Emile and the Fabulous Small Gentlemen From Jean-Nicolas Amoux, Tom Haugomat,
Charles-Andre Lefebvre, and Louis Tardivier of Gobelins in France.
Our Wonderful Nature From Tomer Eshed of HFF Konrad Wolf in Germany.
Nature “Tzu-jan” From Ari Rubenstein (director) and others at Blue Sky Studios in the US.
Renkan From Nobuo Takahashi (director) and others at Nagoya City University in Japan.
Each year the SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival takes on a certain tone, or spirit, and this year’s event was no different. Joyful. Funny. Sweet. Silly. Those are but a few of the adjectives that could be used to describe the 2008 juried content. Evolutionary is another word that could be used, which fits well with the festival’s title, Evolve. “The animations improve all the time,” says festival chair Jill Smolin. “And I just love the way the stories develop, the characters evolve, and our young animators seem to think the world’s not that bad after all!”
The selections, chosen from approximately 700 submissions worldwide, reflect many styles and techniques, from paper cutout-like animation to well rendered pieces.
“It’s almost as if the technology has reached a point where artists are comfortable enough that they don’t have to necessarily strut their technical prowess, but can concentrate on the very cool stories the technology lets them tell,” explains Smolin. “Of course, because technology was such a significant component of our festival, one can see the evolution, particularly in the scientific visualization pieces. The evolution in real-time rendering is truly astonishing.”
As Smolin points out, computer-generated animation has evolved exponentially since SIGGRAPH first started screening animation. “We’ve seen an industry explode with great stories, beautiful characters, and incredible technology combining to make us run to theaters as the next incredible piece hits the screen,” she says. “Computer-generated animation takes us from way out in the heaves where we have yet to travel, to the inner body where cameras never will. Animation shows us science and fiction; animation can depict anything we can imagine.”
And the festival celebrates all of this: the past, the present, and the future; animation and visual effects; independent projects; studio extravaganzas; teachers and students; for all of us who love the best in computer-generated animation, and the incredible artists who bring it to us.”
Featured on these pages is a sampling of still images from some of the juried projects featured in the 2008 festival. —Karen Moltenbrey
3deluxe Motion Showreel 2008 From Sascha Koeth (creative director) and others at 3deluxe in Germany.
Blizzard Entertainment’s StarCraft II Cinematic Teaser: “Building a Better Marine”
From Nick Carpenter (director) and others at Blizzard Entertainment in the US.
Mindplotter From Ilija Brunch, Jan Bitzer, and Tom Weber (directors) at
Filmakademie Baden-Wuttemberg in Germany.
“Wanderlust” Music Video for Bjork From Damijan Saccio at UVPhactory in the US.