Master Classes
Details of the Master classes will be coming very soon!
Jason Manley
Visual Narrative
In this informative, hands-on, full-day workshop, Jason Manley will help attendees learn to create visual narratives through image making which communicates ideas, narrative story through symbolism, color, lighting, design, and mood. With live streaming demonstrations and presentations from the award-winning, professional, TAD faculty this workshop will be creatively, intellectually, and visually stimulating.
Bring your laptops/wacoms or your sketchbooks and participate along with the students and professionals. This course will help you to grow in your ability to share ideas visually in ways which better impact your audience. Get a taste of TAD and improve your work right here at AnimfxNZ.
Matt Johnston, Paul Stephanouk and others
Academy of Interactive Arts & Science Games Master Class
Presented by the AIAS, this in depth Master Class will cover a range of topics including Game Design, Production, Business Development and Marketing. With a strong focus on casual, social and downloadable games, this class and speakers has been custom tailored for the Australasian Game Development Community.
This class is suitable for professional, indie and student Game Designers, Producers, Studio Management, and those interested in getting a better understanding of the Interactive Entertainment Industry.
Production and Design for Social Games Master Class
This interactive session will focus on the design and development of social games and effective production processes for bringing titles to market. Matt Johnston, Senior Producer, PopCap, Paul Stephanouk, Executive Producer, Zynga and Jeff Braun, Co-Founder of Maxis will discuss:
Production for casual, social and console games, including the production of game design docs, development processes for effective iteration, social game core design mechanics, focus and A/B Testing. The session will also cover embracing marketing and integrating marketing deliverables into the development process, setting up music contractors for games, and operating and maintaining games after launch.
The session will also include the presentation of case studies on titles that changed the production process for PopCap and Zynga with a focus on Social Game Design.
Nurturing Innovation at a small game company
Jeff Braun will discuss strategies for nurturing innovation that were used at Maxis when it was a small company. In addition, Jeff and local game developer representative from Sidhe, Jos Ruffell will explore successful innovations and "high concepts" from small game developers today.
As a workshop we will evaluate and critic a few innovative game concepts from the perspective of a small game developer, the game publisher, the game distributor and the game player.
Game Business and Marketing Master Class
Industry veterans Bob Wallace, Principal of Strategic Alternatives (TBC), Joseph Olin, President of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, and Sean Kauppinen, CEO of IDEA, will conduct a business development and marketing workshop for studio heads and managers. Attendees will learn:
Part 1 — Defining the Product and Setting up Distribution and Publishing.
Audience and market definition. Product positioning. Distribution with social game companies versus traditional publishing Work for hire versus project-financed, or self-funded development models. How to improve your chances of getting a deal and building long-lasting relationships with publishers and potential partners. Preparation for the pitch meeting. How to develop an effective presentation. Soft skills needed to be build relationships. What not to do in your publisher pitch (a mock pitch that shows most mistakes that studios make).
Part 2 — Marketing
- Defining the USP
- Creating a compelling message and pitch
- Building a marketing plan (timelines, strategies and tactics). Understanding advertising versus public relations Strategies and tactics for creating virality and incentivizing word of mouth How Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other distribution channels can drive awareness Building and using channels for effectively distributing information on your game Creating and empowering community.
Attendees are welcome to bring work to gather evaluation and feedback. There will be time for open Q&A with all presenters at the end of the Master Class.
Rusty Tracy, Dean Hoff, David Knott
Where the Animation Industry is Heading: Education, Talent & Portfolio development
Morning session: Rusty Tracy, CG Supervisor for Nickelodeon Animation Studios, and Dean Hoff will give a general "state of the union" for CG animation, discussing how Nick is pushing the boundaries of what viewers can expect from television production as well as discussing where they see the industry going creatively and what skills will be essential for artists and studios.
Afternoon Session: Rusty Tracy, David Knott from Nickelodeon, and key execs from Oktobor Animation will be on hand to further the morning session by advising how best to create professional portfolios.
Who it's for
This Master Class is perfect for aspiring animators and CG artists, and those that are looking to kickstart their existing careers.
Kevin Schooler and Rob O'Neill
VFX Master Class — Autodesk
See why Flame and Maya are the ultimate partnership in film and television post production.
Kevin Schooler and Rob O'Neill will show you how FBX transfers data seamlessly between Maya and Flame allowing flexible workflow in any direction.
From the 3d side, Maya, showing how to setup shots, sequences, cameras (including stereo rigs) and render passes, all of which will eventually go into Flame. In addition, how to setup the FBX exporter to efficiently move data from maya to the creative finishing portion of the pipeline.
Real world examples will be used to demonstrate techniques.
Who it's for
This class will be of interest to compositors, animators and students who aspire to use the Flame toolset to produce world class results. Autodesk customers using Flame for film and TV VFX include The Mill, ILM, SPI and Asylum to name a few.
Hal Josephson, Thomas Leung, Brent Reynolds, David Smith and John Wander
How to Effectively License your IP and/or Partner to Distribute your Digital Content in the US and China
This session is a once in a decade opportunity to meet with four savvy and experienced business contacts from two of NZ's top three export markets. As a group, they have a wealth of knowledge and experience about how to best do business in China and the USA.
These four visiting internationals, two focusing on the USA and two focusing on China, will discuss critical success factors and provide both insight and information about what really works when trying to export your intellectual property.
Be prepared to dialogue about your most difficult existing challenges as well as ask your most perplexing questions. This session will help you better understand how to be successful in your export endeavors.
