The ACE Animation Special was held online last week following the rapidly changing nature of the international health crisis.
Due to take place in Dingle, Ireland, a new timetable and online system were set up in order to hold a revised version of the workshop online. This was made possible thanks to the invaluable help of ACE’s vice-president Martin Pope (Magic Light Pictures) as well as the programme’s incredibly supportive consultants and 13 enthusiastic participants.
The workshop was supported by Screen Ireland, Screen Skills Ireland, Animation Dingle, BAI, Animation Skillnet, Unreal Engine, IDA and Animation Ireland.
Focusing primarily on the creative and financial aspects of animation production, the ACE Animation Special offered sessions by eminent professionals from the animation industry: Jean-Baptiste Babin (Backup Media), Tom Dercourt (Cinéma Defacto), Chris Dicker (JAM Media), Sarah Fell (Turner Kids EMEA), Nicky Gogan,(Piranah Bar), Peter Lord (Aardman Studios), Ben Lumsden (Epic Games/Unreal Engine), Roman Paul (Razor Film), Martin Pope (Magic Light Pictures), Simon Quinn (Big Fat Studio), Michael Rose (Magic Light Pictures), Lisa Marie Russo (Fly Film), Michael Ryan (GFM Films), Pavel Strnad (Negativ Film Productions) and Paul Young (Cartoon Saloon).
Besides the informative sessions, the workshop offered networking opportunities and group discussions, attempting to recreate the comfortable atmosphere of an ACE workshop. Although the experience far surpassed expectations, the lack of physical networking and the need for close personal engagement was very clear. ACE will strive to gather the participants in person at the nearest opportunity possible to correct this, and offer them the true ACE experience.