Recently, we had the privilege of teaming up with Pixar and the RenderMan team for an Ozone mentorship session tied to the “First Contact” RenderMan Art Challenge. It was an honor to partner together to help mentor the next generation of storytellers and character artists.
Our mentors brought decades of production experience to the conversation: Jason Bickerstaff, Rich Hurrey, Jason Davies, Brad Clark, along with Brian Tindall. Together, they shared hard-won insights from years of building and lighting characters for feature film and real-time pipelines.
During the session, we walked through:
- How to approach a brief like “First Contact” from a story-first perspective
- Translating that story into strong character design, modeling, and rigging choices
- Bringing shots to life with compelling lighting, framing, and mood in RenderMan
- Practical portfolio advice for artists stepping into film, TV, and games
Huge thanks again to Pixar, the RenderMan team, and all of our mentors and participants. Seeing emerging artists push their work further – and helping them connect craft, story, and technology – is exactly why we love doing this.