MAKE IT animation competition winner announced
27 September 2010
CIIC news
National
The Creative Industries Innovation Centre has today announced the national winner of its animation competition - ‘MAKE IT – A tale of creative inspiration’ – which was held as part of the UTS: Sydney International Animation Festival.
Brayden Gifford, a UTS Masters of Animation student, was selected as the most popular animation of the four finalists by industry and public audiences attending the festival over the weekend, 24-26 September.
Brayden created a stop-motion tale titled, 'Monkeelangelo', which showed how a monkey used creativity to solve a problem. The entire stop-motion piece was created using STAEDTLER® FIMO®.
As well as receiving valuable industry exposure at the VIP Best of the Fest screening on Friday night, Brayden received a $1000 cash prize, courtesy of competition partners STAEDTLER® FIMO®.
"I entered the MAKE IT competition because stop-motion is my love affair in the animation world. I am over the moon to win and it’s great to get in front of industry and to start making a name for myself,” Brayden said.
CIIC Programs & Partnerships Director, Adam Blake, said, “Congratulations to Brayden for creating a true tale of creative inspiration. Thanks also to all of the entrants for their submissions - we know they will go on to achieve great things.
“Australia’s animation, gaming and interactive media industries are key areas of economic growth and innovation, which is why the Creative Industries Innovation Centre, together with our partners at STAEDTLER® and UTS: SIAF, are committed to supporting the next generation of animation professionals," Adam said.
About the winner:
Brayden Gifford - Monkeelangelo
Brayden graduated from the University of Newcastle with a Bachelor of Visual Arts, majoring in video with a focus on plasticine stop-motion animation during his final year.
Working as a mould-maker in the art department on a couple of feature films helped him refine his puppet and set making skills. Brayden is currently studying a Masters of Animation at the University of Technology, Sydney and has a passion for stop-motion.
“I am inspired by films such as '9', 'Fantastic Mr Fox', the Aardmaan series 'Creature Comforts' and, of course, 'Wallace and Grommit'. Throughout my career I hope to work in film and television, stop-motion and computer animation, with the ultimate goal of one day being an animation director,” Brayden said.
About the finalists:
Gareth Lockett – FIMO heart
Gareth Lockett is the Technical Director at Perth-based animation studio, Raging Pixel Productions. As a result, Gareth has worked on a wide variety of animated projects, including mobile phone content, TVCs, corporate visualizations, short films, documentaries and giant screen format IMAX and planetarium films.
Before joining Raging Pixel in 2005, Gareth was the Head of 3D at the Film and Television Institute (FTI) where he delivered 3D training on the Diploma of Screen (Animation) course while also coordinating the Centre for Advanced Digital Screen Animation (CADSA).
In recent years Gareth has created several award winning, animated short films, including 'Kitty Wake Up!' (Best Animation/Mixed Media at the 17th Annual WA Screen Awards), 'Last Memories' (Nominated at the 2004 Australian Effects and Animation Festival) and 'Cotton Tales' (Best Animation at the inaugral GO3 Gaming Convention 2007).
View the making of FIMO heart here
MaricorMaricar – Triangle, Circle, Square
MaricorMaricar is a twin sister illustration, design and animation tag team. They like to create bespoke artisan handcrafted design that is a little whimsical and quirky.
The ‘Architecture in Helsinki’ music video that they hand-sewed and animated for Mathematics will be part of onedotzero's Craftwork program in this year's UTS: Sydney International Animation Festival. They will soon be embarking on a trip to the UK as part of the British Council's ‘Realise Your Dream Award’, which they were granted in 2010.
Darren Blin - ‘Alone with my thoughts at night’
Originally from Vancouver Island on Canada’s west coast, Darren made Sydney his home ten years ago. Prior to moving to Australia, he spent several years working in the camera department on music videos and TV commercials in Toronto.
Darren first became interested in animation as a child and began making his own Super 8 movies after being exposed to 16mm films at school from The National Film Board of Canada. He gained an appreciation for this art from viewing the works of renowned animators such as Norman McLaren and Richard Condie.
Darren’s film “Alone with my thoughts at night” was inspired by a recent bout of insomnia. He hopes that by making this film and experiencing the SIAF he will be inspired to continue his renewed interest in making animated films.