Cubepixels Design Studio’s Ray Rubio has done it again! Last year’s Corel-centric event for graphics designers in Davao is now followed-through by this year’s CorelWORLD in Davao 2007. In cooperation with Canadian software giant, Corel, and WordText Systems Inc. (WSI), Cubepixels has organized another successful event for the benefit of Davao’s graphics designers and animators.

From 5 to 6 October 2007 at the NCCC Mall, CorelWORLD featured poster and logo design contests; technical seminars on the latest in graphics design; and talks by Rubio, Corel’s Ram Kumar (Regional Manager, South East Asia and India), the city government c/o Vice-Mayor Sara Duterte and Maikee Aportadera, WordText’s Jane Orejola, and yours truly.

Kumar was brought here by WSI, which is the exclusive distributor of Corel products in the Philippines. He gave a very rousing presentation of his company’s latest products, such as Corel PhotoPaint Pro and Painter X. Previously unbeknownst to the event participants was that, Corel Painter was used to create scenes and characters of box-office-hit movies such as Lord of the Rings, Spiderman, and a whole lot more. Kumar revealed that this magnificent piece of software, which he demonstrated during his presentation, is in heavy use by Disney Studios.

Corel PhotoPaint Pro was also demonstrated to the breathless audience. I’m not a graphics designer, but I do know how to use graphics software, and I was really wowed by the latest version of PhotoPaint. This photo manipulation application is now available as a standalone program — it used to be bundled with the CorelDRAW Suite — for only $99! Removing objects from pictures, applying transparent backgrounds, changing alignment and perspective… graphics work that used to take numerous and painstaking steps can now be accomplished in a few clicks! It’s simply amazing, and should be indispensible in any graphics designer’s arsenal.

Rubio was joined by some of Davao’s leading graphics artists, such as Kenneth Ong of O3 Creatives Studio. O3 is primarily into designing advertising campaigns. Beyond just creating company logos, they provide holistic advertisements to their clientele. Ong has long been a user and proponent of CorelDRAW.

Rubio also introduced his Schools Integration Program concept. In this program, schools will receive assistance from Corel and from Cubepixels towards the development of short courses in graphics design and animation. This is in the hopes of grooming more well-trained computer graphics designers, a manpower requirement that is in high demand globally.

As the chair of the ICT Industry Cluster - Region 11, I was supposed to present a situationer on the computer graphics sector of Davao’s I.T. industry. Unfortunately, we don’t have the figures as yet. So instead, I took the opportunity to encourage the participants, who were mostly college students, to aim for professionalism in their chosen field, and to align themselves with industry associations when they enter the workforce. In this way, they profit from their expertise as highly-skilled employees or as operators of their own I.T. businesses. And at the same time, they are able to contribute to the development of the local I.T. industry.

With Davao’s computer graphics and animation sector in the capable hands of Rubio and his colleagues, we can certainly look forward to a more robust I.T. industry in the very near future.