March 14, 2015

#GM2015: Gaphika Day 2

It's February already and it also marks the 2nd day of Ten Years of Graphika Manila. If you haven't read Day 1 of #GM2015, click here. As usual, i was super early and so pumped up to sit and listen for the lineup of speakers. Here's one of many shots of Tennyl and I while waiting in line for 3 hours!



The conference kicked off with Pinoy graphic artist and DesignByHumans superstar, AJ Dimarucot. AJ is known for winning tons of t-shirt design contest in the popular website and also worked for popular brands like Nike, Adidas and Zoo York. He also ventured in business with his wife and created a clothing line for kids, googoo&gaga. He started his career way back when you have to "drop shadow" manually.



AJ also mentioned how people all over the world understand, appreciates and even loves his works. Design is a universal language indeed!

The next speaker was the one that we've all been waiting for. All the way from California, Walt Disney Animation sent one of their animators, Benson Shum, to show us some behind the scenes of their Oscar-winning feature films like Big Hero 6 and Frozen.

During the pre-production of Big Hero 6, they had an activity on animating an egg shaped object in 3d. Each shape represent a character and the challenge is to animate the assigned character as if its walking. When the eggs were place side by side they all have different body language which is fundamental to the character's performance. Here are some cool things Benson showed us:



The last three films he worked on:


People in Disney Animation studios:



When they finish half of the film, they all have a big break and just play!

Disney's upcoming animated feature films: Zootopia and Moana:


Big Hero 6 is based on this comic book series of the same title:


What makes their animated films successful?


Even though they use 3d animation, the creative phase starts in pencil and paper. Here's the character sheet of Gogo Tomago.

Disney uses Maya for animation. Here's a look of Hiro and how they animate his face.

All about Baymax!

Benson showed us the process of some of the scenes he animated like the part when Anna was a kid. In the scene, she was jumping around when she sees the snowflakes falling around her. To get the moves right, he filmed his nephew while playing and referenced the movements and little nuances from the clip.

Here's the entire staff and crew of Disney Animation Studios. Someday, i'll be there too! :) #TiwalaLang


Benson really inspired us to really pursue our craft but it will take a lot of experience and learnings to reach those big dream. Honestly, i'm far behind in terms of this big dream of mine but i'm still hoping someday I'll work in one of those huge studios creating films. After his talk, we had a lunch break. We ate at BonChon and rushed back as quickly as we could.


The afternoon session started with New York based duo Anton and Irene. They talked about Digital Design like their works for US Today and Wacom. They expressed how important structure is in not only in their work but in every aspect of life. As web designers its all about the structure to convey they message to the viewer more efficiently. They talked about pitching and how difficult it is.



There was one time when they pitched for two companies of the same line of interest and how others try to put them down. I had a lot of laughs about their Wacom project. Although they're not professional videographers, the client really wanted their sample video so they were asked to do the video for the website. Here they are using a trolley as an improvised dolly with the CEO of Wacom.hahahaha




Up next is local shirt designer Nick Automatic who started with almost nothing and now has a big shirt apparel business. He's undoubtedly the funnest of all the speakers!



A photo posted by Tennyl Dehm Canlas (@tennyldehm) on

He still uses Macromedia Flash 8 for his designs but his works are pretty dope!



The next speaker came all the way from España, Multimedia Designer, Enric Godes of VASAVA. He looks like Andy Cooper ;) Enric talked about their Typography works like the font of Team Barcelona in FIFA. The font resonated the culture and identity of the place and it became very famous there.




He also expressed that through copying, we learn. Since we were infants, all we do is copy our parent's words and thus we learn how to talk. In design and art, this is very true, too. On the journey of copying, learning and practicing, there will come a time that your own identity will be developed.



And last but not the least, is the wacky and funny Joshua Davis. He was the first ever international speaker of Graphika way back in 2006. He uses programming and algorithms to create his designs. It's really amazing how technology can create beautiful works but its nothing without the creativity of the one using it. Although most of his outputs are digitally generated, he also ventured in transforming them to tangible forms like murals and skateboards.



He was very funny and even poked fun at the other speakers. Anyways, after years of his success in digital design, he's always hungry for more. He was also fearful of being stuck in what he's comfortable doing and that's what most of us who already work for long are doing now. Personally, i can relate to him. I don't want to be content in one knowledge area and keep on repeating it. There's a point in time when we have to learn new things and expand our horizons. So don't let success get away with your creativity.




That's it! Graphika Manila was a blast! Their words will surely resonate to all the audience and for me, ill always keep their wisdom in my heart. These great people are my inspiration so that someday ill also fulfill my dreams. Here are the photo ops with the speakers during the meet and greet after the conference.

Clockwise from top left: Machineast duo Reza and Fiza; AJ Dimarucot; Anton and Irene and my idol Leeroy New.

Clockwise from topleft: Seb Lester; Enrico Godes of Vasava; Benson Shum of Disney Animation; and Nick Automatic.

Pomme Chan and Joshua Davis.

Congratulations to all the speakers and organizers for a successful 10 Years of Graphika Manila. Hoping for a bigger and better Graphika next year. Looking forward for GM2016! Thank you for reading!