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Sound Arts, 10 am – 12 pm
Meyer Hall
Sound Arts Guest Speaker Elliot ScheinerProducer/Engineer/Mixer
Please welcome producer/engineer/mixer extraordinaire, Elliot Scheiner, in an intimate discussion covering his vast experience, as well as personal tips and techniques for success in the recording industry. Mr. Scheiner has been nominated for a phenomenal twenty-three , winning six gold statuettes for his seminal work with mega-group Steely Dan. He has also produced and/or engineered projects for artists as diverse as Beck, Foo Fighters, R.E.M., Jackson Browne, Lenny Kravitz, Matchbox 20, Toto, Billy Joel, Sting, The Eagles, Loudon Wainwright, Leonard Cohen, Elvis Costello, Queen, B.B. King and countless others.
Elliot Scheiner’s pursuit of audio excellence spans nearly four decades, and has made him a much sought-after “secret weapon” by artists and groups that continue to define popular music. He started as Phil Ramone’s assistant at A&R Recording in New York City, and quickly advanced to an engineer. By 1973, Mr. Scheiner had begun to freelance as an engineer and producer, becoming the first person ever to work as a freelance engineer on the East Coast. He is considered to be among the most accomplished sound engineers and producers in the history of his field.
Don’t miss this rare opportunity to listen and learn directly from one of the industry’s most celebrated and creative forces working today.
GAD, 10 am – 12 pm
East End Lecture Space
Game Art and Design Panel
Ex’pression College Game Art and Design Program Director, Ty Carriere, will moderate the GAD Panel, which will discuss various projects that the guests and graduates have worked on and Industry trends.
Jennee Johnson2K Games
Graduating from the AVE Program in 2007 I started working at a small game studio, Northstar Studios as texture artist intern working on educational based gaming. Switching gears a little bit to fill in the down time I found a job as a freelance graphic designer for a startup company in Santa Clara, Distraction Industries. A year later I landed my current position on the character team at 2K Marin working on the up and coming Bioshock 2 game.
Kirill MikhaylovMotion Capture Specialist
2K Games
Kirill has been with 2K Games since March 2008 right after I graduated in January of 2008. Prior to 2K Games, I worked as a Motion Graphics Artist at American Media Group (AMG) on varies projects for Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco, Applied Materials, etc. Prior to AMG, I had my own web development company Skynet Industries. Titles Kirill gas worked on include: NHL 2K10, NBA 2K10, The Bigs 2, MLB: Front Office Manager, MLB 2K9, NHL 2K9, NBA 2K9 (G4’s X-Play “Best Animation of 2008”).
J.P. CastilloBackbone Entertainment
John Paul “J.P.” Castillo considers himself very fortunate to have played a part in making video games for over five years. JP currently works as an environment artist, and has contributed to several of Backbone’s latest and greatest titles, including Death Jr., Brooktown High: Senior Year and NBA Ballers for the PSP, Gauntlet, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, and LEGO Rock Band for the DS; Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3 and 1942: Joint Strike for XBLA and PSN; and Death Jr. 2: The Root of Evil for the PSP and Wii. A lifelong gamer and self- professed otaku, J.P. spends his free time watching anime and Hong Kong action films, and playing games from such genres as JRPGs, SHMUPs, brawlers, and stealth-action.
Justin Rosenthal-KambicBackbone Entertainment
Justin Rosenthal-Kambic was going to be a rockstar. Or at least he planned on being one, if only he could put down the controller for a moment. In reality, video games weren’t what stopped him from achieving his dreams, (the band broke up after high school). After graduating from Ex’pression College things turned out for the best, considering it brought him to where he is today - working in the game industry as an artist/animator at Backbone Entertainment. Justin joined the ever-expanding force that was Backbone in early 2004 right when they got the opportunity to start work on the new IP Death, Jr. which was the first title announced when the Sony PSP was revealed. Since then Justin has been fortunate to contribute his (rumored-to-be) awesome animation skills across 8 shipped titles, including Death, Jr. (1 and 2), Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3, and LEGO Rock Band.
Ryan ShevlinBackbone Entertainment
Ryan became a team member of Backbone Entertainment shortly after graduating Ex’pression College 4 years ago. He had been honing his artistic chops on a variety of interesting projects on all major consoles ever since. Ryan has expanded his skill set beyond character modeling to include prop and level modeling, particle effects, and animation. When not generating or playing awesome games, he can be found pretending to know how to play the drums, or mixing cocktails.
Travis HoweSenior Designer - Animator
ROGER
Travis attended Ex’pression from 2004-2006, during which time he mentored under PIXAR Senior Animator, Dan Mason. His first job in the game industry was with Perpetual, where he spent most of his time weight painting and touching up texture maps. Travis’ first real animation job was with Secret Level (now SEGA Studios, San Francisco) – where he worked on Iron Man, Golden Axe: Beast Rider, and pre-production for the upcoming Iron Man 2. He is now working for Cryptic Studios in Los Gatos. Travis recently finished work on Champions Online, and is now working on the upcoming Star Trek Online. He lives in San Jose with his wife, Nikki and their beautiful daughter, Taylor.
MGD, 2:30 – 4:30 pm
Meyer Hall
Paulo “Blob” SilvaROGER
Please join us for a fascinating look at the world through the fresh eyes and ideas of renowned designer, artist, and animator, Paulo “Blob” Silva. Born in Brazil in 1981, “Blob,” as he is known to his friends and colleagues, is an ever-aspiring artist, who has successfully pursued a career in Motion Graphics as a Designer/Animator. His experience ranges from studio owner in Brazil, to director’s assistant in film production.
He currently lends his unique talents to SoCal design firm, Roger LA, whose clients include ABC, BMW, Lifetime, HGTV, Infiniti, McDonalds, National Geographic, Nickelodeon, and VH1. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to listen and learn directly from the mind of one of the industry’s hottest creative forces.
AVE, 5 – 7 pm
Meyer Hall
Animation & Visual Effects Panel
Animation & Visual Effects Program Director, Andrew Schlussel, will moderate a panel featuring four talented Ex’pression graduates, as they discuss their respective roles working on the recently released animated feature, A Christmas Carol. The group is part of over twenty alums who worked on this technically groundbreaking film for the Disney-backed venture.
ImageMovers Digital is committed to making great films in an open, collaborative environment, where the individuals’s voice finds its way to the director’s ear, free of hierarchical constraints, and limited only by the boundaries of imagination. By drawing on stories both classic and unconventional that are presented in previously unseen ways, our film will yield anew cinematic form, creating a true marriage of art and technology.
Jeremy BolanSenior Animator
ImageMovers Digital
A graduate of Ex’pression College, Bolan has worked in the effects industry for the last seven years on many films including King Kong, Transformers and Constantine. He’s worked for such studios as Weta, Industrial Light & Magic, Tippett, Rythym and Hues and ESC. As a Senior Animator at IMD, he was mainly responsible for helping bring to life Scrooge, Marley, Fred and Christmas Future on Disney’s A Christmas Carol.
Ryan ChanPerformance Layout Artist
ImageMovers Digital
Ryan started off as a Mocap TD, working on the set of Disney’s A Christmas Carol. While helping build the motion capture stage, Ryan’s primary duties as a Mocap TD were in front of a computer, doing body and facial mocap tracking. Soon after, Ryan would join the northern California studio as a Performance Layout Artist, helping bridge the mocap and animation departments by integrating the motion capture data on the 3d characters, blending performances, and pulling in all 3d assets to set up clean files for the animation department.
Dan KunzAnimator
ImageMovers Digital
In the past two years at IMD, Dan Kunz has worked in Los Angeles with the Motion Capture team, in Carpentaria with the Performance Integration team, and in Novato with the Animation team. During Mocap, he helped set up the motion capture stage and was in charge of running the master system, capturing the entire movie. For Performance Integration, he worked directly with Robert Zemeckis and the layout team integrating actors into MotionBuilder for real-time camera capture. On the Animation team, Dan’s main focus was facial animation of Old Scrooge and The Ghost of Christmas Past.
Chad VernonRigger
ImageMovers Digital
Chad is a Character Technical Director in IMD’s Rigging department. As a Character TD on Disney’s A Christmas Carol, he contributed to the design and implementation of much of the character deformation technology found in the characters of the film. He was also responsible for the facial rigging of Marley’s Ghost, The Ghost of Christmas Past, most of the Cratchit family, and several other secondary characters.
