George Brown College was well represented at the 2019 Ubisoft NEXT competition with five students placing in the top three in three categories, including a first-place finish.
Game Art student Jacob LaFortune won first place in the animation category. Contestants had approximately four months to complete their submissions. Finalists and winners in the six categories were announced May 8.
“The hardest part of this was coming up with the concept,” LaFortune said. “It was important to fully plan the entire animation out as much as possible before actually beginning so you wouldn’t be winging it when you started.”
The annual Ubisoft NEXT competition highlights the talents of video game development students in Ontario and helps them create professional networks. LaFortune said participating in NEXT helped him and his fellow George Brown competitors prepare for the work force.
"It made us push ourselves to help us reach our full potential,” he said. “As well, it was important that we constantly sought the advice and critique from our peers and teachers, which is a practice that you definitely need to be a successful artist in this industry.”
We had four other students place in the top three, including:
Second place, animation, Game Art student Ashley Simmons
Second place, programming,Game Programming student Kevin Tsai
Third place, programming, Game Programming student Danny Tran
Second place, user interface, Interactive Media Management student Bao An Nguyen
And honourable mentions to Digital Design-Game Design student Michael Conway, who placed fourth in the level design category.
“I’ve made some amazing friends in my three years at George Brown and the professors were some of the most talented artists and being able to learn from them was a huge privilege," LaFortune said. “The amount of care that the teachers have for the students is amazing and really helped us all push ourselves and become the best animators we can be.”
