[PANEL] Cathy Feraday-Miller, Press 'A' To Jump: Animation and Interactivity

Panelist: Cathy Feraday-Miller

Organization: Rocket 5 Studios

Title: Art Director

Bio:

A Torontonian, born and raised, Catherine Feraday Miller began her career in LA at DreamWorks as a 2D classical animator, working on such features as The Prince of Egypt and The Road to El Dorado. Switching to 3D animation in 1999, Cathy has worked for various feature and game companies in San Francisco and Toronto, and has taught 3D animation at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco and Toronto's Max The Mutt Animation School. Back in Toronto since 2009, Cathy is now working with her husband Tim as Art Director and co-founder for their own independent game studio, Rocket 5 Studios Inc.

Twitter handle: @rocket5studios

            Website link: http://www.rocket5studios.com

              

Read about some of Cathy's recent work HERE.

Follow DIG on Twitter, @DIGLondon for daily updates and insights on all the things DIG. 

Early Bird Registration for the DIG Conference is available until October 14th, so don't delay!

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[PANEL] Jay Edry, Press 'A' To Jump: Animation and Interactivity

Panelist: Jay Edry

Organization: ExplicitDestruction / Drinkbox Studios

Title: Animator

Bio:

Jay Edry is trained in both classical and computer animation. Jay was the recipient of Nelvana's Best Digital Character Award in 2006, and was the runner-up for Teletoon's Most Promising Student Award at the Ottawa International Animation Festival that same year. He also received the People's Choice Video Game Gold Award at TOjam (a 3-day game creation competition held in Toronto in 2010). His work demonstrates his strong passion both creatively and technically. Jay is currently working as an animator at DrinkBox Studios upcoming combat-platformer Guacemeele.

Are you intrigued? Do you want to meet Jay and our other speakers on November 14th? Registration for DIG is now open! Register for the event with Early Bird pricing here. Also, don't forget to visit and LIKE our Facebook page for updates and announcements. 

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[PANEL] Sagan Lee Moderates for "Press ‘A’ To Jump: Animation and Interactivity"

Panel Title : Press ‘A’ To Jump: 

Animation and Interactivity

Panel Description:

"Press ‘A’ To Jump" explores the importance of animation, design, and storytelling in game design and development as seen and experienced by a panel of successful traditional animators who have made the successful ‘leap’ into gaming. This panel is co-presented by TAAFI, the Toronto Animation Arts Festival International.

Moderator: Sagan Yee

Title: Animator

 Organization: Saganimation

Bio:  

Sagan Yee is a recent graduate of Sheridan College's Classical Animation program, where she made a four-minute film in Flash about a malfunctioning particle accelerator that causes mini black holes to consume Toronto. Her first introduction to Toronto's indie game community was as a participant and later co-coordinator of the Difference Engine Initiative, a woman-focused game-making incubator run by TIFF.nexus and the Hand Eye Society. Currently, Sagan divides her working life between the TIFF Film Reference Library, freelancing on a variety of projects ranging from kid's flash games, t-shirt designs, and animating on Disney's Motorcity. She spends her free time dabbling, scheming, and ruminating.

Twitter handle: @SaganYee

            Website: saganimation.blogspot.ca/

       

Interested in this panel? Registration for DIG is now open! Register for the event with Early Bird pricing here. Also, don't forget to visit and LIKE our Facebook page for updates and announcements. 

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London Not “Tapped” Out... of Creative Content!

The strength of the content produced in London  is primarily supported by our digital interactive media industry.

What does digital media and mixed martial arts have in common? Both are making headlines as London-based content creators are proving what we already know: London has talent!

Lights, camera, grappling! London will be the setting for the mixed martial arts feature film, “Tapped”, featuring London native and MMA fighter Cody Hackman as the lead, and London executive producer Dino Ciccone. The film will also star well known Ultimate Fighter Championship (UFC) fighters Anderson Silva and London’s own Sam Stout. The Adrenaline Fitness Studio owned by former MMA star Alex Gasson is one of the film’s many local locations.

The strength of the content produced in London extends well beyond film and is primarily supported by our digital interactive media industry. This sector is a growing cluster in London with AAA console developers Digital Extremes, iTunes Apps best-seller Big Blue Bubble, and leading platform and app developers like Voices.com. These companies have put London’s content production in the global game. DIG is one way we celebrate London’s digital content producers. By bringing together industry professionals internationally and supporting emerging new talent London can showcase the strength of its industry.

“Tapped” will be released in 2013 to a barrage of anxiously waiting fans; not unlike the ones who have already registered for this year’s DIG conference. It's time to show the world that London, Canada can Bring it On in the Octagon.

Don’t miss your chance to get in the ring, register for this year’s 2012 DIG conference!

CTV News Story on “Tapped”

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Congratulations to Project Play's Raffle Winners!

  The raffle winners were asked to submit 

    photos of their winning tickets. 

    Michael Hynonen's presentation of his ticket was the most creative.

Project Play, the inaugural hands-on gaming and charity event that was held at the Fanshawe College Student Centre this past Sunday, was a colossal success. Over 400 participants came out to raise over $4000.00 to purchase gaming bundles for London-area children and their families who have experienced trauma and crisis. Playing at Project Play meant that Merrymount Childrens' Centre, Women's Community House, and Women's Rural Resource Centre of Strathroy and Area could make the transition for children whose families benefit from these centres, a little easier.

While supporting Project Play and its efforts, DIG offered DIG Conference passes to three lucky winners through a raffle. The winners, who won free passes to attend the premier conference for Ontario's digital interactive gaming industry on November 14th, are as follows:

Adam White

Michael Hynonen

Mackenzie Neal

Congratulations, and we look forward to seeing Adam, Michael, and Mackenzie at DIG!

As well, a big thank you goes out to Greg Picken of GamerPops and his team for organizing such a successful and fun event! 

Hats off to you, ladies and gentlemen!

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[SPEAKER] Arkadium's Jean-Guy Niquet on "The Video Game Industry in 2013"

Name:  Jean-Guy Niquet

Organization: Arkadium: a top game development studio in New York City.  With the world’s largest Flash game library for every imaginable genre, Arkadium reaches over 9 million unique users each month with casual, mobile, social, and Windows 8 games. Distributing to Facebook CNN, MSN, Discovery, HSN, Lifetime, ESPN, and AARP, the company also has offices in Simferopol, Ukraine and Toronto, Canada.

Title: Director of Arkadium Canada

Bio: As the Director of Arkadium Canada, Jean-Guy is responsible for spearheading all efforts related to the company’s focus on the development of mobile games. He has over ten years of experience as a programmer, with more than half of those years developing games for both mobile and online platforms. He was most recently the Director of New Media at InViVo Communications where he was responsible for managing over six million dollars in projects per year.

Website link: www.arkadium.com

TOPIC:  The Video Game Industry in 2013

What’s the near future of mobile? Console? Browser games? Are the monetization strategies working?  Is there future for independent AAA developers?

This panel will explore a range of views about the direction on the video games industry in 2013. Panel members will include a number of experienced game development leaders betting their futures on specific platforms. Listen to their views and share your own during the Q&A. 

Want to hear what Jean-Guy and our other speakers have to say on November 14th? Registration for DIG is now open! Register for the event with Early Bird pricing here. Also, don't forget to visit and LIKE our Facebook page for updates and announcements. 

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