Animated October at Roxy/NoD

Bio-NoD The team of the experimental space Roxy/NoD have prepared a really interesting series of projections of short animated films for this month. You can see the best of animated production from all around the world presented by Prague’s chapter of the world-wide computer graphics association SIGGRAPH taking place at Bio-NoD every Tuesday in October. Come and see the current animation trends.

 

This film show actually started at the end of September with the overview of the awarded pieces at this year’sf AniFest festival, what took place in T?ebo? during May 2006.

PsiCHOWe could see the best of individual productions from last year including all the animation techniques, such as computer animation represented by Libor Pixa’s PsiCHO  and awarded by the ministry of culture.

The best original film went to Michaela Pavlátová Karneval zví?at (The Carnival of Animals) due to the provocative nature through which it depicted the sheer strangeness and diversity of human sexuality, as the jury said. The best short film was by Denis Gaëlle from Great Britain, City Paradise, as well as the many others.

The second projection was focused on SIGGRAPH. The evening was divided into 2 parts – the first one, called Scientific Visualization of The Real Worlds, took us to the amazing world of computer animation simulations. We could see the 2002 flooding visualization simulation designed to help in predicting the river Elbe flooding into the valley in Germany. The other film showed us how proteins are manufactured, however the content itself was too scientific.  even so, the animation work with very complex 3D models of RNA combining together and describing all the chemical processes was incredible.

City ParadiseThe demonstrations of the animatic as the result of the computer animation process were also vVery interesting and helpful, all of which are used in the final film.  As were how the animators and postproduction teams combine real footage with computer animation to get the final movie. We could also see the fluid animation with dynamic meshes showing the difference between solid mesh and dynamic mesh used when simulating the fluids (such as smoke or clouds) to reach much more realistic appearances. This part was closed by a short film presenting transformations in architectural design showing not just the morphing but also the interesting parallels between different architectural styles and how the developed during the ages.

The second part of the evening called The Best of Animation Theatre was more artistic in nature. Adrian Kukal (Director of Film Dramaturgy at NoD) pointed out a very important and interesting trend in the art of computer animation – modern technologies have developed to such an extent that  viewers are more confronted with the authors’ perspective and autography than with the concrete computer technology. This phenomenon means the animated objects are no longer too uniformed, but more driven by fine art technique used by the author.

Karneval zví?at (The Carnival of Animals)We could see all kinds of animation techniques being used, from comic the look-alike film Noggin by American Brigham Young University, through to the aquarelle piece by Victoria Caution from UK called Brush. One of the more sunny films was Monster Farm 5 Circus Caravan showing the combination of Japanese anime and realistic computer animation in a never-ending spiral twisting globe zooming-in and out and turning to amazing perspectives. A more philosophical movie by Till Nowak from Germany brought us to anindustrial looking environment. The film called Delivery is telling the story of a sudden mail that opened the protagonist’s eyes to another reality giving him the opportunity to change his own life. The longest film came at the end. Over 14 minutes of story titled La Dernière Minute by French artist Forêt Bleue discussed the relationship between people against the societal machinery. The industrial image of society as “the steam power century” era was worked out to the smallest detail, representing the best of computer animation. The movie shows the sophisticated modern society gradually constructing bigger and better clocks to control reality. However, there is no time for two people to meet.

Animated October at Roxy/NoD goes on with further projections for the next 3 Tuesdays. Tomorrow you can get inspired by the Classical New Stories. Next week will give you the opportunity to jump into the Inner Spaces and the last show will bring the New Dimensions. Reconsider your next few Tuesdays and come to join the amazing world of animation.