Autodesk has unveiled students from Filmakademie Baden-Wuertemberg as the winners of the Visual Effects Society Award for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Student Project.
The winning student project this year is "a.maize" created by Roman Kaelin, Falko Paeper, and Florian Wittmann of Filmakademie Baden-Wuertemberg in Ludwigsburg, Germany. Using Autodesk Softimage software, the students created visually stunning computer animation of larger than life popcorn explosions set in the streets and plazas of Stuttgart. The promotional trailer captures the anticipation and excitement for the industry's annual FMX conference in Germany. This is the third time in the award's four-year history that students from Filmakademie Baden-Wuertemberg have won the award.
"We wanted the FMX trailer to showcase how the conference brings people and ideas together, and filling the city of Stuttgart with giant popcorn pieces was a way for us to convey amazement and wonder. We created the popcorn pieces with Softimage and particularly with ICE (the Softimage Interactive Creative Environment)," said Co-Director Roman Kaelin. "Winning the VES Student Award was a complete surprise, and we are honored and very happy."