We’re very pleased to introduce the industry professionals who will be providing feedback on the first challenge of this year’s Search for a Star and Sumo Digital Rising Star!

For the first stage of the game dev challenge, art students are asked to submit the portfolio piece that they’re most proud of so that judges can take a look and provide some critique before embarking on the second challenge project.

These developers know the industry like the back of their hand, and will be looking closely at submissions, giving marks for research, creativity, technical skill & artistic technique and finally, overall presentation.

Animation and VFX Judges

505 Games

505 Games

Pawel Margacz – Senior 3D/VFX Artist

 

AI SolveAiSolve

Daniel Seager – 3D Animator

 

antCGi Ltd

antCGi Limited

Antony Ward – Creative Director

 

ARM

ARM

Ivan Pedersen – Visualisation Engineer

Autodesk

AutoDesk

David Zwierzchaczewski – Animation Specialist / Engineer

 

Bit Fry

Bit Fry Game Studios

Sterling Reames – Principal Animator

 

CD Projekt Red

CD Projekt Red

Ross Sharp – FX Artist

 

Cloud Imperium Manchester

Cloud Imperium

Aran Anderson – VFX Artist

 

Creative Assembly

Creative Assembly

David Rolfe – VFX Artist

 

Criterion

Criterion 

Adonis Stevenson – Lead VFX Artist

 

Deep Silver Dambusters

Deep Silver Dambuster Studios

Bertram Kemmler – Senior Animator

 

Double Negative

Double Negative Visual Effects

Karl Wickens –  Global Head of VFX

Michael Morgan – Senior Animator

Dave Freeman – Senior Concept Artist

 

Dream Harvest

Dream Harvest 

Justin French – Founder & CEO

Loic Bramoulle – Art Director

 

Framestore

Framestore

Jason Edwards – Lead modeler

 

ICM Studios

ICM Studios

Iskander Mellakh – Creative Director & VFX Artist

 

FragOut Studio

FragOut Studio

Vidas Rimkevicius – VFX Artist

 

Funky Panda Games

Funky Panda Games

Steven Knock – Artist

 

Gecko Studios

Gecko Studios

Gary Bendelow – Animator

 

HP Autonomy

HP Autonomy 

Sam Obasa – Lead Animator

 

Infinity Ward

Infinity Ward

Benjamin Liu – Senior FX Artist

 

Kuato

Kuato Studios

Jerome Rodgers-Blake – Animator

 

Lightstorm Entertainment

Lightstorm Entertainment

Remar Jones – Environment Artist

Lunar Animation

Lunar Animation 

Entire studio!

 

Magic Pockets

Magic Pockets

Xavier Malard – Lead Character Artist

 

MediaMonks

MediaMonks

Daniel Kim – Art Director

 

Microsoft Soho

Microsoft Soho 

Iain Anderson – VFX Artist

 

Minority Media

Minority Media 

Bruno Afonseca – Technical Artist

 

Mustard Design

Dan Tyler – Lead CG Artist & 3D Animator

 

nDreams

nDreams 

Glenn Brace – Art Director 

Max Fannng – Lead Animator 

 

Rebellion

Rebellion 

Sun He – Lead Artist

 

Remedy

Remedy Entertainment 

Augusto Moura – Gameplay Animator

Rewind.co

Rewind.co

Chloe Price – Marketing Assistant

 

The Foundry

The Foundry

Harrison Ly – QA Engineer

 

Triseum

 Triseums

Tessa Knopf – UI Artist

 

Record TV

Record TV 

Richardo Rodrigues – Senior Video Editor

 

Ubisoft

Ubisoft 

Raúl Ibarra Díez – 3D Character Animator

Nic Chambers – Senior Visual Effects Artist

 

Weta Digital

Weta Digital

Katie Talbot – FX TD

 

Wonderstruck

Wonderstruck

Jim Southworth – Art Lead

 

Yellow Mouse Studios

Yellow Mouse Studios

Daniel Willers – Creative Director

 

Freelance 

Adam Ostridge – VFX & Concept ARtist

Daniel Navas – 3D Artist, Modeller & Animator

Paul Bahr-Naylor – CG Artist