concept art online conference

This global conference creates a direct worldwide connection to leading industry veterans, including game, film, and associated trans-media fields. It provides daily keynotes, over 100 speaker presentations, departmental talks, as well as secure greenlight pitch and mentor sessions. The program includes gripping discussion, informative Q&A periods, shared post-mortems and career days too.

Track topics include I.P. Development, Production, Art, Design, Technology, Management, Marketing, Public Relations, Media and Business, This important event is brought to life within an easy, proven, secure, online tool suite that is conveniently available 24/7.

Info and registration at conceptart.org

Red Engine Studios in the Arts District, Downtown Los Angeles are offering a lot of workshops for the upcoming weeks. The next event takes place on Saturday, Sept. 18th with workshop that will discuss techniques of implementing 3D programs to generate 2D concept images of belivable props, robots, and environments. Live demo & lecture will be presented by art director / concept designer Ben Procter.

Register now at redenginestudios.com

free tutorials

Best known for his concept work on films such as Star Wars and Transformers, industry veteran Feng Zhu now teaches his skills at FZD School of Design in Singapore. Many of his demos produced during the classes are available for free. Check out the FZD youtube channel here.

enrollment starts now

Founded in 2007, Concept Design Academy is a private design school located in Pasadena, California, near the center of the animation, film and game industry. A community where artists with passions for both traditional & entertainment arts meet to share their skills.

The goal is to strive in providing the best art and designs instruction available, offer easy to follow foundational courses for aspiring artists and advance workshops for seasoned professionals. Instructors are well known artists in the film industry such as James Paick, Carlo Arellano, Khang Le and Patrick Faulwetter (see image below), to mention just a few. More info on their website and the blog. www.conceptdesignacad.com

anatomy for artists

Ideal for reference, teaching or study: the finest superficial muscle anatomical figures can be ordered from anatomytools.com.

Workshops are offered twice a year and introduce it's attendees to the complex structure of skeleton, muscles and functions of the human body. Further courses cover topics such as creature-, animal- and character anatomy.

online Master Classes

Due to popular demand, The Gnomon School has extended it's online Master Classes event! Each 2-3 hour lecture focuses on a different element of the VFX & Games industries in a private forum where the instructors have shared a variety of insights and answers to previous attendee’s questions. Lectures will be give by industry veterans such as Feng Zhu, Neville Page, Iain McCaig and others. Renowned digital painter Craig Mullins (image below) shares how he applies the timeless values behind traditional art to digital art.

FZD School of Design

FZD School of Design caters to both professionals looking to further their skills and to students who want to break into the entertainment industry. The courses cover a wide range of design topics such as video games, feature films, theme park designs, consumer products, toys, TV commercials, and set designs. FZD focuses heavily on the importance of fundamental skills and the proper ways to develop design abilities. The aim is to mold students into elite designers with a broad range of skills and graduate with a top notch portfolio.
www.fzdschool.com
www.fengzhudesign.com

The Lighthouse Keeper

The Lighthouse Keeper is one of the student films produced this year at the Gobelins School of Animation in Paris. It shows excellent animation and design throughout the picture. Some conceptual work, cg-models and animation-tests are posted on the blogs of the team members here, here and here. Watch the film here.

Online CGWorkshops

CGWorkshops are online courses that run for eight weeks at a time and are designed by professional artists for the creative computer graphics industry. Students are drawn from all around the globe and can participate from the privacy of their own home. All you need is a web connection. Run securely over the web, CGWorkshops give everyone the opportunity to learn specific skills and be tutored by leaders in all areas of CG design. The forum environment allows direct communication and assists students and Instructors to collaborate at any time anywhere in the world.

Weekly sessions commence with a tutorial that is presented as text, video or both followed by the distribution of an assignment. Assignments assist students apply skills learned from the tutorials as well as receive guidance and coaching from the Instructor and other students in the group. View the complete list of courses available here

www.cgsociety.org

Gobelins School of Animation

Once a year the students of the Gobelins School of Communication showcase their work at the Annecy Animation Film Festival. The school has set up a website that features all of the entries of this year's festival. For more information visit www.gobelins.fr

Concept Design Workshop in Dublin

Course Profile:
Computer technologies offer new tools to the designer’s palette and influence the style and aesthetics of a film.
The ConceptDesignWorkshop will look at the tendencies in progressive production design such as the Wachowsky Brother’s feature “Speed Racer”. The course will also look at the development of artificial environments during the process from pre-production to post production.

• A hands-on design workshop will explore the experimental use of mixing traditional and digital media. After getting familar with photoshop and its possibilities participants will move towards the creation of a design visual as it is used in the art department.

• Participants will produce a concept sketch illustrating a film set or design idea while making extensive use of applied tools such as 3-D and photo reference.

Participant Profile:
This two day course is aimed at Art Directors, Trainee and Assistant Art Directors, Junior and Senior Draughtspersons, Art Department Assistants and Production Designers with some knowledge of photoshop.

Application Procedure:
Please apply online at www.screentrainingireland.ie by the 16 December 2008.

The Tutors
Peter Popken is a concept artist, visual development and storyboard artist for the film industry. His work spans more than 15 films including: "Speed Racer", "V for Vendetta", "The Bourne Supremacy", "King Arthur" and most recently Disney's "Prince of Persia".
His work is featured on several web galleries and art books. Further he developed visual ideas and aesthetics for PS3 computer games. Peter holds a diploma in visual arts & communication and has been tutoring workshops at film schools.

[http://www.peterpopken.com/]
[FÀS Screen Training Ireland]