One of this year's main novelties is the introduction of the Co-Labs: an opportunity to simulate a real world creative work environment with the task of bringing ideas for movies, games or animations to life as a team.

Under the supervision of Eduardo Gonzalez, an Art Director at Riot Games and head of the Co-Labs at THU, 40 attendees will be divided into 5 teams, balanced in a way to include different sets of skills in each. They will just have a few days to build a creative project from scratch. It's going to be all about leadership, teamwork, and making decisions under pressure.

Each team will be mentored by two Knights, who will help moderate, facilitate, and, when necessary, act as tie-breakers for decision-making. They will only be there to sustain the team, help it align the project and move forward by making sure there are no bottlenecks.

So who are these valiant knights going to be?

Team 1:

Moby Francke – in the video game industry for over 13 years now, he is currently working on the art for League of Legends at Riot Games.

David Lesperance – a CG artist at Valve Software Corporation, his work includes: Mortal Kombat DC, Tony Hawk Ride, and Counters Strike Global Offensive.

Team 2:

Eric Canette – a Principal Artist working on the Foundarions Team at Riot Games. Previously, a storyboard artist and background designer for several animated TV shows including "Ben 10: Alien Force" for Cartoon Network, "Beware the Batman" for Warner Bros Animation, and "TRON Uprising" for Disney.

Justin Goby – Justin Fields is the Owner of Ironklad Studios in Los Angeles. He also works as a Concept Artist, creating awesome art for games and films, such as Maleficent, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, The Wolverine, Kong, and many more.

Team 3:

Devon Fay – an environment designer at Neversoft Entertainment and ex-matte-painting lead at Blizzard Entertainment. Currently working on the video game franchise Call of Duty: Ghosts.

Mike Azevedo – an Illustrator and Concept Artist in Brazil that has quickly become somewhat of a concept art prodigy in recent years. His clients include Riot Games, Guerilla Games, Applibot, VOLTA, and many more.

Team 4:

Nick Carver – working as a concept and production artist in the video game industry for the past 13 years, currently he is a Senior Concept Artist at Riot Games.

Geoffrey Ernault – a Concept Artist currently working for Riot Games. His clients include Sony Guerrilla, Mpc, Cyanide Studios, NaturalMotion and more.

Team 5:

Christian Alzmann – a Senior Art Director at ILM. Some of his projects include: A.I., Men in Black 2, Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens, where he was the concept designer for BB-8, The Jungle Book, and many more.

Ben Mauro – a world-class concept designer working in the entertainment industry. He has worked on The Hobbit Trilogy and Elysium, among many others. 

Remember, the Co-Labs are all about empowering. They're a change in the standard top-down structure used at many companies in the digital entertainment industry. There are no directors, managers, or supervisors telling you what to do. The approach is more collaborative. The Co-Labs will help you learn and grow by giving you ownership of the project you will be developing. 

>>> READ ALL ABOUT THE CO-LABS HERE <<<