"The Computer Animation Festival at SIGGRAPH is recognised as a qualifying festival by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and each piece in the Festival is truly something special, on its own merit," says Jerome Solomon, the SIGGRAPH 2014 Computer Animation Festival director. "There is no other festival to compare with the Computer Animation Festival at SIGGRAPH and this year, there are even more categories enriching the diversity of the show."
While more than 100 video pieces will be screened at the Vancouver show, the 2014 nominees were chosen from a wide field of more than 450 submissions. This year's selections will be featured during the Computer Animation Festival through a series of daytime selects and the iconic Electronic Theatre, allowing attendees to glimpse behind the magic of computer-generated effects, visualisations, and animations.
Best in show
- Winner: Box (USA)
- Directed by: Tarik Abdel-Gawad, Bot & Dolly
Box explores the synthesis of real and digital space through projection mapping on moving surfaces. The short film documents a first-ever live synchronized performance using 3D projection mapping, robots, and actors.
Jury award
- Winner: Paper World (Hungary)
- Directed by: Dávid Ringeisen, László Ruska, Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design
Paper World is an image film for the World Wildlife Fund Hungary where the values that WWF stands for become visible metaphorically on the level of a micro-world.
Best animated short
- Winner: Home Sweet Home (France)
- Directed by: Pierre Clenet, Alejandro Diaz, Romain Mazenet, Stéphane Paccolat, from Supinfocom Arles.
A house uproots herself and goes on an adventure in this memorable French animation from the famed Supinfocom school.
Best student project
- Winner: Wrapped (Germany)
- Directed by: Roman Kalin, Falko Paeper, Florian Wittmann, from Filmakademie Baden-Wüerttemberg
The deterioration of one is the foundation of another one's life. The world, with its never-ending interplay of eating and being eaten, takes on new dimensions when the unexpected forces of nature clash with the existing structures of our society. The only constant is change.
Best visual effects
- Winner: Gravity (United Kingdom)
- Directed by: Alfonso Cuarón, Esperanto Filmoj VFX work submitted by Framestore, United Kingdom
Gravity, this year's VFX BAFTA and Oscar-winner, turns filmmaking on its head. Rather than adding visual effects to a live-action plate, the film is around 80 per cent computer generated, with the live-action elements (Sandra Bullock and George Clooney's faces), integrated seamlessly with their CG spacesuits and surroundings.
Best visualisation and simulation
- Winner: Kinematics (USA)
- Directed by: Jessica Rosenkrantz, Jesse Louis-Rosenberg, from Nervous System
This video visualizes Kinematics, a system for designing and simulating flexible structures for 3D printing. Kinematics generates customized designs composed of tens of thousands of hinged, interlocking modules. The designs are computationally folded using rigid-body physics into a smaller form for fabrication by 3D printing.
Best game
- Winner: The Crew (France)
- Directed by: Maxime Luère, Dominique Boidin, Rémi Kozyra, from Unit Image
The concept of this full-CGI trailer consists of juxtaposing the two worlds valued highly by car lovers: aesthetically pleasing advertisements and action scenes. The features of the game, such as the novelty of the multiplayer aspect and the feeling of freedom in an open world, are highlighted through this concept.
BEST REAL-TIME GRAPHICS
- Winner: RYSE: Son of Rome (Germany)
- Directed by: Chris Evans, Peter Gornstein, Martin L'Heureux, Crytek
With Ryse, Crytek decided to focus on characters and emotion to serve the game and story. Ryse is an eight-hour game with an additional 110-minutes of linear storytelling content. The submission shows gameplay and cutscenes, both utilize the same assets and can be rendered in real-time.
Best commercial advertisement
- Winner: Three, The Pony (United Kingdom)
- Directed by: Dougal Wilson, Blink Productions. VFX work submitted by MPC
The pony’s bouncy moves were created using a photo-real CG digital double and extensive R&D to translate human movement to a horse. The film cuts seamlessly between CG and real-life footage. Fur was created using MPC's Furtility tool, and environments were altered using compositing and matte painting.
If you want to read more on this year's SIGGRAPH 2014 conference, pick up a copy of 3D World issue 185, on sale 15 July.
