Vicon, developer of Academy Award-winning motion capture systems and part of the Oxford Metrics Group, is currently accepting submissions for the Vicon Film Festival online at www.vicon.com/filmfestival/.
With a grand prize of $10,000, the international competition aims to find the most creative and entertaining use of a series of motion capture sequences in an animated short. The competition is open to original short films (between two and five minutes long) using motion capture data made available for download from the Vicon Film Festival website.
The contest launched in August 2007, offering participants a variety of different motion capture clips for download, along with NFR licenses of 3D match-moving software boujou SD, to aid in the creation of their short films. Between now and the submission close date (Jan. 31, 2008), one entrant per day will be selected at random to win an iPod Shuffle.
Film entries will be posted on YouTube and the Vicon Film Festival website for public voting. The top 10 entries will be submitted to an independent judging panel comprised of industry experts including Mike Sanders (Industrial Light & Magic), Eric Furie (USC School of Cinematic Arts), Takashi Fukamoto (Links Digiworks), Gary Roberts (Vicon House of Moves), Chris Mais (writer and director of the award-winning SMILE), Mick Morris (Audiomotion) and Darren Waters (BBC Interactive). The winner will be announced in June 2008. Media sponsors for the competition include VFXWorld.com, Computer Graphics World and Digital Arts Magazine (UK).
