Lauren Toomey's GDC Post

Post date: Mar 17, 2017 5:36:34 AM

My GDC started on Tuesday! I flew in just in time to go to the tech art / vfx mixer hosted by popcornfx and houdini! I got some cool T-shirts! There were around 120 people jammed into the side room at a bar so I had to swim through people to get around. I literally ran into Fred Hooper, my mentor, and we started chatting about the industry and current events. He recommended I go to some of the panels but I only had an expo pass. I met Bethesda VFX artist Mark Teare and after some fun talking we decided to meet for lunch on Thursday for a portfolio review!

Wednesday was a long day. We got up early to go get our passes and then to get in line to meet with Crystal Dynamics. They weren't looking for VFX artist but they were very nice! I got to meed a very nice tech artist there and she was really inspiring for me. This year Microsoft hosted a lot of parties and I got to go to the LGBTQA+ in gaming mixer! I met a lot of people and got to sit down for a bit. It was interesting talking about certain issues with the industry with a variety of different people. I met a lot of good friends there - I hope I get to meet them again next year or sometime in the industry! Afterwords I ran to the riot mixer and I got to meet Jason Keyser and Jin Yang! They were very nice and super supportive of my work. We talked about the general state of vfx in the industry a little and they told me I should separate my reel into stylized and realistic effects. I then went to the Ringling Alumni party and I got to thank Jason Bennett for getting us in touch with Fred! It was fun reuniting with friends and seeing how everyone's gdc was going!

Thursday I learned about lumberyard and played a couple of the unity games! Jake, Dale, and I met up with Mark to look over our portfolios and eat some delicious burritos! He's a very cool dude! He gave us some great crit and we talked about breaking into the industry as a vfx artist - he asked someone (his boss?) if we could come to the bethesda party and invited us! I met a lot of cool people! Afterwords, we ran to another VFX mixer. I met so many artists! I got to talk to Shannon and Jin again and they wanted to help us meet people and got some other vfx artists to look at our portfolios! I got to meet so many people!

GDC really taught me how great the need for vfx artists are! I feel better going into the industry. I also am so so thankful for the community. Everyone was meeting up and discussing how to help people like me to break into the industry! Everyone is so helpful! They share information and new tricks and everyone benefits its all so wonderful! I really love learning from someone and I really hope that one day I can help someone else out like everyone has helped me!!! :D