Texan filmmaker Tommy Pallotta changed the animation game by introducing startling visual techniques to the worlds of Richard Linklater's 'Waking Life' and 'A Scanner Darkly.' 'Last Hijack' Director Femke Wolting and Pallotta's collaborator Gavin Kelly (Piranha Bar) will host this technical workshop on the bespoke animation techniques developed for 'Last Hijack.'
The Animation Masterclass Bundle will have three elements, the opening night screening of 'Last Hijack' Thursday 24th April, the workshop on Saturday 26th April and the screening of A Scanner Darkly 26th April. Master Class €8, Master Class plus screenings €27
Supported by Screen Training Ireland
Following the Irish Premier of Last Hijack on Thursday 24th of April (participants entrance to this screening will be bundled in the overall master-class price of €35, which also includes entry to the screening of 'A Scanner Darkly,' a film where Tommy Pallotta also developed bespoke and pioneering animation techniques during the production )
Director Tommy Pallotta and animation supervisor Gavin Kelly, plus other members of the animation team from Piranha Bar, will talk through the technical and creative processes behind this critically acclaimed hybrid documentary.
This will be a technical workshop on the bespoke animation techniques developed for 'Last Hijack' and also provide a unique insight into a creative collaboration.
Gavin Kelly will bring us through the special relationship of the director and animation supervisor. Then, taking scenes from the film, they will walk through how they came to their creative decisions, trouble shoot technical problems, talk about solutions and workaround's. How they created a bespoke animation pipeline - animating oil paintings on canvas in 3D and eventually compositing in Flame.
We will also discuss how the remote workflow pipeline operated.
Piranha Bar, over 10 months, with a small team of animators, modelers, Photoshop artists and compositors, working under Tommy's and Gavin's direction, created almost 400 shots.
From concept to compositing, participants will learn how to ensure the best possible results for the animation stage of a production.
Technical elements that will be covered include:
Creating 2.5D animation, the value of 3D blocking and pre-viz, combining VFX effects with animation, combining analogue assets (oil paintings) into digital environments, using Sony Playstation Kinect game technology to create Mo-Cap sequences in your own studio, multiplaining techniques.
Creative collaboration is key, discovering how each other thinks and getting on the same page with your director:
Gavin will give invaluable insight into the development phase, where over a number of months they played with various aesthetics and techniques to finally reach the look and right emotional impact for the animation that Tommy, as the director was striving for.
Participants will also learn about how, in a multi- country coproduction, the pitfalls and advantages working remotely can bring to a production.
The master-class with open with a conversation about the creative collaboration between director and animation supervisor. They will talk about the development stage of the production and how they came to the aesthetic a technical decisions. This conversation will be moderated by a industry professional to guide the discussion (TBD)
Following this Gavin and some of the animation team will open up the working files to demonstrate the techniques used to create the unique visual effect of the animation; creating 2.5D animation, the value of 3D blocking and pre-viz, combining VFX effects with animation, combining analogue assets (oil paintings) into digital environments, using Microsoft Kinect game technology to create Mo-Cap sequences in your own studio, multi-plaining techniques.
There will be a Q&A afterwards where coproducer Nicky Gogan will be present to field any questions about the nature of a multi-country coproduction and how the project management and workflow of the project was maintained.
The training room will be in Generator on Smithfield Square, where we are holding most of the workshops at Darklight.
There is an auditorium with HD projector and screen. It will hold 60 participants