Episode 41 - Nathan Thomas

Jon Lam is a senior storyboard artist and character designer that has worked in the Game, Animation and Comics Industry. He is currently working full-time at Riot Games. Previous projects include Diablo 4, Overwatch 2, Star Trek Prodigy, and INVINCIBLE To find out more about Jon, go here: https://www.instagram.com/jonlamart/ www.droidbrush.carbonmade.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonlamart/ Jon and Ilya talked about his education and how it got him into the industry, ethics of current AI practices, ArtStation and their response to art scraping, the future use of AI, practicing a variety of skills and finding the one that speaks to you and a lot more. Episode Links: https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/23/23523864/artstation-removing-anti-ai-protest-artwork-censorship https://www.theverge.com/2023/1/17/23558516/ai-art-copyright-stable-diffusion-getty-images-lawsuit https://www.artstation.com/bsnake/albums/all https://www.instagram.com/zoerism/?hl=en https://www.instagram.com/matthieu_pommier/?hl=en

Sam Bradley is an artist, art director and writer based in Toronto. He was born in the early eighties and raised in Brantford, Ontario, Canada. Mostly through happenstance he attended Sheridan College, where he quickly discovered a passion for the visual arts. After graduating from Sheridan’s BA Animation program he began his career in the animation industry, where he has worked primarily as a designer and art director on many different television series over the course of ten years. Previous to creating & directing SPACE BETWEEN STARS, he was the Art Director on Justin Time GO, a Netflix original series created and produced at GURU STUDIO. Alongside his work in animation, he has a deep love for consuming & creating comics. His heart is split between his creative pursuits, traveling the world with the people dearest to him, and befriending dogs whenever and wherever possible. SPACE BETWEEN STARS is his directorial debut. You can find more of his work at: www.dreamylabs.com https://www.spacebetweenstars.com/ https://www.instagram.com/findneweyes/ Sam and I spoke about what aspects of work and life changed since the pandemic started, working from home, pursuit of personal voice, going from working in animation to video games, Sam’s film - Space Between Stars, and a lot more. Episode Notes: Space Between Stars short - https://gem.cbc.ca/media/canadian-reflections/s01e238 https://www.instagram.com/findneweyes/ https://www.spacebetweenstars.com/ JETT video game - https://www.jett.fyi/ I Lost My Body - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9806192/ Beautiful Darkness - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beautiful_Darkness https://dont-nod.com/en/ https://lifeisstrange.square-enix-games.com/en-us/ https://www.instagram.com/dedouze/ Sword and Sworcery - https://store.steampowered.com/app/204060/Superbrothers_Sword__Sworcery_EP/

Drew Young is an internationally exhibited painter with shows and projects in Thinkspace Gallery, POW!WOW!, Abend Gallery just to name a few. On top of that, he acted as the Visual Arts curator for TedX Vancouver 2014/2015, Skookum 2018 as well as being the Founder of Snag — a weekly live-painting exhibition focused on illuminating Vancouver’s alternative arts culture. He currently acts as Curator and Artistic Director for the Vancouver Mural Festival. Drew and I talked about his development over the recent years, pursuing galleries versus personal pop ups, return of the art scene post pandemic, choosing subject matter and the strengths behind it, importance of art in day to day life and a lot more. To learn more about Andrew and his work, follow the links below: https://www.instagram.com/drewstuff/ https://dyoung.ca/

Jeff Simpson is a concept artist for games, film, T.V. and various other media with over 15 years of experience. Some of his clients include Ubisoft, Edios, MPC, Lionsgate, Universal Pictures just to name a few and he is currently working as a visual development artist at Marvel Studios. Jeff and I talked about his move from Montreal to Vancouver, how city culture can affect the studios in it, having a strong style, acceleration of the entertainment industry, finding one’s voice in art and a lot more. To find out more about Jeff and his work, go here:https://www.instagram.com/jeffsimpsonkh/https://www.artstation.com/jeffsimpsonhttps://www.patreon.com/jeffsimpsonart

Macarena and I talked about how she started in textile design, moving around the world and working in LA, finding inspiration, the challenges of being a freelance artist, what is exciting about the textile field and a lot more. Macarena Luzi is a self taught textile designer based in Los Angeles, California. Her work is centered in rugs that feel both fun and elegant with a focus on color and texture.Find out more about Macarena and her work here:https://www.instagram.com/macarenaluzi/https://macarenaluzi.tumblr.com/https://macarenaluzi.com/

Nathan and I talked about creating personal IPs, Nathan’s move from the VFX industry to working at Unity, the ability to pursue personal projects, Norman’s Island project going to Annecy, and a lot more. Nathan Thomas has animated on movies such as Star Wars, Captain Marvel, Terminator: Dark Fate, Bumblebee, Guardians of the Galaxy, Godzilla, just to name a few from the long list that he has been involved in. He is a founder of Little Mountain Animation and creator of Big Dinosaur, Norman’s Island and Magic and Machines. Nathan currently works as a Senior Artist at Unity Technologies. To find out more about Nathan and his work, go here:http://nathanthomasanimation.com/https://www.littlemountainanimation.com/

In Part 2 of the podcast, Andy and I talked about the design process for live action costumes, the future of 2d animation, tropes of the animation industry, Andy’s personal projects and more. Andy Poon is a Visual Development Consultant, Art Director, Designer, Illustrator, Costume Designer who is currently working at Bardel Entertainment in Vancouver, BC. Andy has art directed shows such as Slugterra, Monster High, Blaze and the Monster Machines as well as created designs for live action shows like Batwoman, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Arrow and others. Andy is also a recent Emmy winner for his work on the Dragon Prince. Find out more about Andy Poon and his work here: https://www.instagram.com/andypoondesign https://www.artstation.com/andypoondesign https://andypoondesign-blog.tumblr.com/

A brief talk about losing and finding yourself on the pursuit to creating meaningful work over the last year.

Jesse and I talked about his pleinair practice, working in the animation industry, personal and professional growth, being an artist and its relationship to identity and a lot more. Jesse Winchester Schmidt is a painter, production artist, animation art director at Stellar Creative Lab, and a pleinair enthusiast.  You can find out more about Jesse and his work here:www.winchesterArt.cahttps://www.instagram.com/jwinchesterart/