Xencelabs Flourishes at LightBox Expo 2023

Another LightBox Expo is in the books, and we have to say the event gets better and better every year. Held at the Pasadena Convention Center over the weekend of October 27 to 29, the event is dedicated to the artist community, with a focus on animation, 2D and 3D illustration. The show draws quite a wide range of exhibitors – freelance artists, small to large animation studios, technology companies, media and more. Most of the attendees, about 15,000 strong, are current students, recent graduates or young professionals looking for their place in the media and entertainment industry. It truly is a wonderful place to meet new people and network. The Expo offers portfolio reviews and a variety of panel discussions on just about any subject related to creativity you can imagine.

This year, Xencelabs had a 10x20 booth in an ideal location, surrounded by some wonderfully popular organizations such as Maxon, Blizzard, Disney and Netflix to name a few. Traffic to our booth during the three-day show was consistently heavy and there was a great deal of interest in the Pen Display 24, our recently introduced digital pen display which allows one to create directly on screen with the feel of a pen on paper or a brush on canvas. Our booth VIPs for the weekend, demonstrating their drawing skills on the Pen Display 24 were Travis Blaise and Wink Winkler from Sketch to Animate. They spent some quality time discussing and highlighting drawings and animations from their most recent project, called ARC (Animal Relocation Colony). In a nutshell, ARC is an animated animal-adventure that promises to take viewers on an unforgettable journey through space. Having Travis and Wink present was a great addition to the booth dynamics as they are both well-known in the industry and helped create some seriously positive vibes at our location. Additionally, attendees had the chance to see Xencelabs products being used by professionals at other booths, including Maxon, Laetro and Pencilish to name a few.

The Xencelabs team also had the pleasure of sponsoring one of the panel discussions – How An Online Art Contest Can Change Your Life – which featured panelists Tom Bancroft, Whitney Pollett, Lauren Barger and Maya Lior of MerMay and Jake Parker, founder of Inktober. All five of the panelists have a wealth of experience creating art contests and drawing challenges and were the ideal set of speakers to explain how and why getting involved in online art events like this can help build your drawing skiils and even lead to employment opportunities. Much to everyone’s surprise, there were several past MerMay and Inktober participants in the audience, which made for some lively discussion and proof that online contests really can change lives.

We sincerely appreciate all the people who stopped by our booth to try our products and talk with us. The positive feedback we received was magical and we all came away from the event knowing that we are making valuable contributions to digital content creators.

We sincerely appreciate all the people who stopped by our booth to try our products and talk with us. The positive feedback we received was magical and we all came away from the event knowing that we are making valuable contributions to digital content creators.