Technical Directing

Animationsinstitut of Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg offers a 30-month training program for computer science graduates who are aiming to become Technical Directors (TD). The program combines students’ previous technical knowledge with actual film projects. Working in a production team, they learn how to solve real-world problems. They design setups and rigs, acquire experience in lighting, shading, rendering, textures and effects, learn how to work with expressions and scripts, to program tools and plug-ins, to automate animation and other processes as well as to set up workflows and production pipelines. As part of the curriculum, students can actively participate in the Institute's research and development projects.

Speakers are TD students in their second year of project studies.

Paul Golter: Pipeline for final year project, Research: Asset Transformation Framework

Application deadline for courses starting in fall is February 15thFurther Information: technicaldirector.de

Set Extention Workshop

Each year, the Set Extension Workshop brings together students from the fields of animation/visual effects, camera and production design: In just three months, the interdisciplinary team creates a VFX short film - from brainstorming all the way to post-production. Under the guidance of lecturers David Maas (Production Management), Tonio Freitag (VFX,R&D), Thomas Stammer (Production Design) and Matthias Bolliger (Camera), around 15 students start each year at the beginning of October. This year the workshop focused clearly on the integration of technological innovation, as the visual effects were realized with an LED wall instead of green screen technology.

THE INFINITE BREAKROOM

Sebastian Ganschow (Director), Julian Dünser (VFX Supervisor), Joshua Grill (VFX), Marc Reuter (VFX), Christian Holm Andersen (VFX), Jan Wittkopp (DoP), Clara Tille Berger (DoP), Céline Ahlbrecht (Production Design), Sara Enslin (Production Design), Janina Wesnigk (Production Design), Sabina Stöckler (Production), Tom Tolle (Visual Effects), Hannah Schwarzl (Light), Eric Baudler (Editor), Klara Pfeiffer (Actress)

An overworked and underpaid office worker is fighting her way through the endless hallways of a surreal office building – just a shimmering goal in the distance to keep her going. A sign of hope? The promise of absolution? Or just a short break from this endless repeat of misery?

VFX Graduation Project: KAGE

Cast: Anon Mall, Bernhard FuchsMat Schaudig (Director, VFX Supervisor), Tito Uysal (Head of Production), Eskindir Tesfay (Producer, Action Director), Vincent Eckert (Director of Photography), Matthias Kammermeier (Stage Design), Krishna Dammert (Costume Design), Desirée Schober (Hair & Make up), Felix Goral (Prop Design), Bastian Faralisch (Editor), Patrick Kuhn Botelho (Film Music), Manik Möllers (Sound Design), Julius Kügel (SFX Supervisor), Julian Dünser (VP Unreal Operator), Fabian Peitzsch (VFX On-Set Supervisor), Bel Uysal (1st AD), Andy Peter (Production Coordinator)

Kage is a 3-minute Japanese Chanbara-inspired Action-VFX short film. The young samurai Taka trains on a remote mountaintop, fueled by anger. As he looses his temper he lashes out at his shadow, but the shadow blocks his attack and draws Taka into a fierceful fight. But how can a samurai defeat a shadow? Emotional, cinematic and spectacular, Kage is a modern-day homage to the 1960s samurai classics of Akira Kurosawa, motivated by the anime narratives of the late 1990s and powered by today's real-time VFX technology, dealing with the one enemy we all know we must fight and sometimes lose against – ourselves.