Mark Flanagan’s fascination with art and technology has led to a long involvement in the creative industries. He spent over ten years working as both an architect and architectural visualisation artist before returning to college to study 3D animation and modelling at the BCFE in Dublin.

His passion for 3D and animation paved the way for the next phase of his career in the games industry. Mark has spent the last 9 years working in game development both in the UK and Australia for studios such as Codemasters, Freestyle and Transmission Games.

Mark has contributed to many titles including: Colin McCrae Rally 3, Colin McCrae Rally 04, Colin McCrae Rally 2005, B-Boy, Heatseeker, Heroes over Europe and several unannounced projects.

Jonathan worked in the animation and multimedia industries for over ten years. He has worked as director, animator, and lead animator on 2D and 3D films. He has experience in creating visual effects for film, and also in game design and creating game art.

Jonathan now specialises in education, having taught animation for the last six years, both in Australia and overseas. Jonathan's strengths are his knowledge of animation principles, film theory, and acting for animation, and his teaching skills.

Brendan started his 3D career as an Industrial design graduate. From there he has accumulated over 10 years of experience in the Games and Video production industry. As a Lead and Senior 3D artist he gained experience in all aspects of 3D from concepting and modeling to animation and special effects, working for companies such as Infogrames Melbourne House, SCEE (Sony Computer Entertainment Europe), THQ and Blue Tongue. He has worked on many titles including; KKND2, DethKarz, Looney Tunes Space Race, Ghost Hunter, Avatar and DeBlob.  Brendan teaches part time at AIE and continues to freelance as a 3D artist.

Heath's first step down the road of 3d was taken back in the early 90's as an active member of the game modding community. Since then the scope of Heath's work has entailed everything from creating custom company logos to video clips for musicians as a freelance artist. A desire to work in a studio environment led Heath to study at AIE, and he successfully graduated with an Advanced Diploma of Screen in 2008.

Post study, Heath has had the good fortune to work as an animator on the prominent M&M's commercials with Trilobite Studios. Heath currently teaches the Certificate III in Media and assists in the teaching of the Advanced Diploma of Professional Game Development (Art).

Shawn is a graduate of from the Academy of Interactive Entertainment's Melbourne Campus. After successfully completing the Advanced Diploma of Professional Game Development (Art) in 2007, Shawn was offered the position of Assistant Teacher thanks to his excellent interpersonal and 3D animation skills.

"Studying at AIE has been the most memorable time of my life so far. Not only was I immersed in what I'm passionate about, but the level of professionalism demonstrated by all the ex-industry/teaching staff also re-assured me that I was learning the most up to date methods and techniques used by all of the game development companies."

Shawn currently teaches the Certificate III in Media and assists in the teaching of the Advanced Diploma of Professional Game Development (Art).

Ted graduated from Duke University with a B.S. in Computer Science and a certificate in Neuroscience.  He then proceeded to obtain a Master of Entertainment Technology at Carnegie Mellon University.

Ted has always been intrigued with the ability for computers to act as a medium for artistic expression and creative storytelling. Having worked as a Software Engineer at Intel, Microsoft, Evans & Sutherland, Maxis/Electronic Arts, Bluetongue/THQ, and Lucasarts, Ted has always been excited to create programs that people enjoy using.

Ted has worked on titles spanning PC, PS2, GameCube, Xbox, PSP, PS3, and Xbox360.  His shipped titles include The Sims Bustin' Out, The Urbz: Sims in the City, Nicktoons: Unite!, Nicktoons: Battle for Volcano Island, Thrillville, and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

In his spare time, Ted is working on an independent game on Xbox360 and PC using Microsoft XNA technology.  He is especially interested in the ability for games to tell deeply engaging stories and evoke emotions.

Justin recently joined the AIE team after 7 years of commercial experience as a software engineer in the games industry. He has worked on PC/Xbox/PS2/Xbox360/PS3 and Wii titles for Transmission Games and Big Ant Studios. 

Justin was a senior programmer and producer at Transmission Games working on Australia’s first Wii title ‘Heatseeker Wii’. As a senior engineer he also contributed to the design and creation of Transmission’s gameplay and general systems for flight games.

Justin has also worked as a lecturer teaching software engineering subjects, ranging from basic programming to Artificial Intelligence, at both undergraduate and post graduate levels.

Other shipped titles Justin has worked on include Heatseeker (PS2), Equestrian Challenge (PS2/Windows) and Heroes of the Pacific (PS2/Xbox/Windows).

Caswal is a rare and exotic good imported from the U.K. He moved to Australia in mid 2005 to study the Diploma in Computer Games Development (Programming), he started to teach Certificate IV in I.T at the AIE before he finished his Diploma, and has continued to work at the AIE.

He currently combines his teaching duties with contractual programming work, and random exploratory programming projects.

Caz loves games, movies, music and random humour.

Rebecca O’Donnell has just recently joined the Academy of Interactive Entertainment after completing her Bachelor of Arts (Public Relations) from Deakin University. She will be mainly visiting schools in regional and metropolitan Victoria, helping students broaden their tertiary options. Rebecca will also be coordinating industry nights, expos, information evenings and open days.

Rebecca loves drawing and painting but really she enjoys any arts and craft activities. Unfortunately she is prone to motion sickness when playing first person shooter games so it tends to limit her gaming experience however she loves any Mario games particularly Super Mario and Mariokart, Guitar Hero,  Singstar (go ahead laugh), Need for Speed (well almost all racing games) and does not dare touch World of Warcraft because she knows she’ll get addicted!

 If you are interested in having Rebecca visit your school or you would like to come see the AIE in action please feel free to contact her.

Amy Zhou has been working at AIE since August 2008. Amy graduated with a Master of Arts in Cinema Management from the University of Melbourne and has a great passion for films and animation.

Amy worked for a variety of companies and organisations in the arts and film industries, such as ICON Film Distribution Australian and the Darebin Theatre Project, and for university research institutions like the Institute of Population Research at Hangzhou Normal University.  As Student Liaison Officer, Amy loves assisting students, as well as answering all your enquiries about AIE and its courses.