Little Heroes / LEVEL UP / Petrushka / Mine Diamonds – A minecraft parody / Grandpa tell me about the climate change

Little Heroes is the graduation project of Ciara Borgards and Ute Becker, VFX & Animation students at the ifs Internationale Filmschule Köln. The film combines live-action footage & animation to tell the story of a boy who lost his mother while escaping from war. Holding on to the memory of his mother, the boy remembers his favorite bedtime story, which was about an astronaut flying to the stars.

ifs Internationale Filmschule Köln:  Ciara Borgards (Director, VFX-Supervisor), Ute Becker (VFX-Supervisor) 

LEVEL UP consists of 3 custom built arcade machines that run an assortment of games built in Unity by the students of MOME Media Design. In the machines are CRT screens saved from the landfill to provide an authentic arcade experience. Each game is launched by hooking up its unusual looking Arduino powered controller built from recycled objects, bringing back the long lost fun of arcade gaming.

Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design Budapest:  Emili Pálinkás-Szűcs (Media Designer), Debóra Demeter (Media Designer), Asterinos Kaparelisz (Media Designer)

3D animated puppet drama about the clown marionette Petrushka, who is performing in a circus. A single touch by his beloved Ballerina magically gives him the ability to move without his strings pulling him. As he realizes the strings’ limitations, he tragically dies in the futile attempt to fight for his freedom.

Hochschule Darmstadt - University of Applied Sciences: Ulrich Stöcker (Creative Director, Animator, Sound Designer), Antik Doli (Art Director, Concept Artist, Lighting Artist), Janis Civan (Character Artist, Animator), Ilona Goldenberg (Rigger, Animator)

Mine Diamonds – A minecraft parody:  A behind the scenes look at the creation of a Minecraft song parody of 'Take on me' by Aha. The original music video was a blend of real life action with rotoscoped 2 D animation in sketch format The real life character gets pulled into the 2 D sketch world, while being able to see both worlds through a mirror portal like structure. The idea for this collaboprative project idea was to create something similar showing 'two worlds' with a Minecraft game theme. The plot begins with a live action person playing a solo game of Minecraft when she sees another Minecraft character in the world (Evil Minecraft player). This character calls her into the game and she enters through a purple portal, mixing live action with virtual background scene using nDisplay. The live action character turns into a Minecraft character and they both enjoy a dancing session together. Ominously, the Evil Minecraft player turns on the other character and escapes out of the game, leaving them stuck inside. This project involves filming a real life character playing Minecraft using motion capture for the two Minecraft characters when they are both in the world doing their dance sequence, filming mocap and the virtual Minecraft world background simultaneously using nDisplay when the real life character turns into a Minecraft character and acquiring gameplay footage to insert into the IRL footage of the computer scenes.

Flinders University:  presented by Jason Bevan (Senior Lecturer in Visual Effects & Entertainment Design)

Grandpa tell me about the climate change: This VR Experience sets the user into a climate catastrophe to show him the dangers of climate change. It is based on scientific research that suggests a strong correlation between experiencing climate catastrophes and raising environmental concerns to promote green voting. The immersive factor of VR helps to achieve similar effects without harming nature.

Hochschule Mainz – University of Applied Sciences: Max Otto (Director and Developer)