Wanna play? SCAD panel advises newcomers on careers in gaming and mobile entertainment.(Knowledge & Career)(Savannah College of Art and Design)(Discussion)

the Savannah College of Art and Design recently hosted a panel on real-time interactive entertainment and its impact on education and employment. Game designer/ SCAD professor Brenda Brathwaite moderated the panel, which included SCAD's School of Film and Digital Media dean, Peter Weishar; Electronic Arts' senior art director, Bryan Godwin; and Nokia's network game product manager, Scott Howard.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

"The [DCC] software field [within gaming] is absolutely exploding," notes Brathwaite. Data, she says, shows that software publishing will expand by 68 percent between 2002 and 2012. And having attended the Game Developers Conference and SIGGRAPH, she has found that "there are just not enough bodies for the chairs."

Brathwaite contends that consistent growth fuels a high demand for trained pros--people with a strong background in art, not just those using tools. "Film and digital media, and departments such as animation, visual effects, sound design, and broadcast design, are all taught there. We prepare students to head to these [types of] hot jobs,"

Peter Weishar has more than 20 years' experience as an artist, art director, and animator. At the school, he instructs students about art and how it intersects with new, cutting-edge technologies.

"It's not a secret that technology for game production has vastly improved, but so has the sophistication of the consumer," Weishar says. "Games, as well as the film industry, expect a level of realism that was unobtainable a few years ago."

Artists, Weishar feels, have become much more specialized today. And while games and films are two different formats with unique differences, the aesthetic and technical skills of animators, modelers, and cinematographers are transferable between the two industries.