AEAF Announces First Speaker Sessions for 2019
AEAF is happy to welcome speakers to the 2019 programme - artists from UTS Animal Logic Academy and Krista Jordan, Head of Animation at AFTRS. Also, please note that entries to the Awards are now open. See the Entry Form.
UTS Animal Logic Academy - Projects
Artists from UTS Animal Logic Academy will be speaking at AEAF in August 2019. UTS ALA’s VFX lead Matt Estela and Creative Lead Chris Ebeling will present Academy projects with a focus on the transfer of skills from traditional VFX pipelines to real-time projects such as games, VR, AR and others. Animation director Simon Rippingale, at work on his PhD at UTS ALA, will make a presentation on his short film ‘Jasper’ that won a Gold Award at AEAF in 2018.
Matt Estela has over 17 years of experience in 3D animation, working at Framestore, The Mill, Finish and Smoke and Mirrors, as well as co-directing a studio called 'The House of Curves' with 3D artist and director Andrew Daffy. For the past 9 years, Matt has worked on many films and filled several roles at Animal Logic Sydney, most recently working as VR Supervisor on the Lego Batman Movie.
In 2014, Matt started using Houdini FX and created CGWiki Houdini tips that led to many speaking invitations and eventually towards education and the Academy.
VFX Lead Matt Estela
Creative Lead at the Academy, Chris Ebeling is an animator, creative director, digital artist and writer, having worked on Hollywood feature films such as ‘The Lego Movie’, ‘The Great Gatsby’, ‘Gods of Egypt’ and ‘Happy Feet 2’. He has also directed projects in virtual and augmented reality, as well as PC and mobile games. With artistic storytelling and creative direction as his main fascination, he keeps an eye on emerging technologies, while nurturing his passion for mentoring young artists of the future.
Animation director and PhD candidate Simon Rippingale will talk about making his short film ‘Jasper’, a Gold Award winner at AEAF in 2018. ‘Jasper’ began life as an animated story created as a part of an initiative to encourage young women to study STEM subjects and reject gender stereotyping. However, behind the scenes, the film has involved a huge amount of research as part of Simon’s PhD, which explores new techniques for realising moving images and visual effects on screen.
Creative Lead Chris Ebeling
The animation was developed at the boundary between analogue and digital animation and aims, Simon says, to ‘explore the way different image making techniques can affect the emotional experience of the audience by bringing greater tangibility and realness to story images’. He has created handmade real sets and models, as well as CG imagery, lights and elements, and combined them into a style between stop motion and 3D animation.
Along the way, his efforts to bring the analogue information into the digital process has included techniques ranging from 3D printing to motion capture. Use of photogrammetry led to importing the scanned set into Unreal Engine 4 and investigating how augmented reality could be used in real-time previsualisation. He also photographed his little set multiple times using a robotic arm to produce animation layers with identical camera moves.
Simon Rippingale, on set.
AFTRS Gets Animated
Krista Jordan is Head of Animation at the Australian Film Television and Radio School and has over twenty years of professional industry experience in creative and commercial filmmaking. Her professional film credits include ‘The Matrix’, ‘The Matrix Reloaded’, ‘Rabbit-Proof Fence’, ‘Moulin Rouge’ and Academy Award-winning ‘Happy Feet’.
Krista Jordan, Head of Animation
More recently, Krista’s focus has shifted to learning, leadership and strategic development, supporting and developing new talent as they take on the challenges of working as a creative professional in film and media. Before her current position at AFTRS, she was Learning and Development Manager at Animal Logic and worked with the curriculum development team to establish the UTS Animal Logic Academy ‘Master of Animation and Visualisation’ degree in 2017.
