Just curious how many Polycounters will be at the conceptart workshop this weekend... We've got some ES guys heading up tomorrow include me and Monster... anybody else?
awesome, can't wait ...wish you were here too MoP:(
spacemonkey: nice, I'm lookin forward to seein some of that Mass Effect you guys are bringin
vahl: awesome...give Noon, Crookes and Gimbel a couple shots in the arm for not showin those fakkers:S
This should be a great weekend!!
hmm just heard it was quite bad from the 6+ people that went there from here, some Ubi Soft guys were awesome but other than that dissapointing for professionals.
yea, I heard a lot of employees of various companies were just sent to it by they bosses and that they didnt really know why they were even there. Apparently a lot of them expected to be learning a lot more and were that it was only demos. Dont really know what they expected though.
I met ThE_BirD and his wife Candice! Great to meet you guys I never saw vahl or anyone from Digital extremes did you guys actually attend?
Met allot of good guys from Ubi and Pandemic there too!
[ QUOTE ]
Apparently a lot of them expected to be learning a lot more and were that it was only demos. Dont really know what they expected though.
[/ QUOTE ]
I wasn't able to attend but I've been hearing that as well, and it's a little confusing. As you said I can't imagine what they expected. In my experience, live demos are the best way to learn anything art related, certainly better than sitting in an auditorium watching some dude open up 3D files he's already set up, or pass out hand outs, only to just read directly from them. I can't imagine what would be more educational than watching some of the top dogs of the concept design field working live! I remember back when I was going to Chapel Hill saying to a friend of mine, "I wish I could just pay some of these guys (in reference to fine art painters at the time) to just look over their shoulder while they worked. (cause our teachers sure weren't teaching us anything) Now that I know that I can...I just need to find the money and the time. Some of the Gnomon DVDs have been god-sends as well..."Learn more about painting in 2 hours than you did in ALL of the painting classes you took in college!"
Anyway, perhaps they were because most of them weren't concept artists and didn't have much interest in becoming such...maybe...seems kinda close minded though. Also it seems like the Massive Black crew is pretty into pushing traditional skills to compliment the digital ones, and maybe some of the guys that were disappointed just didn't get it.
spacemonkey : yah we were there, I've been there all the time and attended most the demos (though I skipped a few to watch other ones to the end). Was looking forward to see you at the bioware show, but missed it, the guys told me that was really cool tho.
As for the feedback, well they are all awesome artists and the ubi guys really blasted me (certainely because I'm more interested in environment design these days - you can see what I did after the demo here), I missed marko's character design though ( think it was during the speedpainting thing, couldn't miss that).
Dan Milligan was really good too and I liked el Coro's little show on weapons (scribbly little things ftw!)
what I disliked tho were the flaws in organization and sometimes the lack of explanations during the demos, watching someone draw is cool, but when he can stop to explain why he's doing different things, it's better, plus you can't be 100% concentrated on a 5 hours long demo. But I also understand that you can't ask someone shy to talk in front of 150 people, especially to show trick, "cheats" and all ( and that's awesome the ubi guys, Milligan and Jason Manley took the time to explain that).
and Montreal is a damn great city.
one last note for aesir : I wasn't sent by my bosses, I was really happy to go there because I wanted to learn more from the concept side of the work ( and do more and more on my own) because it can help me a lot in my everydays work. Hence the fact that I watched some of the demos rather than others, I can only talk for what I have seen tho.
So all in all I saw what I wanted (though i'd love to see more)
Last weekend was a blast... Yeah the Bioware demo rocked... would've been even better if Spacemonkey coulda got up to talk but he left it for the concept guys... Had a great time grabbin lunch with him and some of the Bioware crew though...you guys were awesome:) The Ubisoft guys did some really badass speed painting and there were a ton of other great demos. Like most of the conceptart workshops there was a lot chaos and a lot of the "fly by the seat of our pants" mentality which isn't for everyone but all in all it was a fantastic experience... There aren't many events that pull together that much talent under one roof. Sucked that I missed Vahl but I did get to see Shotgun again:) Haha crazy ol' Shotgun... I'm pumped to get back to work and apply some of the stuff I picked up but a little sad I had to leave Montreal... It really is a beautiful city!
Replies
Have fun, guys
spacemonkey: nice, I'm lookin forward to seein some of that Mass Effect you guys are bringin
vahl: awesome...give Noon, Crookes and Gimbel a couple shots in the arm for not showin those fakkers:S
This should be a great weekend!!
I've made my new high priority to get everything situated by the time the European workshop rolls around this year, I won't be missing that one.
Met allot of good guys from Ubi and Pandemic there too!
Apparently a lot of them expected to be learning a lot more and were that it was only demos. Dont really know what they expected though.
[/ QUOTE ]
I wasn't able to attend but I've been hearing that as well, and it's a little confusing. As you said I can't imagine what they expected. In my experience, live demos are the best way to learn anything art related, certainly better than sitting in an auditorium watching some dude open up 3D files he's already set up, or pass out hand outs, only to just read directly from them. I can't imagine what would be more educational than watching some of the top dogs of the concept design field working live! I remember back when I was going to Chapel Hill saying to a friend of mine, "I wish I could just pay some of these guys (in reference to fine art painters at the time) to just look over their shoulder while they worked. (cause our teachers sure weren't teaching us anything) Now that I know that I can...I just need to find the money and the time. Some of the Gnomon DVDs have been god-sends as well..."Learn more about painting in 2 hours than you did in ALL of the painting classes you took in college!"
Anyway, perhaps they were because most of them weren't concept artists and didn't have much interest in becoming such...maybe...seems kinda close minded though. Also it seems like the Massive Black crew is pretty into pushing traditional skills to compliment the digital ones, and maybe some of the guys that were disappointed just didn't get it.
As for the feedback, well they are all awesome artists and the ubi guys really blasted me (certainely because I'm more interested in environment design these days - you can see what I did after the demo here), I missed marko's character design though ( think it was during the speedpainting thing, couldn't miss that).
Dan Milligan was really good too and I liked el Coro's little show on weapons (scribbly little things ftw!)
what I disliked tho were the flaws in organization and sometimes the lack of explanations during the demos, watching someone draw is cool, but when he can stop to explain why he's doing different things, it's better, plus you can't be 100% concentrated on a 5 hours long demo. But I also understand that you can't ask someone shy to talk in front of 150 people, especially to show trick, "cheats" and all ( and that's awesome the ubi guys, Milligan and Jason Manley took the time to explain that).
and Montreal is a damn great city.
one last note for aesir : I wasn't sent by my bosses, I was really happy to go there because I wanted to learn more from the concept side of the work ( and do more and more on my own) because it can help me a lot in my everydays work. Hence the fact that I watched some of the demos rather than others, I can only talk for what I have seen tho.
So all in all I saw what I wanted (though i'd love to see more)