Event: Motion Design Fest 2013

Date: 8 November 2013, Stadsschouwburg, Amsterdam. 9.30 am – evening
We are sold out. Hurray!, and sorry!

Teamed up again with the amazing Playgrounds Festival for the third consecutive edition of our one day Motion Design Fest in Amsterdam on Fri Nov. 8! Visit playgrounds.nl for info on the Eindhoven and Tilburg programs on 6 and 7 Nov.

Presented by Playgrounds & Submarine Channel, Motion Design Fest 2013  puts the spotlight on contemporary trends and developments within the field of the moving image. Covering film, animation, vfx, motion design, music videos, animatronics, and character design, our speakers will inspire you with their projects and dreams, and they will share their creative process, as well as their best failures.

Artist Talks
Rex Crowle | Neal Scanlan & Gustav Hoegen | BUF | Julia Pott | Psyop, David Chontos | Moniker | Polynoid | FIELD | Belinda van Valkenburg @ PIXAR
Moderator Fons Schiedon

Program schedule last update Nov 5

Program brochure contains the complete festival program for both Amsterdam and Tilburg

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Rex Crowle, Media Molecule (Game design)

Rex Crowle is a graphic designer, animation and game director who often operates under the moniker of Rexbox. Being raised at a remote farm in Cornwall (UK), Rex started his career as a freelance creator of digital art and animation before becoming a graphic designer at Lionhead Studios where he worked on big video game titles such as Black & White, Fable and The Movies, as well as producing animation for MTV and the BBC. Rex was also involved in the formation of the games studio Media Molecule, including the organisation’s distinctive identity and the original and much-lauded visual style of the PS3 launch title LittleBigPlanet. The last time Rex was at Playgrounds, he had so much interesting stuff to tell that we thought he needed to come back to finish his story. And it will be promising: Rex just won a BAFTA Breakthrough Brits Award, and as a Creative Lead, he’s just finishing up Tearaway, a handheld adventure in a papercraft world which will be launched November 22.
rexbox.co.uk

Neal Scanlan & Gustav Hoegen (Film/Animatronics)

Neal Scanlan is one of the founder members of the Jim Henson Creature Shop, where he was Animatronics Supervisor, and later Creative Supervisor. Neal’s achievements and the success of Babe (1995), which won an Oscar for Best VFX, resulted in Neal and his team producing the animatronic effects for Walt Disney’s 101 Dalmatians (1995), the Special Make-Up Effects for Anthony Minghella’s The English Patient (1994), and numerous TV commercials. In 1996, Neal left the Jim Henson Organisation to form the Neal Scanlan Studio.
Dutch talent Gustav Hoegen developed his talents with Neal as his mentor. Gustav is a world leading expert on animatronics, whose robot reel recently went viral. Hoegen created the hyper-realistic head of The Engineer in Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, worked on Clash of the Titans, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Gustav is the world’s top in Animatronics, and is now working on a very big and very exciting secret project.
nsstudio.co.uk

BUF (Film/VFX)

BUF is one of Europe’s leading VFX and animation studios, based in Paris and Los Angeles. Not only are they behind the success of Luc Besson’s Arthur and the Invisibles II & III, but their VFX and computer animations are used in over 1,000 commercials and music videos – the latter including The Rolling Stones, U2, Madonna, White Stripes, and Foo Fighters. Recent films BUF worked on include Life of Pi, Avatar, and Enter the Void. The company’s pioneering spirit and the rich and dreamy imagery, which reveals their French roots, are widely acclaimed and earned them many international awards. BUF even developed new software to simulate the movement of clothes and to generation crowds, along with new fluids and solid dynamics systems. The famous ‘bullet time’ effect of The Matrix? Based on BUF’s research! No need to slow down here, we’ll get the latest from Phillip Jeger of BUF.
www.buf.com

Julia Pott (Animation/Illustration)

When Julia was younger she wanted to be a balloon. Unfortunately that dream fell through and now she is a freelance illustrator and animator based in Brooklyn. Her work tends to explore the motivations behind human relationships, representing characters as mildly ridiculous anthropomorphic animals. With her fresh look on animation as a medium, and her edgy stories with an underlying dark layer, Julia is one of the promising and leading young illustrators of today. Since her graduation from the master Animation of The Royal College of Art in 2011, her films have played at festivals worldwide including Sundance, SXSW and Annecy, with awards from festivals including AFI, Chicago, San Francisco and The Netherlands. Being a non-balloon with an idiosyncratic signature, Julia was named one of the 25 new faces of independent film by Filmmaker Magazine in 2012, and named one of three animators to watch by Creative Review in 2013.
juliapott.com

Psyop, David Chontos (Brand Identities / Character Design)

Psyop is originally an army term. It refers to psychological operations aimed at influencing emotions, motives and reasoning of target audiences. A good name for one of the best motion design studios in the world. Have you felt Happiness when drinking coke lately? Thank David Chontos, creative director and designer for Psyop, for that one. David graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 2003 with a BFA in Experimental Animation and a Minor in Visual Psychology. He joined Psyop in 2006 as a Texturing and Lighting Artist. His work on Coke’s Happiness Factory earned numerous industry awards in 2007, including the Cannes Silver Film Lion, Gold and Silver Clios and the BDA World Gold for Other Design Applications. Chontos quickly became a Project Lead, and in March of 2008, he moved out to L.A. to help open Psyop’s west coast office. He has since become Head of the CG Department for the LA branch as well as a Creative Director. He continued his endeavors for Coca-Cola on the following six “Happiness Factory” spots and has worked on projects for clients such as Best Buy, Nesquik, Planters, and Kool-Aid.
psyop.tv

Moniker (interactive / video)

The brand-new Amsterdam-based design studio Moniker was founded in 2012 by Luna Maurer, Jonathan Puckey and Roel Wouters. But these three designers have been inspring each other for over a decade, collaborating on interative projects, music videos, installations, and performances. With Edo Paulus they wrote the Conditional Design Manifesto in 2008. Directed at designers and artists, this rather influential manifesto promotes a new design practice for the 21st century. Final Products? So last century… The Process IS The Product! With Moniker, Luna, Jonathan and Roel explore the social effects of technology through commissioned and experimental projects, such as their recent interactive promo for Light, Light – which is like a last salute to the computer cursor era. In Amsterdam, Moniker will talk about designing participatory systems, authorship, and the dilemma’s of crowdsourcing. Roel promises, “it will be fun and very relevant!”
studiomoniker.com

Polynoid (3-D / Storytelling)

Polynoid is a design and storytelling collaboration, founded in 2007 by a group of students who met at animation school. Their thesis film Loom created the foundation for an ongoing professional venture. Today, Polynoid has become the cream of the crop: a most wanted studio for motion graphics and motion design. With production studios in Berlin and Stuttgart (Germany), the directing team consists of directors, designers, and animators. Their narrative technique combines new forms of storytelling with a strong progressive sound design to create a minimalist, photo realistic and abstract sensory experience. Loom won Best In Show at the Los Angeles SIGGRAPH in 2010. They designed for the 2011 MTV Europe Music Awards, and created the Titles for the Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn web series, which were nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Title Design.
polynoid.tv‎

FIELD (AV & Experience Design)

FIELD, led by Marcus Wendt and Vera-Maria Glahn, is a studio that creates expressive and dynamic artworks for digital platforms, including audio-visual installations, experiences for the web and mobile platforms, and shareable digital artefacts. FIELD are interactive designers pur sang, innovators who are able to visualize the future of the moving image. Using realtime rendering effects, FIELD aims to generate hi-tech experiences with a human touch, pushing the boundaries of computer-generated design and interactive non-linear storytelling. No surprise then that we find FIELD among Co.Design’s 50 People Shaping the Future of Design.
field.io

Belinda van Valkenburg, PIXAR (Animation)

Foto: Carolien Sikkenk by Amsterdam EXPO, on Flickr

One of her first jobs in the movies was painting all the extraterrestrial monsters in Paul Verhoeven’s cult sci-fi movie Starship Stroopers. Since then she has worked her coloring, shading and texturing magic on some of the all-time highest-grossing animated feature films, including Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, Ratatouille, Toy Story 3, and the list goes on. You can imagine how super stoked we are to welcome Pixar Animation‘s Shading Art Director Belinda van Valkenburg at Playgrounds this year. Belinda is in charge of the defining the colors of Pixar characters and backgrounds, the structures of furs and fabrics, and the intricately detailed textures of objects. She is currently the only Dutch artist at Pixar. Some of you peeps might remember Belinda from her recent appearance at the popular Dutch daily show DWDD. Here’s a tip: prep yourself and visit the exhibition Pixar: 25 Years of Animation at Amsterdam EXPO (on till Oct. 27), where you can drewl over the amazing color scripts Belinda did for Little Nemo, along with tons of other amazing Pixar art and props.
Pixar.com

Moderator: Fons Schiedon

NEW: 24 Oct: In a Forest, short animated thriller by Fons Schiedon is now online!
Moderator on 6, 7, and 8 November is no-one less than Fons Schiedon. Fons (1980) creates short films and installations, and is also known for his commissioned work in illustration, graphic-, interior and broadcasting design and his work as animation director. His exhibition “A Man with a Plan” (2011, MU Eindhoven), featuring multiple video installations alongside sculpture and painting, was themed around the role of fiction in everyday life and processes involved in manufacturing stories. In 2012 Fons oversaw the animation for Poor Us – An Animated History of Poverty a partly-animated documentary produced by Submarine, that was broadcast in over 50 countries. Over the last ten years he has given dozens of lectures and workshops in Germany, the United States, Malaysia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, and the Netherlands.
Fonsschiedon.com

Club Up!

This is the closing night of 3 intense days of the Playgrounds Festival. After you’ve had a bite to eat, please join the Playgrounds speakers and crew for drinks, music, and maybe some waving of the arms and shaking of the hips (dancing!) at Club Up! Address is: Korte Leidsedwarsstraat 26, which is but a ridiculous two-minute walk from the Stadsschouwburg. See also this nifty Google map. Club Up! has a club night on Friday called Arcade, and this is how you get in: From 10-11 pm. admission FREE with your festival wrist band. From 11-12 pm. there is a discount price: 5 euro. From midnight on it’s the regular price: 10 euro. Hope to see y’all at Up!

Playgrounds Digital Art Fest 6-8 Nov

Playgrounds in Tilburg and Eindhoven takes place on 6 and 7 November. Please note that some presentations in Amsterdam will overlap with Tilburg. More info at Playgroundsfestival.nl

Get Social

Twitter @SubmarineChannl @Playgroundsfest | hashtag: #PlayFest
Facebook /PlaygroundsFestival /SubmarineChannel
Facebook event page Let us know you’re coming!
Instagram @SubmarineChannel (instant backstage snaps)
Subscribe to Submarine Channel’s monthly spam free Newsletter
Vimeo Channels /Playgrounds /Submarine Channel /Watch The Titles

Previous Amsterdam editions

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Submarine Channel is supported by Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie and the City of Amsterdam: Dienst Maatschappelijk Ontwikkeling. Playgrounds is made possible by: Gemeente Tilburg, Tilburg trakteert, Nederlands Filmfonds, Strp art & Technology, Provincie Noord-Brabant, Mk2, Bkkc, Theater De Nwe Vorst, Poppodium 013 Tilburg, Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam, onedotzero, Cre8ion.Lab, Trudo, Strijp-S Cultuurfonds.