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Devs, submit your best ideas for a GDC 2018 Visual Arts talk!

Heads up: If you have a great idea for a session that should take place as part of the Visual Arts track of talks at Game Developers Conference 2018, now is the time to submit it! GDC 2017 organizers are now accepting submissions to present lectures, roundtables, panels, posters and tutorials through Thursday, August 17th.

This will be the 32nd edition of GDC, the world's largest and longest-running event serving professionals dedicated to the art and science of making games.

Next year the show will take place March 19-23 at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, California, and will again play host to thousands of game developers from all around the world for a week of learning, networking and inspiration.

As always, organizers are looking for submissions of expert talks that would be a great fit for the show! In particular, they're seeking submissions for the GDC 2018 Visual Arts track of talks. Here's what they're looking for, in their own words:

We want disruptive, inspirational and amazing artists, art directors, and art managers to speak this year.. We're looking for people who are willing to share their skills and techniques with us. We want to hear from directors and managers who can teach us how to build great art teams, and create outstanding visuals on tight budgets and schedules. And we're seeking out top notch technical artists to show us new insights in look development and tool creation.

  • Inspirational Art Direction Talks: Continuing with our 'coffee table book' art direction sessions from last year we're looking for art directors who are willing to not only talk about the evolution of their game's style but to show us that evolution. Whether you're a AAA big budget developer or a small 2-person indie team, pull back the curtain and reveal the sketches, concepts, prototypes and in-development shots/videos that led you to the final look of your product.
  • TECHNIQUES and DEMOS: Visual artists are just that, visual. We want to see what you know, not just hear about it. We want artists to teach us new techniques, new tools and new styles. Can't talk and draw at the same time? No problem, we'll even let you have two presenters - one to talk and one to demonstrate. Show off your 3D modeling techniques, concept art drawing, and animation work to the best audience in the world - your peers.
  • Next Gen Art Techniques: A console transition is looming, and it's time to start planning for all the new graphics goodies it will bring. What will we be able to do with lighting, with procedural art generation, with materials, or with new pipelines? Help set the agenda for the next generation of graphics by sharing your cutting-edge techniques and plans.
  • Art Management and Production Talks: Did you develop an interesting strategy that saved you art development time and/or money? Did an in-house or 3rd party tool help alleviate your production pipeline woes? How do you manage to keep your artists from seeing the trees instead of the forest? We'd love to hear about your solutions to these problems and more!
  • Art Culture: What core values are you looking for when you hire artists? How do you manage critiques within your organization? Managing creative people with disparate personalities can be daunting. How does your team manage that? Share your successes (and failures) in this with us so we can create better collaborative environments at our studios.
  • Animation: What sets your game's animation apart from everyone else in the industry? What went right in your latest game's motion capture sessions? What went wrong? What have you learned from studying animation techniques used in other entertainment industries? Share your lessons with other animators as we want to hear the good, the bad, and the ugly regarding animation trials and tribulations.
  • 2D Art Production Pipeline Talks: It is surprising how some aspects of 2D art production pipelines are a lot more work than 3D art production pipelines. We want to hear from someone who can talk about an interesting 2D art production pipeline.
  • Character Design Talks: We'd like to see a character talk that speaks to the DESIGN of the characters, not just how to sculpt high-frequency detail in Zbrush or do pretty rendering in Photoshop so the character design can pass a publisher focus test.
  • Show us your tech, TAs: You're the glue that holds art production together, TAs. What new ideas in tools and pipelines have you developed this past year? What new shader techniques are you investigating for next-gen? Is there look development work you've done that would enlighten us? Come show us and inspire us!

Last year was the most popular ever for the GDC Visual Arts track, and we want you to help us build on that momentum. We want disruptive, inspirational and amazing artists, art directors, and art managers to speak this year. We're looking for people who are willing to share their skills and techniques with us. We want to hear from directors and managers who can teach us how to build great art teams, and create outstanding visuals on tight budgets and schedules. And we're seeking out top notch technical artists to show us new insights in look development and tool creation.

Meanwhile, those interested in submitting for any of the GDC Summits (AI, Community Management, Game Narrative, GDC Education, GDC Mobile, Indie or UX) or VRDC@GDC (all of which take place on the Monday & Tuesday of the event) or Friday's Game Career Seminar should know that the call for submissions will open later: August 28 through September 29, 2017.

For more details on the submission process or GDC 2018 in general visit the show's official website, or subscribe to regular updates via Facebook, Twitter, or RSS.

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