| The Savannah College of Art and Design is proud to sponsor the 2011 Game Developers eXchange. Now in its seventh year, GDX brings together game development professionals, educators, students and game enthusiasts to share in the experiences of game development. Experts present a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the inner workings of the game industry as it continues to grow and mature. | ||
GDX 2011 offers a mix of sessions focusing on game art, design and production disciplines. | ||
|  | Learn more about SCAD's interactive design and game development department. For more information, e-mail GDX. |
Peter Weishar
Dean of the School of Film, Digital Media and Performing Arts, SCAD
CJ Cowan Story Design Lead, Bungie Studios
Although he's been dreaming of it since the days of Intellivision, CJ Cowan has been working in the video game industry since Dreamcast was the next best thing. He is a 12-year veteran of the video game industry, with eight of those years entrenched in the storytelling of Bungie Studios, the creators of "Halo." Cowan was a cinematic designer on "Halo 2," and he directed the cinematics teams of "Halo 3," "Halo: ODST," and "Halo: Reach." He is currently the story design lead for Bungie Studios. His team is responsible for all cinematics and in-game story design for Bungie's upcoming, unannounced project, which he'd love to tell you about, but won't. During his time in the industry, Cowan has modeled and lit environments, animated just about anything that could possibly move, directed actors, animators, lighting, camera and traffic, and generally has done everything in his power to try to get you, the player, to not "hit X to skip." There also may or may not be photographic evidence of him in a spandex motion capture suit. Cowan and his team have won two Visual Effects Society awards for real-time visual effects in "Halo 3" and "Halo: Reach." He has spoken at GDC, //ADAPT Montreal, and Vancouver Film School, and is looking forward to speaking at SCAD. He graduated from SCAD in 1998 with a B.F.A. degree in computer art.
Mark Behm Artist, Valve
Mark Behm grew up drawing, surrounded by the fantasy, sci-fi and comic art of the '70s. Seeing "Star Wars" at age 7 sparked the dream of working in special effects in nearly any capacity. He filled his childhood with drawing from comics and Frazetta books, sculpting, casting and stop-motion animating monsters, doing miniature pyro effects, 3-D makeup, and whatever he could get his grubby little hands on. Following art school and a couple years as a freelance illustrator, Behm made his way into the animation industry. After eight years as a feature film animator, freelance illustrator and conceptual designer, he now works for Valve Software as an artist. He spends his days designing, painting, sculpting and animating characters and creatures - all the things he dreamed of as a boy.
Chris Cherubini Co-owner, Jupiter Moon
When he was 25, Philadelphia native Christopher Scott Cherubini developed a strong interest in computer animation. In 1997 he graduated with honors from the Art Institute of Philadelphia, and in 1998 took a job at Funny Bone Interactive, working on children's CD-ROM titles for Knowledge Adventure until Funny Bone closed its doors in 2003. At that time, Cherubini took the chance to move to Los Angeles without a job or a home. With the help of former coworkers, it only took a week to find employment as an environment artist with Genuine Games, working on "Fight Club" for PS2 and Xbox. Not long after, Electronic Arts recruited him for the James Bond "Golden Eye" project, where he worked as an environment and lighting artist. In 2004, Cherubini joined Infinity Ward to work on an Xbox 360 launch title called "Call of Duty 2," where he quickly became a lead artist. He stayed with the company to ship "Modern Warfare 1" and the record-breaking "Modern Warfare 2." In 2010, Respawn Entertainment was founded, and along with the original creators of "Call of Duty," Cherubini joined the team, where he currently works.
Joe Halper Director of Production, Virtual Heroes - ARA
Joe Halper is a 15-year veteran of the commercial and serious games industry. In the mid-'90s he started as a 3-D artist and designer, working on military and civilian multimedia computer-based training applications. His passion for games led him and a team of equally passionate hobbyists to the creation of the award-winning modification "Desert Combat." The success of "Desert Combat" moved his career into commercial games full time. In 2002 he cofounded Trauma Studios in New York City and moved into a full-time producer role. Halper led a team of artists, designers and programmers to successfully R&D gameplay features for the PC game "Battlefield 2" as well as develop original IP that was greenlit by EA. DICE successfully acquired Trauma Studios in 2004, and in late 2005 Halper became one of the founding members of Kaos Studios in Manhattan. There he served as senior producer for its first title, "Frontlines: Fuel of War," for Xbox360 and PC. In late 2008 he took the role of director of production for the Virtual Heroes Division of Applied Research Associates, an award-winning serious games developer as well as an international research and engineering company located in Raleigh, North Carolina. Halper directly manages a team on multiple serious games projects (both classified and unclassified) on a daily basis with clients in the medical, government, military, educational and commercial markets. Some past and present clients include NASA, Warner Brothers, Department of Homeland Security, DARPA, Kaiser Permanente, most branches of the U.S. military, and many colleges and educational institutions. Halper holds a B.A. in graphic design and computer studies from the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, and has also completed course studies at Temple Tyler School of Art.
Greg Foertsch Project Art Director, Firaxis Games
Greg Foertsch is a veteran of the game industry with more than 16 years experience. He is one of the original members of the Firaxis Games team and has directed and created visual content for more than 18 games, including the "Sid Meier's Civilization" series, "Pirates!" and "Railroads!" As the driving force behind Firaxis' internship program for the past 12 years, Foertsch has been responsible for the education, training and advancement of young game developers. Most recently, he has been working as a project art director on an unannounced title as well as teaching at the Maryland Institute College of Art. His classes at MICA over the past several years have included Introduction to 3-D, 3-D Computer Animation II Character Creation, and Game Art: Beyond Pacman.
Navid Khonsari Independent Cinematic Director
Navid Khonsari - both a veteran and a contemporary force in the film and gaming industry - was a part of the team that developed the cinematic look and feel for the groundbreaking video game series "Grand Theft Auto." He worked on such epic titles as "Max Payne," "Midnight Club," "Manhunt," "Red Dead Revolver" and "The Warriors." Khonsari helped pioneer the merger of live action films with animated video game cinematics. He recently directed the critically acclaimed game "Alan Wake," and just completed production on "Homefront" for THQ. As well as his work in video games, Khonsari has directed and produced the feature-length documentaries "Pindemonium" and "Pulling John," and is presently in production on a number of graphic novels for the iPad.
Luis Cataldi
Chair of interactive design and game development, SCAD
Lina Song Halper Epic Games
Lina Halper is a senior game programmer at Epic Games, home of "Gears of War." She came from Seoul, Korea, to attend Georgia Institute of Technology for a master's degree in computer science. She has always had a passion for programming, but after graduating she found a new passion for gaming. She worked as a gameplay programmer for DICE/Trauma Studios for "Battlefield 2" for PC. She was one of the original co-founders of Kaos Studios in New York City, where she worked on "Frontlines: Fuel of War" for Xbox360 and PC, focusing on AI, gameplay and animation. She is currently working on "Gears of War 3," which is scheduled for release in September 2011. Her areas of focus include character-related features such as animation, skinning, morph targets and - the most important - gore.
