AEAF 2017 was held on 16 August with a full day of top speakers and an Awards event that brought together artists from around the world. SEE all the winners inside.

Anders Langlands, one of the speakers at AEAF, and Keith Miller from Weta Digital attended the Awards Night to receive a Gold Award for 'War for Planet of the Apes' and Silver for 'The Jungle Book', both in the Feature Film VFX category.

AEAF Awards Announces 2017 Winners

AEAF 2017 was held on 16 August with a full day of top speakers and an Awards event that brought together artists from around the world at the Chauvel Cinema in Sydney. All speakers shared truly fascinating details and valuable tips from their work, and gave insights into their approaches to projects that ranged from commercials to television shows to movies. Their generosity was also inspiring, and the large audience was very appreciative. The speakers this year came from Animal Logic, MPC, Weta Digital, ILM, Iloura, The Sequence Group, Buck and Rotor Studios. See details of the speakers here and watch this space for more details of their presentations - coming soon.

In the evening, AEAF's annual Awards Night took place at the same venue, starting off with a social event, drinks and networking at the Chauvel bar ahead of a screening of the Award winning projects and finalists' work. See all of the winners in each category listed at the end of this article.

Feature Films VFX

Feature Films VFX received the greatest number of entries ever in AEAF's history. The Gold Award went to Weta Digital for 'War for Planet of the Apes', the first award the film has won since its release in July. AEAF is also the first film awards event it has entered.

The Feature Film Silver Award was shared between MPC and Weta Digital for their work on 'The Jungle Book', recognising the creature, environmental and effects work the two teams accomplished for an entirely blue screen production. MPC's photoreal jungle defined the film's world for audiences, and their animals were lead characters in the story, requiring their VFX supervisors to contribute, from the very start, to script and storyboard development and guide the filming on set. Weta Digital accomplished complex work on the monkey population and the creatures' close interaction with the story's hero Mowgli.

Sheldon Stopsack from MPC, AEAF speaker, took home the team's Feature Film VFX Silver Award for 'The Jungle Book' and Special Merit Award for 'Ghost in the Shell'.

Bronze Feature Film winner at AEAF was ILM for 'Kong: Skull Island'. Their work not only added to the scale, complexity and character of Kong compared to earlier iterations in previous 'King Kong' movies but also created the island's fantastic creatures, Kong's massive battles and the helicopter sequences, and enhanced the Skull Island set in Vietnam.

Apart from these winners the AEAF organisers feel extremely honoured to have received 18 other Feature Film VFX entries. This includes the work Weta Digital completed for 'Valerian and The City of a Thousand Planets', also released so recently that it has also not been entered into any other film festivals. Other entries include 'Ghost in the Shell' from MPC, 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' from Framestore, 'Logan' from Rising Sun Pictures and 'Deepwater Horizon' from Iloura. 'Doctor Strange' sequences were submitted by Luma Pictures, Framestore and ILM. Several of the projects mentioned here received Special Merit Awards.

VFX Supervisor Anders Langlands gave a talk at AEAF on the development of the animation - body motion capture, facial performance capture and keyframing - plus the fur system, environments, water, ecosystem growth and other tools at Weta Digital through the series of the three films in the Planet of the Apes series. More information on this talk, and all others, will follow shortly in another article at AEAF.

Jeff Capogreco from ILM Singapore, also a speaker at AEAF, poses with the Feature Film VFX Bronze Award for 'Kong: Skull Island'.

TV Series

TV Series entries were outstanding. Rodeo FX scooped Gold for their work on environments and water, fire and explosion FX in Season 6 of 'Game of Thrones'. Aerial shots requiring compositing of Rhythm & Hues' dragons over Rodeo's environments and exploding ships looked terrific on the cinema screen at the Awards event. BlueBolt won Silver for their massive CG set extensions of period London in 'Taboo', filling docks and harbours with cargo ships and replacing views along the Thames with matte paintings and historical CG buildings and towers. The Bronze Award went to Screen Scene for the detailed, accurate enhancements and extensions to sets in 'Ripper Street'. After five seasons, Screen Scene's work is now an essential element of this series.

Both Rodeo FX and Screen Scene earned a Special Merit Award for invisible Effects and set extensions in the new drama series 'Black Sails'.

The team from Screen Scene receiving their AEAF Award at their studio in Dublin, Ireland.

Commercials

The Commercials categories again received the largest number of entries and some terrific work. In Commercials Animation, the top Gold Award went to MPC for their funny, emotional live action Christmas spot for John Lewis, 'Buster the Boxer', and Passion Pictures won Silver for their 3D animation 'Mega City' for James Wellbeloved. Buck's stylised CG stop motion project 'The Innovator' for Woolmark earned Bronze.

Such close competition between a large number of teams in this category resulted in several Special Merit Awards as well including Gentleman Scholar's 'Mia & Morton' for Dairy Farmers of Canada and the valiant flying 'Ostrich', a heroic photoreal story created at MPC for Samsung. The Domestos Grime Minister from Outpost VFX, Sainsbury's 'The Greatest Gift' by Passion Pictures and 'Cashback Credit Card' for Standard Chartered by Cirkus all received Special Merit as well, plus a serene animation from Psyop, 'La Mer: Part II' for Este Lauder.

Rodeo FX took the TV Series Gold Award for 'Games of Thrones' Season 6.

Commercials VFX brought another long lineup of stellar entries. It is good to see that longer form spots are coming into their own with interesting scripts, high production values and expert VFX. The 'Straw City' PSA, Gold winner, created for the FDA from the Alt.vfx team is a brilliant blend of live action actors in wolf and pig costumes, composited with animal heads showing facial animation that delivers the spot's warning against smoking, all in a city of pigs complete with straw-covered skyscrapers. MPC's Heineken commercial won Silver, features a whirlwind of faultless transitions from a snowy mountain peak, to outer space, to a trendy night club - and lots of other places. The Jose Cuervo spot 'Tomorrow is Overrated' from Electric Theatre Collective, earning Bronze, tells a story of pathos, drama, love and humour under a storm to end all storms.

Special Merit also went to Framestore for perfect compositing of new footage of actor George Clooney into classic movies shot on film, ranging from 'Psycho', inside a car on a dark night, to 'Easy Rider' on a Harley in full sunshine. The Embassy's 'Return of the Snowman' was recognised for its handling of a great story and an army of photoreal snowmen. Fin Design + Effects showed a Hyundai i30 plummeting to earth from the edge of space, driving out unscathed from a mighty cloud of dust combining practical and CG explosions and dirt through an expert VFX pipeline.

Experiences - VR and 360

The VR Experience and 360 Virtual Reality categories have been fun and exciting to feature at AEAF. Since last year, the first time it was included, both have expanded tremendously. Experience The Pulse won Gold for the INFINITI IQ motorshow experience they created for Nissan, really using the opportunity to try new techniques in VR. Framestore's neat Google Daydream project exploring the world of 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' won Silver, and Traffik took home Bronze for a VR team game played at Clipsal 500 motor races called Shell V-Power Virtual Pitstop.

Live Event brought another collection of beautiful projects, as it did last year with many entries from the Vivid Festival in Sydney. Winning Gold was 'Organic Vibrations' from the Danny Rose Collective, which morphed Sydney's MCA building into new shapes with mesmerising projected 3D motion graphics. Ample Projects picked up Silver for their illuminated jungle animation 'Light For The Wild' projected onto the entrance of Taronga Zoo, and Spinifex Group's 'Audio Creatures' literally brought the Opera House to life with brilliantly coloured organic and mechanical creatures.

Student work is always surprising. Amael Nicolas from Marseilles won the Gold Award for a 2D/3D animated graduation film with a deceptively simple, glowing colour palette and linework as creatures and environments morph and blend over a jazz soundtrack. The Silver Award went to Julz Lane's 'Future Primitive' titles project showing a dark, moody post apocalyptic landscape, and Elizabeth Poole won Bronze for her very creative, illuminated fox that leaps into a live action environment, creating a warm light in a night time scene.

AEFA AWARDS WINNERS 2017

Katie Mackin from Passion Pictures received their team's Silver Commercials Animation Award for 'Mega City'

Feature Film VFX

War for the Planet of the Apes - Weta Digital GOLD

The Jungle Book - Weta Digital SILVER

The Jungle Book - MPC SILVER

Kong: Skull Island - ILM BRONZE

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them - Framestore SPECIAL MERIT

Ghost in the Shell - MPC SPECIAL MERIT

Valerian and The City of a Thousand Planets - Weta Digital SPECIAL MERIT

Doctor Strange - Framestore SPECIAL MERIT

Assassin's Creed - Cinesite

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 - Framestore

xXx: The Return of Xander Cage - RSP

Logan - RSP

Deepwater Horizon - ILM

Doctor Strange - ILM

Rogue One - ILM

John Wick: Chapter 2 - Iloura

Deepwater Horizon - Iloura

Passengers - MPC

Ghostbusters - MPC

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them - Rodeo FX

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 - Weta Digital

Doctor Strange - Luma Pictures

Commercials - Animation

BUCK earned the Commercials Animation Bronze Award for CG stop motion project 'The Innovator'. Gareth O'Brien, left, was also a speaker at AEAF.

John Lewis - Buster the Boxer - MPC GOLD

James Wellbeloved - Mega City - Passion Pictures SILVER

Woolmark - The Innovator - BUCK Design BRONZE

Samsung - Ostrich - MPC SPECIAL MERIT

Domestos - Grime Minister - Outpost VFX SPECIAL MERIT

Mia & Morton Gentleman Scholar, DDB Canada SPECIAL MERIT

Standard Chartered Unlimited - Cashback Credit Card - Cirkus SPECIAL MERIT

Sainsbury's - The Greatest Gift - Passion Pictures SPECIAL MERIT

La Mer: Part II - Este Lauder - Psyop SPECIAL MERIT

Aldi - The Amazing Christmas Carrot - Psyop SPECIAL MERIT

Mercedes Benz E Class - Ambient Lighting 64 Colours - The Post Bangkok

WandaReignHotel : The Lion - The Post Bangkok

Clipsal 500 - Motorbeast - Resin

Selfridges - Material World - Strange Beast

BBC - Rio Olympics - Passion Pictures

Dior - Light of Stars - Zeppelin Pictures

Betadine - Multiply - Cutting Edge

Cairns Regional Council - Cutting Edge

Fisherman's Friend - Vandal

Sultana Bran - Goldie - Vandal

Murdoch University - Free Your Think - Vandal

El Jimador - Old ID - Bent Image Lab

YP Dine - Living Room - Bent Image Lab

Honda - Utility - Bent Image Lab

Spring Fashion Week - Visual Playground

The All New HINO 500 Series Wide Cab - Redboat

Beyond the Cloud - Dans Digital

Nutella - Food Truck Recipes - Poke The Bear

Slack - The Sequence Group

KFC - Hand Cookin' - BUCK Design

Aperol - The Adventures of Orange - BUCK Design

Myer - Wonderland - Sixty40

FDA - Straw City - Alt.vfx

Toyota C-HR - The Thrill of the Next - Alt.vfx



Commercials - VFX

'Straw City' created by Alt.vfx was Gold winner in the Commercials VFX category.



FDA - Straw City - Alt.vfx GOLD

Heineken Cities - The Trailblazers - MPC SILVER

Jose Cuervo - Tomorrow is Overrated - Electric Theatre Collective BRONZE

Nespresso - Comin' Home - Framestore SPECIAL MERIT

Nissan Rogue - Return of the Snowman - The Embassy SPECIAL MERIT

Hyundai - Fall - Fin Design + Effects SPECIAL MERIT

Ferrero Rocher - Rolling - Rising Sun Pictures SPECIAL MERIT

Cathay Pacific - The Embassy

nbn Business - Engine

Walmart - The Gift - ZERO VFX

Toyota C-HR - The Thrill of the Next - Alt.vfx

Hahn SuperDry - Never Settle - Alt.vfx

Honda Civic - Chase It - Alt.vfx

PEPSI Strong - Momotaro Episode 4 - Alt.vfx

Toyota - The Making of the new Vitz Story - Alt.vfx

Optus - Speed of Bolt (Director's Cut) - Oh Yeah Wow

Toyota C-HR - Crossover the World - Juice

BMW M4 - Factory - Juice

Dell - It’s not Magic - Framestore

Ethanol (E10) Endorser Spot - New Holland Creative

AboutYou - Timelapse - Neverest

Transformers: Forged to Fight - The Sequence Group

Spotlight on Alfred Hitchcock - the funktion

American Express - Meet With and Without - ZSPACE

Landing - Dans Digital

Dreams-on-Logo - Dans Digital

Gift - Dans Digital

Flexit Gym - Wagga Promo - House of Heathen Media

TV Series

Game of Thrones Season 6 - Rodeo FX GOLD

Taboo - BlueBolt SILVER

Ripper Street series 5 - Screen Scene BRONZE

The Leftovers: Season 3 - Iloura

Black Mirror: Hated in the Nation - Jellyfish Pictures

Woolfblood Season 5 - Jellyfish Pictures

Hunters - Resin

Black Sails Season 4 - Rodeo FX

Black Sails - Screen Scene

Education & Infographic

Sam Doust of Latchkey won the Gold Award in Education and Infographics for the elegant, atmospheric project 'The Lounge' featuring the Sydney Opera House.

Sydney Opera House - The Lounge - Latchkey GOLD

Vandal won the Silver Award in Education and Infographics for 'Tetris', created for TEDx Sydney.

TEDx - Tetris - Vandal SILVER

BHP Billiton - Maths is Life - Nick Did This BRONZE

White Pages - Bees - Deloitte Digital

Qantas - Ready for Take Off - Engine

Todd Sampson's Body Hack - Essential Media & Entertainment

Disaster Risk Reduction - Fluffy Cloud Media

Midatech - Lucid Edge

King Living - King Cloud III - Mister

HFC - Motionlab

Virgin - Data Gifting - Vandal

LaTrobe - Cybersecurity - Visual Playground

Transurban Investor Relations Day - Yes Captain

Telehealth - Fluffy Cloud Media

Reggie and Friends - Hackett Films

Event Openers

Semi Permanent Festival 2017 - Framestore GOLD

The team from Cutting Edge took home a Silver Award for their Event Opener made for Macquarire Telecom.



Macquarie Telecom - Cutting Edge SILVER

Scott Geerson at Substance poses with his Bronze Event Opener Award for 'Únconventional'.



TEDx Sydney 2017 - Unconventional - Substance BRONZE

AEAF Festival Titles - Substance

NodeFest 2016 - Yes Captain





Game Trailers





Plastic Wax scored two Game Trailer Awards, Gold for 'Evil Within 2' and Silver for 'Civilization 6'.

Evil Within 2 Trailer - Plastic Wax GOLD

Civilization 6 Launch Trailer - Plastic Wax SILVER

Forza NASCAR - Jumbla BRONZE

Star Wars Commander: Rogue One Expansion - The Sequence Group

Transformers: Forged to Fight PAX East 2017 - The Sequence Group

Lines Are Redrawn Trailer - Plastic Wax

League of Legends: Ivern Character Reveal - Jumbla

Blackstone - Jumbla

Forza Apex - Jumbla

Doctor Strange - Luma Pictures

Idents and Stings Broadcast

MTV - On The Go - Engine GOLD

Hackett Films' James Hackett won a Silver Idents & Stings Award for their lively DisneyXD animation.

Disney XD - Hackett Films SILVER

SBS' Lunar New Year motion graphic 'Fire Rooster' received the Bronze in Idents & Stings Broadcast.



SBS Lunar New Year - Fire Rooster - SBS Television BRONZE

Comedy Central - Amuse Yourself - Engine

Live Event

Organic Vibrations - Danny Rose Collective GOLD

Light For The Wild - Vivid at Taronga 2017 - Ample Projects SILVER

'Audio Creatures' from Vivid Festival's opening night won a Bronze Award for Spinifex Group.

Audio Creatures - Vivid Festival 2017 - Spinifex Group BRONZE

Urban Tree 2.0 - Ample Projects

The Body of the Sea - Danny Rose Collective

A Day in the Light - Danny Rose Collective

Tidal - Hatch

Bosch By Night - 500 Years of Hieronymus Bosch - Mr. Beam

Singapore National Gallery White Night Festival Projection - Spinifex Group

Woolworths Projection Dome - Visual Playground

ANZ Breakpoint - Deloitte Digital

Music Video

Kool Keith X MF Doom - Super Hero - Aardman Nathan Love GOLD

Aesop Rock - Shrunk - Bent Image Lab SILVER

Hayden James - Just a Lover - SPLINTR BRONZE

Kate Martin - Set My Life to Fire - Oh Yeah Wow

Short Film

Agent 327: Operation Barbershop - Blender Animation Studio GOLD

Otherhalf - Framestore SILVER

The Heart of Sky - Mirari&Co. BRONZE

Martha the Monster - Goodman Brothers SPECIAL MERIT

Valley of the Kith - Jumbla

Ten to the minus forty three second - Francis, Miyu Productions





Ton Roosendaal and the team from Blender Foundation / Institute received their AEAF Award at their studio

in Amsterdam from AEAF Festival Director Sean Young.

Mirari&Co. won the Bronze Award in Short Film for in-house project 'The Heart of Sky'.

Student

Hippocampe - Sauce Curie GOLD

Future Primitive Titles - Julz Lane SILVER

The Fox Lantern - Elizabeth Poole BRONZE

Elizabeth Poole won the Bronze Student Award for her animation project 'The Fox Lantern'.

Stormlight - David Fonti

WAKE - Daniel Braga, Julz Lane

Mutonia Burnout Titles - John Power

Titles/Openers - Feature Film

Doctor Strange main-on-end title sequence - Sarofsky GOLD

The Sequence Group won a Silver Titles Feature Film Award for 'Max Steel' and another Silver in Titles TV for 'Cardinal' Season 1. Luke Bicevskis (centre) and Ian Kirby (right) were speakers at AEAF.

Max Steel - The Sequence Group SILVER

Captain America: Civil War - Sarofsky BRONZE

Titles/Openers - TV

Guiltology Titles - Jellyfish Pictures GOLD

Cardinal Season 1 - The Sequence Group SILVER

Two members from Jumbla collected the team's two Bronze awards for 'Clique' in TV Titles and 'Forza NASCAR' in Game Trailers.



Clique - Jumbla BRONZE

Animal Kingdom main title sequence - Sarofsky

runJDrun - Jeremy Mansford

Deadline Design - New Holland Creative

The Deep - A Stark Production

Suncorp Super Netball - DD8

Hanging With - ZSPACE

Race for the White House - Jellyfish Pictures

Spillover: Ebola, Zika and Beyond - Jellyfish Pictures

I Own Australia's Best Home - Visual Playground

Healthy Homes Intro - Jumbla

ABC News - Lateline Opening Titles - Engine

White Rabbit - Deloitte Digital

TV Series - Children

Sticky Pictures' Stu Connolly and Michael Drake picked up their Gold Award for 'Winston Steinburger & Sir Dudley Ding Dong' in Children's TV Series.

Winston Steinburger & Sir Dudley Ding Dong - Sticky Pictures GOLD

Kazoops - Cheeky Little Media SILVER

The Skinner Boys - Guardians of the Lost Secrets ‘Claw of the Werewolf’- SLR Productions BRONZE

Dogstar - Media World Pictures

Lexi & Lottie - SLR Productions

The Book of Once Upon a Time - ZSPACE

VR Experience

David Hoare, Daragh Casey, Fabio Nardo and Michael Gonzalez from Experience the Pulse pose with their Gold Award, won for the INFINITI IQ Experience project in the VR Experience category.



INFINITI IQ Virtual Reality Experience - Experience The Pulse GOLD

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them - Framestore SILVER

The 'Shell V-Power Virtual Pitstop' VR and social media activation earned Bronze for Traffik in VR Experience.



Shell V-Power Virtual Pitstop - Traffik BRONZE

Toyota C-HR VR Experience - Rotor Studios

360 VR

Battle Test: A Nissan Rogue 360° Experience - ILM GOLD

The Bombing of Darwin - Method Studios SILVER

Rotor Studios' Camry Global Launch earned Gold in the Web Viral category, and their Skyrider Motocoaster ride at Dreamworld Australia earned Bronze in VR Experience.

Skyrider Motocoaster - Dreamworld Australia - Rotor Studios BRONZE

Hog Rider 360 - Psyop - SPECIAL MERIT

Fantastic Beasts VR - Narrator

The Last Audio Creature in VR - Vivid 2017 - Alt.vfx

Evelyn's Story - Alt.vfx

H&M Flagship Store, Amsterdam - Mr. Beam

Light Festival Ghent - Mr. Beam

BOSE PRO - Mr. Beam

Does It Make A Sound - Poke The Bear

The Journey - Psyop

VR NOIR - Start VR

Westfield 360 - PLaTO Reality

The BFG VR - Weta Digital

The Jungle Book VR - Weta Digital

Pete’s Dragon VR - Weta Digital

360 Marketplace - Emma Furnell

Web Viral

Camry Global Launch - Rotor Studios GOLD



Visual Playground's Emily Harridge poses with their team's Silver Web Viral Award for Cyber Games created for LaTrobe University.

LaTrobe - CyberGames - Visual Playground SILVER

Paper Moose took home a Bronze Award for their Web Viral motion graphic for the Festival of Dangerous Ideas.

Festival of Dangerous Ideas 2016 - Sydney Opera House - Paper Moose BRONZE

Kitchen Warehouse - Jumbla

WWF - Koalas In Crisis - Invisible Artists

Cyber Bullying - Candy Burger

EY. More than you were expecting - In The Thicket

OAIC - Motionlab

Air New Zealand - Mothers Really Shine - Sixty40

Newscorp - A Win for the Environment - Sixty40