GAMontreal.com - Weekend Jam #1


GameArtisans - Montreal

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Mohanned Al-Khatib and Anthony Fong (Dawson College) took first place with an Armored Wasp for the given theme - Mini Destructo Bots. Never loosing sight of their goal, they systematically destroyed each phase of the challenge by quickly formalizing an idea, used wasp refs for guidelines and then jumped to the modeling and texturing phase. Their time management and ability to push and texture pixels & polies proved to be just what they needed to win Gold for this Challenge. Congrats for a job well done!

Myriam Sergerie (Centre NAD), Nittaya Sergerie (Centre NAD) and Mathieu Caron take second place with a metalic haunting spider for the given theme - Mini Destructo Bots. It was a bit shaky at first, but everything came to a solid conclusion as this team came very close to what they envisioned from the start. Judges were particularly pleased with the haunting mood that was depicted in the final presentation. Making something scary is no easy task! Big congrats given for skill, diligence and effort!

Valerie Lim (Dawson College), Dovi Kotto Maka (Dawson College) and Yue Wang (Dawson College) take third place with an armored half-spider/half-man for the theme - Mini Destructo Bots. This team executed an entry with extreme efficiency. A solid concept was laid out on day #1 of the challenge and modeling, texturing, and high detail zbrush sculpting quickly ensued. It was a tight finish between the 2nd and 3rd place teams, but in the end, mood decided the results. Although they came in 3rd, The Creed will be back!

GA's first 3D Weekend Jam is over and all that can be said is... WOW!! Leading up to the event, there was a lot of skepticism about whether Montreal artists would be interested in a complicated challenge that involved working outside the comfort zones of their homes, transporting heavy personal computers to GA Montreal, creating a 3d entry in under 3 days, finding appropriate team members, and finally, printing out their work for judging… however, what happened was nothing less then amazing. 10 courageous teams signed up for the first ever 3D Weekend Jam. They brought their gear over with buckets, hockey bags, garbage bags, boxes, and anything else that could help them transport their gear and computers to GA Montreal. What was once a skeptical and unlikely challenge, became a solid possible reality on the first day of the event. Participating artists proved that a lot could be done with determination and a team buddy or two.

Set up took place Friday June 2nd. A few artists were picked up from their homes and others transported their own gear to the studio. Once everyone was settled in, at 6pm, 28 competing artists were gathered to the center of Game Artisans' Lounge and cards were given to all... face down. After mentioning a few guidelines about the challenge, the cards were flipped and everyone had the opportunity to read the theme for the weekend jam. A dead silence ensued! The topic was – Create a Mini Destructo Bot + a supporting environment. After a long silent pause, everyone soundlessly walked to their computers. Were artists disappointed? Were they in disbelief? Did they hate making a robot? Did they want a refund? What happened? What happened was, artists were hurriedly thinking of all the possibilities that could be created within the limited budget of the challenge. After a few minutes of silence, first whispers began, and finally, the room erupted with full-blown discussions as artists poured out thought after thought to quickly find a solution and design for their entries. Discussions and the thumbnail’ing phase continued on into the late midnight hours, with a few artists staying at GA until 6 am the next morning to lock in their designs.

After a full day of setting up on Friday and a night shift to keep the studio open for passionate artists, Fred regained consciousness and made it back to the studio at 4pm Saturday. To his surprise, everyone was quietly at work. Artists were busily pushing verts and some even began setting up their uvs. This went on for a long while until finally, around 7pm, half of the artists in the studio abruptly left for a late supper - chatting about their ideas, progress and entries throughout their meals. When teams returned, they continued on with their projects with renewed belly full enthusiasm and a fresh perspective on what was worked on during the day. Artists finally began to leave for their distant homes around 11pm to 3am. 3 artists in particular decided that sleep was a luxury best left for the dead, and stayed awake til the very end of the challenge.

The day was tense. Two teams began to unravel as their members lost face in what they created the previous two days, also, a few other teams were struggling with their textures. It was a race to finish up their work, nevertheless, artists were determined to get their weekend work completed and handed in on time. 6 of the 10 teams were looking good for the deadline, but then something unexpected occurred... Come see the results of this challenge on Friday, June 10th, from 7:15pm to 10pm.

Montreal artists demonstrated that given the chance, they are up for fun and creative events that challenge their creativity. A great deal of enthusiasm for the event and its participating artists was displayed and many tricks and friendly advice was shared during the challenge. All artists involved left the Jam with smiles and a new trick or two that will help them in their journey forward as game artists. It was an awesome event and everyone was sad to see it come to an end.

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