Belgian director and visual artist Jean Paul Frenay teams with friends in the CG department at Condor’s Brussels facility for this experimental narrative, “anticipating a future where a major corporation has developed a unique software, based on organic virtual reality, which holds all the lost memories of humankind.”

“the main challenge was to achieve the subtle mix of the organic and the mechanic, which was really important to me. Real Flow and Zbrush helped us a lot getting the right look for the organic parts while the rest was mainly done in Maya and finalized in After Effects.

“I didn’t really have a production schedule. Everybody worked on the project for free so we had to do it in our spare time. I was very pleased that condor accepted to help me on this one. This project was mainly created to have fun with friends, to escape from my commercial work and to push the limits a bit further.”

DIRECTOR: JEAN PAUL FRENAY ⎮ ANIMATION: CONDOR ⎮ COUNTRY: NETHERLANDS ⎮ SOFTWARE: Maya, Real Flow, ZBrush, After Effects, Photoshop, 3Delight, Final Cut, Nuendo

Scott Wenner, CD at Minneapolis design, VFX and animation studio motion504: “As a huge fan of films like Delicatessen and City of Lost Children, i love the aesthetic of combining elements from different time periods, mixing the old and the new. While the period in the film is purposely unknown, this is how we envision the earliest motion graphic designer.

“The biggest challenge we faced had to do with the aicp’s only caveat: sponsor names may change at any time during production. this meant the 3d models must be built flexible, interchangeable or even newly created at moment’s notice.

“The project certainly required us to be nimble, but the creative liberties we were given far outweighed the technical parameters.” motion504 crafted all visual elements of the open, including the 16 magical machines, from live action shoot to finish.

Director: Scott Wenner ⎮ Production: Motion504 ⎮ Software: ZBrush, Cinema 4d, After Effects, Photoshop, Syntheyes, Final Cut, Apple Color, Excel

Dvein: “When we were invited to make the F5 titles we wanted it to have a real match with the eclectic spirit of the conference. The idea was to get the soul of the speakers into the titles in some way. We asked them for the names of five objects that inspire them or have anything to do with their work.

“We received all kinds of answers, really interesting objects that could give us a starting point and translate it into our images: wind turbines, microscopes, lights, smoke, lamb rib cage, french bulldog, etc. the speakers didn’t know what their answers would be used for, but they were the seed for the story. in this way, all the speakers have added their bit and there is not a unique author but a multiple collaboration. two weeks for concept/timing, 10 days for production (double full-time).”

Israeli animation student eran hilleli brings a restricted palette and an assured vision to these two films made during his second and third years at the bezalel academy for Fine arts and design in Jerusalem.

Knowledge of the Cone

Brief: “choose any piece of art and let it influence you towards making a short animated film. This film was inspired by one of Jean-Michel basquiat’s paintings.”

Challenge: “Mixing drawn animation with 3d particle systems.” Schedule: one semester instructors: hanan Kaminsky, Mysh, Sharon Gazit

Inside/Out

Brief: “Make a sequence concentrating on production value.” challenges: “Starting a project without a solid narrative or even a solid non-narrative, then dealing with the ambiguous foundations of a not-so-planned short story. Mixing 2d and 3d and having them blend properly and making 3d particle systems appear as drawn animation.”

Animación: Eran Hilleli | Software: After Effects, TVpaint, Cubase | País: Israel

Inspired by the paintings of 20th century abstract master Josef albers, baptiste Sola of Saint ouen, France created this minimalist animated tale with an adapted albers design as the stylized urban backdrop.

“the main creative challenge was to stylize movements and actions through simple visual and sound design,” says Sola, who assures us several more episodes are soon to follow. Schedule: “three days to design the visuals, perfect the timing, and animate, with another seven days for the audio.”

Animación: Baptiste Sola | País: Francia | Software: After Effects

Noam Gelbart prods the frontiers of the infographics genre with his thesis film about religious fanaticism created during his studies at Bezalel academy of art and design in Jerusalem.

“creatively the challenge was to keep the narrative clear and understandable without revealing the topic in question right off. this made the scripting process a lot longer than I anticipated and left me with little time to actually get this thing made.

“the biggest technical challenge was the movement of the slides. After a couple days and thousands of keyframes, I realized getting a reliable hand-held motion was too time-consuming for the schedule.

I solved this by pointing a video camera at the floor and manually dragging a piece of paper exactly the way I wanted the slides to move. I then tracked and pasted that motion into the cG slides i made in after effects.

“BTW – all the rules shown in the film are real rules from Judaism. Not passing between two women, only four fingers to wipe your bottom – seriously.” Schedule: Four months.

Dirección/Animación: Noam Gelbart | Software: After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator, Maya, Mocha