Two New York Film Academy student animated films from this past year’s crop of animators have been selected for the MetroCAF Student Competition, with the screening held on Friday, September 23rd.
The two films that will screen are:
“Ravage” by Felipe Amaya
Ravage from Felipe Amaya on Vimeo.
Amaya says his film is all about the very plausible outcome of what will happen if we allow ourselves to continue producing and consuming en masse without environmentally friendly alternatives and practices.
“There were two goals that I wanted to achieve with this project: I try to be a very environmentally conscious person and wanted to include a little bit of that aspect of my personality in this short film,” said Amaya. “I consider that humanity, being the dominant species of the planet, has a great responsibility to the environment as well as the obligation to change its practices in order to prevent mass pollution and global warming.
I wanted to explore the technical aspect of rigging in more depth and in a more mechanical way, therefore the machines. My goal was to learn more about the virtual bolts and screws that hold everything in place and allows 3D objects to move.
I combined these two goals and came up with the result you will see at MetroCAF.”
Amaya is currently working at VRAM FX, a visual effects company based in NYC.
“The Right Way” by Elena Zobak Alekperov & Flavia Groba Bandeira
The Right Way from Flavia Groba on Vimeo.
This short story is about a mom trying to do the right thing raising her child, but sometimes things are not what they seem to be.
“The inspiration behind this video was taken from my life,” says Zobak. “I wanted to share my experience of being a parent and trying to do the right thing with everyday life choices. And since sometimes we’re a little bit hypocritical with all this ‘right approach,’ this funny scenario just came to mind.”
Flavia was responsible for environment design as well as the overall look.
“I tried to fit the environment to the characters personality or, in the case of the girl, her imposed personality by the mother,” said Groba.
“It sounds trite to ‘write what you know,’ but by doing so, this team was able to tap into the emotions—humor, frustration, love, contradiction—that make this mother-daughter relationship so relatable, and so funny,” said NYFA 3D Animation & Game Design Chair, Phoebe Elefante. “The high level of technical expertise exhibited in the production is seamless, so the audience can be completely immersed in the storytelling. That’s the kind of mastery to which we encourage all students to aspire.”
“The Right Way” also screened at this year’s Venice Film Festival.