CGOverdrive starts on a promising note

By Bollywood Hungama -

June 16, 2009 - 11:39 AM IST

Now in its fourth edition, CG Overdrive 2009 - Asia's unparalleled Computer Graphics (CG) event dedicated to CG professionals, enthusiasts, students, producers, vendors and buyers - has begun and this year it will see five local and internationally renowned schools exhibiting for the first time, making it a total of nine schools at the show. Testament to the strong growth of the local CG industry, the schools will be at CG Overdrive this year to recruit students that will fill the 10,000 jobs to be created by 2015.

CGOverdrive starts on a promising note

Of these schools is the prestigious Ringling College of Art and Design, which has earned a reputation for its close working relationship with Pixar Animation Studios and LucasArts. The other notable schools include 3DSense Media School, Academy of Art University, DigiPen Institute of Technology Singapore, FZD School of Design, LASALLE College of the Arts, Raffles Design Institute, SAE Institute Singapore and Sheridan Global.

Justin Chua, Marketing Chair, CGOverdrive shared with Bollywood Hungama, "On behalf of CGOverdrive committee we would like to thank the ardent and continued support of the Asia CG community. CGOverdrive has evolved with the stellar growth of the digital media industry and response the introduction of the new professional tracks is evident of the response to the maturity of the industry and the demand for more advanced and specialized skills sets."

The digital media industry will experience a surge in Singapore, according to the Singapore Economic Development Board and the Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA). Based on official figures released by the two government bodies, it is set to grow by 10,000 new jobs between 2005 and 2015, contributing S$10 billion to the country's GDP.

Held in conjunction with BroadcastAsia2009, CG Overdrive 2009 is organized by Visual Communication Order (VCO) with strategic partner Singapore Exhibition Services (SES), and is held from 16 -19 June at the Singapore Expo Hall 9. The show also allows job seekers to meet leading studios on the lookout for talent at the event's recruitment zone.

The conference and new segment of Professional Tracks - introduced to impart advanced skill sets to professional artists - once again promises a stellar line up of prominent speakers from internationally renowned studios. These Professional Tracks include: 2D, Story Development, Games, VFX, Character Animation and Business.

Some renowned speakers include Dayne Cowen, Co-Head of 3D at Double Negative - Europe's largest provider of visual effects for films. Speaking at one of the Professional Tracks (VFX), he will present an in-depth look at the studio's VFX pipeline in reference to one of their major film projects, Angels & Demons.

Another notable speaker at the Character Animation Track is Victor Navone, a 2-4D Animator at Pixar Animation Studios. He has contributed to Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and most recently WALL-E, which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2008. His work on WALL-E also won him a Visual Effects Society Award for Outstanding Animated Character in an Animated Motion Picture. Recently, he co-directed a series of short television series Cars Toons, based on characters from the movie Cars, and is currently animating Toy Story 3, to be released in 2010.