VIEW 2023 Education Lineup Includes Andreas Deja, Doug Chiang

The VIEW Conference, Italy’s premier international event on Computer Graphics, Interactive Techniques, Digital Cinema, 2D/3D Animation, VR and AR, Gaming, and VFX, has announced the latest confirmed educational programs for this year’s event.

The English-speaking conference takes place October 15-20, 2023, in the beautiful baroque city of Turin, Italy. Tickets are now available from the official VIEW Conference website.

The program features a variety of in-person workshops and masterclasses offering an opportunity for a hands-on experience with various award-winning masters and an array of educational sessions, including portfolio reviews, interactive “Ask-Me-Anything” sessions, and even mock interviews with experienced industry leaders.

Workshops and Masterclasses for 2023 include:

“A Masterclass Conversation about Art and ‘Star Wars’” (Duration – 60 minutes)

• Doug Chiang, vice president and executive creator at Lucasfilm, leads an informal masterclass/conversation about film design, discussing his early career, his work in the film industry, and what it’s like to work on Star Wars – with participants invited to ask questions and participate in the discussion.
• Chiang, with 25+ years of Star Wars design experience, is principal designer for “Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge” and other Disney World Resort attractions and served as production designer on Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Ahsoka.

“Art Direction, Visual Development and Stylization” (Duration – 6 hours)

• Almu Redondo, production designer at Cartoon Saloon, dives into concept art, style-frames, and art direction, focusing on unraveling the power of images in storytelling. Redondo shares her professional path, methods, and ideas to help the attendees push their creative approaches.
• Participants will be guided through researching the visual look of a project with practical demonstrations, mood board, and ideas map - creating thumbnails, sketches, and final images. Redondo will prepare five stories so participants can choose one (or bring their own) from which to develop a style and style-frame.

“Character Animation Workshop”

• Andreas Deja, Disney animator and creator/director of Mushka leads a character drawing workshop showcasing characters drawn throughout his Disney career and sharing stories about his 30-year career there.
• Mentored by Eric Larson, one of Disney's renowned “Nine Old Men,” Deja’s work on the ground-breaking Who Framed Roger Rabbit? led him to become a Disney go-to lead animator and creator of some of the most memorable Disney villains, including development of iconic characters Jafar (Aladdin), Scar (The Lion King), Gaston (Beauty and the Beast), and King Triton (The Little Mermaid).

“The Animation of ‘Nimona’” (Duration – 3 hours)

• Ted Ty, global head of character animation at DNEG Animation, shares a detailed and entertaining look at the planning, philosophy, and execution of the animation performances of Netflix’s animated feature Nimona, on which Ty served as animation director.
• A 30+ year industry veteran, Ty brings a deep understanding of 2D and 3D animation to his role at DNEG Animation and the importance of creating a supportive environment for artists. He began his animation career at Walt Disney Animation, working on the original The Lion King and Pocahontas, with other feature animation credits including Kung Fu Panda, Shrek Forever After, Puss in Boots, How to Train Your Dragon 2, and Rise of the Guardians.

“Rome Wasn't Built in a Day, But This Game Level Was!” (Duration – 6 hours)

• Nikola Damjanov, lead game artist at Nordeus, leads a workshop utilizing modern world-building tools to quickly create a playable game level and then iterate over design and quality. With the rapid prototyping mindset, he walks through procedurally modeling, animating, and populating a slice of the world. Ultimately, he will demonstrate the power to generate infinite variations of the creation. Tools used will include Houdini and Unity Game Engine.

“Dynamic Figure Drawing” (Duration – 2 hours)

• Scott Eaton, artist, designer, and creative technologist, leads attendees through exercises to sharpen figure drawing skills, beginning with drawing fundamentals and building up to dynamic poses. He explains body construction and essential anatomy needed to understand and draw dynamic figures. The workshop references Eaton’s online photo repository for poses.
• Eaton’s work explores the boundaries of figurative representation by combining traditional mediums (drawing, sculpture, photography, and animation) with machine learning, data, and computer graphics. His art and designs have been featured in Wired Magazine, GQ, Vogue, Vanity Fair, and the New York Times, and his clients include Pixar, Industrial Light & Magic, Disney, Sony, Blizzard, Valve, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Meta AI, and NVIDIA.
• No drawing experience is required - just bring a sketchbook and a willingness to draw.

“Death of the Polygon?” (Duration – 2 hours)

• Digital artist Martin Nebelong shares his experience using 3D tools that are free from the shackles of the polygon. He demonstrates how he uses Dreams, a piece of creative software based on SDFs (Signed Distance Fields), to create expansive mountain ranges and distant space stations without touching a mouse, keyboard, or tablet - using only his two hands and two glowing wands – 6DOF controllers outside of VR … all at speeds he says are impossible to achieve with more traditional workflows. The SDF technology is slowly making its way to Blender and crops up in experimental 3D tools like Unbound.io and Womp.3d.
• During the workshop, Nebelong shares practical examples of client work made in Dreams as well as personal work.

Additional program information is available here.

Source: VIEW 2023

Debbie Diamond Sarto is news editor at Animation World Network.