Sponsored Article
Next Lab Second Edition: A Pioneering Event Focused On Animation And VR
Skwigly
Animation production processes and their organizational structures have remained fairly unchanged for a long time, and the most innovative technologies often do not find their place within these processes. It is in this context and with the aim of optimizing both creative and production processes that Next Lab was created in 2020.
Next Lab is an initiative that connects art and technology in the animation and digital content industry, and its first edition took place in Madrid in February 2021. After the success of its first edition, where 7 animation projects managed to make their teasers in record time using new technologies, the event marking the end of the second edition will take place on February 25th & 26th.
In December 2021, Next Lab opened the call for the second edition of its free workshop. From this call, twenty projects were selected and started working on the application of creative tools within the virtual environment and received advice on how to be produced, applying R + D + i and the latest technology. The total number of aspiring candidates reached 45 proposals, and they came from eleven countries: Argentina, Brazil, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Uzbekistan and Venezuela. You can find out more about the selected projects here.
After only a few weeks, the final result of the workshop is an animated piece as a teaser for each participating project. Only ten of these projects made it to the second phase, and will be presenting their teaser in the subsequent event. An international jury will select the two winners to be presented during Annecy MIFA 2022.
Thanks to a successful first edition, Next Lab has obtained new strategic partners such as Europa Creativa MEDIA, the General Directorate of Cultural Industries and DeAPlaneta Entertainment, as well as the main sponsorship for the second consecutive year from the Community of Madrid. For all these reasons, Next Lab has grown and has been able to support more than twice as many projects as in its first edition.
The collaboration with DeAPlaneta Entertainment involved the selection and support by the company of one of the animation projects participating in the workshop, to promote new ways of working in animation using disruptive technologies. The winner of the DeAPlaneta Entertainment Award was Animal Drone League by Christian Garnez (Spain), who counts with a complementary 3 months of mentoring with international experts to develop the IP and a co-development contract for a value of 6,000€.
After the first phase of the workshop, next February 25th and 26th, Next Lab will celebrate its event at Talent Garden Madrid. In addition to various conferences on the latest in the sector, the event will host the pitch of the 10 finalist projects of the workshop.
The jury, which will determine the two winning projects, is made up of five international professionals from the sector and cover different profiles. The jury is formed by Nick Ladd, VR artist and animator founding member of the Virtual Animation community; Arnaud Miquel, Coordinator of the XR program of the Annecy International Animation Film Festival; Carmen Córdoba, one of the participants in the last edition of Next Lab and creator of the awarded short film “Roberto”; Manuel González, director of the Zoom Net (TVE) program since 2006; and Úrsula García, Director, Executive Producer and Co-founder of the production company The Frank Barton Company.
The event, which will be a meeting point for professionals at the forefront of the use of new technologies in animation production, will feature different conferences with experts. One of the highlights will be the conference “The future of audiovisual. Disruptive technologies that are changing the sector”, led by Marcos Fajardo, Oscar Award and Engineering Emmy Award for creating Arnold software and Víctor M. Feliz, External Consultant at Epic Games and CEO & Lead Developer at Motiva.
One of the most anticipated panels will be “Masters of VR Animation: Nick Ladd”, where we will learn about his most recent work (“Namoo”, a short film shortlisted for the 2022 Oscars and “Tales from Soda Island”, a series made entirely in Quill) as well as the group of which he is founder, Virtual Animation, the largest online community focused on the production of animation in VR.
During the second day, after the pitch of the projects, Daniel M. Lara, Goya Award winner for best animated short film for “Alike” and creator of the Pepe School Land animation school, will give the Master Class “New tools for storyboarding and animatics”. He’ll perform a live demo and afterwards, he will be accompanied by great professionals who will share their experiences with us, such as Enrique Gato, director and animator who has won seven Goya awards and creator of the character Tadeo Jones; or Daniel Martín Peixe, a character animator with 12 years of experience at Disney (“Tangled”, “Zootopia” and “Moana”, the latter two Oscar winners) who currently works at Moon Studios as a cinematic animator.
The final highlight of the event will be the awards ceremony on Saturday afternoon, where the winning projects will be announced.
The full programme of the event can be found here.