VAF Industry

Animated Health is an annual conference for healthcare professionals, with the purpose of showcasing user-friendly appliances using animation and visual tools. Animated Health focuses on the relationship with the patients and their understanding of different treatments, operations, and services

Why use animation in the first place? The ability to understand and process information about healthcare is essential for a good dialogue with patients and their families. Health literacy, as it is often called, lowers the risk of errors, re-hospitalization, and bad hospital visits. Animation and visual communication are effective tools to support and better the health care literacy of patients and professionals.

The healthcare sector is getting more complex with treatments across sectors, plus there is a growing demand for easily accessible and understandable information among patients and citizens. Animated Health 2022 focuses on the visual aspect of strengthening the patient’s health literacy through animation and visual storytelling with a series of cases and presentations.

The conference is an online event

We are officially starting of the festival with a reception in Tinghallen, welcoming and thanking our collaborators, sponsors and stakeholders.

Festival director Jane Lyngbye Hvid Jensen presents this year’s festival and welcomes the guests to celebrate animation. Invited for the reception is Jonas Poher Rasmussen, director of Flee, and last year’s winner of VAF Best Feature Award. He will set the stage before we invite you to join us in the cinema for the opening film of 2022, the premiere of Where is Anne Frank? by Ari Folman.

Refreshments will be served after the speeches.

The reception is by invitation only.

How did the drawings of Jake from Subway Surfers turn into a successful business? And how can you use that example in your business? Viborg Visuals and Business Viborg invites you to a seminar where we focus on how visual storytelling creates value for your company

CEO Mathias Gredal Nørvig from SYBO Games presents the story behind Subway Surfers and provides an example of how drawing skills can create opportunities for you. We’ll connect the visual with emerging technology when we invite Scandinavias leading VR- and AR-company, Khora, to paint a picture of the technological advances in the near future. The program also provides examples of the current project where Viborg Varme (Viborg Heating Company) collaborates with Drawesome Pictures. We will end with an inspiring talk from the former Netflix Director of Creative Leadership and Development.

The talks are both in Danish and English

Sign-up is required

Animated Learning Conference is a yearly event, focusing on film and media literacy in education. This year’s theme is creativity and critical thinking in a digital age, and thus we will be focusing on how to work both creatively and critically with and within the digital age. During the conference, there will be talks and workshops that center around the following questions:   

• What does it mean to be a critical thinker in a digital age?   
• How can a creative learning environment lead to more critically thinking children and youths?   
• Which responsibilities do pedagogues, teachers and visual professionals have when working in a digital age? 

Keynote speakers this year are: Jeppe Bundsgaard on the subject of Critical Creativity, and Nikolaj Rodkjær Kristensen will tell us about Fact-checking Visual Manipulations. After the presentations, you’ll be able to choose between 7 different workshops. Read more about the workshops here

Sign-up is required

CMIF is an annual industry meeting for producers with a strong focus on content production and market trends as well as networking and exchange of experience.

In 2022, CMIF focuses on content for streaming services, original IP and how to best serve audiences who are now engaging with content in numerous formats and settings. Former Head of Netflix Animation Phil Rynda will also give a unique insight into the mentality of the buyer through the eyes of a creative mind. Join VAF for a day of unique insights into the world of IP, young adult audiences and DR Animation Strategy as well as plenty of networking time.

Meet:

• Phil Rynda, former head of Netflix Animation
• Felicia Jackson, Director at This Festival
• Julie Lind-Holm Hansen, Editor for Kids Animation, DR
• Kasper Kruse, Head of The Animation Workshop
• Betina Engholm, CEO Viborg Visuals

The event requires registration

C-MIF is presented in collaboration with Vision Denmark and is supported by the Ministry of Higher Education and Science

Visit Viborg and experience some of the World’s greatest Concept Artists and Visual Explorers, as they talk about and do live demonstrations of their methods and creative thinking at CAVE – a 2-day event for you to network with other concept artists and experience artists behind illustrations to The Last of Us, Total War: Warhammer, MARV, Eternals and much more. 

Speakers:

• Markus Lentz (DE)
• Andreas Husballe (DK)
• Shaddy Safadi (US)

• Maarten Hermans (BE)
• Jort van Welbergen, Concept Artist
• Jeppe Mygh (DK)

The event requires sign-up

Ngozi Ukazu is the creator of wildly successful web comic Check, Please!, a supremely charming and deeply relatable coming of age story starring college student Eric “Bitty” Bittle, a figure skater-turned-ice hockey player who also happens to be gay.

The web series is divided into chapters, one per college year, each of which has had print editions crowdfunded on Kickstarter. Year Four currently holds the record for most-funded web comics print campaign ever, raising more than $580.000 – a testament to the series’ dedicated and enthusiastic following.

Ukazu’s VAF Masterclass will be a two-parter. In her first lecture, the cartoonist will share lessons learned from creating and crowdfunding Check, Please! – Including the pros and cons of self-publishing, finding a readership, and planning and executing crowdfunding campaigns. The second lecture will deal with story construction and how Ukazu has used the traditional three act structure in her own work – including the graphic novel she is currently working on.

The masterclass is in English and requires sign-up

The theme this year is: “The ingredients in the unique story – the fight for attention”. The program ends with a tour to Bruunhåb Gamle Papfabrik, where we’ll watch a visual screening on the building to celebrate the 200-year anniversary of the factory.  

Viborg UNESCO Creative City repeats last year’s success and invites our Danish UNESCO-partners, Danish national parks, museums, and other interested parties to join us for an afternoon and night showcasing great examples of institutions using animation, sound, and XR to communicate and engage their audience.

By invitation only

ANIDOX:VR is an annual exhibition of non-fiction works in virtual reality and new media platforms. Hosted by the Viborg Animation Festival, ANIDOX:VR includes screenings, discussions, and events geared toward professional filmmakers and the general public alike.

The ANIDOX:VR jury awards a jury prize, celebrating the best of factual storytelling and craftsmanship. The highlight of ANIDOX:VR 2022 is a dedicated ANIDOX Seminar programme with expert guests, artists and key figures from the art-meets-technology landscape – followed by a ‘meet the artists’ drinks & networking event. Seminar guests have the opportunity to attend the ANIDOX:LAB Project Pitch – where international directors present works-in-progress and get feedback from our panel of experts!

Guest panel

Uri Kranot – Curator and moderator

ANIDOX, The Animation Workshop / VIA

Uri is a multimedia artist and co-founder of ANIDOX. He holds a key position at The Animation Workshop’s Bachelor education as Adjunct Professor, alongside his work as researcher in the Center for Visual Storytelling. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Académie des César. His works have been recently honored with the Grand Jury Prize for Best VR Immersive Work at the 77th La Biennale di Venezia and Best Immersive XR at the 74th Cannes Film Festival.<

Simon Løvind – Jury and guest panel

Head of Games & Digital Media, Danish Film Institute.

Simon Løvind is head of the unit for Games & Digital Media at the Danish Film Institute. He is the commissioning editor and has been running and defining the cultural support scheme for games at the Danish Film Institute for more than 10 years. He has a work background in interaction design as well as game design and also produced interactive installation art. Simon has taken part in ANIDOX since 2019.Klara Nilsson Grunning– Jury and guest panel

Film commissioner, Norwegian Film Institute

Emmy Award winning Klara Nilsson Grunning is a freelance content, production, distribution, financing consultant and executive producer for film, TV and cross media world-wide. Currently she is a film commissioner at the Norwegian Film Institute, previously she has been the documentary consultant at the Swedish Film Institute. Before which, she worked five years as the commissioning editor for documentary feature and short films at the Royal Danish Film Institute. Klara has been shaping and supporting ANIDOX projects since 2012.

Mathieu Gayet – Jury and guest panel

Commissioning editor, programmer and media producer

Mathieu is founder of XRMust, a new media outlet dedicated to immersive storytelling, with an international and professional audience of creators, producers and curators from the XR industry. He is also the curator of a 3-days workshop in Angoulême, Immersity, which invites +100 creative people from the immersive industry to discuss the future of the XR storytelling.

Guest Artists

David Adler – Guest panel

Director of End of Night

David is a story-teller and his work is most often rooted in particular historical periods or events. Graduate of the National Film School of Denmark after having attended the Visual Arts & Design program at the Vancouver Film School. David is also an ANIDOX:LAB Alumni and guest speaker. His latest work ‘End Of Night’ was awarded at Venice Film Festival in 2021.

Pedro Harres – Guest panel

Director of From The Main Square

Pedro is a Brazilian director, scriptwriter and installation artist based in Berlin. Born in the city of Porto Alegre in 1984, he graduated in Cinema at UNISINOS, Philosophy at UFRGS and holds a master’s degree from Babelsberg Film Universitaet Konrad Wolf. His project ‘From the main Square’ has been awarded at Venice Film Festival in 2022.

Emma Roberts and Ben Joseph Andrews – Guest panel

Producer / Director team of Gondwana

Emma and Ben Joseph Andrews are a producer/director duo working in location-based virtual realities. Their work merges immersive technologies within bespoke sensory environments to generate unique experiences that verge on the transcendent and sublime.

Their collaboration began with The Moon Is Gone And All The Kings Are Dead, commissioned for the 50th anniversary of the Victorian College of the Arts. The duo has also completed two projects for City of Melbourne: sci-fi installation all the stars they bleed together (2016) and STARLESS (2017). Their latest production Gondwana, has been highly acclaimed and is currently touring internationally.

ANIDOX is a part of The Center for Animation, Visualization and Digital Storytelling, The Animation Workshop / VIA University College.

Supported by: The Danish Ministry of Research & Education, The Danish Film Institute and The Norwegian Film Institute, The West Danish Film Fund.

ANIDOX:LAB is supported by Creative Europe MEDIA

Talks & networking for the Danish games industry. MeatUp! has prepared a wonderful setup of talks and networking events for game developers and the community after hours

MeatUp is the place to meet others from the gaming industry – in the flesh. To share their ideas and talk about current work, we’ve invited some interesting developers and professionals. You’ll get the chance to meet a wide range of professionals and startups. Come join us for an entertaining evening of networking, exchanging of ideas, and geek out about games.

Speakers:

• • Søren Lundgaard – CEO, Ghostship Games
  • Tatu Petersen-Jessen – Senior Art Director, Rovio Entertainment – Taking IP from small screen to big screen
  • Nina Kelstrup  – Chief People Officer, Funday Factory – Building a Value Based Games Studio in 2022 

Thanks to Ghost Ship Games, Game Hub Scandinavia, Game Hub Denmark, Viborg Animationfestival and Viborg Game Expo

The Sci-Vi Conference focuses on visualization and animation in science dissemination, this year under the headline “SYMBIOSIS-Imagination and visualization as an interdisciplinary field of exploration ”Sci-Vi is an initiative at The AnimationWorkshop/VIA UC seeking to explore and unfold visual science dissemination as a field. The Sci-Vi Conference facilitates knowledge exchange and networking between researchers in different fields and visual storytellers.

This year’s Sci-Vi conference will focus on how to imagine and visualize in interdisciplinary fields. Tobe resilient as human beings, we must be able to imagine new clever futures in order to keep up with the movement of life and to move life ourselves. This applies not least to researchers who move to unknown lands to investigate what we do not yet know. Throughout the ages, researchers have worked closely with visual storytellers and artists, both to enhance their imagination, and to enhance their communication and dissemination of their findings and theses to the public and investors. At this year’s sci-vi conference, we will continue that tradition of bridge-building between researchers and visual storytellers when we share experiences with these interdisciplinary collaborations. We develop our future in symbiosis, and to be resilient as human beings, to see potential, get visions, and overcome the change in any way, we must build bridges between fields of knowledge, and share our stories.

Remember to book tickets for the Sci-Vi screening as well. View the full program here

Sci-Vi is supported by Vision Denmark and the Ministry of Higher Education and Science

Visit Viborg and experience some of the World’s greatest Concept Artists and Visual Explorers, as they talk about and do live demonstrations of their methods and creative thinking at CAVE – a 2-day event for you to network with other concept artists and experience artists behind illustrations to The Last of Us, Total War: Warhammer, MARV, Eternals and much more. 

Speakers:

• Markus Lentz (DE)
• Andreas Husballe (DK)
• Shaddy Safadi (US)

• Maarten Hermans (BE)
• Jort van Welbergen, Concept Artist
• Jeppe Mygh (DK)

The event requires sign-up

The screening is a part of the Sci-Vi-conference, this year themed: SYMBIOSIS – Imagination and visualization as interdisciplinary field of exploration. As a part of the conference the filmprogram will show examples of visualized science dissemination.

This short film program showcases different examples of fruitful collaborations between scientists and animation artists-resulting in beautiful, funny or surprising short animation films about scientific issues. All films stem from the Sci-Vi community, and an animator, a researcher and a producer will be present for a Q&A to talk about research dissemination and knowledge exchange and give insight in to practice.

Sci-Vi is an initiative at The Animation Workshop/Via University College seeking to explore and unfold ‘visual science dissemination’ as a field, to improve science communication through visual storytelling and animation.

Films in the program

• Cells of Knowledge
• Transcribing Patterns from the Library of Life
• What causes yeast infections, and how do you get rid of them?
• These animals are also plants … wait, what?
• The Beauty of Mathematics-Episode 1
• Do I see what You see?

With Unreal Engine, you can bring amazing real-time experiences to life using the world’s most advanced real-time 3D creation tool. The workshop gives you the basic tools to use for your next project

The Animation Workshop, EPIC Games, and Unreal Engine offers this free 2-day workshop with Maxime Galland from Alchemist Academy. The workshop is for professionals but it is not required to have worked with Unreal Engine before. The workshop will give you basic knowledge of rendering, lighting, shot management, and much more. Through the production of a shot sequence, you are introduced to different tools to help you create future projects.

Sign-up is required. By signing up you agree to attend both days. The workshop is in English

With Unreal Engine, you can bring amazing real-time experiences to life using the world’s most advanced real-time 3D creation tool. The workshop gives you the basic tools to use for your next project

The Animation Workshop, EPIC Games, and Unreal Engine offers this free 2-day workshop with Maxime Galland from Alchemist Academy. The workshop is for professionals but it is not required to have worked with Unreal Engine before. The workshop will give you basic knowledge of rendering, lighting, shot management, and much more. Through the production of a shot sequence, you are introduced to different tools to help you create future projects.

Sign-up is required. By signing up you agree to attend both days. The workshop is in English

Traditionally, comics have been drawn with tools that produce lines on paper – from nib pens and brushes to their modern digital counterparts. In his critically acclaimed graphic novels, Gareth Brookes defies this tradition, choosing instead to make expressive use of ancient techniques like embroidery, linocut, pyrography, and more.

In his most recent graphic novel, The Dancing Plague, Brookes visualizes the story of the legendary medieval “dancing plagues” by contrasting the browns and grays of burnt wood (real life) with wildly colorful embroidery (demons and devils). The visuals implicitly convey the power of the characters’ religious visions – and how the toil and suffering of every day life pales in comparison. Another example: In his breakthrough book The Black Project, Brookes told the both tender and darkly humorous story of a pubescent boy building lifesize girlfriends out of whatever material was available. The graphic novel was created using a combination of linocut and embroidery, the “handmade” quality of the images mirroring the handiwork of the protagonist.

In his masterclass, Brookes will share the thoughts and ideas behind his unusual work process. Then, he will challenge attendees to create character designs of their own using the most unusual materials – and to reflect on the ways in which the materials affect how the characters are experienced.

The masterclass requires sign-up and will be in English

Animated Music is an annual seminar and networking event that aims to bring together visual content creators with composers, musicians and sound designers. Animated Music explores the creative interaction in the development and production process between music and images to provide a basis for innovation in future audiovisual productions. The event is also a networking day bringing composers and visual content creators into closer dialogue with each other.

This year, during Viborg Animation Festival, Animated Music presents an amazing line-up of diverse composers sharing experiences from their intense collaborations to create breathtaking and enchanting alternate narrative realities.

One-man-army, composer and game designer Mads Vadsholt, journeys into the process behind the computer game The Forest Quartet, based on a music driven narrative that breaks new ground in game design. We hear about the composer’s role as therapist for the director from Benjamin Efrati, composer behind the music for the animated opera Amok, which won Cristal for Best Short Film at this year’s prestigious Annecy Festival. Through his work on Speak No Evil, the composer Sune ‘Køter’ Kølster describes his manipulative work with the audience’s emotions and with music and sound in virtual reality. Sofie Birch talks about composing music for strange worlds in animated films, based on the artistic short Terra Incognita, which won the Connexion Award at this year’s Annecy Festival.

The event is free of charge; sign up required.

With Unreal Engine, you can bring amazing real-time experiences to life using the world’s most advanced real-time 3D creation tool. The workshop gives you the basic tools to use for your next project

The Animation Workshop, EPIC Games, and Unreal Engine offers this free 2-day workshop with Nicolas Counil from Alchemist Academy. The workshop is for professionals but it is not required to have worked with Unreal Engine before. The workshop will give you basic knowledge of rendering, navigation, visualization, and much more. Through the production of a first-person shooter prototype you are introduced to different tools to help you create future projects.

Sign-up is required. By signing up you agree to attend both days. The workshop is in English

Ngozi Ukazu is the creator of wildly successful web comic Check, Please!, a supremely charming and deeply relatable coming of age story starring college student Eric “Bitty” Bittle, a figure skater-turned-ice hockey player who also happens to be gay.

The web series is divided into chapters, one per college year, each of which has had print editions crowdfunded on Kickstarter. Year Four currently holds the record for most-funded web comics print campaign ever, raising more than $580.000 – a testament to the series’ dedicated and enthusiastic following.

Ukazu’s VAF Masterclass will be a two-parter. In her first lecture, the cartoonist will share lessons learned from creating and crowdfunding Check, Please! – Including the pros and cons of self-publishing, finding a readership, and planning and executing crowdfunding campaigns. The second lecture will deal with story construction and how Ukazu has used the traditional three act structure in her own work – including the graphic novel she is currently working on.

The masterclass is in English and requires sign-up

With Unreal Engine, you can bring amazing real-time experiences to life using the world’s most advanced real-time 3D creation tool. The workshop gives you the basic tools to use for your next project

The Animation Workshop, EPIC Games, and Unreal Engine offers this free 2-day workshop with Nicolas Counil from Alchemist Academy. The workshop is for professionals but it is not required to have worked with Unreal Engine before. The workshop will give you basic knowledge of rendering, navigation, visualization, and much more. Through the production of a first-person shooter prototype you are introduced to different tools to help you create future projects.

Sign-up is required. By signing up you agree to attend both days. The workshop is in English

Together with Viborg Library VAF invites all of you to join a wonderful talk about animation, presented by animators themselves.  We will explore the thoughts behind different productions, watch movies, and talk about how art and stories affect us.

Through a series of 3 talks we’ll dive into different aspects of animation. The first talk is an introduction to artist and filmmaker Michelle Kranot and her work. She is based here in Viborg and works here together with her husband at The Animation Workshop. But their work extends far beyond the city limits.  Together they have received international film prizes and their work has been exhibited around the world. We will dive into their experimental films, tactile VR-works, and get a look into new technologies and experiences.

The talk will be in English, it is free but requires sign-up

Together with Viborg Library VAF invites all of you to join a wonderful talk about animation, presented by animators themselves.  We will explore the thoughts behind different productions, watch movies, and talk about how art and stories affect us.

Through a series of 3 talks we’ll dive into different aspects of animation. This talk will be a presentation of the new animated kids show “Monster Loving Maniacs”, created by the studio JA Film in Århus. To give us a peek into the series is the producer and writer Anders Berthelsen. The show ia made for children age 6-10 years, and is about three monster-hunting siblings and their tough old grandpa.

The talk will be in Danish, it is free but requires sign-up

Talks & networking for the Danish games industry. MeatUp! has prepared a wonderful setup of talks and networking events for game developers and the community after hours

MeatUp is the place to meet others from the gaming industry – in the flesh. To share their ideas and talk about current work, we’ve invited some interesting developers and professionals. You’ll get the chance to meet a wide range of professionals and startups. Come join us for an entertaining evening of networking, exchanging of ideas, and geek out about games.

Speakers:

• • Søren Lundgaard – CEO, Ghostship Games
  • Tatu Petersen-Jessen – Senior Art Director, Rovio Entertainment – Taking IP from small screen to big screen
  • Nina Kelstrup  – Chief People Officer, Funday Factory – Building a Value Based Games Studio in 2022 

Thanks to Ghost Ship Games, Game Hub Scandinavia, Game Hub Denmark, Viborg Animationfestival and Viborg Game Expo

The Sci-Vi Conference focuses on visualization and animation in science dissemination, this year under the headline “SYMBIOSIS-Imagination and visualization as an interdisciplinary field of exploration ”Sci-Vi is an initiative at The AnimationWorkshop/VIA UC seeking to explore and unfold visual science dissemination as a field. The Sci-Vi Conference facilitates knowledge exchange and networking between researchers in different fields and visual storytellers.

This year’s Sci-Vi conference will focus on how to imagine and visualize in interdisciplinary fields. Tobe resilient as human beings, we must be able to imagine new clever futures in order to keep up with the movement of life and to move life ourselves. This applies not least to researchers who move to unknown lands to investigate what we do not yet know. Throughout the ages, researchers have worked closely with visual storytellers and artists, both to enhance their imagination, and to enhance their communication and dissemination of their findings and theses to the public and investors. At this year’s sci-vi conference, we will continue that tradition of bridge-building between researchers and visual storytellers when we share experiences with these interdisciplinary collaborations. We develop our future in symbiosis, and to be resilient as human beings, to see potential, get visions, and overcome the change in any way, we must build bridges between fields of knowledge, and share our stories.

Remember to book tickets for the Sci-Vi screening as well. View the full program here

Sci-Vi is supported by Vision Denmark and the Ministry of Higher Education and Science