Confine(s) From Makoto Yabuki of Tangram Company in Japan.
Shatter From Kouhei Nakama of Nabla in Japan.
Al Dente From Jean-Francois Barthelemy, Mael Francois, and Carlos Filipe Leon Ortiz
of Supinfocom Valenciennes in France.
For the first time in decades, the structure of the annual SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival has been revamped, but show-goers will not be disappointed. Like always, they will be treated to juried clips of compelling animations that surely will thrill, entertain, education, or inspire them. But instead of having the content divided into the prestigious Electronic Theater and the subsequent Animation Theaters, for 2008, the animations will be presented in a traditional competi-tive festival format.
In addition, there will be curated screenings that include a reel of eye candy from VFX/animation studios, a retro-spective from a dozen schools, a Flash reel, an historic look at Polygon Pictures, and more. “There’s so much going on,” says Jill Smolin, this year’s festival director and conference entertainment director. “It’s truly amazing.”
The competition portion features approximately 80 unique pieces that reflect the state of the art in computer graphics animation for 2008. Culled from hundreds of submissions, the content spans the vari- ous industries where CG animation plays a vital role: feature films, scientific visualization, animated short films, computer games, and television commercials, to name a few.
“Computer-generated animation has evolved exponentially since SIGGRAPH first started screen-ing animation. We’ve seen an industry explode—great stories, beautiful characters, and incredible technology combining to make us run to theaters, as the next incredible piece hits the screen,” Smolin points out. “CG animation takes us from way out in the heavens, where we have yet to travel, to the inner body, where cameras never will. Animation shows us science and fiction: It can depict anything we can imagine. I hope the new format celebrates all this: the past, the future; animation and visual effects; independent projects, studio extrava-ganzas; works from teachers and students; for all of us who love the best in computer-generated animation, and the incredible artists who bring it to us.”
These two pages feature still images from some of the incredible animations that will appear in this year’s festival. —Karen Moltenbrey
Quand revient la mousson From Benjamin Beal, Mikael Brosset, Benjamin Foumet,
and Cynthia Guilpin of Supinfocom Arles in France.
The VFX of Movie Dai Nipponjin From Hiroyuki Seshita and Hitosi Matumoto of
Yoshimoto Kogyo Company in Japan.
Family Portrait From Emanuel Strixner of Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg.
Morula From Kristian Labusga, Stephan Schaefholz, and Anja Hartmann of
Stuggart Media University in Germany.