[Sorry for the delay on Part 2 of the Bradford Animation Festival, a nasty Bradford bug got the better of me. I'm OK now though.]

Day 2, Captain’s log. First activity started at 11am, with a presentation by Oliver Dunn of Natural Motion. Natural Motion are the guys who made a break-through in 3D character animation with DMS (Dynamic Motion Synthesis) and brought it into the gaming industry in the form of Euphoria. The technology allows character simulation which is never the same twice. This is achieved by combining artificial intelligence, biomechanics and dynamics simulation. I’m not going to pretend I understand how it works, only that it is very awesome to watch in action</geek talk>. The technology can be seen in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and Grand Theft Auto IV. Euphoria allows ‘controlling the force’ to be very, VERY cool.

Below is a short tech demo demonstrating Euphoria technology using Endorphin. Endorphin is the software which is distributed for games companies who want to use Euphoria. There is a Learning Edition of the software which can be downloaded from the Natural Motion website for those who want to have a blast with it. It is easy to integrate Endorphin with other software packages, such as Maya or 3dMax. Simply a case of importing / exporting and simulating. Apparently it works a charm.

Student films were next on my itinerary. They say ‘student’ films. I guess these so called ‘students’ must be Whoopie Goldberg’s neighbour or dog walker, because I can’t say I have got friendly with any well known actors or actresses since I’ve been at Falmouth. I suppose we must meet them after Christmas. Anyway, one of the nominated films, Descendants, had Whoopie Goldberg’s blessing voice talents plastered all over it featured in it. Though it didn’t win.

Of the student films, my favourite would have to of been Seconde Classe (Second Class). It tells the story of an exhausted man who is trying to sleep on a train, but fellow passengers cause no end of annoyance. It pretty close to my heart, being a public transporter user um-finite times a day. Each interaction with the various characters was really well executed, giving gritty tension resulting in blunt resolve.

A bunch of us did go to watch the Producers Panel after the student films, where a selection of producers would talk about what they did as a producer. I have to be honest, I fell asleep and whatever it is that they do, I don’t think it is the job for me. I remember hearing something about money / event organizing / fund raising and then I remember swimming with a whale and eating candy on a cloud.

After being slapped in the face and ushered out of the previous session, we meandered around until the iMax showing of The Dark Knight. Not part of the schedule per se, but I really wanted to go. And it was pretty amazing on the iMax screen. The screen may of been iMax mind, but the leg room was certainly not, perhaps iMidget at most.

Then to top the day (and the following early hours) off, we went to the casino and I came out £50 richer.

And I found out I can actually lick my elbow.

Roy

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Read about the other days of the Bradford Animation Festival below:

Bradford Animation Festival 2008 – Wednesday
Bradford Animation Festival 2008 – Thursday
Bradford Animation Festival 2008 – Friday
Bradford Animation Festival 2008 – Saturday