Thoughts about Turku Animation Seminar-Nordic recipe for Succes

Sonja Yrjölä, 1. year animation student

Straight away, I must admit that this was the first animation seminar I have ever attended, and it blew me away. The presentations were well chosen and diverse, I quite enjoyed to see the processes and behind the scenes material from animations. One especially noteworthy bit was seeing an in-progress Pikkuli episode with temporary filler sounds (thank you the lovely Pikkuli chill out-party at the Sun in Eye studios as well).

Another presentation I found interesting was Qvisten Animation’s, they seem to have tried about every different animation method there is. It was immensely inspiring to see concept art, studio pictures and animation tests behind their new feature film Jul i Flåklypa. I was also excited to hear that they are working on an adaption of Hakkebakkeskogen, a book from my childhood.

Swedish studio APPARAT have apparently produced  many ingenious commercials. I enjoyed hearing about their work in documentaries, but was especially happy about the passing mention of Jonas Odell, as I recognized his name from my previous studies.

The presentation about foley sounds and relief animation with Czech guests Stanislav Cajthaml, Jana Castkova and Ondrej Zika. I was thoroughly impressed to see them demonstrate their foley methods in real time to Katariina Lillqvist’s puppet animation Baby Box.  The relief animation teqhnique was really clever, and seemed vaguely familiar. I might have seen some animations using the teqhnique when I was a kid. Also, seeing proper armatures for animation puppets made me really want to try building some myself.

These were the presentations and moments that left the biggest impression on me, all in all the seminar was very inspiring to attend. Many thanks to the organizers, attendees and presenters. It was really nice bathing in that rooftop sauna at the anniversary party with you.