Next Lab Workshop 2021

Event Description

Next Lab is an initiative that integrates a workshop, an event and a digital platform; created and organized by Paramotion Films (creators and organizers of Weird Market and Quirino Awards), with the main sponsorship of the Community of Madrid and the collaboration of Annecy MIFA, Annecy International Animation Film Festival and Market (France).

This first year it focuses on the use of VR, XR and AR tools together with the use of video game rendering engines for the prototyping and production of animation and VFX. In addition to the workshop, the event and the platform, online conferences will be organized and research articles will be published.

2021 Call for entries

Next Lab, an innovative project for the animation and digital content sector, opens the call for projects for its workshop. This initiative that connects art and technology to improve audiovisual production, strengthen the business fabric and support young talent and employment, will receive proposals until December 18th. Free registration will be carried out through the event website and all kinds of animation projects can participate, as well as real image projects with high animation or VFX content, regardless of the format. 

This first edition has the main sponsorship of the Community of Madrid and the collaboration of the Ministry of Culture and Sports and Annecy, International Animation Film Festival and Market (France). Presenting the two best projects of the workshop during Annecy MIFA 2021.

Jury: Federico Moreno Breser has almost 20 years of experience as an animation director and digital artist. Founder of his own studio Mcfly Studio and co-founder of Luty Art Studio. He has worked for Disney, Ubisoft, Netflix, Reel Fx, Unicef, among many others. He currently works as a Partner for Oculus / Facebook creating narrative content in VR. He is an expert in using the Quill program to create characters and settings using virtual reality.

Raúl Colomer also has a proven track record within the audiovisual industry. Collaborator of the "open source movement", especially from the field of research and teaching, which seeks the democratization of tools and the opening of knowledge. Colomer is currently the CG Supervisor of Pinkman.tv, Alberto Mielgo's audiovisual production company - four Emmy Awards and two Annie Awards and director of the animated short film The Witness created for the Netflix anthology: Love, Death & Robots-, where he works to introduce the RT (Real Time) technology in immersive preview for animation. 

From this call, a maximum of 8 projects will be selected, with a minimum visual development, which will receive advice on how to be produced, applying R + D + i and the most recent technology. These projects will be implemented making them more viable and competitive thanks to the cost and time savings applied in the workshop. The selected projects will become part of this workshop given by several professionals and experts in the sector.

The workshop, which will take place online and in Madrid (Spain) will take place in four stages from January 11th to February 20th, 2021:

• Learning the tools;
• Project prototyping;
• Finishing and post-production of the project.
• Sharing and feedback;
• and Public pitch of the project and announcement of winners.

The end result will be an animated piece as a teaser for each project. At the end of the entire process and in the subsequent event, each project will be presented in a public pitch and with a jury. From this pitch will come the two winners who will be presented during Annecy MIFA 2021 and who will have a free accreditation.

 The submitted proposals must be led by a person or a work team. Any nationality will be accepted, although the current socio-sanitary conditions caused by COVID 19 make it necessary for participants to reside in European territory.

A committee made up of professionals from the sector and representatives of the Culture Department of the Community of Madrid will be the one who evaluates the candidatures that must present two high-quality images, as well as a project dossier where detailed information on the work appears (technical file, description of the project and characters, visual development ...) and a brief history of the participant. Before final confirmation, the shortlisted will have to carry out an online pitch of the proposal.

• Project registration
• Workshop Regulations
• Submission is free
• Deadline: 18 December 2020