Archive notice: This article was originally published on November 30, 2012. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
The diploma film "Oh Sheep!" by director Gottfried Mentor, created at the Institute of Animation, Visual Effects and Digital Postproduction at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, received the "CAF SIGGRAPH Jury Award 2012" at SIGGRAPH Asia on November 30.
SIGGRAPH Asia is the annual Asian edition of the largest and most influential international conference in the field of computer graphics and takes place this year from November 28 to December 1 in Singapore. The nearly seven-minute animated film "Oh Sheep!" was shown as part of the SIGGRAPH Asia Computer Animation Festival (CAF) in the Electronic Theater, the event’s largest cinema.
Gottfried Mentor, who accepted his award personally on site, is delighted. He said the team was very pleased by this internationally significant award and recognition and, alongside the jury, particularly thanked the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg’s Animationsinstitut for its excellent support during the intensive production.
The "Oh Sheep!" team also includes Leonid Godik, who produced the film together with Mentor, and Technical Director Marcel Reinhard. During production of the diploma film, Mentor and his team faced particular challenges. He explained that the film idea began with personal questions about tolerance, prejudice and religious-political fanaticism, particularly how hatred arises and how systems and society manipulate free opinion. Animation was the ideal way to treat such subjects humorously. Beyond developing the idea and dramaturgy—creating an internationally understandable film without language and finding the right balance between comedy and tragedy—the greatest challenges were animating 18 characters and elaborate rendering. Special effects included blood, dust, flying scraps of wool and their interaction with the characters and the stone-and-grass landscape.
The detailed credits with all students involved in the production can be found on the Animationsinstitut website under Student Projects.
DP issue 06/12, with a detailed making-of article about "Oh Sheep", as well as our animago magazine, can be found here: http://shop.digitalproduction.com/
Images: Animationsinstitut Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg/ Oh Sheep – Gottfried Mentor
OH SHEEP! TRAILER 1 from Gottfried Mentor on Vimeo.
