Jon Vener

Meet Jon Vener

Chief Creative Officer, Vener Studios

Jon Vener

About Jon

About Jon

Mentor of 3D Animation

Jon Vener has been in Animation, VFX, Games and VR for 13 years, and has been a digital creative professional for over twenty years.

He draws on a broad background, including Bachelor's degrees in animation and music performance, martial arts, nuclear engineering, technical writing, and scripting filmmaking tools. This diversity of interests and aptitudes has brought him success as an artist, developer, and educator.

  

Jon's work

Credits include Halo 4, Bioshock 2, Dark Souls II, Dante's Inferno, The Amazing Spiderman, The Walking Dead, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, to name a few.

Q&A with Jon

Which city are you currently based in?

Denver, Colorado, USA

What did your pathway into the industry look like?
I fell into a job doing graphic design at an architecture firm. While I was there, I started doing interactive and motion design, which led me to look for programs where I could learn more about that. Unable to find any explicitly motion design oriented training programs, I ended up in a character animation program run by old school Disney people because I figured the principles would be the same. One of my instructors there hooked me up with a junior animator position doing cinematics on the first Uncharted.
What has been the best experience of your career so far?
Seeing the reactions people had to our Star Wars: The Old Republic trailers.
What’s your advice for your students?

Focus on the art because the technology is constantly changing.

Learn 3D Animation from industry pros 

What do you enjoy most about being a CG Spectrum mentor?
Getting to nerd-out about animation.
How do you stay creative outside of work?
Currently, I’m writing a novel.
What excites you most about the future of 3D Animation?
When I started out, the tools were getting good enough where you could focus on being an artist instead of a technician. Now, the tools are getting so good than anyone with a computer (and the right know-how) can do extremely high quality content.

Learn more about Jon's experience or connect with him on LinkedIn.

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