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The Art and Scienceof Visual EffectsSeminar and workshops on the creative use of digital technology in film, television and games.

14th – 16th May 2012 | Filmens Hus | Oslo, Norway

Digital Storytelling in collaboration with the Norwegian Film Institute present:

2 | digital storytelling

Digital Storytelling 2012:

VISUAL STORYTELLING EVOLUTIONTechnology has always been around to influence the type of stores we tell one another. It took humanity tens of thousands of years to advance visual story-telling from the primal cave paintings seen in the 2011 3D documentary Cave of Forgotten Dreams by Werner Herzog to the moving images we see on the screen today. Film, the most popular visual storytelling medium of our time has a relatively short history of a hundred years or so, and video games have only been around for about 50 years. While the computer gave birth to the latter it has also accelerated change in the former. In profound ways. We don’t have to go so far back to see rapid evolution in the Norwegian entertainment industries. In 2006 at the first Digital Storytelling event there was hardly a market for visual effects in films in Norway and our VFX talents, as well as some producers looked abroad. This all changed in 2008 with the film, Max Manus, a film that became a massive box office success with stellar Norwegian VFX. The quality of Norwegian visual effects was proven yet again in 2010 with the international success Troll Hunter. At Digital Storytelling in 2011 we saw how storytelling in filmmaking and games has been advanced with digital actors that the audience connected with emotionally. This year we continue to explore the future directions of film and games with fully animated productions such as Tintin, incorporating hybrid performance capture by live actors with animation and stereoscopic 3D, as well as a computer generated monkey carrying the weight of the story in the live action film, Rise of the Planet of the Apes. For films that rely on the performance of actors inhabiting a digital uni-verse, new production methods are developed to allow interaction between the scene, the actors and the director. Keynote speaker Sebastian Sylwan will discuss Virtual Production as well as present some of the groundbreaking advancements in technology pioneered by Weta Digital, giving a perspective on the current state of the art in filmmaking. So as we wait with great expectations for this year’s VFX heavy, block-buster Kon-Tiki we will take a quick look at the Nordic effects scene in our annual Nordic VFX omelette, and have a look in the pet shop window of Fido, Sweden to see what strange and wonderful creatures they have been creating in their virtual zoo. While filmmaking is adapting real-time 3D techniques used in games for Virtual Production, games are borrowing storytelling conventions from the cinematic expression. Putting emotions into games is made easier with the advancements in performance capture and real-time graphics processing. However where most games try to tell a story to the player, Theory Interactive who are here to present their work on Reset are trying to push the game medium “to form its own storytelling methods.” As we listen to our speakers today we can’t help but wonder where the combination of technological capabilities and artistic expression will lead us. What new stories will we be able to tell and what world visions will we be able to share? We thank our partners for their support and you for being here today to share with us our 7th annual seminar and workshop, Digital Storytelling: The Art and Science of Visual Effects.

Kim Baumann Larsen, Angela Amoroso and Eric Hansonco-founders / co-directorsMay 14th 2011

www.digistorytelling.com

Angela Amoroso: www.seasidescripts.noKim Baumann Larsen: www.pfx.noEric Hanson: www.xrez.com

design: Marius Renberg [ www.mariusrenberg.no ]webdevelopment: Netron [ www.netron.no ]printing: Flexitrykk [ www.flexitrykk.no ]

www.digistorytelling.com: Kim Baumann Larsen, Netron (Jørgen Aanonsen) and Marius Renberg

Speakers’ Dinner hosted by Digital Storytelling

norwegian film institute:Ivar Køhn, Director, Production and DevelopmentElin Erichsen, Head of Development Nedin Mutic, Advisor, NFI:LAB

ASSOCIATED EVENTS:

5D ConferenceTD ForumFrame by Frame

TECHNICAL PARTNERS:

InfografikkFotoPhonoThe FoundrySphere VFXNetron

MEDIA PARTNERS:

RushPrint.noMontages.noStoredyret.com3Dhue.comKreativt Forum

EVENT PARTNERS: Digital Storytelling 2012 is a non-profit event organized by Digital Story-telling in collaboration with the Norwegian Film Institute. The support given to the event from our partners with artistic and technical expertise, marketing, media coverage, funding and more, helps us to create world class seminars and workshops on the creative use of visual effects in film, television and games. We would like to thank our partners for their sup-port in making Digital Storytelling a success seven years in a row!


image credits: Cover: Reset: ©2011 Theory Interactive. Rise of the Planet of the Apes: ©2011 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. Tintin ©2011 Paramount Pictures and Columbia Pictures. Hugo's There: ©2012 Peter Spence, Electric Putty Creations. Eyecandy: ©2012 Stripe AS. Twigson in Trouble: ©2011 Paradox AS. Fredriksten Fortress: ©2012 Netron AS | Pages 4 and 5: Rise of the Planet of the Apes: ©2011 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. Tintin ©2011 Paramount Pictures and Columbia Pictures. | Page 6: Contraband: ©2012 Working Title / Universial Pictures | Pages 7: Eyecandy: ©2012 Stripe AS. Magic Silver 2: ©2011 Storm Rosenberg. | Page 8: Hugo's There: ©2012 Peter Spence, Electric Putty Creations. Eyecandy:©2012 Stripe AS. Twigson in Trouble: ©2011 Paradox AS. | Page 9: Fredriksten Fortress: ©2012 Netron AS, TineMelk AR: ©2012 Placebo Effects/ Labrat | Page 10 and 11 Reset: ©2011 Theory Interactive. | Page 12 and 13: Underworld Awakening: ©2012 Sony Pictures, Lakeshore Entertainment. Yoko: ©2012 Sony Pictures, Fido, Blue Eyes Fiction. | Page 14: Photos: ©Angela Amoroso | All images are ©2012 of the respective artists and/or companies, unless otherwise noted.

PROGRAMDIGITAL STORYTELLING 2012The Art and Science of Visual Effects Monday May 14 – Tancred, Filmens Hus, Oslo, Norway

08:30 Registration opens The doors to the cinema will open at 09:15.

09:30 Welcome: Ivar Køhn, Director Development & Production, NFI

09:35 Opening: Angela Amoroso & Kim Baumann Larsen, Founders & Directors

09:45 ALPO OKSAHARJU & MIKKO KALLINEN, Theory Interactive, Finland “Reset – the World Tells a Story”

10:30 Break

11:00 The Nordic VFX Omelette Placebo Effects, Netron, Electric Putty, Stripe, Qvisten Animation, (mini break), Framestore Iceland, Gimpville, and Storm Studios.

12:30 Lunch, Ben’s Cafe

14:00 FIDO, Sweden “New Creatures in the Pet Store” Claes Dietmann, VFX Producer, Mattias Lindahl, VFX Supervisor and Staffan Linder, CG & Animation Supervisor

14:45 Break

15:15 SEBASTIAN SYLWAN, Weta Digital, New Zealand (Keynote) “The Evolution of Storytelling Through the Convergence of Art and Science.”

16:45 What’s next for Digital Storytelling? Kim Baumann Larsen & Angela Amoroso

16:52 Seminar ends

17:00 Digital Storytelling Mixer– Something Sparkly @ Posthallen (Prinsensgate 8, Oslo) Post-seminar meet-up at nearby bar and restaurant Posthallen for drinks and networking. Delegates wishing to dine (at their own expense) should reserve a table ahead of time. (www.posthallen.no)

filmens hus: Head of Projection Department: Jan Eberholst Olsen chief projectionist: Geir Friestad cinema coordinator: Nikolai Fuglerud exhibition and museum manager: Svein Kojan seminar and workshop assistents: Henrik Falla and Helene H Harmes, NITH


Keynote:

SEBASTIAN SYLWAN

THE EVOLUTION OF STORYTELLING THROUGH THE CONVERGENCE OF ART AND SCIENCE

CTO WETA DIGITAL, NEW ZEALAND


Technology has had a way – over the entire course of human history – of changing story-telling. Reciprocally, experiments into better ways to engage and communicate through story have driven numerous advancements in technology. This free-flowing exchange has only been compounded with the advent and diffusion of digital technologies, which now span the full spectrum, from production to consumption of all media. This talk will use the history of digital tools and some of the recent (and not so recent) ground-breaking advancements in technology pioneered by Weta Digital, to provide a perspective of the current state of the art in filmmaking. Sebastian will also

explore future directions where the combination of technological capabilities and artistic expression will lead us, with a particular focus one of the entertain-ment industries hottest topics; Virtual Production.

In his roll as Chief Technology Officer at Weta Digital, SEBASTIAN SYLWANs helping to bring structure and continued impetus to Weta Digital’s long tradition of innovation in VFX. Before joining Weta, Sebastian served as Autodesk’s Senior Film Industry Manager. In this role he helped set the strategy for Autodesk’s products in the global film market, including the first steps into stereoscopic 3D. Previously, Sylwan was Director of Technology at Digital Domain, an Academy Award-winning VFX facility. He successfully renewed Digital Domain’s technology infrastructure while maintaining the legacy value of over 13 years of development and helped it venture into new areas including the facility’s first stereoscopic rendition of a CG animated film. Sylwan has also served as Principal Technology Advisor at USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies where he led the Light Stage 6 project. While living in Italy where he grew up, Sylwan designed, built and acted as the CTO of Lumiq Studios, the country’s largest production, post-production and 3D character animation studio. Sylwan also serves in numerous advisory boards and industry committees.

WETA DIGITAL LTD is an Academy Award® winning visual effects facility based in Wellington, New Zealand. Weta Digital offers world class visual effects for international feature films and commercials.

www.wetafx.co.nzSEBASTIAN SYLWAN CTO WETA DIGITAL, NEW ZEALAND

- Technology has had a way – over

the entire course of human history –

of changing storytelling.

SEBASTIAN SYLWAN


NORDIC VFXOMELETTE

A PRESENTATION OF THE LATEST PROJECTS AND WORKS IN PROGRESS.


FRAMESTORE ICELANDContraband show and tell: Supporting visual effects from IcelandDADI EINARSSON, Creative Director/VFX SupervisorIn working on Contraband, Framestore Iceland completed all vfx in the film totaling 220 shots, including a key sequence where a 300m freight ship crashes into Panama harbour. Our job on this project was to be completely invisible, to blend in with the ‘all in camera’ feel of the film and to never to let it slip into the vfx film genre. Since opening its doors in 2008, Framestore Iceland has taken on vfx work for several films including Australia, Where The Wild Things Are, Sherlock Holmes, Clash Of The Titans, Salt, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. In 2011 Framestore Iceland secured all visual effects for the Working Title/Universal film Contraband, starring Mark Wahlberg and directed by Baltasar Kormakur. Dadi began his career in 1992 at Ielandic VFX house OZ working on television com-mercials, graphics and film.

He relocated to London working for several facilities including The Mill and Glassworks and then to NY where he became head of animation at The Mill NY. He joined Framestore in 2000 as animation lead working on numerous projects including

Dinotopia, the CG basilisk in Chris Colum-bus’s Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the CG cattle sequence in Baz Luhrman’s Aus-tralia and the CG shipyard scene in Guy Ritchie’s Sher-lock Holmes.

As Animation Supervisor he led the anima-tion team on the CG characters of Iorek, Ragnar and a host of other bears in Chris Weitz’s The Golden Compass. He has recently worked on Alfonso Cuarón’s space epic Gravity as Animation Director. Dadi Einarsson is co-founder and Cre-ative Director of Framestore Iceland.

www.framestore.com

GIMPVILLE ASStereoscopic set extension: Behind the scenes of the thrilling mine cart sequence in the 3D feature film Magic Silver 2.LARS ERIK HANSEN, VFX Supervisor / ProducerGimpville is an award winning Norwegian VFX and animation studio, with eight years beneath its wings. To present date the stu-dio has worked on several feature films, and a large number of commercials. Gimpville started its journey in 2002 with two people having a vision of contri-buting to the small almost non existing Norwegian VFX market, and making it grow. Today the company counts over a dozen full-time employees and several freelancers. In 2009 and 2010 Gimpville was awarded the national “pioneering excellence” award – an award that is given to Norwegian companies that have shown outstanding business results within the last four years. Gimpville is composed of people with an artistic side and extensive technical skills which gives us a mix of people that can create the most beautiful and complex ani-mation and vfx shots. Lars Erik Hanson started his career as an 3d generalist in an advertisement company more than 10 years ago. In 2003 he joined the founders of Gimpville and became a partner soon after. During the past 4 years he has supervised and produced the visual effects on eight feature films. In 2011 Lars Erik was hired as pre-production VFX supervisor/consultant for the upcoming feature films, Kon-Tiki and Magic Silver 2, doing the planning, budgeting and prepa-ration of packages to potential VFX vendors.

www.gimpville.no

A PRESENTATION OF THE LATEST PROJECTS AND WORKS IN PROGRESS.

– Going from fantastic creatures to seamless supporting visual effects, the job of the vfx supervisor is to always understand the story telling needs of each film and to deliver shots that sit in harmony with non vfx scenes. DADI EINARSSON, FRAMESTORE ICELAND


ELECTRIC PUTTY“Hugo’s There – The Unbelievable Truth”: Adding a little character with e>motion.PETER SPENCE, VFX Artist. “Hugo’s There” is a web-series combining film, performance-capture and animation. Using Electric Putty’s internally developed “e>motion” system, puppetry and digital characters combine seamlessly to bring the audience entertaining performances at breakneck production speeds. Peter will be demonstrating his almost disturbing fascination with bringing slightly odd characters to life. He is driven by the suspension of disbelief and the challenge of giving inanimate objects a soul. His favou-rite Muppet is Gonzo. Born in the UK, Peter studied at the internationally renowned Falmouth College of Arts. He moved to Norway in 1999 where he set up his company Electric Putty Creations, and has been working in the film and television industry since. Notable pro-ductions include his first short animation film “Remote Descendants” which won a Royal Television Society award and his Amanda-winning work on the series of “Twigson” films as Visual Effects Supervisor and various production roles. He also likes Marmite.

www.electricputty.com

STRIPE STUDIOS ASEyecandy for broadcast: A peek into the world of motion graphics for broadcast.MARTIN KLINT, 3D SupervisorOriginally from Sweden, Martin has over 8 years experience as a 3D and VFX artist and supervisor from both Oslo and Sydney. He’s a 3D generalist to the bone, and has a special interest for animation and

rigging. In 2007 he co-founded Stripe studios in Oslo, where he today is the 3D supervisor and a major partner. Martin has worked on hun-

dreds of projects throughout his career, where the main focus the last couple of years has been on TV commercials and Broadcast design. STRIPE STUDIOS started up in 2007. With an incredible dedication, amazingly hard work and close to 400 productions under its belt, Stripe Studios is today one of the most experienced studios in Scandina-via. Stripe delivers 3D, VFX and post production for film, commercials, televi-sion, web and print. Stripe focuses on being media neutral and constantly develops it broad expertise – both creatively, technical-ly and artistically.

www.stripe.no

QVISTEN ANIMATION“Twigson in trouble”: A brief talk about VFX that Qvisten Animation did on Twigson 3.MARTIN SKARBØ, VFX SupervisorWith a background in graphic design, and self-taught in the field of CGI, Martin started working with visualization in 2003, and since then ventured into VFX. He has contributed on a number of feature films and a long list of commercials and tv-vignettes. In addition to being a generalist, he does simulations, ranging from water,

fire, destruc-tion and explosions to delicious liquid chocolate. He started working at Qvisten in 2009 and was recently VFX supervisor on

“Twigson in Trouble”. At the moment he is involved with the new Flåklypa movie, “Christmas in Pinchcliffe”, “Pelle Police Car 2” in addition to commercial work.

MORTEN ØVERLIE, Animation Supervisor. After graduating from Volda (2006) Morten started his professional career as an anima-tor with Funcom. He has worked on various projects together with Qvisten and Filmkameratene. Øverlie is currently work-ing as animation supervisor on “Pelle Police Car 2”. He believes “Monsters Inc.” to be the best movie ever made and dreams of doing crunches in the gym with Michael Bay.

www.qvisten.no

– Animators are the best. You are hard pressed to find more passionate, eccentric, loveable, dysfunctional and delusional bunch.MORTEN ØVERLIEANIMATION SUPERVISOR

– VFX should have a natural place in the workflow of a director or producer, it’s our job to make this as easy as possible.MARTIN KLINT


STORM STUDIOS ASCreating digital water: The process of creating simulated water and oceans and the problems to be aware of.MAGNUS PETTERSSON, Lead Effects TDStorm Studios is the largest supplier of VFX for feature films in Norway including films

as Troll Hunter, Max Manus, Dead Snow, The King of Devil’s Island, as well as work on numer-ous commercials. In 2010 Storm Studios merged with Nordisk Film and co-founded Shortcut Norway, a post-

production company that does film editing, color grading and sound work, giving clients a complete VFX and post-production facility in-house. Magnus has over 10 years of experi-ence doing CG and started out his professional career as a 3D generalist at Storm Studios in 2008. Here he have been working on numerous commercials and fea-ture films such as Max Manus, Dead Snow, King of Devil’s Island and Troll Hunter. Magnus is currently the lead effects tech-nical director at Storm Studios mainly working with crowd systems, pipeline, particle effects, character FX, smoke, fire, destruction and most recently with heavy water effects for the upcoming feature Kon-Tiki.

www. stormstudios.no

NETRONFredriksten Fortress: 350 years in eleven minutes. The history of Fredriksten Fortress, an outdoor pro-jection on the walls of the inner fortress.JØRGEN AANONSEN Managing DirectorAny a happy collective needs a manager to keep everything in line. Firm, soft and level headed, Jørgen has an eye on every project and every client crossing the desks at Netron.

TORGEIR HOLM Creative Director of 3D and VFXTorgeir has a long track record as a graphic designer and a 3D & VFX artist. He has worked on projects ranging from corporate profiles to idents, commercials and effects

for film and television.

Netron is a creative digital agency with one foot in Fredrikstad, the

other one in Oslo and the third one in Esto-nia. Their clients have different needs when it comes to film, web and graphics, and this challenges Netron to explore new routes all the time

www.netron.no

PLACEBO EFFECTSThe cows are on your table: The challenge of augmenting more than 100 000 breakfast tables with a digital story.KIM BAUMANN LARSEN, Creative Director. An architect by education Kim enjoys tack-ling all aspects of digital storytelling from writing, designing, to 3d and visual effects,

filming and direct-ing. Working in computer visual-ization and digital design since 1993, Kim has lectured

at several architecture schools in Scandina-via and the US and at conferences such as the fmx, Mundos Digitales, View, Imagina and Siggraph. He has been a jury member for the digital design Master program at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design and is currently teaching and help building the curriculum for the 3D graphics studies at the Norwegian School of Information Tech-nology. Kim is a founding advisory board member of the CGSociety.org and the 5D Conference, co-founder of the Norwegian Society of Visual Effects, and co-founder and co-director of Digital Storytelling.

www.pfx.no

– Working in the VFX business is very ex-citing. Every project always brings some-thing new to the table. It’s a very dynamic business where any-thing can happen and each day is different from the next.MAGNUS PETTERSSON

– We put the story on the wall!TORGEIR HOLM

– We live in a truly exciting time for storytellers.KIM BAUMANN LARSEN

NORDIC VFX

OMELETTE


THEORY INTERACTIVE RESET – THE WORLD TELLS A STORY

A discussion on the anatomy of the Reset debut trailer and how the same mood and atmosphere translates to a story where the player is in control of pacing, position and action.

We will show the trailer and review some screen shots from our edi-tor and other tools. We will then discuss our approach on telling the story in Reset and what to expect as a player. We will also share our visions of where we think storytelling in games might go and contemplate on the paradox of telling a linear story in a non-linear medium.

Theory Interactive is an independent game studio formed by two artists, one working with a pen and a pen, the other with a key-board and a keyboard. Using fresh thinking in content creation we aim to bring smart, immersive and entertain-ing gaming experiences to core gamers. We are using and developing our own proprietary technology aptly dubbed Praxis

ALPO OKSAHARJU: Roughly 5 years ago Alpo switched from the path of a semi professional musician and freelance graphic designer to pursue a lifelong dream of becoming a story creator and story-teller. He also switched from machine engineering studies at the Helsinki University of Technology to 3d studies at EVTEK Institute

of Technology (now called Metropolia). After graduation he worked at Futuremark Games Studio as a 3d Designer/Lead Game Designer on Shattered Horizon. But the calling of the dream soon jolted Alpo to form his own independent game studio Theory Interactive together with Senior Programmer Mikko Kallinen, also from Futuremark. Theory Interactive was formed in the summer of 2011 to facilitate the development of the single player co-op first person puzzle game Reset. Alpo’s playground in the project is the field of writing, art and game design.

MIKKO JOHANNES KALLINEN has been pro-gramming and making music for fun for around 20 years. After studying Computer Science at the Helsinki University of Technology and find-

ing it uninspiring, his professional career started 12 years ago at Futuremark Corporation. There he worked on multiple products in the 3DMark and PCMark lines of benchmark software, as well as the game Shattered Horizon. Now he is the co-founder and techni-cal overlord of Theory Interactive, a currently two-man powerhouse of independent game development.

www.theoryinteractive.net

– Many games today settle for telling a story rather than getting the player to experience the story. We aim to contribute to the growing batch of games that are pushing the medium to form its own storytelling methods.


THEORY INTERACTIVE RESET – THE WORLD TELLS A STORY


FIDONEW CREATURES IN THE PET STORE A PRESENTATION OF SOME OF FIDO’S RECENT VFX WORK.


FIDOFido is a 3D Animation and Visual Effects studio and one of the largest providers of visual & special effects in Scandinavia. Fido has a strong focus on character and creature animation as well as complex simulations of real world elements.

Fido works with both feature films and commercials. Many years of digital wizardry has made the company well equipped to make almost any visual wish come true. The objective is to combine proprietary technology and world-class creative talent to create the best possible solutions for our clients all around the world. Fido’s latest project, underworld: awakening premiered early this year, designing and creating advanced transformations and gory digital face replacements. Most recently Fido has delivered VFX and Animation for one of the largest films ever made in Norway: kon-tiki, an epic drama about the great explorer Thor Heyder-dahl’s legendary expe dition from Peru to Polynesia in the 1940’s.

On the commercial side Fido has won several awards for advertising films, including LIA (London Inter-national Awards), D&AD Awards and Epica and has created many international commercial productions for Adidas, Coca Cola, Mercedes, IKEA, Nestlé, Nivea, to name a few.

STAFFAN LINDER: Staffan began his career in the early nineties as a sculptor and airbrush artist for the toy- and special effects make-up industry but has for the last 12 years worked with animation and digital effects in numerous commercials as well as feature films, both for Fido in Stockholm and for Weta Digital in New Zealand. He is specialized in Creature Effects and has worked on many Scandina-vian films such as Kon-Tiki, Let the Right One In and the Kautokeino Rebellion, as well as inter-national productions such as Peter Jackson’s King Kong, and Underworld Awakening.

MATTIAS LINDAHL: Before joining Fido in Febru-ary 2010 Mattias worked as the overall Visual Effects Supervisor on the film Kick-Ass. The total of 840 shots where spread across 5 different Visual Effects Facilities. In 2007 he was nominated for a Bafta Film Award for his work on The Bourne Ultimatum. His Visual Effects work on the film also made it through to the final 7 in the Oscars Bake-Off. After moving to the UK in 1999, Mattias worked at Jim Henson’s Creature Shop before joining Double Negative in 2001. During his 8 years at Double Negative, Mattias worked in a supervising position on leading motion pictures including Batman Begins, Stardust, The Bourne Ultimatum and Kick-Ass.

CLAES DIETMANN: Claes is a Film Producer with broad experience in all aspects of film making, from script and financing to finished master. Since 2005, with a strong focus on advanced 3D animation and VFX production at Fido, he has produced over one hundred commercials and VFX for ten feature films. From 2000 - 2004 he worked at Happy Life Animation, where he produced three television series and two feature films. The first five years of his film career, from 1995 to 2000, he worked at the Swedish Television’s drama department, where he did everything from extras cast-ing to assistant director and production manager.

www.fido.se

NEW CREATURES IN THE PET STORE A PRESENTATION OF SOME OF FIDO’S RECENT VFX WORK.


BACK TO THE FUTURELOOKING BACK AT SIX YEARS OF DIGITAL STORYTELLING

I've constantly been impressed by the calibre of international as well

as Scandinavian professionals that Digital Storytelling attracts. It provides fantastic

networking opportunities. DAYNE COWAN

Digital Storytelling – the art and science of visual effects is the seventh seminar in what has become an annual event at Filmens Hus in Oslo, Norway. The seminar has grown from a one day gath-ering to a three day conclave where Norwegian film and design professionals meet with colleagues from around the world to dis-cuss how visual effects and CGI can be used to tell better stories. The idea to create a cross-disciplinary seminar evolved eight years ago around a blazing campfire in the California High Sierras. Norwegian architect Kim Baumann Larsen was among a group of international CGI professionals attending VFX supervisor Eric Hanson´s annual post-SIGGRAPH hike. They talked about how much they missed the now defunct 3D Festival in Copenhagen and wondered if it would be possible to create a new meeting place for filmmakers and CGI professionals - in Oslo for example? The answer came a few months later when Kim approached Angela Amoroso, then Project Manager at Norwegian Film Devel-opment (NFU) with the idea of an international visual effects seminar. Former NFU Director Kirsten Bryhni saw the impact and scope of such a seminar which she approved and enthusiastically supported calling the endeavor Possibility´s Universe known today as Digital Storytelling. From the first seminar held on April 5th 2006 to the present day, Digital Storytelling has hosted award winning international vfx artists, production designers and researchers working at the cutting edge of their field. Key Speakers have including Oscar win-ners, such as Paul Debevec, Mike Fink, Robert Legato, and Robert Stromberg. Seminar delegates and guests from 10 countries and 3 continents working in architecture, design, as well as film, tele-vision and game worlds found their way to our campfire in Oslo. Here are some of the highlights of seven years of Digital Story-telling, which is indeed become possibilities´universe.


Digital Storytelling 2006: DIGITAL SETS AND ENVIRONMENTS FOR FILM APRIL 5TH-6THKey Speaker: Production Designer Alex McDowell

Digital Storytelling 2007: DIGITAL FICTION – INNOVATIVE FILMMAKING APRIL 16TH-18TH. Key Speaker: Robert Legato VFX supervisor, The Basement

– Digital environments extend the filmmaker’s

palette into fantastic and unseen realms.

ERIC HANSON

– Today you can design any shot that tells your story best

without fear that mechanically you won’t be able to get it.

ROBERT LEGATO

The biggest challenge in Norway is to create the effects seen in big American movies on

a budget less than their catering costs.

MORTEN MOEN

– This is such an appropriate

testing ground for the expanding film design language.

ALEX MCDOWELL

Digital Storytelling 2008: THE NARRATIVE POWER OF VISUAL EFFECTS APRIL 7TH-9TH

Key Speakers: Dr Shilo T. McClean, Brian Connor (ILM)Kevin M. Phipps, Production Designer

– After working with Stanley Kubrick, I truly learnt to believe that

nothing is ever impossible. KEVIN M. PHIPPS


Digital Storytelling 2009: VISUAL EFFECTS AND THE STORY WORLD SEPTEMBER 9TH-11TH

Key Speaker: Mike Fink, VFX SupervisorFrom 2009 DS was arranged in collaboration with NFI and Head of Development Elin Erichsen.

Digital Storytelling 2010: VISUAL EFFECTS INTO NEW DIMENSIONS APRIL 14TH-16TH

Key Speaker: Robert Stromberg, Production Designer

Digital Storytelling 2011: WORLD BUILDING IN A DIGITAL UNIVERSEAPRIL 13TH-15TH

Key Speaker: Paul Debevec, Professor at USCICT

– After Max Manus other producers have also been keen on including visual effects heavy “money shots”. KRISTIN HELLEBUST

– Choosing how far to push the envelope on anyone project is curious business.

MIKE FINK

– We are all still infants in the digital world of film. ROBERT STROMBERG

– I love creating technologies that capture the real world into the digital world where we can tell new stories of our own design. PAUL DUBEVEC

– World building for games must first and foremost be about supporting and enhancing

the core game play mechanics. OWEN O BRIEN

– As an actor I faced challenges that no other actor had faced before.

PASCAL LANGLOIS


– As an actor I faced challenges that no other actor had faced before.

PASCAL LANGLOIS

VISIONS FOR A STORY WORLD: AN EXHIBITION OF CONCEPT ART AND MATTE PAINTING. Curators: Øyvind Renberg and Miho Shimizu

Selected from their original contexts and presented as high quality prints these works – including sketches, completed projects and models – invite the viewer to experi ence the magic worlds of moving images as poetic artworks in their own right. Contemplate, fill in the gaps and perhaps dream up your own. Works by current Norwegian and international production designers, concept artists and matte painters who create unique story worlds for film, television and computer games. – øyvind renberg

– A lot of people argue that digital visual effects are about stopping

story; I argue that they are about starting story!

SHILO T. MCCLEAN

– 3D generates a strong feeling of presence, Like being there.

And that's a very powerful thing. KASIMIR LEHTO

BACK TO THE

FUTURELOOKING BACK AT SIX YEARS

OF DIGITAL STORYTELLING


WORKSHOP NUKE X 6.3Date: Tuesday, May 15th 09:00-17:00This year’s Nuke Workshop focuses on many of the new features found in NukeX 6.3 and how they can be used to speed up production tasks. This includes Deep Compositing, the new and powerful Particle System and the integration of ILM/Sony Picture Imagework´s Open Colour IO system. We will be providing various assets to run along with the course including Deep Image and Alembic files, video foot-

age and Maya Files. This workshop is targeting artists who already know Nukebut want to get up to speed with the new 6.3. features.

WORKSHOP MAYA TO HOUDINIDate: Wednesday May 16th 09:00- 17:00The Maya to Houdini workshop is an introduction for Maya artists looking to understand more about Houdini. During the course of the day we will be looking to complete an entire shot from start to finish in Houdini, including odeling, Texturing, Animation and Rendering. This is a fantastic opportunity for Maya artists to gain a good overview as to how this unique node-based 3D application works. The work-

shop targets mainly Maya artists who have no real experience with Houdini but are looking to make the transition and under more of how it works.

THE W

ORKS

HOPS

Instructor MATT LEONARD returns to Digital Storytelling for the third time. He has been in the 3D animation and visual effects industry since 1991 and has produced work for feature films, com-mercials and large corporate projects. He is currently Head of Training at Sphere VFX, his own company that spe-cialises in teaching 3D, Compositing, Visual Effects and Stereoscopic Post-Production to professional artists. In this role he has trained artists from some of the top VFX companies in the UK, USA and Europe, including BBC, Framestore, Dreamworks Animation, Double Negative, MPC, Digital Domain, Ghost VFX, and Windmill Lane VFX.

He is also regularly involved in teach-ing/lecturing at various Skillset Media Academies and universities across the country teaching both lecturers and students. In addition Matt is listed on the IMDB (Internet Movie Database) and is a member of the Visual Effects Society. His work has been shown at various fes-tivals including the Sundance Film Festival and the Venice Film Festival. He has also spoken at various trade events and conferences and is a pub-lished author. Matt has developed and oversees The Foundry’s ‘Nuke Training Accreditation Program’ and is currently the only offi-

cially certified Nuke trainer in the world, he also continues to act as a Maya and Nuke Professor at FXPHD (the leading world supplier of online visual effects training). Spherevfx is a high-end international training company specializing in 3D, Compositing, Visual Effects and Stereo-scopic Post Production courses, offering training in the world´s best CGI and VFX software designed for artist working in film, broadcast or corporate work.

www.spherevfx.com

COMPOSITING & VFX WORKSHOPSInstructor: Matt Leonard, Sphere VFX UK PARTICIPANTS:

Experienced compositing /VFX artists

VENUE: 8th floor seminar room Filmens Hus, Oslo

INSTRUCTOR: Matt Leonard, Sphere VFX

HOST: Digital Storytelling 2012 and NFI in collaboration with Sphere VFX and The Foundry

MATT LEONARD Head of Training, Sphere VFX, UK


Main PartnerNORWEGIAN FILM INSTITUTE (NFI) operates under the auspices of The Royal Norwegian Ministry for Culture, providing support for Norwe-gian films, television series and electronic games, and organizes pro-fessional training and talent development. Norwegian Film Insti-tute and the former Norwegian Film Development have supported Digital Storytelling since the first seminar in 2006.

www.nfi.no

Media PartnersMONTAGES is the online magazine for film enthusiasts with solid arti-cles, bloggers, interviews, videos and archive.

www.montages.no

RUSHPRINT is a online and hard-cover magazine for the film workers’ community in Norway and the Nordic countries, following political as well as industry debate.

www.rushprint.no

STOREDYRET was started by Rune Spaans in 2000 and has since become one of Norway’s largest forums for professionals working in 3D, illustra-tion, animation and design.

www.storedyret.no

3D HUE is one of Norway´s largest online communities for digital artists.

www.3dhue.no

Associated Events5D is a group of designers, scientists, artists, and educators who talk about learning how to seeing better stories.

www.5dconference.com

TD FORUM is a bi-annual event providing an opportunity for Technical Directors and high-end CG artists to meet face to face to learn from each others' experiences.

www.tdforum.eu

FRAME BY FRAME was started by the Society of Animated Filmmakers in 2006 as an arena for screening new Norwegian animation films, annually organising a day of screenings and seminars focusing on animation.

www.fxf.no

Technical PartnersNETRON AS has explored the “interactive” concept in the widest possible sense since its start in 2000. Everything ranging from games to apps, film, e-learning, websites, copy-writing, interactive installations, visual effects and 3D. Netron has supported Digital Storytelling with web solutions since 2010.

www.netron.no

INFOGRAFIKK was established in 1989 as a knowledge center for the graphics industry. As a certified Apple Center InfoGrafikk offers business solutions based on industry standard hardware and software platforms.

www.infografikk.no

FOTOPHONO are specialists in sound, lighting and images, delivering presentation- and communication solutions to companies, organiza-tions, institutions, artists and the event market.

www.fotophono.no

THE FOUNDRY Established in 1996, The Foundry is a world-leading innovator of visual effects and image processing technologies that boost productivity in motion picture and video post-production.

www.thefoundry.co.uk

Seminar PartnersNEXTRON AS provides servers, workstations and storage systems, offering cutting edge technology, processing power and upgrading pos-sibilities. Always in the lead with the newest technology, Nextron has high technical competence and many years of experience with sales and custom client solutions.

www.nextron.no

FILM & KINO is a combination of a member organisation for Norwegian municipalities and an industry organ-isation for the cinema and video industries. In July 2011 Norway became the world’s first country with total digital cinema technology with the roll-out of 420 screens all over Norway. Film & Kino has supported Digital Storytelling since 2010.

www.kino.no

STRIPE STUDIOS AS started up in 2007. With incredible dedication, amazingly hard work and close to 400 productions under its belt, Stripe has become one of the most experienced studios in Scandinavia delivering 3D, VFX and post production for film, commercials, television, web and print. Stripe focuses on being media neutral and constantly develops its broad expertise - both creatively, technically and artistically.

www.stripe.no

FILMKAMERATENE AS is Norway’s most successful film pro-duction company delivering box office hits to Norwegian cinemas since 1987. Among Filmkameratene’s more profiled productions are the Oscar nominated Pathfinder (1987), the special effects extravaganza for children Chasing the Kidneystone (1998), the CGI animated Elias – the Little Rescue Boat, nominated for an International EMMY award, the WW II vfx-heavy drama Max Manus (2008) and the award winning The Troll Hunter (2010)

www.filmkameratene.no

CHAOS GROUP provides state of the art rendering solutions for archi-tectural, VFX, film, media and entertainment, automotive design, television and other industries. The V-Ray render engine celebrates its 10th Anniversary and has become the rendering solution of choice for many 3D production houses due to its capa-bility to deliver high quality photorealistic images in the shortest time. V-Ray is used in a number of prestigious VFX and CG studios around the world.

www.chaosgroup.com

STORM STUDIOS AS is the larg-est supplier of VFX for feature films in Norway including films as The Troll Hunter, Max Manus, Dead Snow, The King of Devil’s Island, as well as work on numerous commercials. In 2010 Storm Studios merged with Nordisk Film and co-founded Shortcut Norway, a post-production company that does film editing, color grading and sound work, giving clients a complete VFX and post-production facility in-house.

www.stormstudios.no

THON HOTELS is part of the Olav Thon Group, and has 60 hotels in Nor-way and 1 in Sweden, 4 hotels in Brussels and 1 in Rotterdam. Thon Hotels is certifying all its hotels in Norway as Eco-Lighthouse. Thon Hotel offers four different hotel concepts: Budget, City, Conference and Resort. Thon Hotels Oslo Pano-rama has been seminar hotel since 2009.

www.thonhotels.com

MARIUS RENBERG DESIGN + ILLUSTRATION Graphic designer, illustrator & brand developer. Marius Renberg is responsible for the visual identity and graphic design of Digital Storytelling and events.

www.mariusrenberg.no

DIGITAL STORYTELLING PARTNERSPlease take a moment to read about our Partners who have contributed to the Digital Storytelling seminar and workshops.


filmens hus, Dronningensgt. 16 0155 Oslo, Norway [ www.nfi.no ]

design: Marius Renberg [ www.mariusrenberg.no ]

printing: Flexi Trykk as [ www.flexitrykk.no ]

www.digistorytelling.com

– Out there. Thataway!JAMES T. KIRK, STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE (1979)

the art and science of visual effects - digital storytelling · digital storytelling | 1 the art...

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