Sign up for Digital storytelling 14-16 may in Oslo!

“Digital Storytelling 2012: The Art and Science of Visual Effects” is the seventh international seminar on the creative use of technology in film, television and games. This popular annual event focuses on how visual effects and digital set design are used to advance storytelling and world building. Speakers from the Norwegian, Scandinavian and International film and visual effects community gather in Oslo to present their work.

We are very proud to announce that the first keynote will be by CTO Sebastian Sylwan of Weta Digital presenting “The Evolution of Storytelling Through the Convergence of Art and Science:  A discussion of visual effects as a modern example of how art and science combine in the service of story.”The line-up for this year´s VFX Omelette is almost complete, and renowned Swedish VFX studio Fido will return to Digital Storytelling, along with the new Framestore Iceland studio. Many of the usual Norwegian suspects make a return, including Storm Studios and Gimpville both of whom have Best Visual Effects awards in their belts. Qvisten Animation, Stripe, Electric Putty, Netron and Placebo Effects will also present in this year’s VFX Omelette.

The seminar program for this year’s main event has been streamlined to include two, longer keynote presentations by international heavyweights in the industry to allow for more in-depth presentations, and we have added longer breaks and a longer lunch to give more time for networking and mingling between delegates and presenters.

The second keynote will be announced soon.

The Digital Storytelling Seminar and Workshop series is arranged in cooperation with the Norwegian Film Institute and will take place in the Tancred Cinema at Filmens Hus, Oslo Norway. The event opens with the seminar on Monday May 14th followed by a Nuke X 6.3 New Features workshop for VFX artists on on May 15th and a Maya to Houdini workshop on May 16th. New of this year is that the workshops are open to visual effects and film professionals also residing outside of Norway. The VFX workshops will be led by professional instructor, Matt Leonard of Sphere VFX who will be returning by popular demand to Digital Storytelling for the third time.

Digital Storytelling and the Norwegian Film Institute are happy to welcome previous guests and delegates as well as new attendees and international friends to this year´s seminar and workshops.

Registration is open – see www.digistorytelling.com

Welcome !
Angela Amoroso, Kim Baumann Larsen & Eric Hanson, Digital Storytelling and
The Norwegian Film Institute.

Workshops

NUKE 6.3 New Features and Maya to Houdini with Matt Leonard of Sphere VFX.
This 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.  These include Deep Compositing, the new and powerful Particle System and the intergration of ILM/Sony Picture Imagework’s OpenColourIO system.  We’ll be providing various assets to run along with the course including Deep Image and Alembic files, video footage and Maya files.  This workshop is targeting artist who already know Nuke but what to get up-to-speed with the new 6.3 features.The Maya to Houdini workshop is an introduction for Maya artists looking to understand more about Houdini. During the course of the day we’re looking to complete an entire shot from start to finish in Houdini, including Modeling, Texturing, Animation and Rendering.  This is a fantastic opportunity for Maya artist to gain a good overview as to how this unique node-based 3D application works.  It’s targeting mainly for Maya artists who have no real experience of Houdini but are looking to make the transition and understand more of how it works.

For both workshops there will be maximum of 12 participants per day and all participants are required to bring their own laptop or PC suitable for running either Nuke or Houdini respectively.

The Foundry will provide temporary  Nuke licenses for the workshop and we are looking into obtaining temporary licenses from Side Effects. If not the demo version will work fine.

The workshops are open to professionals in the VFX industry. The workshop will be held in English  and new of this year is that we welcome workshop attendees from outside of Norway. Workshops are sold on a first-come-first-served basis.

Dates: 15 May and 16 May 2012
Time: 09:00 – 17:00 (incl lunch)
Place: Filmens Hus, 8th floor
Seats: 12 per  workshop
Price: 2800 NOK per workshop
Registration: see www.digistorytelling.com

Matt Leonard
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, commercials and large corporate projects. He is currently Head of Training at Sphere VFX, his own company that specialises 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 teaching/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 festivals including the Sundance Film Festival and the Venice Film Festival.  He has also spoken at various trade events and conferences and is a published author.

Matt has developed and oversees The Foundry’s ‘Nuke Training Accreditation Program’ and is currently the only officially 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).
www.spherevfx.com

May 15 – Nuke X 6.3 New Features workshop

May 16 – Maya to Houdini Workshop