Talks:
Panel 1: Evolution within Animation
Claudius Stemmler: “Anivision: New technology-assisted Approach to Studying Animation History”
Encouraged by technological developments and guided by the motto “We make animation visible!”, the digital humanities project AniVision uses machine learning and computer vision to explore a large corpus of ephemeral films produced in Austria, East Germany, and West Germany during the Cold War period. Ephemeral films are a large and diverse group of films produced for a recognizably utilitarian, often short-term purpose. Afterwards, they tend to be largely forgotten and are neither well documented nor archived. Because of this situation, the widespread integration of animation in these films has been comparatively neglected in scholarship.
In recent decades, technological advances have opened up opportunities to improve this situation. First, archives have digitized more of their film holdings, making a greater number of ephemeral films accessible. Second, there have been major developments in the field of artificial intelligence, with tools developed through machine learning showing great proficiency in evaluating data for specific tasks. AniVision uses an interactive, computer-assisted approach to identify and analyze animation within a large corpus of ephemeral films. This distant reading, together with an accompanying database and selected close readings, will allow us to write a more comprehensive history of animation in the countries under consideration.
Eilís Nolan: “Preservation of Web-animation in a Post-Flash Era”
At the beginning of 2021, Adobe ended support for Flash Player. The software had been a popular mode of accessing and displaying web-based multimedia content for decades, and its discontinuation has led to a shift in the way amateur and short-form animation can be hosted online.
Flash allowed amateur creatives to share animated videos, playable video games, and other multimedia content with audiences over the web. In the absence of this software, creators and publishers alike have turned to alternative solutions, such as integrating new third party software, or converting the media to embedded video– without support for interactive elements. Some Flash animations have been taken offline altogether, or have become lost media. The impact of this discontinuation is wide and varied.
This paper aims to focus on the impact it has had on the largest web-based visual narrative to date: Andrew Hussie’s cult-classic, multimedia comic Homestuck. During the webcomic’s seven year run, Homestuck amassed over 8000 pages, with a sizable percentage containing Flash animation. The purpose of this case study therefore is to discuss the solutions brought forward by Viz Media, who had acquired the publishing rights to the comic in 2018, and by volunteer archivists to preserve the original medium of the comic.
Martina Scarpelli: “Co-production of Maze Out: A Serious game for the treatment of eating disorders”
This study explores the co-production process of developing a serious game, Maze Out, designed for patients with eating disorders (EDs) at the Psychiatric Hospital in the Region of Southern Denmark. The process involved a diverse group of stakeholders, including patients, clinicians, game developers, and an art director. The goal was to enhance the quality and relevance of the intervention while offering new perspectives on ED treatment.
The presentation will focus on the creative process and the contributions of creative professionals in shaping the aesthetic of Maze Out. By leveraging techniques inherent to animation, such as suspension of disbelief, Maze Out immerses players in a fictional reality, encouraging them to engage with the story while maintaining a critical distance. The visual language of Maze Out was developed to appeal to the senses rather than the intellect, as reducing emotional rigidity can help alleviate symptoms.
The multidisciplinary approach demonstrates the importance of diverse perspectives in creating effective health interventions, ultimately contributing to Maze Out's potential success as a treatment supplement for EDs.
Panel 2: Sustainability and Politics with Animation
Christian Müller on behalf of Volker Helzle: “Sustainable VFX - An Alternative Creation Approach”
VFX and animated movie productions are exposed to constant technological improvement, optimization and innovation. At the current point in time, almost any visual demand can be realized given the necessary technical and human resources. At the same time, we are facing an ongoing need to consider any potential sustainability aspect in our private and professional lives. Fortunately, advances in technology can potentially allow us to introduce new workflows with less impact on our environment at close to equal outcomes.
This report will compare a typical (offline) production pipeline for VFX creature shots with a near-to-real-time workflow using a rasterization engine as commonly used in game engines (real-time). Required optimizations and shortcomings will be discussed as well as the increased iteration opportunities due to reduction in render times. We discuss responses to a quantitative study evaluating the overall quality and visual differences presented to a diverse audience.
Rachel Van Rooyen: “South African Hacked Animation Methodologies: A Conceptual Foundation to Studying Animation Metamorphosis in South African Production Practices Post-2020”
In the past decade, there has been a reported increase in the demand for African-centred content along with global demand for video and animated content post-pandemic. Amid these demands, the South African animation industry is under strain from several factors that are hindering it from taking advantage of the opportunity to create South African stories. These challenges are economic, political, skills-, and infrastructure-based. However, these constraints and the under-developed supply chain for South African animation have created a unique set of circumstances in which South African animators are adapting their pipelines and creating their own supply chain solutions - or "hacks" as I refer to them. Several studios, incubators and artists are leveraging the internet, and open-source tools and hacking their pipeline methods to enable them to bypass these challenges and thus release content.
The results of these “hacks” and the differences in approach to production are of central interest to this paper as they provide insight into the characteristics of the South African animation process and their impact upon animation metamorphosis. This paper creates a conceptual foundation for further practice-based qualitative studies to investigate the impact of these hacks on the metamorphic qualities of Animation as a medium. The study emphasises the value of documenting indigenous methods of animation as a means to draft frameworks of local analysis that may fall outside of established institutionalised animation studies.
Anee Jayaraj: “Using Life Cycle Assesment Principles to Measure and Improve the CO2 Impact of the Animation Industry”
Applying environmental and social sustainability measures in film and television production is a major challenge due to the lack of well-defined tools, guidelines, resources and high costs. Thus, the industry’s negative environmental impact and social issues continue to exist at staggering rates. This research project aims to study current tools, such as green certifications, and guidelines used in the screen industry worldwide, to compare and explore the possibilities of holisitically sustainable productions. The investigation will study 4 different production concepts for a test case, which is a web series production, to identify, based on lifecycle assessment (LCA) methods, materials and behaviors that can influence sustainable decisions for the production. The production concepts used for the study include, virtual production, remote production, filming on location in Latin America and filming on location in Europe.
Using action research methodology, the teams in each production concept will apply a CO2 calculation tool and guidelines developed by the research to make their work on production more environmentally and socially sustainable. The teams will test and evaluate, in an iterative process, the guidelines and calculation tool with the aim to optimize the guidelines. The goal of the research is to create a robust set of environmental and social guidelines that can be applied to different areas of production to influence more sustainable decisions.
Panel 3: Education within Animation
Svend Ghani Nordby: “Livetracking and Data Exchange for Live Applications"
The Animation Workshop has conducted a research project under Vision Denmark to investigate technology components for a real-time animation pipeline. Together with our company partners we have investigated different motion capture solutions and validated their suitability in real-time applications such as virtual production, XR, and live theatre. We have also investigated the open-source toolset “Universal Scene Description” (USD) for data exchange between traditional pipelines and real-time tools.
For the motion capture project, we compared three different systems. 1) Xsens: A motion capture suit based on inertial measurement units. This approach offers a portable self-contained solution without constraining to a specified physical volume. However, this comes at the expense of absolute positional accuracy and precision of motion. 2 and 3): Optitrack and Qualisys: Two systems based on optical tracking where external cameras capture infrared marker positions in 3D. These systems offer high-precision data with multiple actors and also allow for tracking other objects such as virtual cameras. However, these systems are often significantly more expensive and require more setup in controlled environments.
These systems were specifically evaluated for their performance in live tracking situations as this is a core requirement for virtual production applications. As an example, we collaborated with a local theatre company to integrate motion capture technology into a live performance, allowing actors' movements to be captured and rendered in real-time as animated characters on the stage. This integration demonstrated the potential of blending traditional theatre with advanced animation techniques to create immersive and dynamic live performances.
For the USD trials, we tested the data publishing and import workflows in Houdini, Maya and Unreal Engine. We wanted to validate if USD could offer a more seamless workflow for exchanging data between real-time and offline pipelines for use in virtual production.
At CAGA we will give an overview of our findings and strengths and weaknesses of current tracking technologies.
José Raimundo: “Virtual Production: Unleashing Multiple Potentials of Virtual Media across Higher Education Classrooms”
This paper explores the potential of Virtual Production (VP) in cinematography education and related areas, from empirical experiential activities under the scope of the Virtual Production Studios Network (VPSN) research project.
As educators involved in this project, currently teaching video, motion graphics, and animation at Instituto Politécnico do Cávado e do Ave, we seek ways to capitalise on VP practices to enhance this institution’s disciplinary curriculums.
A key concern for us is facing the challenges of adopting and keeping pace with rapid VP technological advancements, as these often require significant investment in software, hardware, and time-consuming specialisation to harness game engines, motion capture systems, and film editing, to name a few. We acknowledge that VP cannot be a one-size-fits-all solution for filmmaking, as factors like budget, available crew expertise, and project-specific requirements, all influence the suitability of VP for each case scenario.
Despite these challenges, we identified significant potential for using VP in education. We are developing cost-effective VP setups and improving learning materials to enhance student readiness in film-related disciplines and prepare them as the future generation of industry creatives.
Silke Hassreiter: “Navigation the Shift: Realities and Challenges in Cultivating ”the Ideal Graduate” for the Animation, Games and VFX Industry”
This paper delves into the evolving landscape of the animation, games, and VFX industries, examining the intersection between educational institutions and industry demands regarding ‘the ideal graduate’. Through in-depth interviews conducted over three months in 2024 with 50 European professionals and students, we explored how well educational programs align with industry demands. Our goal is to ensure that graduates are equipped to meet the evolving needs of these sectors and to sustain industry growth and competitiveness.
The research highlights a notable shift in the industry’s identity rewards regarding the ‘ideal employee’, moving away from the traditional ‘rockstar individual’ towards a more adaptable team player. Adaptability within the context of the industry encompasses multiple dimensions, with cultural competence being highlighted as a significant aspect of fostering innovation. Graduates are expected to navigate the complexities of cross-cultural, diverse, and interdisciplinary interactions confidently and effectively both on screen and in the workplace. However, achieving this ideal presents several challenges for educational institutions, students, and the industry: recruitment (in)efficiencies, diversity fatigue, the efficiency of diversity and inclusion junior training programmes, discussions around reasonable accommodations in the workplace, (online) backlashes on diversity, and ethical dilemmas in HR decisions regarding diverse hiring. It became apparent from our discussions that addressing these issues requires a collective effort from all stakeholders involved, emphasising the importance of adaptability and resilience not only for graduates but for all parties engaged in the industry-education ecosystem.
Panel 4: Ethical AI within Animation
Jakob Høgel: “Learning with Machines: Tool-building and Artistic (De)Construction”
Discussions abound in the film industry about the role of machine learning in all phases of project development and production. Machine learning in general and all the available tools are debated in various ways such as ethical concerns, usability and disruption of professions, business models and contracts with audiences. With every new tool, new concerns, issues and potentials arise. The vantage point of this paper is to look back on a specific development process of machine learning before the film industry en bloc and the general public discussed tools that were in use.
The development process in point is the development of a ML-tool for film editing called Kaspar and the concurrent development of a feature film to be co-created with an AI. What is the learning curve when both developing tools and exploring the use of these at the same time? What is the artistic potential of not-yet-working tools? What is the inter-relationship between nascent technology and artistic exploration? What is the boundary between the technology of enchantment and enchantment of technology? What does it really mean to learn with machines?
Aurélie Petit: “The Ethics of Non-Live-Action Pornography: from Deepfake to Ai-Generated Animation”
In the last couple of years, adult content platforms have faced the spread of user-generated synthetic visual sex media created by generative AI algorithms, often embodied as the controversial ‘deepfake porn.’ As a response, OpenAI had announced that, in order to prevent abuse, its new text-to-video model generation Sora will not allow users to generate sexual content; likewise, back in December 2023, streaming platform Twitch straightened its policies over broadcasts of illustrated sexual content because ‘AI can be used to create realistic images’ (Twitch, 2023).
However, discussions of so-called ‘AI-porn’ tend to generalize the production of photo-realistic abusive content, putting aside that AI technologies are also used in adult subcultures of animation. Because of this, it is easily forgotten that harms in sexual media representations manifest differently depending on techniques and levels of realism. For platforms that host animated adult content, it means that moderation of AI-generated pornography cannot be summarily dismissed as tracking down abusive AI-generated photo-realistic content (like deepfake) using live-action governance frameworks. In order to properly moderate animated porn, whether it is computer-generated imagery or AI-generated, platforms must instead create specific tools. Although pornographic animation is often associated with ‘lawless’ content, this paper proposes to explore how moderation of unrealistic content manifests in practice, and how it can be adapted to AI-generated pornography.
Victoria Wolfersberger: “Expanding and Animating an Archive with AI - Brosch’s AI Dreams”
This project addresses Artificial Intelligence at the intersection of art, archive, and animation. The aim is to create an animated film based on the archive of the Upper Austrian artist Klemens Brosch (1894–1926). Nowak-Thaller 2016 claims Brosch's body of work is a “psychodrama of self-destruction,” as his short life was marked by severe mental illness, morphine addiction, and suicide. This reflects on his artworks, a dreamlike journey often imbued with melancholy and black humor. Experts from art, science, and archives are involved in the conception phase. We incorporate images from the Brosch archive and written sources from and about the artist into an AI workflow.
The goal is to find out how AI can be used to create an expanded insight into the dark and simultaneously romantic visual worlds of Brosch. The project will be an experimental workflow using AI technologies (e.g., Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, GPT4) and animation. As part of the production process, we will determine how Brosch's last creative period can be staged and expanded as an animated film. We will expand selected images from the Brosch archive into an animated 3D scenery and transfer the output using Neural style transfer in the artist's style.
The combination of different AI systems based on verbal statements and image-generation tools allows for novel perspectives on the artists’ work and is also adaptable to other contexts. This presentation will give insight into the production process of the 5-minute animated short.
Panel 5: The Technical of Animation
Nils Gallist: “Animating the Stage: Using Real-Time Technologies for Digital Theater Performances”
This case study examines the application of real-time technologies in a theatre production for a young audience, aimed at merging playful learning with science communication. It specifically details how real-time graphics were employed to create a digital replica of the physical stage, thereby expanding the performance space and facilitating unique interactions between the actor, the audience, and virtual elements. The study further explores the potential of real-time technologies, such as game engines, to redefine storytelling in theatre and create immersive experiences that blur the lines between physical and digital pieces.
Trygve Nielsen: “Prototypes of Utopia: Design Friction as Methodology for Animators”
This paper presents design fiction as a methodology that animators can use to take part in, or criticize, developments in media technology, and further points out how the craft of animation is applicable in this methodology.
Animation, like the rest of society, is partly shaped by technological development. What media technology we will have in the future is not pre-destined. Still, taking part in the development is often not open to animators. It is rather exclusive to those who have the knowledge, economic means or political influence.
The term design fiction was coined to describe science fiction that imagines new technologies and presents them as either utopian or harmful. It is related to the critical design tradition, that proposes utopian solutions and implicitly criticizes the current state of the art. The term diegetic prototype is used to describe how these proposals are presented on film. These terms provide artists with a framework where they can take an active role in the development of society and technology.
This paper presents the authors’ own experience using the methodology of design fiction. The findings are that the tools and skillset of an animator provide a useful link between speculative proposals and the real-life application. Animation can here function as an “expanded draftsmanship”, where some functionality can be tested, and the moving visualization stimulates further speculation.
Chris Ebeling: “Transforming Animation: The Impact of Blockchain, AI, and the Metaverse”
The animation industry is on the brink of a technological revolution driven by blockchain, AI, and the metaverse, as exemplified by innovative projects like Wireshape, Paneurama, Virtually Human Studio (VHS), and Behaviol. Wireshape leverages blockchain to enhance transparency, trust, and efficiency in digital transactions, setting new standards for data integrity and intellectual property protection.
Paneurama aligns educational curricula with industry needs, fostering partnerships that equip emerging talent with the skills required to thrive in the evolving digital landscape. VHS utilizes blockchain and Web 3.0 technologies to create immersive digital experiences, such as the groundbreaking game ZED.RUN, demonstrating the potential of decentralized technologies to revolutionize digital entertainment and blend virtual and real worlds. Behaviol combines AI-driven narratives with traditional gameplay in its product META11, showcasing AI's ability to enhance storytelling and personalize user experiences. These projects underscore the transformative role of emerging technologies in the creative industry, highlighting the true potential of the metaverse as an interoperable digital layer powered by AI and Web3. Embracing these technologies is essential for driving the evolution of animation, fostering new creative possibilities, and preparing the industry for future digital transformations.