SIGGRAPH 2016 Announces Computer Animation Festival Winners
Cosmos Laundromat © 2016 Blender Foundation
SIGGRAPH 2016, an annual event on computer graphics and interactive techniques, has announced the winners and highlights of the 43rd annual Computer Animation Festival. The entries were evaluated in three categories – Best in Show, Jury’s Choice and Best Student Project – by a jury of professionals from the visual effects, animation, research and development, games, advertising and education industries.
BEST IN SHOW
Borrowed Time (USA)
Directed by Andrew Coats and Lou Hamou-Lhadj, produced by Amanda Jones
In Borrowed Time, a weathered sheriff returns to the remains of an accident he has spent a lifetime trying to forget. With each step forward, the memories come flooding back. Faced with his mistake once again, he must find the strength to carry on.
JURY’S CHOICE
Cosmos Laundromat (Netherlands)
Submitted and Produced by Ton Roosendaal
In this short, Franck, a depressed sheep, sees only one way out of his boring life, until he meets with the quirky salesman Victor, who offers him any life he ever wanted. Cosmos Laundromat was created as part of the Blender Foundation’s Project Gooseberry as a pilot for a feature film project that, if it happens, will be the first free, open-source animated production.
Borrowed Time © 2016 Quorum Films, LLC
BEST STUDENT PROJECT
Crabe-Phare (France)
Directed by Mengjung Yang, Gaetan Borde, Benjamin Lebourgeois, Clarie Vandermeersch, and Alendandre Veaux
The Crabe-Phare is a legendary crustacean. He captures the boats of lost sailors to add them to his collection. But the crab is getting old, and it is more and more difficult for him to build his collection.
The 2016 Computer Animation Festival is comprised of two programs - the Electronic Theatre and Daytime Selects. An evening event, the Electronic Theatre will contain over 20 primarily narrative-driven short films from around the globe, showing technical excellence, art and animation. As well as juried pieces, this year’s theatre will show curated works such as Disney Pixar’s ‘Piper’ and Disney Animation Studios’ ‘Inner Workings’.
The Daytime Selects program has been revamped for 2016 and will include four sessions targeting the diverse demographics of the attendee base. These new formats will include:
BREAK IT DOWN – A chance for attendees to see a behind-the-scenes view of how movie magic is created, through demonstrations of modern visual effects from major studios and a glimpse of how standard techniques can be used in new ways. Celebrate the art of the breakdown with participating studios ILM, MPC, Framestore, Weta, Digital Domain, Pixar, Spin VFX, OLM, Mr.X and others.
Crabe-Phare © 2016 AUTOUR DE MINUIT
THE ARCADE – An audience experience that focuses on games from concept art through technology to implementation in cinematic and real time. The show touches on all stages from look development through recent developments in real-time game engines.
DEMOSCENE – A project from an international computer art subculture that specializes in self-contained computer programs that produce audio-visual presentations. It is designed for computer scientists, GPU lovers, shader architects and extreme real-time graphics artists who must exhibit programming, artistic and musical skills within highly constrained limitations.
WINNERS CIRCLE – A celebration of Computer Animation Festival award winners from the last seven years for attendees who wish to revisit some of their favourite winning content from Electronic Theatres of the past.
The Computer Animation Festival has been recognised by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as a qualifying festival. Since 1999, several works originally presented within the festival have been nominated for, or have received, a Best Animated Short Academy Award. View the trailer for the 2016 Computer Animation Festival.
SIGGRAPH 2016 will be held at the Anaheim Convention Centre, 24–28 July 2016. s2016.siggraph.org