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Developer Day Spotlight: Autodesk's TJ Galda preps attendees for hands-on training at GDC

At GDC 2018, attendees will have the opportunity to interact with an array of sponsors who help fuel the games industry, including our Developer Day sponsors, whose select line of talks help game developers better learn how to use their tools.

Today, we've reached out to our friends at Autodesk, who are presenting a series of sponsored talks centered around their game developer tools to help game-makers make better games, faster. To get attendees ready for what they can expect in these talks, we've asked senior product line manager for entertainment products TJ Galda to answer a few questions about Autodesk's GDC presence!

Don't miss out! The Game Developers Conference in San Francisco next March will be a hub for many more great industry titans. For more visit the show’s official website.

Can you introduce yourself, your position, and what attendees can expect from Autodesk’s Dev Day?

Hi! My name is TJ Galda and I’m the Senior Product Line Manager for Entertainment Products at Autodesk. Most people in the games industry are familiar with Autodesk 3D tools like 3ds Max and Maya as a big part of the asset creation pipeline. This year at GDC we’re focusing on production management and pipelines, both for big studios and smaller studios. We’re also going to share what’s new with our tools, including a sneak peek at some pretty significant updates we’re working on.

What should attendees do to gear themselves up for learning about Autodesk’s new tech at GDC?

For starters, attendees can learn about the latest updates to the best-known Autodesk 3D tools – 3ds Max, Maya, MotionBuilder, and Mudbox. We’re going to show some of the new features coming to these products and also preview some of the things we’re looking at for the future. We think some of the updates we’re working on will really improves the lives of 3D artists. At a higher level of game development, we’ll also share some new, game-specific updates to Shotgun, our review and production management software. This should be really helpful for producers, supervisors, studio heads, and anybody else who needs to know what the project status is at a given moment.

Are there any sessions attendees interested in Autodesk’s offerings at GDC should look out for?

The opening keynote session will be the most efficient way to get all our news at a high level in one place. If you can only make it to one session, come to that one.

After that, we’ll do a deep dive joint session Unity, where we will highlight all the work we’ve been doing to improve workflows between Autodesk tools and the Unity engine. This work will affect a large number of game developers, and we’re happy to share what’s new.

We have two great sessions focusing on using Shotgun for production management in games. First, a deep dive into the new game-specific features being added to Shotgun. Following that, a customer-driven case study session for Shotgun implementations at EA Sports, Crystal Dyamics, and Ubisoft.

Do you have any advice for Autodesk users seeking to gain knowledge from their peers during your dev day?

The games industry is fantastic because there is a great attitude towards sharing what you know with others. GDC is a highly-concentrated slice of the games industry. The best thing for anybody in games, a newbie or a veteran, is to use the opportunity to speak with as many other people as possible. Don’t limit yourself to people from your area of expertise, either. Artists, designers, developers, QA, producers - everybody has different perspectives and experiences to share, and a broader understanding will make you a better game maker.

GDC 2018 will take place March 19-23rd at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. For more information, visit the show's official website, or subscribe to regular updates via FacebookTwitter, or RSS.

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