Institute Director
Professor Thomas Haegele
Business Director
Heike Mozèr
Office
Sabine Hörburger
Lecturers / Project Supervision
Ged Haney, Professor Andreas Hykade, Dr. Dietmar Jacobs, Daniel Nocke, Jakob Schuh, Professor Peter Spans, Saschka Unseld, Florian Wagner, Johannes Weiland
and numerous guest teachers from international film and media firms including Pixar, Framestore, Digital Domain and Electronic Arts.
Program Coordination
Sabine Hirtes, Tina Ohnmacht
Staff
Constanze Bühner, Joachim Genannt, Volker Helzle, John Holth, Tobias Klose, Ellen Michl, Viet Nguyen, Michael Schott
The Baden-Württemberg Film Academy has been in existence since 1991, and, along with directing, screenwriting, cinematography and production, animation has been a part of its curriculum since the beginning. In fact, in 1993, the first graduates to emerge from the academy were animation filmmakers who had begun their studies with the academy’s founding director, Professor Albrecht Ade, when he was still running the animation course at the Stuttgart Academy of Art and Design. As a result they had been admitted directly to the advanced project program at the new Film Academy. The first assistant lecturer to be appointed to the Animation department, Volker Engel, was also a graduate of the Academy of Art and Design. At the time he had already worked for Roland Emmerich, and he was instrumental in ensuring that visual effects played a fundamental role in the new Animation program. Computer-generated images and digital postproduction were also important themes at this time. Computing skills were taught by the Digital Image Composition department, which also provided students with access to the new Avid editing system and Germany’s first serial digital postproduction suite. The Film Academy was thus well prepared for the “digital revolution,” which in the meantime has ensured that animation-related techniques now play a part in nearly every film and media production.
Today the Film Academy provides some 450 students with practically based training in the fields of film, television and new media. Future animation filmmakers, editors, screenwriters, soundtrack composers, cinematographers, media designers, producers, directors, actors, sound designers and production designers learn how films are made by making films – under the guidance of guest teachers from all areas of film and in the context of close interdepartmental collaboration.
Since 2002, the Institute of Animation, Visual Effects and Digital Postproduction – the successor to the former departments of Animation and Digital Image Composition – has been responsible for the Animation teaching program and for the digital postproduction of all projects made at the Film Academy.
The Film Academy is a highly integrated institution. Students in the introductory phase of their programs all study directing, screenwriting, image composition/cinematography and cinematic experimentation, and all of them gain an insight into production, montage/editing, film history and media theory. Moreover, the intensive and productive practical collaboration between students from all departments constitutes an indispensable element of every program of study. Learning animation in the context of a comprehensive study of filmmaking is an advantage that Film Academy students have over students at many other institutions.
The program offered by the Animation department covers a diverse range. The major fields of study, which are also potential areas of specialization, offered by the department are the production of animated short films, the design of visual effects, the development of real-time animation, the conceptual design of character-based animation formats and training as a technical director. These various areas are summarized by key categories:
Animated Shorts refers to work on animated short films, whether in 2D or 3D, as computer animation, conventional cartoon or stop trick, as self-contained artistic works or as ways of exploring animation-related formats. One focus of this category is character animation, which involves developing believable characters, bringing them to life and telling their stories. Apart from classic narrative approaches, this category also covers artistic work that employs a freer, associative approach. In all types of work, emphasis is consistently placed on dramaturgy and look. Technical production skills are learnt and applied in collaboration with Production students enrolled in the Animation & Vfx Producing elective.
Visual Effects is an area that generally covers the creation of believable, photorealistic images using a combination of real images and computer-generated elements. Particular emphasis within this category is given to the design and integration of digital sets, props, effects and characters. Students learn and practice how to design, plan and budget effects scenes, pre-visualisation, set supervision, how to record and edit real filmed material, the production of computer-animated material, compositing and finishing. These skills are worked on in the context of feature, advertising, documentary and science-based film projects in collaboration with the relevant Film Academy departments, externally funded projects for production firms and the Animation Institute’s own projects.
Real-time & Games refers to interactive storytelling, animation-based, interactive applications and the investigation of the increasing convergence between games and films. Students work on the development of games ideas, the design of characters and sets and the production of cutscenes and demo levels. This area also includes other interactive applications, such as the use of games engines for the pre-visualization of animation and effects films, the design of machinimas and the development of autonomous characters. Major focuses include the development of material and scripts, and character and production design. Collaboration is welcomed with students from the Screenwriting and Production departments.
Research & Development involves combining students’ previous technical knowledge with artistic work and offers a two-year training program for computer science graduates who are aiming to become technical directors. Through working on film projects, they learn how to design setups and rigs, to work with expressions and scripts, to program shaders, tools and plug-ins, to automate animation and other processes and to define workflows and production pipelines.
Postproduction provides students and others with the opportunity to develop their skills in online editing, color correction, grading, mastering and finishing.
Instruction at the Film Academy and the supervision of individual projects is provided by guest teachers from the film and television sector – local, national and international – who come to Ludwigsburg for one or more days to provide individual consultation and run seminars and workshops.
In all areas of study there is a particular emphasis on the importance of autonomous work in teams. Nearly all projects are developed and realized in a team context, often incorporating students from other departments. A high standard of technical work is expected. Our general goal is for students to learn how to put together artistic and dramaturgically convincing films and to develop the ability to understand and effectively implement the intentions of a director.
Resources. Students at the institute work with:
- 3D systems such as Autodesk Maya, 3ds Max and Motion Builder, Maxxon Cinema 4D, Mental Images Mental Ray, NewTek Lightwave, Nvidia Gelato, Pixar Renderman, Side Effects Houdini and Softimage XSI
- 2D systems such as Adobe Flash, CAS Animo, Toon Boom Harmony and Opus
- compositing and paint systems such as Adobe After Effects, Premiere and Photoshop, Apple Shake, Autodesk Combustion, Digital Domain Nuke and Eyeon Digital Fusion
- Motion capture and motion control equipment.
All academy students have access to the institute’s digital finishing and editing facilities, which include Apple Final Cut Pro HD, Avid DS Nitris, Symphony Nitris and Discreet Flame, as well as to the academy’s recording studios, film, video and HD cameras, lighting equipment, editing stations and sound engineering systems.
Graduates. The graduates of the Animation Institute have excellent career prospects. Many of them start up their own firms in the academy’s environs. Others work as freelancers throughout the world and for well-known firms in the USA, Europe and above all in Germany. Many graduates, after spending several years working abroad, return to Germany and work here on exciting projects.
Festivals. Animation films produced at the Film Academy have won numerous German and international festival awards. This success has attracted international attention to the work of the Film Academy’s Animation department, as have the Oscar for Best Visual Effects won by Volker Engel for his work on Roland Emmerich’s Independence Day, and the Oscar nomination of the short film Das Rad (Rocks).
Professor Thomas Haegele
www.animationsinstitut.de
