Vertex 2024: our highlights

2 min read

EVENT INSIGHT

We look back at a fantastic day meeting the incredible digital art community and learning from talented speakers

We had a blast at Vertex 2024, our live digital art event held at London’s Business Design Centre, organised with our friends from ImagineFX and Creative Bloq. It was wonderful to absorb the artistic goodness, speaking to a roster of talented speakers, going hands-on with new and exciting products from leading exhibitors like Wacom and Xencelabs, and witnessing the imaginative and hilarious sketch wall designs crafted by attendees. We hope you had a great time too if you spent the day with us!

The day ran smoothly with talks across three stages, plus live demonstrations from the best in the business and life drawing sessions offering inspiration for visitors to draw from. Did we mention the countless fabulous freebies and amazing coffee?

Among the speakers were Pixar’s Dylan Sisson, revealing more on RenderMan’s AI tools, David Levy offering an insight into how to launch your own IP using Unreal Engine, and Brynn Metheney talking about her approach to creature designs for movies.

3D World Q&A regular Glen Southern’s talk earned a round of applause, and game artist Anna Hollinrake was in her zone with a Madonna mic and stage to jump about. We’d particularly like to thank artists who stepped out of their comfort zone to inspire attendees, such as Alina Fedaseyenka, who shared her approach to art design for VR gaming, and French artist Nana Dhebuadze, who did a talk in English.

For 3D World and ImagineFX Editor Rob Redman and his Vertex co-organiser, Creative Bloq’s Digital Art & 3D Editor Ian Dean, it was a chance to catch up with artists that they’ve known and worked with for over a decade.

Glen Southern drew a big crowd for a talk covering his use of digital sculpting tools
Games Workshop’s Thomas Elliott kicked off the day with a popular main stage presentation
Expert creature crafter Brynn Metheney spoke about creating the unbelievable

Rob was keen to both touch base with old friends and put new faces to names, making the most of Vertex being an in-person event for the first time since 2020. One of his highlights was Thomas Elliott, who kicked off the day with an insightful talk about his journey in the illustration business. The artist has graced the pages of our sister magazine ImagineFX on many occasions and shares o