Justin K. Thompson at Pictoplasma Berlin 2019
15th
Pictoplasma
Conference
Berlin
09 – 11 MAY 2019
The annual Pictoplasma Festival turns Berlin into the world’s epicenter of character design and art—and a vibrant meeting point for a diverse scene of international artists, illustrators, filmmakers, and game, graphic or product designers.
Creators and producers meet for a central conference to exchange strategies for figurative aesthetics, while cutting edge screenings bring the latest animation to the big cinema screen, and daily workshops offer the chance to get your hands dirty. Additionally, an immersive media lab invites attendees to immerse themselves in selected game and interactive media projects, with the creators present to guide them through the experience, panels explore contemporary characterism in greater detail, and all night parties offer more than enough occasions to truly get into character!
09 – 11 MAY/
ARTIST TALKS,
LECTURES AND PRESENTATIONS
BABYLON
ROSA-LUXEMBURGSTR. 30
10178 BERLIN – MITTE
At the heart of the festival, the central Pictoplasma Conference presents 21 key lectures by the world’s most influential artists and upcoming talents, cutting-edge graphic and game designers and leading animation filmmakers, offering the chance to learn from and be inspired by some of today’s most innovative and avant-garde artists.
Anna Mantzaris
Anna Mantzaris is a multi-award winning Swedish animation director based in London. Working in stop motion and felt puppets, her work is often character-driven and mixes humor and melancholy. Anna is represented by Passion Studios, where she directs various types of commercials and commissions, most recently a Christmas advert for Greenpeace.
Cornelia Geppert
25’37’’, 1080p mp4 (H.264), 192MB
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Cornelia Geppert is CEO and creative head of Jo-Mei Games, where she is about to release her own adventure video game: In Sea of Solitude a young woman named Kay explores an abandoned, submerged city to find out why she has turned into a monster. Cornelia describes the project as her most personal and artistic to date, leading her to probe her own fears and emotions.
dina Amin
EGY
Elenor Kopka
30’50’’, 1080p mp4 (H.264), 350MB
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Elenor Kopka is a freelance animator and illustrator best known for her grainy, black-and-white wormlike characters and ever-mutating blobs. Her animated shorts, GIFs and music videos draw inspiration from ghosts and cartoon metamorphosis. Her clients include Adult Swim, MTV, City Slang Records and Giphy.
Félicie Haymoz
29’07’’, 1080p mp4 (H.264), 229MB
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Félicie Haymoz was born in Switzerland and lives in Brooklyn. She took her first steps as a character designer on the animated feature Max&Co and has become Wes Anderson’s go-to character creator for his stop motion features: first on Fantastic Mr. Fox, for which she was the lead character designer tasked with turning Hollywood A-listers into lovable furry animals, and then on Isle of Dogs, for which she designed the human characters.
Iza Rutkowska
32’13’’, 1080p mp4 (H.264), 335MB
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Iza Rutkowska is a Polish visual artist, designer, educator, and cultural manager who uses artistic tools to integrate communities and instigate social change. Focussing on education as process, she has worked with children to build playgrounds and the residents of buildings to design their backyards, equipping them with sustainable skills to develop projects independently.
J. W. Nijman & Kitty Calis
19’30’’, 1080p mp4 (H.264), 253MB
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Kitty Calis and Jan Willem Nijman recently released the famed adventure Minit—a game played in sixty second increments. Players leave home to help unusual folk, uncover secrets, and overcome dangerous foes, all in the hope of lifting a curse that ends each day after just one minute. With its minimalist, black and white design, the game echoes early arcade culture and features an iconic beaked character.
Jeron Braxton
USA
John Bond
John Bond is an illustrator, author, and artist from the UK working in animation and online media as well as print and painting. He has produced and directed projects for clients such as BBC, Disney, Channel 4, MTV, and Tate. His debut picture book Mini Rabbit Not Lost was published by Harper Collins in 2018. John utilizes a cast of charming characters (typically dogs) to explore the endless quirks and innocence of our day-to-day existence.
Justin K. Thompson
Justin K. Thompson is an award-winning production designer who recently worked in this capacity on the latest feature film by Sony Pictures Animation, Academy Award winner Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Previously he designed Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and its sequel. Prior to joining Sony Pictures Animation, Thompson worked at The Orphanage Animation Studios, The Jim Henson Company,…
Laurie Rowan
30’35’’, 1080p mp4 (H.264), 376MB
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Laurie Rowan is an award winning animator and illustrator based on the south coast of England. After a decade of working within the creative industries for high profile clients and campaigns including BBC, Channel 4, MTV, Disney, and Google, Laurie decided to branch out with his own brand of wobbly characters, exploring grotesque corporeality, rhythm and movement.
Luke Pearson
28’32’’, 1080p mp4 (H.264), 169MB
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Luke Pearson is an illustrator and comic book artist who lives in Nottingham. He is best known as the creator of the Hilda series of graphic novels and for the Netflix animated series produced by Silvergate Media based on them.
Olaf Breuning
Olaf Breuning works in photography, drawing, sculpture, video and installation, tackling the big existential questions tongue-in-cheek, and always with a healthy disrespect for the art world. Fusing high art and mass culture, the human—often in cartoonish form—is always at the center of his endeavors. His countless international exhibitions include a major retrospective at NRW-Forum Düsseldorf and a solo show at Palais de Tokyo, Paris.
Parallel Teeth
32’43’’, 1080p mp4 (H.264), 480MB
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Parallel Teeth is the artistic moniker of animation director and illustrator Robert Wallace, famed for his energetic style, full of playful characters and bold color. Robert combines his interest in the occult with hazy memories of Sunday morning cartoons to create music videos, commercials, GIFs, album artwork, projections, 360 videos and everything in between.
Philippa Rice
25’08’’, 1080p mp4 (H.264), 199MB
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Philippa Rice is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Soppy. She is an artist who works in a number of different media from comics, illustration, animation, model making to crochet. Her other works include the collage-based webcomic My Cardboard Life and her stop-motion animated crochet characters. Philippa lives in Nottingham, UK, with her partner Luke Pearson and their daughter.
Sos Sosowski
23’56’’, 1080p mp4 (H.264), 501MB
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Self-proclaimed mad scientist of video games, Sos Sosowski is a former school teacher turned game jam addict and recently embarked on a quest to create the worst video game ever. The result is Mosh Pit Simulator—a VR experience about a world overrun by brainless, boneless, nipple-less humanoids, desperately trying to continue life as usual (shopping, going on dates, driving cars). It’s up to you, the player, to show empathy—or get in their way.
Twee Muizen
33’06’’, 1080p mp4 (H.264), 205MB
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Twee Muizen is the artistic duo of fine artist Denís Galocha and fashion designer Cristina Barrientos. Both grew up in villages near Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, surrounded by mountains, animals and nature—all of which figure prominently in their work. After a period of working in Amsterdam, they moved to Barcelona where they spend most of their time in their workshop and gallery, creating murals, fake taxidermy, paintings, and costumes.
UntitledArmy
BR/
Yukai Du
CN
May 9
13:00 – 20:00
CHARACTER CRASH COURSE
With Rilla Alexander and Nathan Jurevicius
Pictoplasma Academy professors Rilla Alexander and Nathan Jurevicius invite you to a fabulous, fast-paced character crash-course, gleefully guiding participants on an exploration of how far you can alter and manipulate your creations—both physically and mentally. From silhouette and hero pose to expression and biography: drawing exercises incorporate elements of the annual masterclass and engage group participants in fruitful exchange and collaboration.
May 10
13:00 – 20:00
TINKER FRIDAY
With dina Amin
Broken mice, defunct earphones, ancient VHS tapes: what to do with the growing mountain of obsolete electronic waste? Cairo-based product designer dina Amin invites attendees to join forces for a special DIY edition of her Tinker Friday. Choose from a giant heap of dysfunctional gadgetry and happily dissect, cut, weld, solder, hack, transform, and reassemble the inner parts to give them new life and reveal their true character!
May 11
13:00 – 20:00
CHARACTER EMBROIDERY
With Cabeza Patata
Time to bring the ancient art of embroidery out of the past and into the present—in this hands-on, freestyle stitching session that is set to fuse the craft with the character greatness it deserves! Cabeza Patata share all their favorite tips and tricks: so grab a needle, thread, and pre-framed hoop, or even prepare to characterize your own T-shirt to the max! You might want to premiere your new character-fashion item at the Saturday night Post-Pictoplasma party…
May 9
13:30 – 17:00
Artsqool
with Julian Glander
Can a video game make you more creative? Can artificial intelligence replace a human art professor? Can you draw a horse? There’s only one way to find out! Enter the campus with Julian Glander, take on the role of plucky little student Froshmin, collect cool paintbrushes, make art and achieve creative fulfillment, all the while being assessed by an “advanced neural network” (and Julian.)
May 9
17:00 – 20:00
Pornstopper
with Jeron Braxton
The premise: You work as a manager in a call center. Your main job: You have to stop your employees from watching porn around the clock—by throwing reports at them. Jeron Braxton’s game is still in development, so this is a unique chance to give the Beta version a test spin and keep your virtual team on track, with the maker is there to personally assist you. Viewers discretion is advised.
May 10
13:30 – 17:00
MINIT
with Kitty Callis, Dominik Johann and Jan Willem Nijman
The famed pixel-style adventure is played one minute at a time. Players journey outside the comfort of their homes to help unusual folk, uncover countless secrets, and overcome dangerous foes—all in the hope of lifting a rather unfortunate curse that ends each day after just sixty seconds… How far can you get? Ask for insider tips and shortcuts from the creators Kitty, Jan Willem, and Dominik themselves, while engaging in a metaphysical discussion about the limits of time.
May 10
17:00 – 20:00
VR Mosh Pit Simulator
with Sos Sosowski
Following a terrible accident the world is overrun by mindless, wobbly humanoids. They may have neither brains nor bones, but they still do their best to appear normal: by shopping, driving cars, and dating. It’s up to you to decide if you are okay with the situation, or not. After playing the party version on Thursday, it’s time to give the fully-destructible Simulator a serious stress test—and find out how Sos created this VR sandbox of lunacy.
May 11
12:00 – 14:00
Knights and Bikes
by Rex Crowle
After his acclaimed Tearaway and LittleBigPlanet series, conference 2016 speaker Rex Crowle is inches away from releasing a new hand-painted adventure. In it you’ll play as two friends riding around an English island in the late 1980s in search of lost treasure, while learning about the power of imagination and friendship. The project is a collaboration between Rex (direction, art, animation, design), Moo Yu (programming), Kenny Young (audio) and Daniel Pemberton (music).
May 10
14:00 – 16:00
Pikuniku
with Arnaud De Bock
Arnaud De Bock is back and shares the polished release he was working on and presented at Pictoplasma back in 2017. Pikuniku is an absurdly pleasing puzzle-exploration that takes place in a world where not everything is as happy as it seems. Help the long-legged characters overcome struggles, uncover a deep state conspiracy, and start a revolution in this delightful dystopian adventure!
May 11
16:00 – 18:00
Everything
by David OReilly
Created by PictoFriend David OReilly who spoke at Pictoplasma in 2007, 2008, 2009, + 2013, Everything is more than just a game: it’s an open ended interactive experience and mind-bending universe simulation, narrated by no one less than Alan Watts. Playing it involves traveling through space, loosing your EGO, and seeing EVERYTHING from unexpected, different perspectives.
May 11
18:00 – 20:00
VR Piñata
by Nexus Studio
Last year’s VR extravaganza by Nexus is back, to once more question your moral compass: It’s your job to thrash a tragic, tortured, traumatized Piñata in virtual reality to pieces, but it’s your decision: will it be the chainsaw—or the watermelon? Will you show empathy? In our experience from last year: most likely, no.
May 10
18:00 – 19:30
Women in Creative Industries
Panel Discussion
Pfefferberg Theater Loft
Are things really changing? While women do have leading roles in the animation and games industries at the level of management and production, they remain dramatically underrepresented as creative leads or artistic directors. Join us for some much needed talk about why this is, and how to change it: with Cornelia Geppert (game developer, Jo-Mei Berlin), Sophie Koko Gate (filmmaker London), Kristin Labriola (producer, Hornet Inc. New York), Elizabeth Porter (producer, Netflix Los Angeles), Kitty Turley (producer, Strange Beast London), moderated by Lucy Bourton (It’s Nice That London).
Johnny Kelly at Pictoplasma Berlin 2019 Animation Festival
08 – 11 MAY/
Big screen
psychedelic
eye-candy and
storytelling genius
The Festival’s film section brings animated newborns to the big screen, whisking the audience around the world in freshly curated programmes brimming with psychedelic eye-candy and storytelling genius.
After their morning premiere for the registered conference attendees, with many of the international studios and filmmakers present for Q&A rounds, the programmes await the wider festival audience for their re-run in the evenings.
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