A game, film, and design event, GFD North, was hosted this year on August, 6-7, in Manchester, with speakers from the UK and Europe with splendid skills and multiple years of experience in the industry. The entire two-day event was recorded and is now available to watch online.
For two days the GFD North team hosted a conference with speakers from the UK and Europe with great skills and multiple years of experience in the game, film, and design industry at Contact Theater, Manchester. The entire two-day event was recorded with the lecturers giving presentations on everything from their technique, how they solve design problems, their experience in the industry, and more. Each presentation is around an hour long. There's also a live Q&A at the end of each day. The event team also tried to make the content so that there is something useful for established PROs and people just starting.
"There hadn't been any Concept Art and Design event's in the UK since before Covid hit. So around 1 year ago now, I decided to put on the event right here in Manchester. I eventually found the right venue and began reaching out to people.", says Ryan Woodhouse, the organizer of the event.
"All our presenters at GFD North have great design skills and loads of experience and techniques to share. There's something to take away for people at all levels in the industry", shared the event team.
In the featured art-focused talks you'll hear from Pete Amachree, a Concept Artist from England, who contributed to Marvel, EA, and Lionhead, Ivan Vujovic, a Senior Concept Artist and DMP at REALTIME, Till Freitag, a freelance vehicle and mechanical concept artist, and more.
Also, the conference was full of lectures aimed to develop the creatives' soft skills. The speaker, Alex Noax, a freelance Concept Designer with a heavy focus on hard surface design development and problem-solving, who worked for Probably Monsters, Embark, Treyarch, Tencent, and more, shared a workflow for establishing new IP.
Jort van Welbergen, a Senior Concept Artist and Art Director, who has worked on many projects in film, games and other industries including Eternals, Game of Thrones, Avenue 5, Star Atlas, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Star Citizen, talked about his experience in the film industry and shared some tips and tricks for those creatives who'd like to start the art journey.
Also, Rudy Parfaite, an Art Director at Blur Studio on Valorant, shared what stands behind his role and how to become an art director. Ryan Woodhouse, a freelance Concept Designer from Leeds, unveiled some tips and tricks for the growth of freelancers and talked about how to save time, solve the right problems, and deliberate practice.
For everyone who couldn't make it down in person to this year's event, the team has prepared recordings of the most extensive lectures, you may enjoy them here. Also, we encourage you to check the event's Twitter page to stay tuned for upcoming events.