FIZZBUZZ INC. Goes To…ICON Manila 2019! (Part 1 of 2)
For the second year running, Fizzbuzz Inc. has once again sent a delegation of talented animators and visionary creatives to this year’s ICON Manila 2019, held in The Samsung Hall, SM Aura, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.
This year Stop Motion Animators Marvin Parcuelles, Bryan Velayo, and Clare Sanchez, together with 3D Generalist Johanna Kaye Boncodin, went off on a 3-day weekend trip to the capital to meet and greet the industry stalwarts, and learn and take home a couple of inspirational nuggets of wisdom in the process.
But hey, we’re not the best resource to recount the entire experience. So let’s hear all about it from the people themselves in this two-part series of this ICON Manila experience. We begin with the freshies (newbies) Bryan and Clare:
Bryan
This was the first time I traveled to Manila, specifically Taguig, and it was a really cool experience to see such lofty buildings in every direction. I went to the conference totally unprepared, as I didn’t even know the guests or at least I only knew the things they worked on. I like the fact that the speakers have some great experiences having worked on really big movies and even games.
I’ve been in these kinds of talks before and have heard from people who’ve worked on stuff like these, but this time felt different in a way that they actually know what they’re talking about in terms of art and design, which was very inspiring.
The speakers showed us their process and how they go about designing. Even someone as soft-spoken as Zac has been really insightful during the very few times he speaks during his demos. They all give really great insights about the process of designing, coloring, and composition. They all, except for Bobby and Armand if I recall correctly, did demos which was super interesting to watch, although honestly kind of slow paced, but in reality that’s how drawing actually is. Mike explained how he uses color temperature, which honestly was still kind of confusing to me, but seeing him use it made me realize there was more to coloring than I thought.
The more interesting demo was Finnian’s when he did that VR sculpting, which personally I have never seen before and actually made me want to try out VR. Zac was amusingly not very knowledgeable at Photoshop, with the exception of knowing a few tricks like using certain brushes to easily create buildings or using the transform tool to do perspective, but what was incredible was he was still able to create great artworks through the program, as if he was using actual paint on a canvas, not caring about blend modes, or layers. In his own words: “Layers stress me out.”
I really like them all, but my favorite one has to be Bobby Pontillas, who worked on a lot of Disney films. He also worked on a short film I really enjoy, “One Small Step” which I didn’t even know he co-directed. He was very charismatic, jolly, and was just very excited about cartoons which was very contagious. He talked quite a bit about character design and using shapes to “shape” a character. He also talked about the process in creating their short film, which was really educational. We got to see how they pulled off some of the effects in the film and how they got that 2D look even though the film was created in 3D. He gets inspiration from his family, which was really sweet of him, and based a lot of characters off of them. Maybe I should also get inspiration from the more familiar instead of the more fantastic ideas; it’s things that I know more by heart and I might even be able to extract more from that and apply those to my work.
The thing that really stood out to me was when, I think that was Finnian MacManus, said “practice doesn’t make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect.” That phrase will probably stick to me. It’s not enough to keep practicing the same stuff or even more unfortunately the wrong stuff, but one needs to practice the right stuff in order to be better at the thing you wanted to get good at. If you want to be a master guitarist, you just don’t practice Wonderwall forever, play some Paganini or something. Well, anyway, it’s something to consider when creating. And because of ICON, I will promise to keep doing.
Clare
The two days of us participating Icon Manila was very exciting. Whatever information we had about our speakers was nothing in comparison to experiencing the entire thing, live. Each speaker performed to the best of their ability.
Some were good, others were great. But these professionals gave us more than what they discussed. They also shared with us their experience of being rejected multiple times and how they never gave up. This is an encouragement for many of the attendees, especially students who are uncertain of their goals. We also had to remember that today’s technology has progressed so much that we take for granted how easy it is to find answers by just one click of a button, while these speakers didn’t have that luxury available to them back then. Instead, they worked hard towards becoming who they are today. We’re truly lucky that they are sharing their knowledge and expertise with us.
Besides the lessons the speakers shared to us, my favorite part of the event is when we get to line up and meet the speakers. It was very brief but it was nice to meet them face to face and talk a little about their interests with a handshake and a smile.
There were many lessons learned from each speaker but each gave an impact:
- Mike adviced us to use specific descriptions to use for reference as he does for character (and background) design;
- Zac displayed how to create concept art by using photoshop in its simplest form,
- Finnian demonstrated drawing in Virtual Reality;
- Bobby Pontillas’ work on “One Small Step” mixed 3D and 2D styles together through compositing; and
- Armand Serrano showed us artful depictions of the biblical stories that he heard during Sunday masses and the importance of researching to help solidify your art’s substance.
Overall, while each speaker had their own niche in the world of entertainment, they are united in how they found the kind of art they want to explore, encouraging the event’s participants to follow their dreams, and not underestimating the importance of research and the foundation, to produce amazing results.
And there you have it! That wraps up the first part of the ICON Manila 2019 experience told from the perspective of the participants.
We’ll have a second installment coming up within the week and this time, we’ll be hearing from our veterans (not indicative of their age at all!) who were able to attend last year’s conference. Theirs will be from the perspective of comparing and contrasting both conferences as well as dispensing the learnings they picked up from attending ICON Manila.
Until then, keep your eyes peeled for Part 2!