For the last few months, 3D enthusiasts all over the globe have been nominating and voting in the 3D World CG Awards.
Now, the results are in, and one of the biggest stirs was caused in the hotly contested Animated Short category in the 'Creative' section. Read on discover the winner and runners up in this category – and you can watch them online right here!
01. Le Gouffre
The goal of creators Carl Beauchemin, Thomas Chrétien and David Forest was to make a film that they loved and would catch the attention of industry professionals. And Shelley Page, CG Awards judge and head of international outreach at DreamWorks Animation believes that it has done just that: "The story of the making of this visually exciting and emotionally uplifting film is almost as inspiring as the subject!
"Made by a group of graduates in Montreal and supported by crowdfunding, this story of the heroic attempt of two backpackers to build a bridge spanning an impossibly wide chasm is as compelling as it is impressive. The main characters never speak, but we are irresistibly swept along by their determination."
The team spent over six months experimenting with different versions of the world, some filled with fantastical creatures, before coming up with the final version. "Making a 10 minute film with only three CG artists was a huge challenge," says Thomas. "It took us two years. We had to come up with a style that would render fast enough so that we could generate the film's frames with only three computers."
02. Wrapped
This student short by Roman Kälin, Falko Paeper and Florian Wittmann from the Institute of Animation, Effects and Digital Postproduction at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg won several awards in 2015.
Wrapped was selected as source material for this year's FMX trailer, which you can see below:
Wrapped focuses on the idea that the only constant is change, using techniques such as time-lapse, live action and stunning CG. "We created our own small tools and combined time-lapse photography with 3D, which was totally new for us," says Roman Kälin. "We could use our tools in a customised way, which helped us tell the story we wanted to tell."
03. Tale of Momentum & Inertia
It's testament to the great writing and animation that we feel an affinity with the rock monster in HouseSpecial's 70-second animation. "Our Rock Giant is an emotional being and viewers relate to him and his basic moral dilemma all humans face individually and as a community," says co-creator and director Kameron Gates.
"Everything needed to feel tactile – not typical in CG. In fact, the original model of the Rock Giant was made out of actual rocks." In the end the short used Maya for modelling, texturing, animation
and lighting.
Find out more about all the winners and runners up of the CG Awards in the latest issue of 3D World – on sale now!
