Calendar of Events

October 13th, 2005

Art Institute of California, Los Angeles Game Center & International Game Developers Association (IGDA), Los Angeles Chapter Present:

Animation 2005 Lecture Series & IGDA LA Chapter meeting

When: October 13, 2005 at 6:30 PM

Where: The Big Room, The Art Institute of California - Los Angeles 2900 31st Street, Santa Monica, CA 90405

The lecture will be about the development of Computer Animated Franchise for teenagers and creating and bringing up virtual 3D Characters by Akiko Ashley, Eric Durst, Kevin Cahill and Stephanie Johnson from Luminetik. This will be a ground-floor experience since, at the moment, there isn't a computer animated film geared toward this audience. Come and see the development of a groundbreaking project about a young girl whose destiny is to become a super heroine.

Akiko Ashley is one of the founders of Santa Monica based Luminetik Animation Studios. Akiko has worked in the cutting edge entertainment and technology industry for several years. She started her career writing games for Nintendo in Japan in the early 80's. Akiko's diverse background combining technology with creativity is a major asset to Luminetik. Luminetik was one of the co-sponsors of NYDV Expo at Madison Square Garden in 2003 and produced the commercial for Mind Share Ventures. Akiko is an Executive Producer on such projects as VFX work on the Castlerock/Warner Bros. movie "Two Weeks Notice," four commercials for Arm and Hammer featuring New York Yankee Jason Giambi, and CGI work for National Geographic on "Snake Wranglers."

Eric Durst is an award-winning film director and a Principal at Luminetik since 2004, well known for his design-oriented work, combining live action with visual effects. He is well known for directing successful campaigns for national and international advertisers such as AT&T, POLAROID, MAZDA, BLUE CROSS, DODGE, VOLKSWAGEN, SPRINT PCS, MONEYGRAM, DIET PEPSI, MCI, TEXACO and over 20 commercials for BLACK & DECKER. His campaigns for Volkswagen "Fahrvernugen" are classics and set the standard for combining graphic design and live action in automotive advertising. In feature films, Durst has designed and supervised visual effects for productions such as the current hit, "Spiderman 2," "Torque," "End of Days" and "The One." He has twice been a finalist for the Academy Award in visual effects for his work in visualizing Gotham City for "Batman Forever" and "Batman and Robin." His work for the video "Freeek!" with George Michael earned Durst the award for Best Visual Effects of the Year in the 2003 MVPA Awards.

Kevin Cahill is also is one of the founders of Luminetik Animation Studios and has been doing 3D since 1982. Kevin was working with the "Radiosity" render software long before it was a popular rendering style. Projects that he has worked on include the new Oakland to San Francisco Bay Bridge, a custom car garage in Manhattan for Jerry Seinfeld, and working with such architectural icons as Maya Lin (designed the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington DC). The scope his work has expanded to include feature films like "Two Weeks Notice" for Castlerock/Warner Brothers and commercials for Arm & Hammer.

Stephanie Johnson, Production Coordinator, has been working in Hollywood and the film industry since 1992. Stephanie has been an agent, producer and writer. She has worked at William Morris, International Creative Management and Innovative Artists.

IGDA Los Angeles Chapter meeting starts after the lecture and the topic of this session is "Creating and Animating Characters for Games"

For more information about these events please contact Bijan Tehrani at (818) 613-4227 or btehrani@dljl.com.

About The Art Institute of California - Los Angeles Game Center The Art Institute of California - Los Angeles, in conjunction with the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) Los Angeles Chapter, will be opening the Game Center on December 8, 2005. The Game Center is a dedicated area at The Art Institute of California - Los Angeles that will showcase the latest game development tools, games, materials, and literature and state-of-the-art game software provided by the game developers. Also in planning is a Festival of Games that would be staged at the Center, along with a development seminar and a job fair. The Game Center will be open to IGDA members, game development professionals and members of the media. Game Center partners are: Alias, AMD, Animation Magazine, Autodesk Inc., Avid Computer Graphics, F.Dice, IGDA Los Angeles Chapter, Motion Analysis Corp., NVIDIA Corp., Personal Computers Unlimited, Inc., Peachpit Press, Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc., Seagate Technology, SilverStone, Tyan Computer Corp. and ViewSonic.