Syn Studio Podcast

In this Syn Studio podcast, Anthony, Stephen and Bing sit down to chat with Frédéric Bennett, senior concept artist at Eidos Montreal. Frederic is currently working on the exciting upcoming game Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and has worked as a concept artist in the video game industry for over 8 years! His past contributions include various projects in the Conan, Transformers, Wet and Kung Fu Panda universes. Frederic is actually one of our amazing teachers here at Syn Studio and has taught our popular Character Rendering class with wide acclaim!

WARNING: This podcast contains raunchy, insensitive humour and some views on art you may find controversial. If you are easily offended, get ready to be outraged and otherwise, get ready to laugh and to learn! In this special Syn Studio podcast, Anthony and his co-host Stephen chat with Eytan Zana, Concept Artist at Naughty Dog, and Shaddy Safadi, Art Director at One Pixel Brush. The podcast was sponsored by ArtStation and Wacom and the podcast video footage can be watched on ArtStation’s YouTube channel here.* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fso4HB3Axw

Eytan Zana is a senior concept artist at Naughty Dog. His work includes The Last of Us, all of the Uncharted series and illustrations for Magic the Gathering. He has been widely recognized as a master of digital painting and his work has been featured at E3, Imagine FX and other major industry publications.

Shaddy Safadi is an art director and concept artist with 14 years of experience working in the games’ industry. His designs can be seen in Naughty Dog’s award winning Last of Us and Uncharted series. He recently started his own concept art studio, One Pixel Brush, which has created key designs for titles such as Bioshock Infinite, Ryse: Son of Rome and Tom Clancy’s The Division.

In this Syn Studio podcast, Anthony chats with Justin Yun at the Effects Montreal conference. Justin flew in from Los Angeles and is co-founder of the art outsourcing and game company Section Studios and also founder of Blue Canvas, a magazine publication as well as an online artist community. He has worked as an art director, concept artist and illustrator in the entertainment industry for the past 9 years and his work has ranged from video games to television, music videos and film. Some of the clients of Section Studios include Riot Games, Harmonix, Sony, Gearbox and Microsoft, among many others. Justin is currently teaching at the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles.

This is a special podcast recorded at the Montreal Comic Salon event at Syn Studio. It’s a comic-book making panel with three industry veterans: Salgood Sam, Thierry Labrosse and Jose Holder.

Salgood Sam is now an independent comic book publisher worked with Marvel and DC comics in the early 90s on series including “Dr. Strange”, “Wonder Woman”, “Spider-Man 2099” and “Ghostbusters.”

Jose Holder is a veteran comic book artist as well as writer/director/producer, storyboard artists and concept artist for film, television and videogames. His clients include Ubisoft, Universal Pictures, Marvel and DC.

Thierry Labrosse started doing storyboarding for advertising and animated TV series. He has since transitioned to the world of BD as an award winning comic book artist, writer as well as cover illustrator for several major French publishers.

These panelists give answers to audience questions about their process and how to be successful that are sure to enlighten aspiring artists.

In this follow-up to last month’s podcast, we continue our interrogation of senior artist and visual effects supervisor Robert Bonchune.

You can read a description of Robert with some of his credits in the previous episode. He started as a physical model maker and transitioned to CG during its television debut on seaQuest DSV and Babylon 5.

As one of the pioneers of CG and VFX and having worked on most of the top sci-fi shows of the last couple decades, Robert is in an excellent position to share some industry insight and some juicy Hollywood stories.

In this exclusive Syn Studio podcast, we spoke with senior artist and visual effects supervisor Robert Bonchune. Robert has had over 20 years of experience and has been the recipient of numerous awards, including three Emmy Awards. He is known for his work on legendary television series’ like Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Lost.

In this episode, Anthony speaks with concept designer Henry Fong in Toronto. Henry is best known for his work on Hollywood movies like Immortals, X-Men: Days of Future Past and The Amazing Spider-Man 2.  He also worked on productions shot in Hong Kong such as The White Vengeance on which he was also the artistic director.

In this Syn Studio podcast you will learn how Henry began his career in the film industry. Henry emphasizes the importance of networking and staying open minded while building a career in the industry. He also explains the differences between North American projects and those filmed in Hong Kong and how these differences have influenced his work.

In this episode, we talk with Bruno Gauthier Leblanc. Bruno is currently at Eidos Montreal where he is a senior concept artist specializing in character design. He recently finished working on Deus Ex: Universe and is now on a top-secret unannounced project. He has also worked for Ubisoft where he designed the iconic character Vass for Far Cry 3, considered one of the best “villains” in the history of gaming.

In this Syn Studio podcast Anthony speaks with Nick Oroc about his career as an illustrator and concept artist in the video game and publishing industry. During this episode you will learn how a traditionally trained artist has transitioned to 21st century techniques and how it has influenced him in his career. Nick discusses how he started in the industry as an texture artist and how he rose to become internationally renowned within a few years.

In this podcast Anthony chats with artist Karla Ortiz in San Francisco where she currently resides. Karla has worked as an artist-designer and she is currently freelancing as an independant artist for the movie, video game and illustration fields.

In this exclusive episode, we invite you to discover this incredible and optimistic artist. You will find out what tips and tricks she is using to improve in her art, how to accept the feedback in a constructive way and above all how to continue the drive to create again and carry on.