August 4th, 2009 by fjorg
With only 6 hours remaining the teams are starting to hone in on the details. Most stayed up all night and I’m impressed that they have progressed so far in the process.
Sparkle Kitten
Squid Juice
Team AOM
Team Riot
O.A.W.
Peanut Butter Jelly
Prestissimo
Bunko Squad
Briar Roses
August 4th, 2009 by fjorg
We started the competitors day with an Afro Brazilian performance. Nice loud music with a strong beat!
Dancers
Stilt walker giving the teams a blessing
This would wake anyone up!
The Viking Priestess joins the dance
August 4th, 2009 by fjorg
We’re more than half way through the competition as you can see from the large count down clock.
The looming clock
What you don’t experience is the mind numbing music played very loud by the evil tech guys. They started out all nice and helpful at least.
Tech support aka torture artists Ron and Zach
I don’t know if it’s the music keeping them awake but most of the competitors are still working.
Though some have abandoned the team for a nap.
Mattress anyone?
Yawning seems to be prevalent now and once one person starts we all follow.
OAW Team was a bit chilly
HongCool improvises a cold barrier.
August 4th, 2009 by fjorg
The annual Reverse Pillage took place at midnight to shake up the competitors. The staff ran into the hall with inflatable swords and hammers threw them at the competitors and mayhem ensued. Our competitors noticeably livened up afterwards.
Briar Roses and Sparkle Kittens battle
Everyone joins in the mayhem
Paola tries to escape
So not happening
Briar Roses demand Gigi's of Sparkle Kittens submission
Didn't matter as Briar Roses killed her anyway
Dan of The Stepped Children gets a good shot in
Dan takes on Gigi
Frank of The Bunko Squad means business
Who can match HongCool's enthusiasm?
Well, one guy wasn’t up to the pillage
Chris of AOM plugs in for a nap
Our Student Volunteers have the Fjorg spirit!
Jose gets ready for the pillage
August 3rd, 2009 by fjorg
With the closing of the general conference, we turn on the music, turn down the lights (makes it harder for them to see) and give everyone all kinds of glowing things. The teams got into the spirit and decorated themselves and their workstations.
Lights out, glow on
The competitors decorate
We were lucky enough to be visited by Ronen Barzel the 2009 Siggraph Conference Chair who talked about his early days at Pixar.
Ronan Barzel
August 3rd, 2009 by fjorg
The general public has left and the competitors are deep into the process now. The Brazilian performance really woke everyone up so snapped some photos for a “before” and I’ll post some of the “afters” in the morning.
Team Briar Roses
Team Bunko Squad
Team Prestissimo
Team Peanut Butter Jelly
Team O.A.W. aka Once a Week
Team Riot
Team Squid Juice
Team Sparkle Kittens
Team AOM
Team The Stepped Children
August 3rd, 2009 by fjorg
Our competitors are furiously working on their blocking and we brought in a Brazilian performance group Presentation o the Orixas. Most of the teams worked right through but we managed to capture the attention of two teams for a little while.
Brazilian ceremony performance
Brazilian dance ceremony
August 3rd, 2009 by fjorg
At last we have our team introductions..
August 3rd, 2009 by fjorg
The animators are here working away on modeling, backgrounds and sound now. Rod Ibanez of Sony is giving advice to the teams now as they refine their stories and work out the details and begin the blocking phase of the process.
Rod Ibanez looks over Team O.A.W.s storyboards
Jason Howie also stopped by and talked about working as an independent animator. He then gave our teams some input on their stories.
Team AOM consults with Jason Howie
Jae of The Stepped Children happy to arrive at last
Meanwhile, Jae, the missing member from The Stepped Children finally arrived at 4 pm to the cheers of everyone.
Paola of Peanut Butter Jelly showed me some of her moves for their animation.
Paola of Peanut Butter Jelly
Teams hard at work
Prestissimo
Carlye from the Computer Animation Festival has so kindly brought a few more people over to talk with our teams. Jules Urbach of OTOY listened to the 5-second pitch from each team.
Jules listening to The Bunko Squad film
Peter Berg stopped by to listen to the pitches and give the teams his insight.
Carlye, Peter Berg, Jules Urbach and the Peanut Butter Jelly team.
August 3rd, 2009 by fjorg
Well despite the technological difficulties we’ve experienced today here with the videos the competition is well under way. After hearing the theme for this year, Great Expectations, the competitors jumped into story mode working on their story ideas. They were able to pitch the ideas to two industry veterans, Frank Gladstone, an independent story consultant to major studios, and Grue DeBry, a 20 year production veteran.
They were then treated to a quick visit from this years keynote speaker Randy Thom of ILM for some feedback on their sound choices.
The 10 teams are working hard on nailing the story ideas down and fleshing out their animatics.
One unfortunate team, The Stepped Children, is missing one participant due to airline delays and are phone conferencing their ideas. As one team member says ” We’re so good that we needed a one person handicap” Bold statement but they seem to be doing fine in the early stages.
The Two lonely Stepped Children
Two teams have already started some rivalry. Briar Roses declares that Sparkle Kittens are “goin down” and demonstrating this with their voodoo doll while the Sparkle Kittens gave me their song and dance and declared that “those girls wearing tiaras” have nothing to talk about and “we have the sparkle power”.
Briar Roses inflicting some pain with the voodoo doll
More to come soon… Stop by Room 255 if you’re at Siggraph, yell Fjorg! and get your viking hat!
