15/2/2023
Generation
It is now possible to purchase an accreditation to attend the Next Lab Generation 2023 event, whose third edition will close on March 3rd and 4th at Espacio Rastro Madrid with a series of conferences, project pitches and networking. In addition to various conferences on the latest in innovation and new technologies in the world of animation and video games, the event will also host the pitch of the finalist projects. The accreditations are already available at Eventbrite until February 27th at 23:59h in Madrid or until full capacity is reached, and its price is three euros plus administration fees. The price of the ticket will go entirely to an NGO.
As a novelty in this edition, on February 28th and March 1st will take place, as a pre-event activity, an educational talk on the integration of AI in audiovisual creative processes, illustration, animation and design; in addition to a non-competitive Hackathon. Daniel M. Lara, Goya Award for best animated short film for "Alike" and creator of the animation school Pepe School Land, will give the talk, which will focus on the possibilities offered by AI tools for the creation of images and designs from own creations and/or royalty-free images, reviewing different tools. The non-competitive hackathon will start the following day, Wednesday, March 1st, and participants will have a common space to create, share and put into practice what they have learned. Both the training talk and the Hackathon will have a very limited capacity and prior registration is required to participate.
The event will kick off on March 3rd with a day full of conferences, case studies and networking opportunities. The first talk of this edition will be the presentation of IBERMEDIA NEXT, an innovative initiative to support the application of new technologies in the field of digital animation and audiovisual content with a high percentage of animation. The initiative, part of the IBERMEDIA Program, is part of the 'Spain Audiovisual Hub of Europe' component of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, promoted by the Ministries of Culture and Sport and Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation. It also has the collaboration of the Quirino Awards and the Liga de la Animación Iberoamericana. We will also explore the case study of Matte, an Ecuadorian animation and vfx production company with more than 14 years of experience combining art and technology.
The day will continue with the exclusive presentation of the first chapter of Lumen, a VR animation series that took its first steps in the last edition of Next Lab Generation and has been animated in Blender and Quill and composed in Unreal. Then, with the help of Spain Audiovisual Hub, we will review the new avenues of funding in research and innovation for animation, video games and web 3 projects, and we will have the presence of Quantic Brains and 3Doubles, companies whose projects have been supported by the CDTi - Center for Technological Development and Innovation.
In commitment to a holistic approach, in the conference "Present and future of AI applied to the audiovisual sector" we will discuss the different ways to take advantage of these technologies both in the production of animation and vfx, and more tangentially in video games and audiovisual content in general, and we will make an analysis of the subject from the point of practical application. For all this we will count on Carlos Santana Vega, disseminator, youtuber and teacher in the field of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning and creator of the YouTube channel Dot CSV, specialized in the field of AI.
One of the most outstanding conferences of this edition will be "Making a feature film with VR tools: Case study Zako", in which the Armenian studio OnOff will deepen into their experience of making and producing ZAKO, an animated feature film made entirely with Quill and Blender software. To conclude the intense day, El Ranchito, the visual effects company for film and advertising with more experience and international trajectory in Spain, will talk about the application and practical use of AI tools to optimize VFX and animation processes.
On Saturday morning, March 4th, it will be the turn of the Pitch of the finalist projects, where they will show the piece made during the workshop, in addition to explaining how the process and the progress experienced during the training has been. Of the twenty projects participating in the workshop, only the finalists will have the opportunity to make their pitch in front of an international jury.
Before knowing the jury's deliberation, we will continue with the conferences with "Case studies of NFT's, Web 3 and Metaverso" by DeAPlaneta Entertainment, a leading international entertainment company; and the case study Super Giant Robot Brothers, in which Federico Moreno Breser will talk to us as VFX supervisor about the challenges of producing an animated series with disruptive technologies.
To conclude, in the Next Lab I+D+i conference, Alfonso Fulgencio and Daniel M. Lara will present, thanks to a research project funded by Red.es, the results of a case study comparing "classic" CGi animation processes versus new pipelines introducing VR modeling and animation tools. They will also show, thanks to the new line of CDTi grants, the first steps of the open source tool NEXT Workflow, which will make Grease Pencil usable with VR glasses, taking a new step for the improvement of the sector.
The event will conclude with the awards ceremony and the announcement of the winning projects of this edition, which will travel to Annecy MIFA 2023 and will have the opportunity to make themselves known during the Next Lab Generation conference. The complete program can be consulted on the event's website.
Next Lab Generation 2023 is sponsored by the Community of Madrid through the Council for Culture, Tourism, and Sport as a main sponsor, with financial support from the Institute for Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts (ICAA), as part of the Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan advanced by the European Union, additional sponsorship by the Ministry of Culture, DeAPlaneta Entertainment, and the Municipal Government of Madrid, and collaboration from Enisa, Annecy Festival, Weird Market and Accelera Skills.