Christine Phelan
Home of the Space Needle, Starbucks, Frasier and grunge, Seattle now delivers to us Christine Phelan, Character Animator for Valve—developers of award winning franchises such as the Half-Life, Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress, Portal and the number one online action game Counter-Strike.
An animator with experience in both the television and videogames industries, Christine graduated with a degree in animation from the Savannah College of Art and Design, Georgia in 2006.
In 2008 Christine was recruited by Double Fine productions to create character animations for titles such as Brütal Legend, Costume Quest and Iron Brigade as well as several spots of freelance work for television commercials and iPad applications.
Christine joined revered studio Valve Corporation in early 2011 and began developing character animation and cinematics for online battler Dota 2.
Christine will talk about her experience working as an animator across different mediums and shed some light on what it’s like to work at Valve, the creative powerhouse behind some of the most influential titles in the history of videogames.
Lucas Hardi
2,777 miles east of Seattle is the state of Maryland. This Eastern state is home to 5.8 million people and world-famous games studio Bethesda.
Bethesda artist Lucas Hardi will be joining us for the first day of BAF Game on Tuesday 13 November 2012.
An artist and programmer, Lucas Hardi has an eclectic wealth of experience working for games companies both big and small. After graduating with a degree in Engineering from the University of Virginia in 2000, Lucas worked as a 3D artist at interactive training specialists Dynamic Animation Systems. He then worked as an artist and designer at Bioware Mythic, creating characters and environments for titles such as Warhammer Online and Dark Age of Camelot.
Lucas joined Bethesda Game Studios in 2011 where he designed characters and concept art for the groundbreaking epic The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
Lucas will talk about his career within the games industry and focus on the history of art style within games. The talk will explore how visuals have changed in tandem with technology, why games look the way they do and how to approach developing your own style.
Mark Shapiro
Last but not least, we are delighted that LAIKA’s Head of Entertainment Brand Marketing, Mark Shapiro, will be making the 4700-mile journey to join us at the festival on Friday 16 November 2012.
He will present time-lapse imagery and behind-the-scenes footage of LAIKA’s current UK box office #1 film ParaNorman. He won’t be travelling alone though—keep an eye out for some production puppets from the film on display at the festival!
Mark Shapiro’s diverse marketing and communications career has taken him across the United States and around the world, working in brand development, advertising, public relations, film production and writing for companies including Nike, Town & Country Magazine and Upper Deck.
In 2007, he joined LAIKA, where he manages brand strategies, including the marketing efforts for LAIKA’s corporate identity as well as the company’s feature films. A native of Seattle, Washington, Mark attended Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts and received his Bachelor of Arts in English from The Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He also completed education studies at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon.
See you in 46 days!