Archive notice: This article was originally published on July 21, 2006. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Despite midsummer heat in Munich, hardly a seat remained empty at the eighth Animation Meeting in the “Black Box” of the Gasteig cultural center. There were four keynotes on current productions to hear and see, including one rather unusual for this setting.
Gert Zimmermann, whose Film Tools Consult organized the event together with Mediencampus Bayern, guided the program.
To begin, Michael Coldewey reported on how Trixter brought the virtual performer Hui Buh to – undead – life in the film of the same name. In this production, Trixter had the task of developing, modeling and animating the characters, while CA Scanline from Grünwald near Munich handled rendering and post-production. A collaboration that, according to Coldewey, was pleasing for both sides.
The difficulty with the lead character was developing a virtual performer who looks like a ghost, nevertheless appears lovable and fits the voice of “Bully” Herbig, who voices Hui Buh.
After countless character studies, it was only the Spanish cartoon specialist Carlos Grangel who managed to find a convincing solutionto. He also helped develop the acting for Hui Buh. A 3D scan of “Bully’s” face was helpful in this.
More about the production can be found in DP 05:06, which appears on August 22.
#Animation Meeting July 20, 2006
The post-production artists at Arri Digital Film had to undertake an enormous compositing effort for the Adidas marketing campaign “+10” (see the detailed report in DIGITAL PRODUCTION 02:06). By keying and rotoscoping, they moved the players of the German team from the real shooting location in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium to Munich’s Allianz Arena and, along the way, also turned a small group of extras into a full stadium.
Chad Hammes reported on the adventure of shooting an American film in Germany. “Happily N’Ever after” was originally planned as a 2D production, but it soon became clear that 3D was the better solution.
What is special about the Berlin Film Companie (BFC) project is that it follows major American productions both in its production method and its financing – albeit one league below Pixar, Dreamworks and company. The team did the main work in the heart of Berlin near Friedrichstraße. This is also where the render farm, which has since grown to 1,000 CPUs, is located. As reasons for the choice of location, Hammes could point not only to the undisputed party qualities and cheap housing in the capital, but also quite tangibly to the proximity to Mental Images. The manufacturer of the Mental Ray renderer worked intensively with BFC on this production. The film has now been completed after only 26 months, but will not be released in cinemas until next spring.
To conclude, things became unusually real: Thomas Schneider-Trumpp of Scopas Media showed how the stop-motion film series “Good Halves, Bad Halves” is created from silicone, modeling clay and a great deal of patience.
Even though the rows of visitors slowly thinned toward the beer garden near the end of the event, organizer Gert Zimmermann was highly satisfied with the speakers and the audience.
The next Animation Meeting is planned for October 19, 2006. From 6 p.m., the industry is to meet as part of the Munich Media Days in the Media Arena of the ICM at the exhibition grounds.
Further links:
- Trixter
Berlin Film Companie
