SketchBook Toronto
adsk.chris Monday, March 5, 2012 at 05:25PM 
Not a run-of-the-mill seminar...
This March 3, we had an extraordinary gathering in Toronto.
With incredible speakers & guests, it was a celebration of the many flavors of inspiration! This was the first dedicated SketchBook event that we've held in our Toronto facility, so we were determined to make it a good one!
The event was filled to capacity and we weren't able to get anyone else in. Luckily, we were able to get a few people from the wait-list into the event.
This event was fueled by amazing people and partners... so a special thanks to these friends who so enthusiastically pitched in to support SBT 2012!
Speakers
Skottie Young has been an illustrator and cartoonist for over ten years working for entertainment and publishing companies such as Marvel, Warner Bros., Image, Upper Deck, Mattel, and many more. He is currently illustrating the New York Times Best Selling and Eisner Award Nominated adaptions of L. Frank Baum's OZ novels with writer Eric Shanower. The series has gained acclaim from both fans and critics.
Bobby Chiu is a Toronto-based artist and the founder of Imaginism Studios. He is known for his creature concepts and other fantastical, quirky characters. Some of Bobby’s favorite themes to explore are disguise, irony, and duality. Bobby Chiu has worked on feature films for Disney, Warner Bros., Dreamworks, Sony, Universal Studios and is best known for designing creatures for Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. He owns Imaginism Studios in Toronto and teaches on Schoolism.com
Nick Pagee consults on Gaming and New Media initiatives for TIFF Bell Lightbox, and is a programmer for Sprockets, Toronto International Film Festival for Children, specializing in animation. Previously, Nick developed Family and Youth Education programming at TIFF and programmed for Sprockets, the Toronto International Film Festival for Children, specializing in animation and student film.
Miguel Sternberg is a veteran of Toronto’s indie game scene. He is one half of Spooky Squid Games, a former co-founder of Capybara Games and helps run The Hand Eye Society a videogame arts and culture group. His pixel art has enriched the movie Crank, the back cover of Scott Pilgrim Gets it Together, the web game Legends of Zork, as well as countless unplayable cellphone games based on major movie franchises. He is currently working on They Bleed Pixels, a fast-paced, gothic lo-fi, platforming beat'em up and producing the Comics Vs. Games artshow.
C.B. Cebulski is just a guy lucky enough to be working in comics. After a decade of editing in the Japanese, European and American comic book markets, Cebulski now serves as Marvel Entertainment’s Senior Vice President of Creator and Content Development where he scouts for talent on an international level. Crisscrossing the globe month after month, C.B. is always on the hunt for the best and brightest new artists the world has to offer.
Francis Manapul is a Toronto-based comic book artist currently working for DC Comics. His list of credits include The Flash, Adventure Comics, and Superman Batman. Previous works include titles such as Legion of Super-Heroes, Iron and the Maiden, Necromancer, Sept Guerrieres, Tomb Raider, Darkness, G.I Joe and of course Witchblade. Francis also co-hosted History Television's Beast Legends, a series that investigates and creates incredible creatures.
Debbie Ridpath Ohi is a Toronto-based freelance writer and illustrator with a focus on content for young people. She recently illustrated I'M BORED, a picture book by actor/comedian/author Michael Ian Black, due out this Fall (Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers, 2012), and has an illustrated short story coming out in YA fiction anthology, TOMO (Stone Bridge Press, 2012). Previously, she was the founder of Inkspot and Inklings, one of the very first online writing communities and electronic newsletters.
Benjamin Rabe grew up in the realm of HP-Calculators, Activision games, Beaker and Douglas Adams. He painted his first 4-part-series of comics at the age of 12, started programming Pascal and Assembler on his Atari 600XL at the age of 14. He studied Physics and Math for 2 years and switched to Graphic-Design later. He has helped pioneering the ideas of web2.0 in Germany during the startup phase of qype as the lead designer. He has become a major ‘evangelist’ of the art of ‘fingerpainting’ aka mobile art. He is also founding board member of The International Organization of Mobile Digital Artists, iAMDA.org.
Event Activities
The event took place at Autodesk's Visualization Studio, located at the downtown Toronto office, giving a rare glimpse into the facility where products like Maya, SketchBook, Alias, Mudbox, 123D, and Pixlr are developed. The event was bullfrogpowered with 100% clean, green electricity!
The afternoon was interlaced with inspirational talks and breaks to allow for impromptu demonstrations, meetings, signings, and social networking.
Eddie Murphy is part of the design, development and marketing team with Epson Professional Imaging. SBT 2012 was equipped with Epson printers, and Eddie shared his knowledge, as well helped print artist's work on canvas, fine art papers, and photographic media... real archival prints!
Kyle Runciman, along with other members our team were available to share tips and tricks with using SketchBook.
Attendees and media had a change to tour our office and see our Digital Art exhibit. Susan Murtaugh, Wisconsin-based artist, was a guest of honor, having curated multiple SketchBook collections. She's a master of all forms of digital art (mobile and otherwise) and helped out with sharing the story behind many of the art pieces we had in our collection.
Chris Cheung was the SBT 2012 host & MC. Chris is the Product Line Manager for SketchBook/Digital Art, which proves to be a great match for his background & interests in design, art, technology, business and storytelling. He is based in Toronto.
"The default is to make this event into something great, but considering this is the first time we've brought people together in our hometown, we are compelled to take this one over-the-top and make it mouth-watering and extra-memorable!"
Retrospective
March 4, 2012 - 5½ hours of afternoon programming & more than 4 hours at Lee Restaurant in Toronto, we are all done.
It was truly an amazing day celebrating creativity. With the reveal of internationally acclaimed Chef Susur Lee as the opening speaker, the tone was set for a day & evening filled with surprises and comradery.
We could not have asked for more with such exceptional speakers and incredibly talented guest (really, virtually everyone in the crowd could have gotten up on stage to speak!). Thank you to everyone who participated in the event and contributed to making it such a magical experience!
Here is a post by Debbie Ridpath Ohi about the event! http://bit.ly/A00A2y
Reader Comments (13)
Thanks so much Chris for an absolutely amazing and incredibly inspiring event! It was awesome that the event was small and intimate ... getting to mingle and talk to all the amazing speakers was such an incredible opportunity. The speakers were all so genuine (and super talented) and each had a wonderfully inspiring story to tell. Of course, Susur Lee being the surprise guest speaker, as well as his hosting us for a private dinner at his restaurant, was awesome ... and it was so nice to get a chance to meet him and chat with him.
I'm still riding a big wave of inspiration from the event, and I'm taking that energy and putting it into my personal creative projects.
Hands down, the best event I've been to in a very, very long time. My thanks again Chris!
- Mike
This was an amazing, inspiring and educational event. It was wonderful to hear from all of the speakers and to get a chance to interact with so many talented people. Thank you for a wonderful experience! (Extra thanks to Susur Lee for going above and beyond to take care of my highly allergic partner!)
I can't believe I wasn't more familiar with Sketchbook before meeting Chris and attending his smashing event. Working freelance in comics is a tiresome grind, but for the first time in a long while I was presented with a product that got me excited because it promised to make my life easier as well as expand my creative potential.
My kudos to Chris and everyone involved with the event, not just for free swag and the most privileged dinner I've ever had, but for reaching out to the hearts and minds of some of Toronto's leading creative forces (I'm not including myself in that catergory.) It was informal, off the cuff, even a bit clumsy at times, but always fun. That's how you stamp a lasting impression. You guys need to do it more often!
- ADAM
Feeling so inspired after this awesome event!! Amazing speakers, and such a friendly, fun, explosive energy in the room. I'm still buzzing and reflecting on all the snippets of wisdom. The Autodesk crew were awesome - thank you so much for putting this on, and for the invite to it!!!
P.S. My Captcha sign-in word for my last comment was "stupidity". Hmph. Everyone's a critic...
What an amazing event! So many great speakers and inspiring people. Hope we can make this a regular get together and share ideas and opportunities.
-Marcus To
Thanks for a exceptional day! It was great putting ink to paper for everyone that brought images. Excellent artwork from you all, and I'm glad you saw the range of special papers.
If someone didn't get their file printed, please email me, and I'll work on getting it done!
Take care,
Eddie...
Thank you THANK YOU THANK YOU for inviting me to participate in this event! So enjoyed hearing the other speakers and meeting so many cool and creative people and and and... well, I started to post a comment earlier but it ended up being waaaay too long so I wrote a blog post instead.
So inspired! (and full :-)
Gratefully,
Debbie
Like the other posters I too am riding hight on the inspiration provided by so many talented people. The Speakers were incredible, every word said with sincerity and positivity (I made the word up, but feel it). I am honored to be included and feel so lucky to be in the SketchBook family team. All the new talent/friends and all the old friends made for an incredible event that I hope will happen again and again. I did not speak, but I would like to tell you of the happy faces when I got to introduce the press and guests to the new gallery area on the 6th floor. Oohs and ahhs over the stories. And having visual proof of how an artist improves from year to year also offers inspiration and knowledge. SketchBook apps Rock.
Now about Chef Lee as our surprise.... I have lived many years. I am a foodie. I eat great stuff in great places. This was the best meal I ever had in my life. Thank you and ^Up^ x a million.
Had a wicked time, great ambiance and surprisingly entertaining presentations.
For an event it was a definite success, for a *first time* event it was dope.
In the end it even surprised me,I went home not just inspired but also pleasantly full.
Cheers,
-branko
From all of the concept crew at Ubisoft Toronto we want to say thank you so much for inviting us to attend this amazing event! Thank you Chris and Sketchbook for the opportunity to meet tons of talented people and hear their stories and insights. A truly inspirational and fantastic day! As for the Susur surprise we can't say enough - everything else now tastes like some kind of cardboard derivative!
Once again thanks to Chris, Susur Lee and the whole SketchBook team! An amazing afternoon with so many great speakers and a truly stunning meal to cap it all off.
The only drag was having to come home and be "regular people" again
...I had hotdogs for dinner tonight...HOTDOGS!
...sigh...
Absolutely a fantastic event! The speakers were amazing! All so talented and knowledgeable. Thanks to Autodesk for the great space. And thank you Chris for setting a positive and inspiring vibe.