TAD Faculty Introduction: Jason Manley

[Jason Manley]

Hello parents, students and fellow artists,

In order to show who we are, as members of the core and adjunct faculty of T.A.D., I felt that having some introduction threads would be helpful to show the credits, backgrounds, and capabilities of the instructors which will be heading up these important programs. We will introduce each instructor.

My name is Jason Manley. I am President of The Art Department, Massive Black, and ConceptArt.Org. In 2002, while working in video games, I used a meager 6050.00 dollars to build this community and found Massive Black Inc. with Coro Kaufman and Andrew Jones. Since then, I have amassed the largest client list in the entertainment art field and the MB team has completed an industry leading 260 major projects for everything from God of War 3, Starcraft 2, Killzone 2, Sonic, Tony Hawk, Dragon Age, Army of Two, Fallout 3, Guitar Hero, Toys like Laser Tag and Super Soakers, major feature films like Transformers and Transformers 2, television commercials, books, and more.

I started the industry's first entertainment art education workshops which are now held all over the world and reach hundreds of companies, helped design and fund our school, created our downloadable education program and our live streaming classes, and founded this community as a place to share and learn art online. I have been an invited speaker on the topics of creative business at major industry events like GDC, GCDC, DICE, AnimFX, universities like Ringling College of Art and Design, Southern Methodist University and directly worked with government organizations like New Zealand's GAV Trust and North Carolina's Piedmont Triad.

Prior to becoming an entrepreneur and establishing successful entertainment art and intellectual property development studios in the US and Asia, I worked as a concept artist, 3d artist, project art lead, and art director for the video games industry. I am currently working on a book on creative business to be published by Columbia University Press.

Here are some of my clients (including all 20 of the top 20 games publishers):

2K Games
2k Marin
3rd Degree Games
Acony
Andr0meda Publishing
Acquire
Activision
ArenaNet
Arkane
Atari
Atomic
Ayzenberg Group
Backbone
Bethesda
Big American Films
Big Fish
Big Huge Games
Bioware
Bizarre Creations
Black Hole
Black Isle Studios
Black Rock Studios
Blizzard
BreakAway
Buck TV
Bungie
Capcom
Catalyst
CCP
CD Projekt
Cheyenne Mountain
Chorion
Factor 5
C-Mar
Codemasters
The Collective
ConceptArt.Org
Critterpix
Cryptic
Darkworks
Deadline Games
Deep Silver
Disney
Disney Interactive
Disney HSM
Dot Matrix
Double Helix
DVWorks
EA Blackbox
EA: DICE
EA
EA Redwood
EA Vancouver
Eclipse
Eidos
Edge of Reality
Emotiv
Ensemble
Epic
Escalation Studios
Flagship
Fox Sports
GameLoft
GearBox
Guerrilla
Hangout
Hasbro
High Impact
HCA Associates
Hornet
id software
Ignite Studios
Impulse
Incgnito
InXile
Intel
Irrational
Jet Set
Junction Pint
Kitchen
Koch Media
Kongregate
LA TIMES
Lightbox
Liquid Entertainment
LucasArts
Maxis
Microsoft
Midway
Monolith
Move
MTV
Namco
NCSoft
Nerjyzed
Nestle
NetDevil
Neversoft
Nike
Nintendo
Novalgic
Obsidian Entertainment
OddWorld
Pandemic
Passion Pictures
Planet Moon
Production Road
Project 51
Pseudo Interactive
Pyro
Radical
Rainbow
Recoil
Rebellion
RED 5
Red Octane
Red Tribe
Ritual
Rocksteady
Sega f Japan
Sega f America
Sega R&D
Sega: Secret Level
Schell Games
Seismics
Sibilant
Slipgate Ironwrks
SnwBlind
SA
Sony: SCEA
Sony: SCEE
Sony: Online
Sony: R&D
Space Time
Spark Unlimited
Splash Damage
Stormfront
SuckerPunch
Timegate
Tippett
Toys for Bob
Trainit
Trion
Triumph
Ubisoft Montreal
Ubisoft Newcastle
Ubisoft Rmania
UDA
Upper Deck
Vicious Cycle
Vivendi
Volatile
Volition
Vurdalak
Y&R
Zenimax


I am happy to answer questions along the way. That is some info about me. I look forward to the coming school year and to the success of the students involved.

Best,


Jason Manley

[Serpian]

I am currently working on a book on creative business to be published by Columbia University Press.

Awesome!

[George Pratt]

Jason,
Man, it was great to finally get to meet you and hang out. Seriously, enjoyed talking about art and all with you. Now if we can just get you to stop working for one second! I've never seen anyone so focused on their work, nonstop!

Looking forward to all this. It's the ground floor of something incredibly unique and innovative.

George

[John English]

Jason-

I am extremely excited to put TAD in motion. Your hard work and commitment to this site and to the development of TAD is remarkable!

I know TAD will have a positive effect on the lives of many aspiring artist. You should take great pride in giving them a better opportunity to live their lives as artists.

Your accomplishments are many and I am proud that The Illustration Academy has played some small part in your success. For years the Academy has allowed me to surrounded myself with some of the best and brightest artist working. I feel fortunate to be entering this new endeavor with you as one of my primary partners.

Kudos,

John

[Sterling Hundley]

I believe that Jason and I missed each other by a year at the Illustration Academy. I've been very aware of this career and the things that he has achieved professionally. In addition to his incredible list of accomplishments, I've been learning an immense amount by Jason's ability to apply his creative problem solving and abstract thinking to solving larger problems that have little to do with the act of making pictures. From founding Massive Black, running Symposiums all over the world, to initiating The Art Department, Jason is truly a big picture thinker. I see many parallels between he and John English. We couldn't ask for better leaders to take us into the Future of Art History.

[anitakunz]

Holy moly! That's a very impressive list of achievements. I'm also impressed with Jason's philosophy about education. I can't wait until this school starts...
Anita

[Pavel Sokov]

You, Jason Manley, are a fucking Boss.
You know it.

You are sort of living my dream here. Rich of doing something you love, art. Unlikely, but can be done. Congratulations on all your achievements.