Animation In Belfast

Darklight @ Belfast Film Festival

As part of the Belfast Film Festival, and run in association with the Digital Arts Studios and Synth Eastwood, Darklight presents a day of screenings and workshops celebrating filmmakers and animators working in Belfast and across Ireland this Sunday 25 April from 2pm. Info below.

Digital Arts Studios and Darklight Present: New Adventures In Animation

Bff Beanbag Cinema, 23 Donegall Street
Sunday 25th April 2 – 5pm
Admission £5.00

Darklight proudly present a screening of the finest in new short animation from across the globe. The animation selction has been curated by the Darklight team and Dublin based art, music & technology group Synth Eastwood for your viewing pleasure. Expect to be educated, entertained and elated.

Synth Eastwood Present: Animators Anonymous
Black Box Cafe, 18 – 22 Hill Street
Sunday 25th April 8pm – 11pm
Admission Free

Complimenting the Darklight animation package, Synth Eastwood will host an open discussion looking at all things animated. The event is free, open to all comers and emphasises audience interactivity, generating an atmosphere more akin to a gig than a presentation.

If you’re working in animation, motion graphics, experimental filmmaking or simply passionate about contemporary visual culture then this is a space made for you.

If you have a particular question for Synth Eastwood, or would like to reserve space for you or your group then please email DAS at events@digitalartsstudios.com prior to the evening. The Symposium will round off with a DJ set from Synth Eastwood.

About Synth Eastwood
Established in 2006 Synth Eastwood is a Dublin based music, art & technology group whose aim is to present creative work from around the world. For more info on Synth Eastwood go to www.syntheastwood.com.

About DAS
The Digital Arts Studios are a not-for-profit resource centre for artists using new media technology. Primarily grounded in the Arts this facility provides a programme of Digital Artists Residencies, innovative training programmes and invaluable open access to resources. For more information go to www.digitalartsstudios.com

For more information on the Belfast Film Festival programme go to www.belfastfilmfestival.org

Final Year Students – Show Your Work

The deadline for submissions for ‘Best in Show 2010 @ The Digital Hub is getting closer. Students have until the 7th of May to submit their work to win the coveted work placement & €1000 prize fund.

Best in Show 2010 is a competition for final-year digital media students who are being invited to submit examples of their work to The Digital Hub for assessment by a team of industry experts. Students can submit work under any one of seven categories:

1. Animation
2. Film / Video Production
3. Gaming
4. Industrial design
5. Interior design
6. Visual communications
7. Web design

Submissions will be judged by relevant industry leaders, and the winning entry in each category will win a two-week work placement in a high-profile company based in The Digital Hub.

The seven submissions chosen by the judging panel as the outright winners in each category will also be showcased online, where members of the public can vote for their favourite entry. The submission that garners the highest public vote will win the overall ‘Best in Show 2010’ title and will be awarded €1,000, in addition to gaining one of the industry work placements.

All details about the competition as well as the application form can be found at http://www.thedigitalhubexhibit.com/bestinshow

Dare In Judging

Entries have now closed for the 2010 Dare to be Digital competition, with over 100 teams from nearly 80 universities around the world applying to enter this year’s competition – the highest number of entries in the competition’s 11-year history.



The 2010 call for entries, which opened in January this year, closed on Sunday 28 March. 



Over 100 teams from all over the world have applied. They come from almost 80 universities across the UK, the USA, Canada, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, China, India, Egypt and Poland.



The judging panel has now started the online process to determine which teams are invited to the interview stage. The judges come from members of the UK Dare Developer Accord which includes the BBC, Blitz Games Studios, Cohort Studios, Denki, Rare, Realtime Worlds, Rockstar North, SEGA, Sony and Ubisoft.

A maximum of 15 teams will be selected to proceed to the next round of the competition.



Sponsorship from the Scottish Government and partnerships with the Norwegian School of Information Technology, NITH and the British Council will enable Dare to be Digital to hold selection events in India, China and Norway. Judges for these events will be provided by EA DICE (Sweden), Funcom (Norway), IO Interactive (Denmark), Virtual Information & Communications, Maya Academy of Advanced Cinematics and Arena Animation.



The teams selected for the main phase will be announced in May.

The main phase of Dare to be Digital 2010 will start on 7 June at Abertay University in Dundee.

Teams selected for the competition will spend 10-weeks in an intensive ‘hot-house’ development environment, building fully-functioning prototypes for assessment by industry judges and a public vote at Dare ProtoPlay, scheduled for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August.

see http://www.daretobedigital.com/