Technical Directing Postgraduate Course

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.

Kira Vogt, TD 2nd year: 

"Mashing up mediums": presentation of project work and research project  "Simulation of physical painting mediums". 

Every animation medium has its own distinct style and feel. By combining them, a unique new experience can be created. In the film "Schattenflucht", stop-motion animation was combined with 2D animated shadows in an abstract, virtual 3D environment. An upcoming research project aims to simulate physical painting mediums with digital animation tools, which can be used on their own to easily create motion in paintings, or to give virtual worlds a hand-crafted feel.

This presentation will cover the approach to these work-in-progress projects and some of the techniques involved.

Justus Blönningen, TD 2nd year:  

Presentation of Research project "Framekeeper". Framekeeper is an AI-powered on-set companion that monitors cameras, lighting, and scene conditions in real time to prevent errors and capture detailed production metadata. It acts as a “third eye” on set, giving live insights and creating a complete, searchable record of every shoot.

Setextension 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. The workshop focuses on the technical and creative requirements and potential for traditional offline VFX using green screen and ICVFX with LED walls.

VFX Graduation Project

Mission to - 18°C

Philipp Dörrer (VFX Supervision), Yelyzaveta Davydenko (Animation Effects Producing)

In a dystopian future the world becomes too warm to cool a Jägermeister, so society needs to save the precious drink by sending it into space where it can be cooled down to its ideal temperature -18 Celsius. But what if there was a better way?