Industry Giants 2018

2018 Guest Speakers

Ron Clements

Writer & Director at Disney
RON CLEMENTS (Director) is a renowned storyteller and filmmaker at Walt Disney Animation Studios. With his longtime collaborator, John Musker, Clements has written and directed iconic feature films that have become part of Disney’s legacy, including beloved classics like “The Little Mermaid” in 1989 and “Aladdin” in 1992, as well as Disney’s 2009 return to hand-drawn animation, “The Princess and the Frog.” Clements teamed up with Musker again, this time venturing to ancient Oceania for an epic adventure about an aspiring wayfinder, on the Academy Award®-nominated “Moana.” “Moana is a vibrant, tenacious 16-year-old growing up on an island where voyaging is forbidden,” says Clements. “But Moana has been drawn to the ocean since she can remember. She’s torn between what’s expected of her and what she is compelled to do.” Born and raised in Sioux City, Iowa, Clements traces his interest in animation to his first viewing of “Pinocchio” at age 9. As a teenager, he began making super-8 animated films, including “Shades of Sherlock Holmes,” a 15-minute featurette he animated single-handedly. “Shades” won critical acclaim and led to a part-time job as an artist at a television station, where he animated commercials for the local market. After graduating from high school, Clements came to California to try his luck at animation. Because there were no openings at Disney, he worked for several months at Hanna-Barbera while studying life drawing in the evening at Art Center. With persistence and determination, Clements was finally accepted into Disney’s Talent Development Program, a training ground for young animators. After successfully completing the training program, Clements served a two-year apprenticeship under Disney legend Frank Thomas. He quickly progressed through the ranks from in-betweener to assistant to animator-storyman. His credits include “Winnie the Pooh and Tigger, Too,” “The Rescuers,” “Pete’s Dragon,” “The Fox and the Hound” and “The Black Cauldron.” Clements made his writing-directing debut with Musker on the 1986 feature “The Great Mouse Detective.” Their credits also include 1997’s epic comedy “Hercules” and the intergalactic adventure “Treasure Planet” in 2002.

Richard Lyons

Character Designer at Naughty Dog
Richard Lyons is an Australian-born, Los Angeles-based concept and comic artist. Working in film, TV and games, some of his previous projects included Uncharted 4 and Darksiders 2. Richard is currently employed as a concept artist as Naughty Dog.

Bryan Godwin

CEO & Senior VFX Supervisor Shade VFX
Bryan Godwin, Owner and VFX supervisor at shade VFX is a 20 year veteran of the visual effects industry. He got his start at Square USA in Hawaii, working on Final Fantasy, and has built his career on creating, designing and developing teams, and later creating and designing visual effects businesses. Bryan’s entrepreneurial career began in NYC, when he was hired to design and build the CG and desktop VFX department at Charlex, a pioneering digital art company that got its start in 1977. Bryan went on to become a VP at Charlex, and later a partner and President of i, the first company to utilize motion capture and realtime rendering to create animatics and test commercials. After a stint vfx supervising at several other companies in the industry, Bryan founded shade VFX. A boutique vfx firm headquartered in Santa Monica California, with well over 60 feature film and top tier episodic titles to its credit. In 2017, shade won an Emmy for Best Visual Effects for its work on Westworld, season one. Shade now has offices in both Santa Monica and New York City, and has recently opened Branch, a sister company to shade, located in Albany NY, which focuses on prep, roto, tracking and paint.

David Igo

Art Director at Sideshow
David Igo, an Art Director for Sideshow, has focused the last 12 years of his big-boy job career within the toys & collectibles industry. In his 9 years at Sideshow his main endeavor has been within Statue Design & Development for their licensed properties – DC, Marvel, Star Wars, Alien, Predator, TMNT, Voltron, and various other amazing brands. As a product of 80’s cartoons and their product-focused approach to imagination stimulation, his whole life David has loved “toys” of all shapes, sizes, materials and price ranges… and now he gets to help see them materialize for a living! David also loves teaching ZBrush, producing his personal work through SatelliteSoda, and watching all the cartoons EVER in his little to no free-time, but he also has bigger dreams and hopes to one day ride in a real life AT-AT and see Rancors reintroduced into the wild to prosper and proliferate…

Lila Martinez

Story Board Artist at Fox Animation (Simpsons)
Lila Martinez is a Storyboard Artist at Fox Television Animation in Los Angeles on AMERICAN DAD! and previously on THE SIMPSONS. Born in Mexico City, she attended the Vancouver Film School studying classical and computer animation. After graduation, she traditionally animated for several films in Mexico and was a Story Artist for DUCK DUCK GOOSE, a CG animated feature by Original Force and a Netflix release on July 2018. In addition, her mixed media painting was exhibited in April 2018 for The Creative Women in Animation art show at The Wrong Gallery in Taipei.

Mike Mattesi

Art and Creative Consultant, Contagious Concepts
With 20+ years experience across animation, video games, advertising, education and IP development, Mike now focuses on his two strongest and most passionate interests, Art and Creativity. He enjoys inspiring and guiding teams to find premium, creative and visual concepts across numerous product types. This leads to crafting award winning, financially successful products. A brief client list includes Pixar, Walt Disney Feature Animation, Walt Disney Consumer Products, Marvel Comics, Hasbro Toys, ABC, Microsoft, Electronic Arts, DreamWorks/PDI, The School of Visual Arts, Peking University, Art Center, Nickelodeon and LeapFrog.

FORCE: Basics
This 2 hour foundation workshop inspires you to see, analyze and draw the model through an understanding of FORCEFUL function. Feel what it is like to draw the figure as though you were driving a race-car! Exciting demonstrations, individual and class critiques drive curiosity and learning of FORCE.

Supplies:
18×24 SMOOTH newsprint, Masonite board and SOFT graphite, 9B and above is possible. I use Lyra Graphite crayons.

Nick Langley

Gestural Figurative Artist
Nick Langley is a gestural figurative artist whose works exhibit bold coloration and line-based naturalism. His compositional meditations on human structure are made from observations within a studio setting. He teaches and hosts life drawing sessions at various studios throughout the DFW area. His illustrations have been featured by publishers like Namco-Bandai and Krause Publications. He has worked for various art galleries throughout the South as artist, associate, framer, seller, executive director and web master. He’s held presentations at various conferences and conventions in San Diego, San Francisco, and New York. Nick received his BFA in Graphic Design from Henderson State University in his home state of Arkansas. He currently resides in Allen, Texas.

Artist Links:

Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/dfw-life-drawing-classes/

Instagram: @langleydraws

Paul Labadie

Artist, Craftsman, Designer, Woodcarver and Draftsman

My lifelong interest in art and architecture began in my early teens with studying art history, old and modern masters, illustrators and comic artists. I took my first live model lifedrawing class at Hope College when I was in high school. Although I never completed a degree I have pursued art and especially lifedrawing ever since. In addition to formal instructed classes in MI, MN, CA and TX, I have sought out informal artists’ groups with live models. I organized several groups myself over the years in Dallas and have been practicing lifedrawing and other forms of art for forty years. I worked as a carpenter, cabinetmaker, woodworker and woodcarver for 35 years in MN,
CA and TX. For the past 25 years I have run my own specialty woodworking shop in Dallas and have been honored to receive three Institute of Classical Art and Architecture, Texas Chapter, John Staub Awards for Craftsmanship and an American Institute of Architects, Dallas Chapter, Community Honors Award for Craftsmanship. I am currently working as designer, pattern maker and draftsman for Casci Ornamental Plaster of Dallas where I bring my passion for and experience with historical ornament and design to our high-end specialty projects in cast plaster.

Community Icon Award
Robert Atkins

During his 25+ year career, Robert has been highly involved in Product Design, Creative Direction, Company Management, Brand Building and Marketing. With over 50 titles contributed and credited, with 30 first-party in-house in which a leadership role was also held during development. His companies and titles have won dozens of industry awards and worldwide acclaim.

In 1996, Robert co-founded his first development company Ritual Entertainment, managing and developing original & 3rdparty content under this label for over a decade. At the largest stage, the company employed nearly 100 team members who worked on multiple AAA titles for the industry’s top publishing companies simultaneously.

Additionally, Robert’s experience includes a long line of casual and mobile gaming successes. As a crowdfunding consultant, Robert has advised other successful campaigns on Marketing, Product Design, Social Media Strategy and Business Development, resulting in millions raised over nearly a dozen projects on Kickstarter. In addition, Robert has been invited to speak on the subject in workshops and conferences, donating time and experience to countless others in the startup space trying to apply crowdfunding.

After a formal invitation in 2012, Robert joined the accomplished ranks as a mentor to graduate students in the role of Adjunct Professor at SMU Guildhall in Dallas Texas, teaching Game Design, Professional Development, Focused Study and Industry Ethics. In 2017 and 2018 the school was named the number 1 Game Design Graduate program in the world by Preston Review.

Starting in 2016, as CEO of BALANCED Media | Technology, Robert is focused on inspiring a culture of innovative technology design, compassionate capitalism and community entertainment brands with genuine purpose, while improving the lives of users. BALANCED is redefining what it means to engage digital/interactive entertainment, with the mission to empower communities to use the resources they have to make impact on the world around them. BALANCED will not only entertain the gaming culture but will also enlighten, motivate and connect them to purpose. The products Robert is now creating will be unique and most importantly will do actual good in the world.

PLUS Special event with Stephan Martiniere on Friday night

Stephan Martiniere is an acclaimed multi award winning science fiction and fantasy artist. His film clients include ILM, Disney, Universal, Paramount, Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox and Dreamworks. As the director for the five animated musical adaptation shows Madeline Stephan Martiniere received the A.C.T Award, the Parent’s Choice Award, and the Humanitas Award and was nominated for an Emmy. Stephan Martiniere has worked on movies such as RIPD, Total Recall 2012, Tron: Legacy, Star Trek, Star Wars: Episodes 2-3, Knowing,I, Robot, The Fifth Element, Virus, Red Planet, The Astronaut’s Wife, Sphere, Titan A.E, and The Time Machine as well as the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy and 300: Rise of an Empire, Stephan was the art director for the visually acclaimed ID Games Rage released in 2011, he was also the visual design director responsible for the games URU: Ages beyond Myst, URU: The Path of the Shell, and Myst 5., and worked several years at Midway Games as Visual Art Director for the game Stranglehold and later as Creative Visual Director of the concept department for several other Midway games including Blacksite: Area 51, Blitz, Ballers, Mortal Kombat vs. DC, Wheelman, and more.

Stephan Martiniere has received the Exposé Grand Master Award, thirteen Exposé Excellence Awards, five Exposé Master Awards, and two Chelsey Award for Best Book Cover, two silver and one gold Spectrum Award for Book Covers and editorial, The Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist, The Ennie Award for Best Cover Art, and The Bookgasm Award for Best Cover Artist. In 2009 Stephan was voted one of the 50 Most Inspirational Artists by Imagine FX Magazine.

-Website: www.martiniere.com

Pre-Sale $75 tickets (regularly $100) until Sept 21st at midnight. Discount for everyone whether you are a student, teacher, professional, amateur, hobbyist or fan.

Ticket includes:
Special event with Stephan Martiniere on Friday night, conference at Gilley’s, portfolio reviews, lunch, t-shirts* (while they last) and after party.

*Please purchase your tickets early so we know how many t-shirts to order. T-shirts are limited quanity and while they last.

Artist Alley Artists

Brett Briley

Brett Briley began his career in CG as an artist at Disney but has worked in the videogame industry since 1999 for studios including Red Storm Ent, Irock Interactive, Sony Online Ent, Nerve Software, Ensemble Studios, id Software, and Project TriForce. He has also spent years as a successful independent, freelance artist. Brett has worked on a long list of titles including Paragon, Total War: Warhammer, Doom, Doom 3: Ressurection of Evil, Wolfenstein: The New Order, Rage, Halo Wars, Age of Empires 3, Age of Empires 3: Warchiefs, Oblivion, D&D Online, Neverwinter Nights 2, Planetside, Planetside: Core Combat, Planetside: Aftershock, Lucky’s Tale, Savage Skies, and Freedom of those he can name. In addition to working in the gaming sector, he has taught at the Art Institute of Dallas, TAD (The Art Department), SMU, and is currently teaching with UArtsy.com.

Don Dixon

Over 15 years experience in art and design and animation. Loves to laugh, and work with teams to create exciting new visions that capture the imagination of us all. He has worked on feature films such as THE BOOK OF LIFE, FREE BIRDS, ROCKDOG, SHERLOCK GNOMES, as well as Television and video game animation, illustration for Rolling Stone Magazine.

Edwardian Taylor

Edwardian is a freelance Visual Development Artist working in tv, games, commercials and feature films. Some clients include Reelfx, NBC Universal/ Dreamworks, Disney, Out of Order Studios, Hasbro, Sesame Studios, Nickelodeon, and Gaumont Studios.

Edwardian is also a children’s book illustrator, represented by The Bright Group International/ The Bright Group USA. Currently he’s wrapping up “Toy Academy Book 2: Ready For Action” written by Brian Lynch (Scholastic). And also “It’s Not Hansel and Gretel” by Josh Funk (Amazon/Two Lions).

You can follow Edwardian on Instagram, Twitter, and Tumblr @edwardiantaylor.

Edwardian had attended The University of Texas at Dallas, where he received his MFA in Arts and Technology.

Eliamaria M. Crawford

Eliamaria Madrid Crawford, Elia for short, was born and raised in San
Angelo, Texas. She started drawing stick figure doodles as her primary go-to in
high school and eventually started, what-was, Elia in a Box Webcomic then. She
also had the privilege of drawing comics for her high school newspaper, the
Campus Corral.
Eliamaria attended UT Arlington where she majored in Theatre. She had a
love for performing comedy as well as designing and painting the sets. While in
college, she drew comics for the university newspaper, The Shorthorn. Her comic
strips from The Shorthorn, featuring campus-famed professor Allan Saxe, earned
her the 2014 Scholastic Press 1st Place Award for Comic Cartoons in Digital
Media.
After that Elia in a Box Studios, took off. She started doing more projects
from custom wedding graphics, to convention poster art, and even contributing
comics to many zines, projects, and her own comic books! She now has fun
attending as many cons as possible to show her art, sharing her fun art
adventures on her YouTube channel, and helping to bring a smile to everyone
with her silly comics and drawings.

Elise Hatheway

Elise Hatheway is a Concept Artist living and working in Dallas, TX. She has 10 years of experience in the animation industry and is currently working in games. She just finished working at Animal Logic on “Lego 2” movie, set for release in 2019. Some of her other film credits include, “Book of Life”, “Free Birds”, “Rock Dog”, and “Ugly Dolls”. She has worked with several award winning studios including Disney, Warner Bros, Reel FX, Hadron Studios and Duncan Studios. Elise is currently working at Boss Fight Entertainment concepting for mobile games.

E-mail: elisehatheway@gmail.com

Kai Ussin

Kai Ussin is a freelance artist based in Houston, Texas, who regularly creates colorful detailed and stylized character illustrations. She is inspired by overseas artist and the Japanese culture. Since advancing her skills in illustrations, she has included character concepts and now pushes her passion towards the game industry for future opportunity.

Kevin Chin

Kevin Chin is an experienced concept artist and illustrator in the industry since 2004, after graduating from the College for Creative Studies art school in Detroit, Michigan. He’s worked at studios like Disney Interactive / Junction Point Studios on the Disney Epic Mickey game series and for freelance illustration clients such as Blizzard, Upper Deck, Games Workshop and Fantasy Flight Games and previously featured on ConceptArtWorld, ImagineFX and Ballistic Publishing. Kevin currently resides in Austin, Texas working at KingsIsle Entertainment as a Principal Concept Artist. Kevin is also the designer of the Industry Giants 2018 poster.

Stephan Martiniere

Stephan Martiniere is an acclaimed multi award winning science fiction and fantasy artist. In 2012 Stephan was voted one of the 50 Most Inspirational Artists by Imagine FX Magazine. In the past 30 years he has become known for his talent, versatility and imagination in every entertainment fields including feature films, animation, video games, and theme parks, editorial, commercial and book covers.

Stephan was the art director for the visually acclaimed ID Games Rage released in 2011, he was also the visual art director responsible for the games URU: Ages Beyond Myst, URU: The Path of the Shell, and Myst 5, and worked several years at Midway Games as Visual Art Director for the game Stranglehold and later as Creative Visual Director of the concept department for several other Midway games including Black Site: Area 51, Blitz, Ballers, Mortal Kombat vs. DC, Wheelman, and more.

As the director for the five animated musical adaptation shows Madeline, Stephan Martiniere received the A.C.T Award, the Parent’s Choice Award and the Humanitas Award and was nominated for an Emmy. Stephan also gained global notoriety for illustrating the Where’s Waldo Sunday comic strip for King Features, distributed to hundreds of newspapers worldwide.

Stephan Martiniere is also an accomplished concept illustrator who has worked on movies such as The Suicide Squad, Independence Day: Resurgence, Tomorrowland, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Guardians of the Galaxy, 300: Rise of an Empire, Total Recall (2012), Tron: Legacy, Star Trek, Star Wars: Episodes 2-3, Knowing, I, Robot, as well as the upcoming Ready Player One, Alita: Battle Angel One and The Solutrean. He has also worked extensively over the last 5 years with Disney Imagineering on Disneyland parks and expansions across the globe doing visual development for The Pirates of the Caribbean, Avatar and Star Wars.

Over the last fifteen years Stephan has produced over a hundred and fifty book covers and numerous comic book covers and editorial illustrations for such clients as National Geographic, Popular Science, Tor Books, Pyr, Penguin and Random House, Dark Horse and Radical Comics.

Stephan Martiniere has received the Exposé Grand Master Award, thirteen Exposé Excellence Awards, five Exposé Master Awards, and two Chelsey Award for Best Book Cover, two silver and one gold Spectrum Award for Book Covers and Editorial, The Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist, The Ennie Award for Best Cover Art, The Bookgasm in 2009 Award for Best Cover Artist and was the Grand Prize Winner of IBA in 2012.

Stephan Martiniere is currently a visual consultant and freelance concept illustrator on various films, games and theme parks and frequently teaches workshops and presents lectures worldwide. He is an advisory board member of the CGSociety.

-Website: www.martiniere.com

Pre-Sale $75 tickets (regularly $100) until Sept 21st at midnight. Discount for everyone whether you are a student, teacher, professional, amateur, hobbyist or fan.

Ticket includes:
Special event with Stephan Martiniere on Friday night, conference at Gilley’s, portfolio reviews, lunch, t-shirts* (while they last) and after party.

*Please purchase your tickets early so we know how many t-shirts to order. T-shirts are limited quantity and while they last.