Syn Studio Podcast

We are super excited to welcome Jose Holder to this month’s Syn Studio podcast! Jose is currently working with Titan Comics as a Series artist on the Assassin's Creed comic books and has also done storyboards for the Assassin’s Creed franchise among many other Ubisoft games. Previously he has done storyboard and concept art for films such as X-Men: Dark Phoenix, The Glass Castle, Warm Bodies, The Mummy 3: Curse Of The Dragon Emperor, C.R.A.Z.Y. and the list goes on… Jose has also recently directed, written, produced and storyboarded the short film Red Ruby, which is a supernatural thriller meets quantum nightmare and has already won several awards in the film festival circuit.

We’re excited to present Senior Concept Artist Grant Hillier as our special guest for this month’s Syn Studio podcast. Grant is a senior concept artist at Ubisoft where he creates character and environment concepts for various high profile games including Assassin's Creed 3, Assassin's Creed Black Flag, The Division and Assassin's Creed Syndicate. A veteran artist with close to 15 years of freelance and industry experience, Grant’s other credits include generating storyboards for the animated TV show Delilah & Julius, creating concept art for video games such as Age of Decadence and F.E.A.R 3, in addition to conducting a workshop with ImagineFX magazine.

This special edition of the Syn Studio podcast features the Round Table Discussion held at the Syn Studio Gathering of Masters ‘17, a small, laid-back festival where artists could connect with each other and work together to develop and push the boundaries of their illustration. Syn Studio invited top industry artists to share their unique knowledge and experiences of the concept art industry along with their favourite inspirations, mediums and techniques for creating astounding artwork. The Round Table Artists are: Matt Rhodes, Samantha Youssef, Karla Ortiz, Ian McQue, Nivanh Chanthara, Rasmus Poulsen and Raphael Lacoste.

We are lucky to be joined at this month’s Syn Studio podcast by Raphael Lacoste, the Brand Art Director of the Assassin’s Creed Franchise. As a Matte Painter and Senior Concept Artist, Raphael has worked on films such as: Terminator Salvation, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Death Race, Immortals, Repo Men and Jupiter Ascending. Raphael has won a Visual Effects Society award for his work as Art Director on Prince of Persia the Two Thrones cinematics and is also a popular and experienced teacher at Centre NAD, as an instructor for The Gnomon Workshop and has been invited as a speaker for the Syn Studio Gathering of Masters ‘16 and ‘17.

This episode of the Syn Studio podcast features Mathieu Latour-Duhaime, an amazing senior concept artist who has worked at companies such as Electronic Arts (EA) Motive, Eidos-Montréal and more. A graduate from Montreal’s very own Vieux Montreal College, Mathieu has a background in storyboarding, character design, environment design and animation. Mathieu’s credits include popular titles such as the recent Star Wars Battlefront II, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Thief 4 as well as an unannounced AAA game to be released by Eidos. We’ll be discussing Mathieu’s work on Thief, his background in various fields like 2D Animation and Concept Art, and some of his tricks and techniques to getting into the drawing mood. This podcast is great for those interested in the video game pipeline and looking for some inspiring art!

Yohann Schepacz is the art director and co-owner of Oxan Studio, a visual development studio which creates high-end imagery for films, print media and video games. A concept artist and illustrator with over 10 years of experience in the entertainment industry, he has worked as a senior concept artist for Eidos on many AAA games such as Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and Rise of the Tomb Raider, among others. Yohann is known for his unique ideas and technical versatility which have enabled him to work on other high profile projects such as Magic The Gathering, Independence Day Resurgence and Horizon Zero Dawn. In addition to this, he is also working on adding more content to his his widely popular personal art project “TINKIET”.

We are lucky to be joined for this Syn Studio podcast by Charles Huteau, the Creative Director behind Ubisoft’s critically acclaimed VR game, Eagle Flight. With experience as an animator, a comic book artist, a creative director and even a body painter and chalk artist, Charles has done it all! He has also been a User Experience Director on several Kinect games such as Your Shape: Fitness Evolved, the original and 2012 version. In this podcast, we discuss all the different artistic mediums Charles has practiced, to his experience working on Eagle Flight, to his heartwarming and hilarious comic book Les 9 derniers mois, which tells his own personal story of being an expectant father. This podcast is great for those interested in the process behind many different industry jobs!

This episode of Syn Studio podcast features Ubisoft Art Director Rasmus Poulsen. Rasmus has experience art directing in concepts, illustration, marketing visuals and world building among many other artistic fields. He is a three-year art director at Ubisoft on top of having 12 years of experience in the commercial art department under his freelance company, Technouveau, which specializes in unique aesthetics, logo design and concept artwork. Ramus has worked on many popular titles such as Kane and Lynch 2, Hitman and more, on top of drawing impressive amounts of quality Star Wars inspired art. If you’re looking for insights into the industry pipelines, or are interested in geeking out over pop culture with us, this podcast is for you!

This episode of Syn Studio podcast features accomplished concept artist Brian Sum. After graduating from the Vancouver film school, Brian has gone on to work for companies such as Sierra Online, Sugarcoated Studios and Bioware Montreal, where he is now a Senior Concept Artist. His robot and environment designs are both colorful, fresh and detailed and his work has been featured in many publications such as Imagine FX Magazine, 2d Artist Magazine and Digital Art Masters to name a few. In this podcast, we discuss Brian’s tricks, techniques and experiences with working on many different high profile video games like Mass Effect 2 and 3, Dragon Age Origins, Sonic Chronicles and more.

This episode of Syn Studio podcast features Fred Rambaud, a Montreal-based concept artist with experience designing characters, creatures, environments, vehicles and props for many well-known video games, such as Livelock, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, Far Cry 4 and more. His work is also featured in the popular Cirque de Soleil performance, Toruk, a circus and acrobatic act strongly based on James Cameron’s Avatar. We discuss Fred’s journey around the world, how the industry has changed from since he began and his many tricks for taking on concept art as a career.