'STATE OF THE INDUSTRY - EASTERN EUROPE'

The Art Department | World Tour

Our host Spiridon Giannakis dives into the state of the creative community in Eastern Europe in this panel. He has some established creatives from that area tuning in to share their insights.

A senior concept artist and art director for Ubisoft Entertainment having collaborated for projects like Assassin’s Creed: Origins and Odyssey, Cristian Chihaia likes to engage in anything tackling his creative side whether it being digital painting, 3D sculpting, graphic design, illustration and even branding and identity. Cristian is originally from Romania.

With artworks that immediately transport you to other worlds, it is little wonder that Budapest-based Mark Molnar has collaborated on such varied projects. He specializes in the visual development and pre-production design for video games, movies and animations. His impressive client list includes LucasFilm, Time Warner, Netflix, MGM.

Also joining is Croatian Marko Prpic Zets. Next to being an artist with a background in graffiti, street art, fine art, animation, 3D, games, and sculpture, Marko is also the festival director of the IFCC festival. Marko is the founder of Boonika Network and IFCC Academy.

Cover image: Cristian Chihaia for Ubisoft. Images: Cristian Chihaia for Ubisoft, Marko Prpic Zets, Mark Molnar

Confirmed artists

MEGAN BRAIN & SHANNON TINDLE (USA)
character design on Kubo and the Two Strings
interview
LOISH (the Netherlands)
character designer for LEGO, Guerrilla Games, Amazon
interview
FELICIE HAYMOZ (Switzerland)
character designer on Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Isle of Dogs
interview
RUAN JIA (China)
concept artist on World of Warcraft, Diablo III, the Halo franchise
interview, panel 'Asian takes on visual storytelling'
BEATRICE BLUE (Spain)
illustrator & vis dev for DreamWorksTV, Procreate, Nichelodeon
ask me anything
JAMA JURABAEV (United Kingdom)
concept artist for Ready Player One, The Mandalorian
interview
ARMAND SERRANO (Philippines)
art-director & production designer for Hotel Transylvania, Big Hero 6, Olaf's Frozen Adventure
interview
ANDREW BAKER (New Zealand)
creature & concept artist for The BFG, The Hobbit trilogy, Ghost in the Shell
interview
AAYNA VINAYA (India)
illustrator & art director
artist talk
DANIEL CLARKE (South Africa)
illustrator & character designer for Netflix, National Geographic Kids, Nickelodeon
interview
TAN ZHI HUI (Malaysia)
concept artist & illustrator for Amazon Games, Supercell, Epic Games
artist talk, demo
2veinte (Argentina)
design studio, independent shorts 100 years Armenian Genocide, Wild & Woolly
artist talk
SUTU (Australia)
XR artist These Memories Won’t Last, Prosthetic Reality / Eyejack
interview
AMIR ZAND (Turkey)
concept artist Axis Animation, DreamworksTV, Quantic Dream
panel 'Middle Eastern artists in a Western dominated industry'
LOBO (Brazil & USA)
design studio Day One, Threehouse
interview, panel 'State of the industry - South America'
YANGTIAN LI (China)
concept artist on Call of Duty: Black Ops IV and Black Ops III
interview, panel 'Asian takes on visual storytelling'
HICHAM HABCHI (Morocco/USA)
concept artist & creative lead at Riot Games
chat and doodles
ANAND RADHAKRISHNAN (India)
illustrator
interview
9B COLLECTIVE (USA)
black-owned concept art studio: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, The Mandalorian
panel 'The rise and success of black creatives’
AYRAN OBERTO (Venezuela)
digital painter for Unite Image, Zombie Studio
demo
ABE TARAKY (Afghanistan)
senior concept artist at Sony Santa Monica Studios
interview
GODWIN AKPAN (Nigeria)
concept artist Disney and Kugali, Triggerfish Games
interview
FARAZ SHANYAR (Iran)
concept artis The Lion King, Aladdin, Machinegames
panel 'Middle Eastern artists in a Western dominated industry'
JOHN NEVAREZ (USA)
film & story artist on Coco, Inside Our, Cars 2
pictionary with giants
PATRICK O’KEEFE (USA)
art-director Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
pictionary with giants
NICK HIATT (USA)
concept artist on Destiny, Call of Duty, Halo
pictionary with giants
WILL COYNER (USA)
concept artist for EA, Disney Interactive, WB Games
pictionary with giants
LOGAN PRESHAW (Australia)
concept artist Ark 2, League of Legends video games, Junkernauts
artist talk, demo
JACKIE NGUYEN (Australia)
illustrator, character design for Passion Pictures, Procreate, Art of Play Games
demo
HARRY MACK (USA)
freestyle rap
LYNN CHEN (China)
vis dev Warner Bros
panel 'Asian takes on visual storytelling'
OUR HOSTS
CRISTIAN CHIHAIA (Romania)
concept artist & art director at Ubisoft
panel 'State of the industry - Eastern Europe'
MARKO PRPIC ZETS (Croatia)
digital artist & IFCC festival director
panel 'State of the industry - Eastern Europe'
MARK MOLNAR (Hungary)
concept artist & art director for LucasFilm, Time Warner, Netflix, MGM
panel 'State of the industry - Eastern Europe'

More about the artists