In 2021 PlusWhat started, a talent program for youth form 16-27 years aimed to connect young people to the creative industry and to inspire them to seek a professional journey in the creative industry. Former Next talent and filmmaker Aiman Hassani started the program together with urban artist Cristian Boscheri.
For the workshop program of PlusWhat Playgrounds organizes two workshops with concept artist Danar Worya.
For Aiman Hassani and Cristian Boscheri of PlusWhat inclusivity is the main focus in all their activities. PlusWhat focusses on young people who are searching for their way in society and Aiman and Cristian believe creativity and storytelling might be the path they are looking for.
As a filmmaker with a great network Aiman is able to connect amazing professionals to the program. With hands on workshops and assignments the participants get a clear view on the different skillsets they’ll need to connect to the creative industry.
The network and community of Playgrounds is very complementary to the network of PlusWhat. Playgrounds is happy to contribute to the program with two talk and hands on workshops by concept artist Danar Worya about world building. One workshop took place 25th of February at the HQ of PlusWhat in Rotterdam and one workshop will take place during The Art Department in April in Eindhoven.
At the end of 2010 Rotterdam based Danar Worya “just opened Photoshop and began”. By letting his love for movies like Bladerunner and Akira and old 80’s/90’s anime shine through, as well as trying to understand the works and choices of classic painters, he quickly established himself as a rising talent.
His biggest break was when he got the chance to work on Horizon: Zero Dawn at Guerrilla Games. Here he got his first experience at working on a Triple A game.
And now 4 years have past and he worked for companies such as One Pixel Brush, Infinity Ward and Naughty Dog. Working on Games such as Uncharted: Lost Legacy and The last of us II and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. He also teaches concept art courses in Paris and gave lectures in Zagreb, Barcelona and Los Angeles.
Danar has been involved in Playgrounds as a speaker and he gave workshops, but also as a co-curator and host and we are happy that we could establish this connection with this new and exciting talent program.
image header: Danar giving portfolio tips at Playgrounds
images below: workshops at PlusWhat
