Speakers - PIXELvienna15

Michael Merkatz is an austrian Character Animator and has been a part of many austrian and international projects including feature films, tv series and short films for amusement parks.

Working on “Rotzbub – Welcome to Siegheilskirchen” he could full-fill his dream of working on an austrian animated feature. He describes working on the project as an unique career opportunity but also a big responsibility. Bringing the beloved characters of Manfred Deix to life on the big screen means taking on austrian cultural heritage.  

At the moment Michael is working for a US production on the kids-adventure series “Wingfeather Saga” starting its first season by the end of the year in the United Staates.

• Talk - "Rotzbub – Willkommen in Siegheilkirchen" From Script to Animation – and slightly beyond.

  Fri - 10:45 - room1

  Austrias first full feature animation movie tells the story of Ultra-Catholic Siegheilkirchen in 1960s. In the tavern a snotty boy sits drawing nude pictures of the generously endowed butcher’s assistant. These pictures cause general agitation. The snotty boy is called Manfred Deix and is evidently talented. A salty cartoon feature film inspired by Manfred Deix about the teenage years of the Austrian Republic, with star-quality voices and wickedly accurate figures.

Georg Sochurek joined FriendlyFire as Technical Director in 2020, to help evolve the whole pipeline around using Unreal Engine as the new core tool.

Around 2010 he started working in the field of realtime 3D, helping create a wide scope of applications in various fields like Augmented and Virtual Reality, Virtual Production and Interactive Applications for trade fairs.

In this process of working with lots of talented developers and asking „How does that really work?“ a lot, he kept drifting from the artistic over to the technical side of things, from 3D Generalist to Technical Artist and now Technical Director.

• Talk - Unreal Engine as a paradigm shift

  Fri - 12:00 - room1

  How FriendlyFire started research & development on integrating interactive 3D tools, which completely changed our ways of thinking and producing CG content.

  We’ll talk about our experiences evolving our pipeline over the last 3 years by showcasing examples from various fields like Virtual Production, Pixelstreaming Web-Configurators and how the differences between offline-render productions and interactive productions gradually started to disappear.

Radek Pšurný (a.k.a Raduzz) is an award-winning director, creative director and former public television reporter. If he wasn’t always so damn cheerful, you’d think he was a robot. Raduzz is basically an idea machine. He spreads positive energy and inspiration around the world like it was confetti.

motionhouse

• Talk - 10 years of Motionhouse

  Fri - 16:30 - room1

Michal Černý (a.k.a. Majký) is a skilled animator who comes from the swanky Brno district of Líšeň. Majky built himself a virtual lightsabre before reaching puberty. It was inevitable then that a bright future awaited him in the field of motion design. In our team, he represents the voice of reason, combined with the voice of passion. He proudly applies this combination to all our projects. The Force is with him.

motionhouse

• Talk - 10 years of Motionhouse

  Fri - 16:30 - room1

Roman Saravia is co-founder and Head of CG at FriendlyFire with 25 years experience in CG productions. He was one of the first who established 3D solutions for the Austrian advertising market.

• Talk - Unreal Engine as a paradigm shift

  Fri - 12:00 - room1

  How FriendlyFire started research & development on integrating interactive 3D tools, which completely changed our ways of thinking and producing CG content.

  We’ll talk about our experiences evolving our pipeline over the last 3 years by showcasing examples from various fields like Virtual Production, Pixelstreaming Web-Configurators and how the differences between offline-render productions and interactive productions gradually started to disappear.

bounty.studio is an animation studio based in Vienna. We enjoy thinking across disciplines and media, finding unusual solutions to tell unconventional stories. Extensive experience in the advertising industry and our in depth understanding of design and digital content allow us to tailor every project to its unique purpose.

@bounty.studio, @freudi.jpg

• Talk - But, we love playtime… or how we internalized playtime as an essential part of our studio.

  Fri - 09:30 - room1

  Since we started in 2018 playtime is an actual folder on our server and an essential part of our work philosophy.

  Playtime is when the experiments happen. Playtime is when there is no pressure of a deadline or output in general.

  Playtime is when you can do anything you want.

  Playtime is when the magic happens.

  And if that magic leads to a client project so let the magic happen!

bounty.studio is an animation studio based in Vienna. We enjoy thinking across disciplines and media, finding unusual solutions to tell unconventional stories. Extensive experience in the advertising industry and our in depth understanding of design and digital content allow us to tailor every project to its unique purpose.

@bounty.studio, @ynny.mp4

• Talk - But, we love playtime… or how we internalized playtime as an essential part of our studio.

  Fri - 09:30 - room1

  Since we started in 2018 playtime is an actual folder on our server and an essential part of our work philosophy.

  Playtime is when the experiments happen. Playtime is when there is no pressure of a deadline or output in general.

  Playtime is when you can do anything you want.

  Playtime is when the magic happens.

  And if that magic leads to a client project so let the magic happen!

Franz Brandstätter started his career in Germany, working on 3D computer visualisation, primarily for the automotive industry. In 2011 his path took him to London, where he worked on feature films like “Harry Potter” and “Pirates of the Caribbean 4”. His team was awarded the Oscar for Best Visual Effects in 2012, the same year in which he returned to Germany and worked as a freelance VFX supervisor, compositing supervisor and compositing artist on numerous films and commercials, including “The Avengers” or “Cloud Atlas” or the Super Bowl spots. In 2020 he moved back to Austria but still serving international clients. His latest projects range from complex 3D integrations for the Amazon Prime series “Carnival Row” to heavy compositing tasks for Wes Andersons “Asteroid City”. Since October 2019, Franz has been Professor of Digital Art – Compositing at the Film Academy Vienna.

@vast_vfx
vast.pictures

• Talk - Rubikon - Making a Space movie…in Austria

  Fri - 14:00 - room1
  Rubikon was the first science fiction feature film entirely produced in Austria. VFX Supervisor Franz Brandstaetter assembled a team of great artists at the VFX House ArxAnima to make this adventure come true.

  Franz will provide a glimpse behind the scenes of a Feature Film that strives to create Hollywood VFX work on a very tight budget. He will show the process and walk us through the secrets of what it takes, to create movie magic.

@evacremers is an award-winning Dutch 3D artist & animation director with a consistently playful, fun and cheeky style. After rather accidentally being hooked on 3D, she’s worked and collaborated with brands such as Apple, Nike and Facebook in both the physical and digital world. With a use of bold colours, characters with charm and a graphic CGI style, Eva tries to create artwork that sparks joy and brings huge smiles on people’s faces. Come see her talk and dive into her happy world!

• Talk - Accidentally hooked on 3D

  Fri - 15:15 - room1

  Eva will talk about how she never aspired being an artist, but got hooked accidentally and how she’s now figuring out her role and direction within the art world, without listening too much to other people.