SINGAPORE: Computer art expo showcases Asian talent
Updated
Singapore is currently hosting Asia's largest Computer Graphics conference. Now in its second year, CG Overdrive showcases the best in the computer art business especially from the region. The conference includes forums, workshops and the showcasing of software, hardware and artistic talents and young hopefuls from around Asia are hoping that companies and design houses will notice their talent.
Presenter: Bo Hill
Speakers: Edmund Shern, studio head, Imaginary Friends Studios; Sen Lai, organiser, CG Overdrive 2007
HILL: It's got the heavy weight names - Kyle Balda and Leo Hourvitz from A Bug's Life and Toy Story 2, Feng Zhu, the designer of General Grievous from Star Wars, the creator of World of Warcraft PC game, John Chalfant and Takeshi Nozue from Square Enix, director of the enormously successful Final Fantasy VII.
SFX - Final Fantasy
HILL: It's CG Overdrive 2007 - Asia's biggest computer graphics expo. And it's aimed at showcasing the reason why the demand for Asian 2D and 3D artists and technicians is growing. Edmund Shern, studio head at Imaginary Friends Studio based in Singapore, says the expo is an excellent opportunity for the Asian industry to celebrate its potential.
SHERN: The world'ss starting to recognise the untapped potential of talent in Asia. I think up to this point people have recognised there is a taste for Asian talent in the world - it's just that up to this point people haven't really actually considered doing something in Asia for some reason.
HILL: Edmund Shern says Singapore is one of the leading innovators in the CG industry in Asia, mainly boosted by government investment incentives. But this business opportunity for foreign studios in Singapore, and Asia, comes with a warning.
SHERN: The big reasons why companies move out of places in Europe and America is the cost advantage. But I think through just solely rely on the individual private enterprises to compete based on cost I think it's a dangerous thing - I don't think that's the route that we should be taking as an Asian industry. For the industry I think the key is really quality, standing out true quality work and creating some kind of identity through valuing quality work.
HILL: Sen Lai is an organiser of CG Overdrive 2007 and a media education director. He says that nurturing this talent is one of the expo's key aims.
LAI: As a transnational professional myself, I travel around a lot and I find that there's actually a marked shortage of talent and people in this industry and there's a lack of knowledge how this industry should be moving forward. And also because it's young, there's a lack of a platform for people to connect and share the art of computer graphics. So, with that in mind, CG Overdrive was created. It really serves as a platform to connect, for people to interact, to learn more, to be a knowledge-centric event for people to understand the possibilities of computer graphics.
HILL: Sen Lai says with the push for creative and original art and content is also the need to find markets where Asian artists may have an advantage over the Hollywood or European studios.
LAI: The good thing about in the Asian context is that we actually have access to countries around the region and most notably of course China where we share a lot of similar cultures in different parts of Asia like we have in Indonesia, we have Malaysia, we have Singapore and of course selling content to China would be great because there's a massive population there. So, in various directions different countries around the region are also trying to penetrate both in the Western and also the Eastern directions, which in this case is China.
HILL: Mr Lai says between two and three thousand young hopefuls will be at the conference to meet potential employers. Many of them will be taking part in the workshops and forums that software and hardware designers and industry professionals will be holding. And, Mr Lai says, further education will also be a big factor in Asia's computer graphics industry's future.
LAI: One of the key things we try to address this year for the forum is of course what kind of model of education should we create to train better CG artists, to create better talent for the industry, just so the industry can go faster and go further.
