LEADING CREATIVE MEDIA EDUCATOR TO AWARD TWENTY-FIVE SCHOLARSHIPS IN QUEENSLAND

BRISBANE, 15 July 2008 – The SAE Institute, the world’s largest audio engineering, animation and film school, today announced a $1.5 million scholarship program in partnership with Qantm College, offering 25 scholarships in Queensland this year.

With a combined value of $1.5 million, the SAE/Qantm Scholarship Program will provide 180 part scholarships, which encompass 50 per cent of tuition fees, and nine full scholarships, which encompass 100 per cent of tuition fees, over the next 12 months across Australia.

Tom Misner, SAE Institute Chairman and Founder said, “The launch of this scholarship program, and having the opportunity to reach out and make a meaningful contribution to the community, is one of my proudest moments since founding the college over 30 years ago. We are very pleased to be able to offer this opportunity to students that may otherwise have difficulty accessing such higher education, and to encourage Australia’s talented young people to pursue their ambitions in the expanding creative media industry.”

“With this scholarship program I hope to send the message that all people can aspire to follow their passion for an exciting career. SAE Institute is looking forward to not only pr...

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QANTM COLLEGE OPEN DAY, 2 AUGUST
MID-YEAR INTAKE COMMENCES 25 AUGUST

A career as a digital animator or interactive games developer may be rising on the horizon for interested students visiting Qantm College at Open Days in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane on Saturday 2 August 2008.

Qantm College offers a wide range of degrees and diplomas in new and emerging industries, including games programming, animation, new media development and graphic design.

The Qantm College Open Day provides an opportunity for those considering study and their parents to see the college’s state-of-the-art facilities first-hand, speak with Qantm teaching staff and view the impressive work of current students. 

With the digital media industry developing day-by-day, the Australian Government has recognised the need to support those studying for careers in creative digital industries by awarding approval for its FEE-HELP student loan scheme to eligible students undertaking degree courses at Qantm College.

“As we move further into the digital age, careers in digital animation and gaming are becoming increasingly popular and we are looking forward to introducing interested students to the facilities and study opportunities available to them at Qantm’s Open Day” says Guy Chandler, General Manager of Qantm ...

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Aug 6th - back to base + landscape concept art comp winner announcements

Time: Aug 6 2008, 5.00 - 6.30 pm
Venue: the Glasshouse, CIP Kelvin Grove

Krome Studios Snr. Level Designer Gaute Rasmussen talks about his role in building game worlds from the foundation up. As one of the judges for the Landscape Concept Art Competition, Gaute will also announce the winner at this session.



Sept 10th - Developing the Story: Talk + Workshop

Time: Sept 10 2008, 5.00 - 7.00 pm
Venue: the Glasshouse, CIP Kelvin Grove

If you’d rather write the story and build the characters of a computer game than create the visual landscapes, Leanne Taylor from Pandemic Studios will answer your questions at this talk about developing game narratives. The talk will be followed by a workshop led by Leanne



Oct 1st - Tips for Game Designers

Time: Oct 1 2008, 5.00 - 6.00 pm
Venue: the Glasshouse, CIP Kelvin Grove

Pandemic Studios Lead Designer Morgan Jaffit discusses games design as a potential career path as well as giving you all the essential hints and tips for the 48 Hr Game-Making Tournament on Friday 3 October



Oct 3rd - 5th the return of the 48 hour game making challenge
Venue: the Glasshouse, CIP Kelvin Grove + online

We challenge you to produce a playable prototype game for the ...

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The tsumea modeller challenge #10 is sponsored by Big Ant Studios and Infinite Interactive

Competition Rules: Open to Australians and New Zealanders only.

STARTING DATE: Wednesday, 23rd of July, 2008.
CLOSING DATE: Tuesday, 16th of December, Midnight. Yes, 4 and a half months Total!

THEME:

Design and model your own Superhero Villian, with one important proviso. Taking the cue from Chris Nolan's realistic and gritty approach to the Batman films, your villian *must* be modern-day and entirely plausable. THIS town needs a better class of criminal!

RULES AND GUIDELINES:

CONCEPT AND STYLE:

The character for submission has to be an original design of your own creation, and so cannot be a direct copy from any other games, films, or comics etc. Your character must be humanoid, and not a creature. Hand combat weapons and weaponry are optional. All must fit a modern-day realistic era. Also required: One calling card. An item that your villian leaves behind which symbolises their character.

MODELLING REQUIREMENTS:

1 Normal mapped character

Contains:
required (model) : 9000 polygon (tris) maximum (one single mesh).
required (model) : One calling card item.
Optional (model) : weaponry (swords, guns, hand combat weapons etc). Weaponry will add to the model count.

requi...

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We can see in various game developer hotspots around the world where successful game companies have spawned off many other companies in the same area as employees break away to start their own studio. Dallas, for example, was where Apogee Software was based and where id software relocated, and ex-employees left to form Ritual Entertainment and ion Storm. Australia has its own similar stories, and during Alfred Milgrom's opening speech at the ACMI Hits of the 80's exhibition, he mentioned with pride on the role Melbourne House had as a catalyst for the game development industry in Australia. We decided to graph out some of the links between the origins of various Australian game developers, and the results were very interesting. While many Melbourne game companies can be linked back to Beam Software / Melbourne House, it's amazing how many are linked directly to Torus Games.

If you have any corrections or additions, please do post about it in the comment box below and I will make an update!



1994: Tantalus co-founder and Chief Technical Officer, Andrew Bailey, was enticed to Australia by Beam Software where he worked for five years as a programmer before starting up Tantlus with Trevor Nuriden.

1994: Torus Chief ...

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Based in the heart of Australia's national capital, Canberra, we are experiencing booming success in the industry and due to this growth we are in need of a talented and passionate senior Animator to join us.
The ideal candidate will have delivered animation on at least 1 recently released console title and will have played a major part in defining the structure and technical setup of how the animation team worked on that project.

Practical experience of 3DS Max, Character studio and Motion Builder is essential. A knowledge and understanding of motion capture is also a plus. 

It goes without saying that candidates must be pro-active communicators who are comfortable dealing with creative or technical colleagues alike. 
Above all though we are looking for somebody with enthusiasm, passion and the desire to make a truly great game. 

In return we can offer you the opportunity to put your skills, vision and experience to the test by working on some highly anticipated and exciting projects that we currently have under way.  
This is a rare chance to play a crucial part in developing a AAA title and to work with some of the best talent in the industry.

Please send your CV and portfolio details to Ali Hinton, Recruitment Manager at ali.hin...

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Pandemic Studios Brisbane are making the move to shinier new offices and are selling off this 40kg Destroy All Humans! spaceship which adorns their current studio on Ebay. Bidding starts at $1199 but the guys are willing to accept Latinum Bars or Federation Credits. From the bidding page...This UFO was made specifically for Pandemic Studios.

The frame and body of the UFO is made entirely of steel and spot welded together. There is a light bulb socket in the centre of the UFO to provide an eerie glow which is powered by a standard 240volt power socket.

Pandemic Studios will be moving building location in the next month and unfortunately this massive structure will not be able to fit in our new premises. It is currently suspended over our lobby.

The starting price of this auction is to cover the cost of taking the UFO down safely, out the studio door and onto an awaiting truck.Sourced from Kotaku AU!
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PalGN has an intriguing article on the games made by local developers, asking the question "What does an Australian game look like?". 

In light of the Australian film tax rebate, where film producers are given a generous rebate if the movie has some cultural relevance, PalGN sets out to identify the characteristics that makes our games uniquely "Australian", whether it be its development approach or anything that makes it stand out on the world stage of game development. What can Australian games generally be characterised as? I'm not sure, but PaLGN has grabbed Tantalus CEO, Tom Crago, and Tantalus Creative Director, David Hewitt, for their thoughts on the question. David Hewitt to PaLGN..I actually feel as if the contribution of Australian game developers is largely under-credited. It's not an industry that generates celebrities and recognisable faces, and games developed here don't necessarily have Australian accents in them, or Australian scenery in the background. Most players would be surprised at the number of high-quality, high-profile titles that are developed here - they're games with which they're familiar, but their country of origin isn't always obvious.
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