Skopje, (Youth Cultural Center) was the gathering place of some of the most influential figures in the world of 3D, animation, film production, game production, virtual reality, and other branches of the field. International experts, coming from top companies and studios, shared their experiences and showed how to be part of the global companies, as well as covering the practical work of some of the most popular films and video games globally. They also advised attendees on computer animation, modeling, the gaming industry, the film industry, and production and shared tips on what every portfolio should look like and what is currently required on the world market.
The event started on March 22 (Friday) at 7:30 pm with the speech of Stefan Mitrov, the founder of M3DS Academy, as well as the main organizer of the event. Pixar Animation Studios' photography director Erik Smitt, was honored to be the first speaker, who has worked in the studio for over 19 years and featured elements in the animated film The Incredibles, followed by Goran Kocov, a veteran Layout artist at LucasFilms, a veteran. The VFX industry, which talked about making the movie Solo: A Star Wars Story.
Stefan Mitrov, founder of M3DS Academy and chief organizer of M3Conference
Erik Smitt, Pixar Animation Studios
Goran Kocov, Lucasfilms
The second day of the conference was reserved for Miso Ristov from Cylindo, and through a workshop, he shared tips on VFX onset techniques. Next was Mihajlo Dimitrievski - The Micho from Lynx Animations, with an advanced illustration workshop by 3Lateral Djordje Vidovic, who talked about the process of creating From Osiris Black to Andy Serkis.
Following them, J.C. Cornwell, Artistic Training and Development Director at DreamWorks Animations, who premiered details on how to train your dragon.
Joshua Beveridge, an animation supervisor at Sony Pictures- ImageWorks, talked about the animation and creation of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
Miso Ristov, Cylindo
Mihajlo Dimitrievski- The Micho, Lynx Animations
Djordje Vidovic, 3Lateral
J.C.Cornwell, DreamWorks
Joshua Beveridge, Sony Pictures ImageWorks
The third day of the conference was actively filled with keynotes and workshops by prominent artists such as Nikola Damyanov, Lead Game Artist, and Substance designer from Nordeus, followed by Hugo Guerra (Hugo's Desk), Director and VFX Supervisor providing the right directions work at Nuke. They were joined by Ran Manolov (WWFX) with his approach and his essential decisions and projects in the 3D industry.
At the end of the second and third days of the conference, Doeri WelchGreiner, a recruiting specialist from DreamWorks, gave tips on the artists' portfolios, what is current, how to present themselves in the best light, which is what is most sought after. This industry also shared tips on how to find a proper and easy way to work in a world study.
Nikola Damjanov, Nordeus
Hugo Guerra, Hugo’s Desk
Ran Manolov, WWFX
Doeri WelchGreiner, recruitment specialist at DreamWorks
The M3DS team with part of the speakers
You can view the full gallery of pictures here.
Besides, the entire weekend at the YCC, along with the conference, included other entertaining activities, including Gaming Weekend, in the concert hall, where attendees played various social games, including several more official tournaments.
The DotA 2 Tournament, where 16 registered teams tested their strengths and skills in one of the most popular games, and the best of them won valuable prizes, and of course, the FIFA 19 Tournament, one of the most popular games for SonyPlaystation where 64 teams played many matches. Which, of course, stood out the best of them.
An additional event was Game Design How To? 2019 - the final event, held on the evening of March 23 at the YCF Concert Hall. Namely, during March for 20 days in the premises of M3DS Academy, the M3DS team held the traditional free 3D training. This year we managed to train 600 new young people who applied to the event, who, after the training, were divided into 52 teams, and each group had their own short video game.
The most successful, multi-criteria teams received an award on this final event. They won valuable prizes, while each participant received a T-shirt and gifts from our sponsors, as well as an Autodesk International Certificate of Successful 3 Hour Basic Training.
The M3DS team with some of the 600 people trained at the Game Design How To event? 2019
The video summary of all the events can be found below.
We are pleased that we have managed to bring a small portion of the world's top industry to us and successfully implement this conference of world caliber. We will further pursue such successes in encouraging, advancing, and developing the 3D, film, and gaming industry.