AEAF - Opening Titles

The Australian Effects and Animation Festival had been using the same graphics package for several years, and wanted something fresh, inspiring, and directly related to the themes and content of the festival, which includes an awards program and a 2 days of speaker presentations. To represent a shift in focus, they needed an opening sequence that was both both cinematic and sophisticated,



The titles are a celebration of the creative tools used in the majority of the AEAF Award entries, as well as the content being presented and discussed at the conference. These days, this is no longer specialised hardware or cameras that cost hundreds or even tens of thousands - it's standard desktop hardware, Macs, PCs, GoPros and prosumer cameras - which are not only more affordable, but increasingly better quality.

2016 saw a definite skew towards VR in AEAF's subject matter, and so the headsets - most of them beautifully designed objects in their own right - also feature prominently.

As such the titles are self-referential, having used the tools they depict, in their own creation.



The tools are set up, arranged neatly, ready. VR Visors, GoPros, Macs, cameras, pencils, laptops, and the obligatory cups of coffee that fuel all creatives; everything we need to create...

But the equipment builds up, multiplies, overtakes us. Order gives way to a flood of creative power, a storm that threatens to swallow us, a rising tide that we struggle to control.

Hard work, clear thought, and willpower tame the onslaught, and so we end on order re-established, technology tamed and bent to our will, giving form to creative intent.