Here you will find all the nominees from 2014, with background information and a link to the article (if it is already authorised for publication). We have already reported on some of the articles in Digital Production. If you would like to read more here: The relevant articles can be downloaded as a PDF at the end of this news item.
Nominees in the “Best Postproduction” category
Ripper Street – Season 2
Screen Scene VFX
Ireland
“Ripper Street” was a British crime series that aired from 2012 to 2013. It is set in London’s East End in 1889, six months after the murders of Jack the Ripper. For the second season, Irish studio Screen Scene transformed present-day Dublin into 19th century London.
Game of Thrones – Season 4
Mackevision Media Design
Germany
The studio was involved in the fourth season with 72 shots, on which over 40 artists worked for six months under the supervision of Jörn Großhans. In addition to environments, matte paintings and 3D set extensions, the work focussed on CG ships and water simulations. These were created in 3ds Max with the Phoenix plug-in from the Chaos Group. In addition, armies and soldiers were realised using crowd replication and crowd creation in both Nuke and 3D.
Father’s Delight – Ferrets
ScanlineVFX
Germany
Scanline VFX provided the effects for the comedy with Matthias Schweighöfer. The task was to create a photorealistic, close-up-capable, animated ferret, which had to be directly comparable in the cut with the real ferret, which played a major role in the rest of the film.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Trixter Film
Germany
Trixter Film contributed VFX work to the second instalment of “Captain America”. The studio is experienced with Marvel and has already worked on “Iron Man 3”.
Bot Wars Trailer
Unexpected
Germany
Proof-of-concept trailer for the screenplay “Bot Wars” adapted by the directing duo “Alex & Steffen”. In just over three months, numerous locations were designed and modelled and a wide variety of characters were created. The hero robots had to be close-up-capable, even if they can only be seen in detail in a few shots.
Nominees in the category “Best newcomer production”
Wrapped
Roman Kälin, Falko Paeper, Florian Wittmann, Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg
Germany
The decay of one is the basis for the life of another. The world, with its endless interplay of eating and being eaten, takes on a new dimension when the unexpected power of nature meets the existing structures of our society. What is believed to be eternal melts away in the course of time. The only constant is change.
Atoms
Adrien Cappai, Chloé Mille, Valentin Tuil, ArtFx
France
In an abandoned warehouse, an artist paints a wall while behind him his art supplies and all sorts of other objects lying around take on a life of their own. The more he exerts himself artistically, the more movement comes into the warehouse.
The Rise and Fall of Globosome
Sascha Geddert, Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg
Germany
In the vastness of space floats a small pebble populated by the most extraordinary creatures: Small dark spheres that begin to multiply rapidly and show signs of intelligence.
Tea Time
Marie Kister, Marcel Knüdeler, Wilfried Pollan, Thomas Schienagel, Georg Simon Ohm University of Applied Sciences Nuremberg
Germany
In search of a mysterious red book, the elderly librarian Paul becomes increasingly lost in the depths of a gigantic library. The film uses this metaphor to deal with a serious topic.
Kaleb Lechowski, Mediadesign University
Germany
An extraterrestrial creature manages to free itself from the clutches of a machine and is nevertheless outwitted by it … “R’ha” was created within 7 months and was designed by Berlin film student Kaleb Lechowski alone, except for the sound and the dialogue. The film attracted a lot of interest, including from Hollywood. With any luck, there may soon be a feature film.
Nominees in the category “Best Trailer/Opener”
EVE: Prophecy
CCP Games
Island
The trailer was presented for the first time at the Eve Fanfest and provides an insight into how the development team envisages the future game design. The trailer was completed by a team of four within four months.
Assassin’s Creed Unity: E3 World Premier Cinematic
Digic Pictures
Hungary
The cinematic game trailer from Hungarian studio Digic Pictures takes the viewer to Paris in 1789, in the midst of the French Revolution. A young man named Arno embarks on an extraordinary journey to uncover the true forces behind the revolution and becomes a master assassin in the process. The trailer impresses with its detailed depiction of historical buildings and photorealistic characters.
Ryse: Son of Rome – Legend of Damocles
Platige Image
Poland
The brief for Platige Image was to use the trailer to create a contrast to the realistic game graphics based on the CryEngine. The look was realised with a graphic stylisation of the 3D elements.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Platige Image
Poland
The Polish studio Platige Image was responsible for the trailer for the third instalment of the “Witcher” saga. The artists normally work with 3ds Max and V-Ray, but for this project they used Maya and Arnold for the first time.
Titanfall
Respawn Entertainment, Electronic Arts
Germany
“Titanfall” is an online multiplayer game for Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC. The action takes place in the near future on a remote frontier planet torn apart by war. Players can give orders to their Titans, manned mechs, or control them themselves – as the situation demands. The gameplay allows players to run up walls like in parkour.
Nominees in the “Best Game Design” category
Watch Dogs
Ubisoft
Germany
Watch Dogs is set in a simulated city in which the player can control public transport in real time using a smartphone. With the help of Ubisoft Reflections, the studio behind the “Driver” series, the player character, hacker Aiden Pearce, can access over 65 vehicles. The game is based on the specially programmed Disrupt Engine. With the mobile platform Companion Game, players can also hack their way through Chicago outside of the console.
Titanfall
Respawn Entertainment, Electronic Arts
Germany
Online multiplayer game for Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC. The action takes place on a remote frontier planet torn apart by war. The game involves running up walls – similar to parkour – double jumps and the possibility of taking over a Titan. Players have the freedom to switch between pilot and Titan, allowing them to change tactics on the fly, attack or flee as the situation demands.
Extrasolar
Lazy 8 Studios
United States
In “Extrasolar”, the player explores the planet Epsilon Prime through photos taken by vehicles on the surface. The web-based game unfolds its story through emails, video and voicemail messages, PDF files and web pages. However, the majority of the story is told through images rendered in the cloud, which are different for each player.
YoKaisho
Klaus Fehkührer, Verena Demel, Sebastian Rangger, Wilfried Gruber, Radomir Dinic, Michael Huber, Sandra Obermann, Corinna Drebes, Salzburg University of Applied Sciences
Austria
The setting of the game is ancient Japan and the culture of samurai myths. Yokai – mischievous spirit creatures – haunt villages that need to be protected. The name YoKaisho means “four meeting points”. If you look at the trends in social networks and games, you realise that people are virtually connected but still alone in real life. YoKaisho wants to show that both the analogue and the digital medium have their raison d’être.
Ryse: Son of Rome
Crytek
Germany
Action adventure for the XBox One. The story takes place in ancient Rome and Britain at the time of the Roman Emperor Nero. The player controls the Roman soldier Marius Titus via gamepad from a third-person perspective through the missions. The game utilises the features of the new console, including SmartGlass and Kinect. Performance capture was used for the cutscenes and gameplay. Special focus was placed on the faces of the 14 story characters.
Nominees in the category “Best short film”
Le Gouffre
Lightning Boy Studio
Canada
Behind the ten-minute animated film is a team of three people who quit their jobs to devote themselves entirely to this project. Fans followed the creation of the film on the blog legouffre.com – a great help, as the three filmmakers ran out of money six months before the end of production. A successful Kickstarter campaign helped to complete the ambitious project.
Exode
Kathleen Cartier, Sandrine Gimenez, Nicolas Mrikhi, Baptiste Roy, Thomas Saez
Supinfocom Arles, France
In the middle of a barren desert landscape, a kind of stone dinosaur drags itself forward. On its back, in its stony skin, lives an equally stony people. When the path of the stone creature ends, a journey begins for this strange people.
Cuerdas
Pedro Solís García
Spain
Maria’s everyday life is interrupted when a new classmate joins her class. The disabled boy and the girl quickly become close friends. Cuerdas tells the story of this friendship, from beginning to end.
The Present
Jacob Frey, Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg
Germany
The boy Jack has been hiding on the couch playing computer games for days. One day, his mother surprises him with a special present. At first Jack rejects it, but soon his mother’s intention begins to take effect.
Lune et le Loup
Toma Leroux, Patrick Delage
France
Small children can be exhausting. New parents can sing a song about overtiredness and all-nighters. Just like the stuffed wolf in this short film. A feature film is also being planned.
Nominees in the “Best Visualisation” category
Help Save Us
Cluster Studio
Mexico
The message of the film is that everything we do to nature ultimately harms ourselves. It visualises the everyday waste of resources and the result if humanity continues to follow this path.
Polynoid/Woodblock
Germany
The film “celebrates” the return of robotic bees, in a future where real bees have long since died out. Together with Greenpeace, Woodblock, with the support of Soilfilms, created a film that aims to draw attention to the death of bee colonies.
Citius, Altius, Fortius
Felix Jacob Deimann, Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts
Germany
The title of the animation mirrors the motto of the Olympic Games (“faster, higher, stronger) and explores the question of how the essence of movement can be visualised. The movements of famous Olympic athletes were digitised and visualised in 3D graphics using motion capture and rotoscoping of original film footage from the respective Olympic competitions. The movements were reproduced frame by frame in Cinema 4D.
Red Bull Spielberg track introduction
Aixsponza, Peter Clausen film production
Germany
For the brand new Formula 1 circuit in Spielberg, Austria, we accompany Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo on their first lap. The special features of the track are shown, including one of the typical rapid weather changes in the Austrian Alps.
Peseta
Uli Henrik Streckenbach, Robert Pohle, Jochen Mader, Sebastian Werner
Germany
Climate change: The film and the underlying study by the Joint Research Centre ask how decision-makers can be spurred into action. The answer is not the constantly used symbol of the poor polar bear, but something that is important to all of us: our wallets. What will climate change cost, what damage will it cause?
Nominees in the “Best advertising production” category
L’effet Papayon – La fashpomme victime
WIZZdesign, Unit Image, The Andy’s
France
The film is part of a marketing campaign for the beverage brand Oasis (“The Berryfly Effect” or “L’Effet Papayon” in French). The concept envisaged marketing in France in the same way as a cinema film – with poster advertising and trailers. The films were shown in cinemas, on television and on the Internet. The live action filming for the four episodes was carried out within three days with a crew of 60 people. Scope: 30 shots per day on 11 sets.
Unit Image, The Andy’s
The Andy’s France
Father Christmas commissions a teddy bear to make a home cosy and Christmassy. The bear is clever and enlists the help of his peers. It goes without saying that not everything always runs smoothly. But the main thing is that the result is right.
Adidas Climachill – A Cooling Revolution
Glassworks
The Netherlands
The film strolls through the adidas Climachill campaign. The metaphor of ice and frost was to be depicted in an abstract world. From the perspective of a rollercoaster ride, it demonstrates how the product works – flat yarns, including the SubZero yarn with titanium, together with “cooling spheres” made of aluminium form a garment with a cooling effect.
Nature Sweet – Stop the abuse!
WIZZdesign, Blacklist, Unit Image, The Andy’s
France
Therapy for tomatoes: In the self-help group, they talk about terrible things … things you do when you process tomatoes … The American company Nature Sweet uses the advert to promote its products: intact cherry tomatoes.
BBC Winter Olympics
Platige Image
Poland
For the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, director Tomek Baginski from Platige Image opted for an inhospitable winter world combined with the voice of “Game of Thrones” actor Charles Dance (Tywin Lannister).
Nominees in the “Best Interactive Production” category
Skoda Superb – Visualiser
Aixsponza
Germany
The task was to create a car configurator which, in addition to the typical 360-degree turn, then plays a commercial in which the configured car is driving. Basically, the aim was to create a configurable advert for a car. For this purpose, a full CG car was animated on real shot backgrounds and produced in all possible colour and rim variants. In addition, the 360-degree exterior turn and three 360-degree interior turns were realised.
Immersive Lining
q-bus Mediatecture
Germany
At CeBIT 2014, visitors were able to experience a future vision of a flight in an Airbus. The combination of model, projection mapping, monitors and light enabled a new flight experience for interested passengers. Additional monitors and the use of iPads made it possible to display travel information, for example.
Paperworld – Augmented Reality
Volke Kommunikations-Design GmbH/Rayd GmbH
Germany
Paperworld is a miniature model of a modern city. All in white and as if folded out of paper. Looking through the iPad, this world comes to life. The efficient drive systems in the Volkswagen models are thematised: e-up!, e-Golf, Golf GTE, Golf TSI, Golf TDI, Golf TGI, eco up! and Jetta Hybrid as well as the sustainability measures of the “Think Blue. Factory.” The city model was created in autumn 2013 for the Volkswagen stand at the International Motor Show (IAA).
Time Machine: How great HelV is!
Tamschick Media Space
Germany
The 400-square-metre room immerses visitors for 15 minutes in the history of the kingdom of Wu during the Spring and Autumn Annals of 514 to 496 BC. Behind this is a system of 22 high-resolution projectors and more than 30 synchronised computers. These process the signals from 14 tracking cameras, generate real-time 2D and 3D graphics and blend them with the pre-produced film material. There is also a soundtrack with more than 30 channels.
SimpSymm – Procedural Sculpture Generator
Christoph Bader, Dominik Kolb, Ravensburg-Weingarten University of Applied Sciences
Germany
The core of the bachelor thesis is an algorithm for the automated generation of three-dimensional sculptures for 3D printing. The algorithm was implemented as an interactive app for Windows 8.1, which can be run on both Windows PCs and Windows tablets. No high-level engine was used for the implementation. The algorithm and 3D viewport were developed in-house. The implementation was based on C.
Nominees in the “Best Still” category
Mercedes-Benz 4MATIC Snow Monster
Mackevision Media Design, Jung von Matt, Limmat
Germany
This project is a print campaign for the 4Matic drive of various Mercedes-Benz vehicle classes, realised together with Jung von Matt / Limmat. A snow monster chases the vehicles, but they defy ice and snow thanks to their powerful all-wheel drive and easily escape the beast.
Winter
Cihan Özkan
Turkey
Turkish artist Cihan Özkan has created a realistic winter landscape.
Haze
Cornelius Dämmrich
Germany
“Haze” is the showcase of an anonymous life. A panopticon of boredom. The cabinet of curiosities without miracles. Created over a period of more than 7 months. The cobwebs are painted by hand. The splinters of the destroyed parquet floor consist of real geometry and were all placed by hand. The haze is not postwork, but separately rendered V-Ray Environment Fog.
Children’s paradise
Flaeck GmbH, Tobias Stierli
Switzerland
The idea for the picture came about while testing Modo’s new Dynamic Tools. The main focus was on the light and the colours.
Smoked
GV Prashanth
India
The painting took a month to complete and shows an old man feeling lost and lonely as he takes a drag from his cigarette.
Nominees in the “Special Jury Prize” category
SuperBot – A magnifying mess
Trexel Animation
Argentina
Short film by Trexel Animation about a small robot that uses a magnifying glass to make itself bigger in order to face a bouncing ball monster.
Azarkant
Andrey Klimov
Russia
In the future … a team of astronauts is sent on a ten-year journey to search for new life. On their way, they discover an abandoned spaceship and its terrible secret … Student work by Andrey Klomov, who made most of the film himself.
Pinnipèdes
Victor Caire, Supinfocom Arles
France
Training film by Victor Caire, student at the French animation school Supinfocom Arles. The given theme was “beach”. In the film, two pinnipeds (pinna – fin and pes – foot), also known as seals, are disturbed during their nap by a cheeky little bird.
Little Freak
Edwin Schaap
The Netherlands
A disfigured boy is encouraged by his father to make a wish when he blows out his birthday candles. The film is intended as a metaphor for the fact that the expectations of parents and the wishes of their children do not always match. “Little Freak” focuses entirely on emotions and a gritty, semi-realistic style.
Story
Grass Jelly Studio
Taiwan
The music video may look like an Asian version of Playmobil, but each scene is carefully set to reference three important Chinese philosophers and poets: The fable of Peach Blossom Spring, a utopian place, by Tao Yuanming, and a poem by Su Don Po, in which a person adapts to the ups and downs of life. The third theme refers to the fable “Zhuangzi dreamed he was a butterfly” by the philosopher ZhuangZi.
