Festival Rush expresses the notion of 'where there's a will, there's a way'. SCB Foundation

There is more to animation than just entertainment. Rather, it should be able to send a valuable message across and serve society. Thailand Animation Festival 4 (TAF4), which was held last Saturday, reaffirmed such a notion.

Following its previous edition where animation features were created on the themes of "The Sufficiency Economy", "Active citizen" and "Sustainable Development", TAF this year still served society, but was opened free for topics.

While animated works by Thai creators have become more recognised, a space for them to present their works is limited. TAF thus is a stage for students and young animators to fulfil their dreams. The annual TAF is a stage for students to show their ability and work with leading animation studios.

According to Ratt Jumpamule, founder of Sputnik Tales Studio and TAF, more than 100 projects from students nationwide were this year submitted to TAF4 and only the best 10 were selected to show at the event.

With more than 10 years of experience in social animation, Ratt believes that animation can change the world, especially the world of the young generation.

"I believe in the power of animation. If a man who intentionally creates a piece of animation has continuous support, this will encourage him to do good and better quality works and to be proud of himself," said Ratt, who studied in aviation engineering, but chose to work in social animation.

After the final round, the 10 teams were required to join TAF Camp, a two-day activity event that opened a space for young animators to learn and exchange ideas, working with senior animators developing the creative animation "Ginger Bread Factory" which was inspired by the learning of Sustainable Development Goals from the Thailand Sustainable Development Foundation (TSDF).

Ratt Jumpamule, founder of Sputnik Tales Studio and TAF. SCB Founndation

Piyaporn Mantajitr of the SCB Foundation, noted that the foundation has backed the TAF since the beginning of the project as they want to support young people's potential. Youth development in IT in animation is also important because technology plays a very crucial role in the process.

"IT not only revolutionises the media, but also changes people's behaviours," said Piyaporn.

Several organisations provide support for TAF, including SCB Foundation, Thai Health Promotion Foundation, TSDF, Thailand Animation and Computer Graphic Association, Sputnik Tales, Lunchbox Studio Animation, Beboyd CG, Riff Animation and Voice TV.

Sipparpad Krongraksa, an animator of "The Forest Paper" project which was one of the 10 finalists, said that he would like to create an animation that can be viewed by audiences worldwide. The Forest Paper is the thesis project of Sipparpad and he later edited it before submitting it to many organisations globally. Besides being a TAF finalist, he was also the winner of the "Best R&D Thesis" award competition.

The Forest Paper animation is all about a bird who wants to build her nest with straw, but she gets lost in a world made of paper where everybody in the city tends to focus on technology and forgets to care about Mother Nature. This causes disasters like flooding. This 3D animation symbolises the materialistic lives of people in the city. The main purpose of the project was to present how nature can be affected by the overuse of paper.

Panida Ratarasan, a creator of the Footstep animation which was also one of the finalists, expressed the idea of "letting the children choose their own path". She said that young animators today have very limited space to present their works.

"I would like audiences to accept animations made by Thais as we are not inferior to others," she said.

Danupol Jongariyakul, another finalist and creator of Mailbox who received a special award in the category of Creative Media, said the first edition of TAF inspired him when he was a 12th grader.

For its four years, TAF has selected around 120 animation projects from more than 5,000 participants. TAF currently has more than 21,500 people on its Facebook fanpage.

"As an animator, we expect nothing but to have the audience recognise our valuable works and to see our works be able to change society," Ratt concluded.

Ten best animation teams of TAF4. SCB Foundation