital entertainment event will now
take place in Valletta, Malta from
September 24-29, 2018. Tickets
go on sale March 15th and usually
sell out within days.
175

ZBRUSH SUMMIT
LOS ANGELES
Join us as we once again bring
the ZBrush community together
in a global phenomenon that is
the annual ZBrush Summit. Don't
miss this opportunity to connect
with ZBrush artists from around
the world at the 2018 event on
September 27th–30th. This will be
the fifth consecutive year that Pix-
ologic has organized the ZBrush
Summit. With an international
audience numbering in the hun-
dreds of thousands, the annual
ZBrush Summit is the year's big-
gest event for the community of
artists centered on the Academy
Award®-winning ZBrush software.
This four-day event takes place
on the campus of the Gnomon
School of Visual Effects in Holly-
wood, California and is streamed
live around the world. It is a rev-
olutionary way for digital artists
to connect, not only with the
176 Firestarter Mag #3
Pixologic team, but also with lu-
minaries from all segments of
the digital sculpting industry.
The days are packed with talent-
ed artists presenting a variety of
ZBrush techniques used in re-
al-world productions by some
of the most recognized studios
and respected artists. Many of
the demonstrations highlight ex-
clusive assets from various indus-
27th-30th September 2018 | summit.pixologic.com
tries, never seen before outside
of the studios. Past presenters in-
clude Disney Animation Studios,
MPC The Mill, Sideshow Collect-
ibles, Square-Enix, Blizzard En-
tertainment, Laika, Naughty Dog,
ID Software, Bethesda Game Stu-
dios, Oculus, visionaries Rick Bak-
er and Richard Taylor and many
more.
Thanks to the combination of
streaming technology and social
media, viewers become partici-
pants, interacting with each other
no matter where they are located
and even having their questions
answered by the presenters.
In short, the ZBrush Summit is an
electrifying experience for all in-
volved, including the companies
that send their brightest and best
ZBrush artists.
The ZBrush Summit is an annual
event put on by Pixologic Inc.,
the makers of ZBrush. The event
is focused on creating an artistic
atmosphere where everyone is
welcome in sharing ideas, inspir-
ing each other, connecting with
artists from various industries
and, let's face it, having a lot of
fun across all four days.
There are seven major com-
ponents to the ZBrush Summit
event. These are:
• Studio and individual ZBrush
artist presentations
• Live workshops
• The annual LIVE ZBrush Sculpt-
Off
• An all ZBrush gallery show
• The Annual ZBrush Awards cer-
emony
• Studio portfolio reviews
…and of course, a party!
PRESENTATIONS
Every year Pixologic assembles
some of the best ZBrush art-
ists and studios to present what
they've been cooking up with
ZBrush. The presentations are
full of tips & tricks, behind-the-
scenes insights from major proj-
ect titles, exclusive and never-be-
fore-seen assets, ZBrush demos,
Q&A sessions and much more.
Past presentations have included
Disney Animation sharing their
character pipeline on the films
Images ©Pixologic
Big Hero Six, Zootopia and Fro-
zen, Red Storm showing all of the
weapons found in The Division
months before the game was re-
leased, Square-Enix sharing the
entire workflow and assets from
Final Fantasy Kingsglaive, MPC
revealing how Godzilla himself
was created in ZBrush, ID Soft-
ware giving demos of the various
characters from the most recent
installment of DOOM, Naughty
Dog's look into their studio with
hit franchises like Last of Us and
Uncharted and Blizzard Entertain-
ment showcasing how ZBrush is
used from concepts to in-game
assets or cinematics. Other high-
lights include, Laika showing how
ZBrush has changed the way they
do stop-motion animation, and
even sculpting masters Rick Bak-
er and Richard Taylor sharing how
ZBrush has changed the way they
create for today's world – and so
much more.
All the presentations are also
streamed live to the world
through our ZBrushLIVE channel.
WORKSHOPS
Each workshop is a four-hour
training experience with the
brightest and most talented
ZBrush artists in the world. Each
person attending a workshop will
be equipped with a computer
(with ZBrush installed, of course!)
and a tablet, ready to follow along
with your instructor. The instruc-
tors absolutely fill their four hours
with tips & tricks, in addition to
sharing unique workflows and
industry stories. To make these
experiences as personalized as
possible, all workshops are limit-
ed to fifteen people or fewer. This
ensures that every student will
have ample quality time with his
or her instructor.
The workshops are the only part
of the ZBrush Summit that isn't
free, with a price of $199 per
workshop. However, everyone
walks out of these workshops
with a wealth of inspiration and
knowledge.
Past workshops have included
three senior character artists from
ID Software sharing their exact
workflow in ZBrush for DOOM,
Dan Katcher sharing how he de-
signed the dragons for Game of
Thrones, Joe Menna providing
the perfect workflow for collect-
ibles work, former Disney Interac-
tive artists, Shane Olson and Matt
177
 Thorup, giving a class of class of
inspiring sculpting techniques for
stylized characters, and Bethesda
Game Studios sharing the robots
of Fallout 4. Even three-time LIVE
ZBrush Sculpt-Off Champion
Furio Tedeschi shared his tech-
niques in hard surface sculpting.
And these are only a few of the
offerings from past years. If you
plan to be at the ZBrush Summit
in person, you'll want to jump
into a workshop, but remember –
they sell out fast.
LIVE ZBRUSH SCULPT-OFF
Although part of the ZBrush
Summit, the annual LIVE ZBrush
Sculpt-Off has become an event
in itself. Every year, hundreds of
ZBrush artists apply to be con-
testants in this challenging com-
petition. It is a trial guaranteed
to test your design process and
sculpting speed, but is also an ex-
perience no artist regrets having
participated in.
The LIVE ZBrush Sculpt-Off is
made up of 12 artists per catego-
ry competing head-to-head for
one of two championship belts.
Whether it is for the Hard Surface
or Organic belt, each contestant
will receive 3 hours to complete
(at minimum) a bust sculpt in-
spired by the provided theme.
Even though this part of the
ZBrush Summit is not open to the
public you can still see all 24 art-
ists sculpting live on our ZBrush-
LIVE.com channel, with Joseph
Drust and Jessica Dru Johnson
giving a blow-by-blow account of
the competition. Once all sculpts
are completed, the finished ren-
ders are then put before the
world for voting to determine the
winners for each of the two cate-
gories. That's right – the commu-
nity decides the champions.
178 Firestarter Mag #3
Put your ZBrush sculpting abili-
ties up to the challenge this year.
Submit to the 2018 LIVE ZBrush
Sculpt-Off at http://summit.pixo-
logic.com.
ZBRUSH GALLERY SHOW
The ZBrush Summit is accompa-
nied by an exclusive all-ZBrush
art show in the Gnomon Gallery.
The gallery includes individu-
al and studio pieces from 40-60
ZBrush artists. The show includes
large scale images and several 3D
prints that are sure get your cre-
ative juices flowing. The gallery is
only available to artists that visit
the ZBrush Summit in person.
By the way, the gallery's opening
night always falls on the Saturday
of the ZBrush Summit, which also
includes the party! This is an op-
portunity to meet all the artists
featured in the gallery show and
is always a night filled with inspi-
ration and connections.
ZBRUSH AWARDS CEREMONY
This year will be Pixologic's
fourth-annual ZBrush Awards. Ev-
ery year, Pixologic honors the top
nominated ZBrush artists in the
following eight categories:
• Image of the Year
• Sculpt of the Year
• ZBrush to 3D Print of the Year
• Top Row Post of the Year
• Studio Thread of the Year
• Game Art of the Year
• Film Art of the Year
• ZBrushCentral Honorary Award
All nominees except the ZBrush-
Central Honorary Award are se-
lected via votes tallied through-
out the year on ZBrushCentral.
com. Every image shared in the
main forum at ZBC has a "vote"
button, allowing users to cast
their vote for that image when-
ever they happen to see it. This
runs from June of the previous
year to June of the current year,
ensuring that all images have an
equal chance of being broadly
seen and voted for by the com-
munity before that year's ZBrush
Awards ceremony.
Every awards ceremony is con-
sistently full of work that pushes
the boundaries of digital art. Last
year's ZBrushCentral Honorable
Award was presented to Sir Rich-
ard Taylor, CEO & co-founder of
Weta Workshop. It's safe to say
that the presentation given by
Sir Richard Taylor on the night of
the awards was imprinted for life
in the minds of those present!
Past recipients of the same award
were Neville Page and Rick Baker.
Join us this year as we celebrate
the nominees and winners for the
2018 ZBrush Awards.
PORTFOLIO REVIEWS
In the 2017 ZBrush Summit, Pix-
ologic responded to popular de-
mand by setting up portfolio re-
views for visiting artists looking to
break into the industry. The line-
up for 2017 included participat-
ing studios like Guerrilla Games,
Aaron Sims Creative (ASC),
DreamWorks Animation, FUNKO,
Sideshow Collectibles, Hasbro,
Bungie, UniSoft, Flying Wild Hog,
Spin VFX and EA – Motive. It was
packed full every day!
This year Pixologic is continuing
to grow this popular ZBrush Sum-
mit event by inviting even more
studios for the 2018 Portfolio
Reviews. If you're an artist look-
ing to break into a studio similar
to those mentioned above, you
don't want to miss being at the
2018 ZBrush Summit in person.
The portfolio reviews are only
open to people on location at the
ZBrush Summit.
Naturally, attending in person is
the best way to experience the
ZBrush Summit because it gives
access to all these elements. Ev-
erything, except the live work-
shops is free to attend. But if a trip
to L.A. at the end of September
just isn't in the cards for you, Pix-
ologic also streams the presenta-
tions on ZBrushLIVE.com.
Representatives from various
companies that complement
ZBrush such as FormLabs, Sprint
Ray, HP, Wacom and many more
will also be participating in the
ZBrush Summit fun by having
small tables at the event. Addi-
tionally, many of the ZBrush Sum-
mit sponsors provide prizes to be
raffled off over the event's four-
day run with well over $40,000 in
value.
The stated goal of the ZBrush
Summit is to INSPIRE:DISCOV-
ER:CONNECT the ZBrush com-
munity.
Be a part of something special.
Join us at the 2018 ZBrush Summit,
located in the Gnomon School of
Visual Effects at 1015 N. Cahuenga
Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90038.
Whether you are attending in
person or participating through
the ZBrushLIVE stream, the
ZBrush Summit is guaranteed
to be an event that you do not
want to miss in 2018. Mark your
calendars and plan to join Pixo-
logic this September 27th – 30th
as they continue to celebrate the
world of ZBrush. You will learn
things you never expected and
be inspired in ways that can't be
described. There's nothing like
it!
2018 ZBrush Summit
INSPIRE:DISCOVER:CONNECT.
179
Veronica Sofia Nitu
Interviews
After graduating university with a de-
gree in Film and Television Produc-
tion, Veronica Sofia Nitu decided to
start her career anew and follow her
lifelong dream of becoming an artist.
When not busy building up her paint-
ing skills, she works as a writer and in-
terviewer for Firestarter, and an editor
on the illustrated novel 'Caldyra' by
Suzanne Helmigh.
Diego Gisbert Llorens
Interviews
Diego Gisbert (Alcoy, Alicante, 1980)
started drawing once he grabbed a
pencil for the first time and he´s yet
to stop. After studying Illustration and
Fine Arts, now he works mainly with
digital media, in the fantasy illustra-
tion field as well as for entertainment
industry as concept artist.
He is particularly well known for his
Warhammer and Warhammer 40K
-related work, as well as for being a
speaker in several events in Spain
and other countries. His client list in-
clude, among others, GamesWork-
shop, Behaviout Interactive, Aeria
Games, Paizo, Fantasy Flight Games,
The Creative Assembly, Sega, Volta,
Konami, Alderac, Axis Animation, and
CD Projekt Red.
180 Firestarter Mag #3
Craig Gomes
Interviews
A freelance concept artist and web
developer who believes in turning
ideas into reality. He was a business
consultant for over 40 startups in In-
dia and is the founder of Pixelvise and
Paintscale which are two companies
aimed at providing business solutions
and free art resources respectively.
He currently is the CEO of Get Junkie
which is a food based startup in India.
Jort van Welbergen
Firestarter Talk
Jort van Welbergen is a 26 year old
Concept Designer from the Nether-
lands. After graduating from the HKU
he worked on Horizon Zero Dawn.
Afterwards Jort was hired by Cloud
Imperium games. Here he worked on
Star Citizen while also freelancing for
ImagineFX and White Dragon Minia-
tures. In 2017 Jort decided to move
Rome in Italy and work freelance full-
time. Since then he has worked for
Atomhawk, HBO, Kitbash3D and Im-
mersive Entertainment as well as lec-
turing at IDEA Academy and Game
Art Institute and has helped organis-
ing events such as Playgrounds Festi-
val in the Netherlands. His main focus
is Hard Surface and Environment De-
sign, working in the Film, Game, and
Product Design Industry.
Simone Mändl
Research & Content
Simone is a Concept Designer and
2D Artist from Germany. After work-
ing as a Graphic and Motion De-
signer for 4 years and finishing her
bachelor's degree in Game Design,
Simone now specializes in doing Art
Direction, Concept Art and Art Project
Management for indie game teams.
Cristian Chihaha
Firecast & Content
Cristian Chihaia, also known as Sick-
brush, has been pedalling his way
through the industry for the better
part of 10 years. Whether doing con-
cept work, design or illustration his
work is defined by the unconven-
tional style and range. Nowadays he
can be found at Ubisoft, where he is
doing art direction for some exciting
upcoming AAA titles.
The Team 181
 TEGN
Become a supporter on Patreon and be part of the lotteries for event tickets, online
classes, pages in the magazine, original art, prints, features & interviews on Firestarter.
patreon.com/firestartermag

Visit the Firestarter website to find additional information on events and also inter-
views and lectures with their speakers. You can also download all the editions of the
magazine as a PDF. firestartermagazine.com

Follow our YouTube channel and take part in the Firestarter Talks at the creative events
worldwide and also listen to the new Firecast with Cristian'sickbrush' Chihaia.
by Even Mehl Amundsen
Contact us under media@firestartermagazine.com to receive our media kit and adver-
tise in the magazine, that highlights over 20 events worldwide and is handed out for
free to the attendees of most of these events.

Facebook: @firestartermag Twitter: @firestarterzine Instagram: @firestartermag

Dear readers,

a lot will happen in this year regarding the FSM. The first steps have been made in
organizing an own Firestarter event in 2019 and it is quite exciting to see what exact-
ly has to happen behind the scenes which makes me appreciate all the work of the
people mentioned in the 'special thanks' who work so hard to make our community
even more connected. Besides that, Firestarter will soon launch an own line of art-
books that will be highlighting specific kinds of artists with each edition. As you might
be used to hear it from me, this is nothing I will describe more detailed at this point.
Just follow our updates and soon you will see what we have been cooking and which
great collaborations are happening. This is the first FSM that wasn't made with a spe-
cific event in partnership, but is an instance on its own. I hope you enjoy this edition
as much as I enjoyed to put it together.

Spiridon Giannakis

Very special thanks to Jens Kellersmann and Jeroen Van't Hoofd (Wacom), to Adele Khawli and
Jon Beeston (Axis) and to Daniel Wade (Artstation) for the massive support. Also thanks to Court-
ney Trowbridge for proofreading this edition and Gilles Ketting for the amazing cover. To all the
contributors and sponsors who helped me with their content and took the time to create interviews
and articles for the mag: Without you guys this thing would be doomed! If I haven't named you
here, I surely thanked you in person. I also want to thank Dianne Makings (CTIAF), Patrice Leymarie
(IAMC), Kai Ng (LiK: MeetUP), Leon van Rooij and Paulien Mandos (Playgrounds), Brian Deakin
(Non Stop), Justo Nava Anaya (Pixelatl), Jacob Riis (Nordic Game), Marko Prpic, Kaloyan Vasilev
(Futuro), Fabio Palvelli and Jason Bergeron (d2), Jose Enrique Iñesta (Creativo), Armand Serrano
(Icon Manila), Michal Benda (Splash), Andre Lourenço (THU), Paul Gaboury (ZBrush), Danijel Bel-
jan (DAC-FRA), Daniel Matthews and Rich Burns (IWL), Dhenzel Obeng and Zabi Hassan (Edge
Control), Nastia Lyakhova (Artillery), Ivan Lougovoy (Theme Park), Marek Madej and PawelMiel-
niczuk (Promised Land) for sending me the content of their events. FSM#3 was printed with Tolek.

www.tegn.shop
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