written by Joanne Weikel

Day 2 of the animation competition kicked off at 9am with a loud drumbeat and Afro Brazilian performers. The sound drew a large crowd in to watch the performances. The animation teams had worked through the night on their films so the very lively dancers lent some much needed energy to the competitors.

Paul Tillery, In Pyo, and Julien Lasbleiz, all of whom have films in the animation festival listened to the story pitches and gave the teams some last minute advice and critiques. Miles Perkins, the Computer Animation Festival Jury Chair also came in to see each films progress.

With only three hours left, the teams focused hard on finishing their films on time. So in Fjorg fashion, two more distractions were in store. First a belly dancer performed and was enticing enough to make quite a few people stop working. Within the hour a group of Samba dancers arrived and just about everyone stopped to watch. A few people were dragged onto the stage to join the dancers and the Fjorg chair and Viking High Priestess Patricia Beckmann-Wells joined in at the end. The infusion of energy kicked the teams into high gear for the final 2 hours.

New Distractions

All team rivalry disappeared as the end neared and teams were helping each other solve last minute problems. Sparkle Kittens were the first to turn their film in just under the hour mark. A spectator crowd had started to gather with 20 minutes left and cheered the teams on as they turned their film in to the tech support staff. As we waited for the last team to submit their film, Patricia, talked about the evolution of the event and passed the crown off to Tereza Flaxman who will preside over Fjorg for 2010.  Finally with minutes to spare, the last team handed in their film.

Films will be available for viewing on the Fjord blog Wednesday and the awards ceremony will take place on Thursday at 6pm in Hall E 1-2.  Find out more at wp.siggraph.org/fjorg

This site is a member of Animation blogspot, part of the Animation World Network

written by Joanne Weikel

SIGGRAPH 2009 Fjorg! competition started at 9am Monday, August 3 in New Orleans. In it’s third year, the event attracted many talented animators both students and professionals.

The competition, created by Patricia Beckmann as an Iron Animator event challenges the competitors to create a short film (15-45 seconds) from concept to finish in the short time span of thirty-two hours. To make the task more demanding, distractions are scheduled throughout the day to entice them away from the film making process.

At work.

This year there are ten teams of three people coming from Ringling, RIT, Bunko Studios (New York), The Monk (Thailand), and Cinepix, Anipark and Toiion all in South Korea. They are using a variety of techniques with 2D, 3D and a mixture of the two styles.

One unfortunate team started one person short due to airline delays. As one team member says, ” We’re so good that we had a one person handicap”.  Bold statement but they seemed to be doing fine in the early stages.

Brainstorming

Each year a theme is assigned for the films. When Great Expectations was announced, the teams started right in on the brainstorming of ideas. Less than two hours later, they were able to pitch the ideas to two industry veterans, Frank Gladstone, an independent story consultant to major studios, and Grue DeBry, a 20 year production veteran.

They were treated to a quick visit from this years keynote speaker Randy Thom of ILM for some feedback on their sound choices. Sound files are provided every year but this year each team received different sound files. Two teams have already started some rivalry. Briar Roses and Sparkle Kittens, both from Ringling have a friendly if somewhat intense relationship keeping the atmosphere lively.

More working.

Seven hours into the competition, the animators were working away on modeling, backgrounds and sound. Rod Ibanez of Sony stopped by and gave advice to the teams as they refined their stories and worked out the details. Jason Howie also shared his time and expertise giving a short presentation and his input on their films.

Even more working.

Meanwhile, the missing member from The Stepped Children finally arrived at 4 pm to the cheers of everyone.

Carlye Archibeque from the Computer Animation Festival very generously brought a few more key people over to talk with our teams. Jules Urbach of OTOY listened to the 5-second pitch from each team and director Peter Berg lent the teams his insight.

Distractions.

Distractions, a traditional part of Fjorg!, began this year with a Brazilian performance group, Presentation of the Orixas. Most of the teams worked right through but we managed to capture the attention of two teams for a little while. After the lights were turned down and the glow sticks came out, the competitors were treated with a late visit from the 2009 Siggraph chair, Ronen Barzel who shared a few stories about his time at Pixar.

At midnight we did manage to engage just about everyone in the Reverse Pillage where the staff runs through the room throwing inflatable swords and hammers at the competitors who then turn on each other.

Back to work.

Since then, the teams have been diligently working, only a few taking nap breaks. A projected countdown clock reminds everyone to manage their time. To help keep the competitors awake, loud music is played throughout the night. Even at 4am most of the teams are still working though punctuated by lots of yawning and stretching. Student volunteers, a floor runner, tech support and the blogger are also here to keep them company.

Events for Tuesday include an Afro Brazilian performance group a belly dancer and Samba show as well as a variety of speakers from the industry’s creative pool.

Some time for fun.

The competition continues through 5pm Tuesday when they must turn in rendered films. The judging and awards ceremony takes place on Thursday at 6pm and is open to any SIGGRAPH participant. A documentary being filmed during the event will be shown as well as the individual films. More information can be found on the live blog at wp.siggraphorg/fjorg.

This is a serious competition.

This site is a member of Animation blogspot, part of the Animation World Network