Imagina, a longstanding computer graphics conference in Europe, has transformed itself in 2009 to cater more toward the industrial and building industries, with the prior media and entertainment scope being served by one of several sub-conference tracks. The tracks in 2009 include Architecture & Urbanism, Driving Simulation, Landscape and Territory, and Media and Entertainment. Addressing this shift, the Media and Entertainment track included speakers and panels intended to address commonalities and differences between architectural visualization and feature film visual effects work.

I Castelli Animati takes place about an hours drive from Rome, in the large and bustling ancient Roman town of Genzano on Lake Nemi. Narrow cobbled streets, ancient stucco buildings with red tile roofs, black iron gates, shuttered windows... in other words the original Mediterannean (sic?) style. This area has been a busy center since before the birth of Jesus.

But there is a vibrant modern overlay to the town... banks, schools, chic shopping, all housed in ancient buildings but the goods and services as current as the cutting edge. (Well, almost ... the hotel has no wireless internet support for Apple computers.)

By Nancy Phelps

The debut edition of BE THERE!  CORFU ANIMATION FESTIVAL was the first animation festival to be held on this beautiful Greek Island.  A large audience from throughout the island enjoyed a wide array of programs and workshops as well as the opportunity to meet Greek and international artists from the world of animation.

The first two mornings were devoted to The Kids, Be There!  Special screenings and workshops were designed especially for school age children and their teachers.  Tomas Giovanis the Greek illustrator, animator, and comic book artist, better known as Tomek gave a special workshop designed specifically for young would be animators called Animation Is All Around Us.  He also designed the festival poster.

I spoke with the Computer Animation Festival (CAF) Chair Jinny Choo about her ideas and vision for CAF. Being the curator and manager of SICAF Seoul, Jinny’s aim was to bring a similar festival feeling to SIGGRAPH Asia and sees it as an opportunity to taste other styles in a global festival. So for the animation fan there were a plethora of programs to choose from. The Electronic Theater, screening the best of the best, was, as usual, the main event, with additional submissions selected for the Animation Theatre I and II and the Special Programme I and II. An addition was the Invited Screenings, showing previous Best of SIGGRAPH Award Winners; Gobelins, K’ARTS and Supinfocom selections; an Australian and India Focus and a Studio AKA Special; complemented by Festival Talks and Panels on Productions.

Day 2 of Red Stick, and the multiple events begin. Oh for the power of Dr. Manhattan to split myself up into several Joes so as to cover everything, but all I can manage is to run to and fro, capturing a taste of this and that.

In an upstairs classroom at the Shaw Center Chris Williams and Dougy Pincott are handing out modeling clay to middle school students who are about to learn the rudiments of stop motion animation. Chris and Dougy are visitors from Animex, Red Stick’s partner festival in Middlesbrough England. “We’re similar towns,” Dougy explains, “we’re both post-industrial and regenerating ourselves” through a focus on digital technology and animation. He adds that their town also features a bridge running across a major river, like the one carry I-10 across the Mississippi just south of the Shaw Center.

written by Johannes Wolters

It’s a tough job to be on a pre-selection committee. I had the opportunity to talk to Alexey Alexeev, who together with Vanja Andrijevic (Producer, Croatia) and Francis Gavelle (Journalist, France) had the gigantic task to select the programs for short films from thousands and thousands of films. They also had to put together the out of competition program. So Alexey told me about the big discussions they had, what to choose, what to select within the pressure to work for the most influential animation festival of the world. So he sought for something new, something bold, something sharp. Describing himself as a little bit cynical, he adores "South Park" and Andreas Hykade but also the old Hanna-Barbera “Tom & Jerry” cartoons. He tries to combine creativity and professionalism, which means less boring films, less long format, less is more. Alexey Alexeev himself is in the TV competition with his lovable "Log Jam" series produced by Andras Erkel and his Hungarian Studio BAESTARDS.

 

 

I have no comment on Competition 3 and only a couple films stood out for me in Competition 4.

by Mo Whelan

I recently was introduced to Action On Film International Film Festival located in Pasadena by my friend, Alex Ballar. His live-action, comedy, feature film Zombie Drugs was nominated for three awards and won Best Art Direction – Feature. One of the animation community’s favorite independent animators, Bill Plympton, won the AOF 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award. Both winners spiked my interest in the film festival.

Official Annecy 2012 Poster,

created by Marion Franck.

Announcement from The Annecy Festival:

The Annecy Festival announced the official selections for the 2012 edition of the festival, comprised of 49 short films, 55 graduation films, and 60 TV and commissioned films, including 21 TV series, two TV specials and 37 commissioned films. 40 short films were also selected outside of competition.

“This year, there was an infinite richness to be found in the films sent in, both in the techniques used and the topics that ranged from the lightest to the most serious,” commented Annecy 2012 artistic director Serge Bromberg. “Of the 2,374 films submitted – not including feature films – (387 more than last year), we were able to take a trip around the world of animation and its messages, the pleasures of cinema and the incredible talent expressed therein. We laughed, we cried, and we had a lot of doubts as choosing was very difficult. It’s this quality, this diversity and this infinite richness that is the salt of a Festival like our own. Many thanks to the creators and animators for this wonderful gift.”

Today was off to a good start with Khronos’ three press releases this morning during their “Developer University.” They talked briefly about the all-new OpenGL 3.1 with a new streamlined API, and also covered their new OpenSL ES 1.0 API, which is coming close to completely converging with OpenGL – something that would enable a subset that could run anywhere, either on desktop or mobile. They also unveiled their initiative to bring accelerated 3D content to the web. Mozilla spearheads this effort with the support of Google. The goal of the movement is to not only enhance current web applications, but to enable new innovations in web 3d created by any developer. A call-to-arms was made for industry personnel to support and work towards this goal.