The animago Award marked its tenth anniversary on 5 May at fmx/06 in Stuttgart’s Haus der Wirtschaft. Professor Bernd Willim of the German Film School hosted the nearly three-hour evening programme.
For the first time, the audience selected a favourite from five candidates for the animago Audience Award 2006 by SMS. Prizes for participating voters included an HP workstation.
The submitted work remained the focus. A 4K projector presented the animago winners, Audience Award nominees and 20 further entries from across the categories on a large screen. The programme also included compilations of submitted work and a retrospective of winners from the award’s first ten years.
Alongside the main prizes, the jury selected category winners in still image, animation, compositing, interactive work, and games and mobile entertainment, each divided into home, education and professional sections.
The awards were followed by an animago party in the Mia Seeger Hall. Autodesk and Avid sponsored refreshments and the DJ, while animation professionals and CG artists met into the early morning.
animago Award 2006: Main Winners
(Jury comments appear in italics below each winner.)
animago Award, First Place
Honorary award with white animago trophy
Production: “GEZ / Das schwarze Schaf”
Category: Professional / Animation / Advertising
Artists: Spans & Partner, Hamburg
Client: GEZ
Software: Softimage XSI
The jury described the GEZ commercial as a technically accomplished, coherent production. Its black-sheep character was strongly defined and animated to interact convincingly with the live performers. Exaggerated facial animation and details such as the hair simulation reinforced the result.
animago Award, Second Place
Production: “90 degrees”
Category: Education / Animation / Short Film
Artists: Jules Janaud, Raphael Martinez-Bachel and Francois Roisin, Paris
Client: None
Software: 3ds Max
The animation was matched creatively to the music and used an individual aesthetic shaped by abstraction and Cubist influences, strengthened by lighting and camera moves.
animago Award, Third Place
Production: “Die Sturmflut”
Categories: Professional / Compositing / Special Effects and Professional / Animation / Special Effects
Artists: CA Scanline, Munich, and Unexpected, Stuttgart
Client: RTL
Software: 3ds Max, LightWave
The jury credited CA Scanline’s water simulation, invisible effects and Unexpected’s compositing with creating a convincing impression of a flood disaster and its scale.
animago Award, Fourth Place
Production: “On-Air Design Disney Channel”
Category: Professional / Animation / Trailer, Opener
Artists: Fiftyeight, Wiesbaden
Client: Disney
Software: Softimage XSI, Shake
The animation combined familiar elements of Disney imagery into an opener aligned with the Disney Channel’s visual identity.
animago Award, Fifth Place
Production: “Depeche Mode – Precious”
Category: Professional / Compositing / Music Video
Artists: Effekt-Etage, Berlin
Client: Mute, London
Software: Cinema 4D, Combustion
The band was filmed in virtual sets and placed in surreal CG environments with twelve purpose-built 3D characters. Extensive compositing and colour grading, completed in Combustion, established the video’s distinctive atmosphere.
animago Audience Award 2006
Production: Trusted Computing
Artists: Benjamin Stephan [LAFKON], Lutz Vogel [pixelamusement.com]
