By Emily Wong

Hong Kong Animation Filmmaker Society

Animation is not an opinion - it is an event, the event is to amaze, to entertain, to enjoy and to understand. Recently, an event “60 Years of Hong Kong Animation” exhibition was held in Hong Kong. When we look back, there were wonderful animation artworks and effects works that had been done. But it is so far not quite enough! While we review and we celebrate what had been before, but like many other animation communities in the world, animation in Hong Kong is highly underutilized

 

 

by AWN Publisher Dan Sarto

My SIGGRAPH Day 1 was actually the 3^rd day of the entire event, the first day of the main exhibits.  Either I’m getting old (which I am) or it’s just getting harder and harder to focus and keep track of people I’ve met, sessions I’ve attended, screenings I’ve sat through.  Despite 20 pages of notes and a handful of photos, I’m still trying to make proper account of my day before starting all over again today.  Here goes nothing…

 

 

By Nancy Phelps

The 2011 Annecy International Animation Festival was so full of films, business, friends, special events, and parties this year that it was impossible to do and see everything.   The first screening at the festival on Monday morning was The Big Sleep, a tribute to animators who passed away since last year’s festival, which was a very appropriate way to begin a week of films.

It was a treat to see work by renowned Japanese director Satoshi Kon (1963-2010) on the big screen, even under such sad circumstances.  His unique style of directing and the complex psychology of his characters were evident in such classics as the 2006 Paprika, Millennium Actress (2001), and Tokyo Grandfather (2003).

The passing of Gael Brisou (1971-2010) was a great loss for Folimage Studio.  His gift for color was exemplified in his 2005 film Sucre with its extremely sensual, dreamlike qualities.  His gift for working with color added a special luster to the backgrounds of such films as Jacques Remy Girard’s Raining Cats and Dogs and Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol’s current success Une vie de chat (The life of a Cat,) as well as numerous short films.

 

By John Gaudiosi

 

E3 brings the world’s attention to videogames for one week out of the year. This year’s show featured a brand-new portable gaming device from Sony, codenamed NGP, as well as the next console from Nintendo, codenamed Project Cafe. But it was the games, more than anything else, that took center stage in Los Angeles. And with the current generation of consoles showing their age, PC games will shine brighter than ever this year.

“I expect to see a bit of a renaissance in the PC games space over the next few years,” says Todd Hollenshead, president of id Software, which had RAGE at Bethesda Softworks’ E3 booth. “We’ll see more PC-focused games as opposed to multiplatform games because of the faster speeds of the processors and the accelerated graphics. A lot of the coolest technology only works on a PC.”

There were hundreds of games on display at E3 this year, but we’ve selected five titles that stand out from the crowd. For attendees at the show, these are some of the big games that people will be talking about long after the glitz and glamour of the convention is over.

Finally I understood I am not indestructible so I have to decide to focus myself on highlights and to give the essence of the moment. This is how I proceeded to write this Day 3 Report for VIEW Conference 2009, in Turin.

Michael Giacchino, great anchorman, entertained us with the Italian Wedding Party he ended up without being aware of it. People dancing, drinking and singing. He is an American soundtrack composer who has composed scores for movies, television series and video games.

During his workshop he shared an avalanche of background tips and techniques on his work. For instance: Michael writes the score for a scene very quickly, even in a day. Because he gets to see the entire movie before its completed and he can map each shot and satisfy the requirements.

Here is a nice design advice, which I find very useful in many other fields, Giacchino approaches a soundtrack writing job with this question: whats my feeling for this film if I have to reduce it to one chord? It is really a great way to distill the essence of a project.

While the Maestro drives the audience with questions and answers like if they were instrument players, frames of his films went on the big screen: Mission Impossible III, UP, Star Trek. I could feel the mood being created in the hall thanks to the music playing. He is right, some movies should have only music and no dialogues...

Because, also true, as he said, if the music is working well you are not conscious of it.

By Rick Kerrigan

Last night I attended the SIGGRAPH 2010 Computer Animation Festival in downtown Los Angeles. At the end of the two hour presentation my viewing partner kept muttering to me about “sensory overload” as we shuffled out the door. It’s one of the dangers of today’s world. The big Hollywood movie was well represented by clips from The Last Airbender, Iron Man 2, Alice in Wonderland, 2012 and Avatar. The digital work on these films is, of course, excellent but overwrought compared to the smaller films and shorts. Simple stories told using the computer took the day.

Some final images from the closing ceremonies.

by Donna Bulford

Another great year of E3 in downtown at the Staples Convention Center. Lots of interesting announcements and events this year. The art exhibition “Into the Pixel” continues to chronicle the ascent of console game graphics from popular culture and street cred to the rare refined air of original paintings inspired by well-known games.  It’s a national sentiment, even the National Endowment of the Arts and the Smithsonian have gotten into the act with shows centered around “the art of video games” (http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/archive/2012/games/).

 

 

The First International Zhengzhou Animation Forum and Trade Fair in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, China, brought together provincial officials and 50 foreign visitors from the US, Europe and Asia.

 

The first official day of San Diego Comic-Con 2009 was a doozy for animation and visual effects aficionados as almost the entire programming lineup in Hall H, the 6,000 seat theater at the San Diego Convention Center, featured sneak peeks at the most anticipated 3-D films set to release in the next year. Imagi’s Astro Boy, Disney’s Alice in Wonderland and Tron Legacy, Sony’s Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and the mother of them all, James Cameron’s Avatar all debuted footage in 3-D to rapt audiences.