Our Blog

We announce recruitment to the Animation Group supervised by Tomasz Siwiński. Painter and filmmaker, creator of “A Blue Room” shown in Cannes and awarded with the Silver Hobby-Horse at the Krakow Film Festival.

Main topic:

Realization of an animated opening sequence about 30 seconds long on the theme: “The greatest challenge of today”.

“Please prepare at least two ideas in the form of short treatments describing the action you want to present, choosing one challenge. I encourage you to have non-standard and original ideas on the topic. Each idea should have a beginning, development and ending, i.e. a point. You can also create basic graphic elements to work on later” – says Tomasz Siwiński.

Workshop description:

Participants will learn the basics of animated film by working on their own short animated forms. We are going to explore the world of animation where nothing is impossible, nothing limits our imagination and where even the boldest ideas can be followed. The main emphasis of the workshop is put on 2D animation, cartoon animation and cutout. The workshop program includes learning the basics of computer programs – Adobe After Effects, Adobe Animate, Adobe Photoshop, including their animation functions. For those who are willing, we have the opportunity to work with a film camera. Classes will be preceded by an introduction and a show of selected examples of an animated film. Despite the limited time we have, we hope you will be able to create short, original and closed film forms.

Work schedule:

• Introduction to animation techniques with some examples.
• Discussion of participants’ ideas.
• Realization of the storyboard.
• Presentation of techniques and software. Each participant is to pick their own method and tool.
• Creation of elements that will be animated (e.g. characters) and decorations.
• Learning to animate in selected techniques using elements and decorations previously created by participants.
• Ongoing discussion about particular projects.
• An internal show of short films made during entire workshop.

Tomasz Siwiński is the creator of original oil painted animated films. He studied at the Faculty of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow and at the Animated Film Studio under the supervision of prof. Jerzy Kucia. During his studies, he created animated films “Television” and “Little Black Square”.

In 2014, his next film “A Blue Room” premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in the Semaine de la Critique section. The film received multiple awards, incl. The Best Animation Award at Curtas Vila do Conde (Portugal) and the Silver Hobby-Horse at the Krakow Film Festival.

In addition to his original films, he also makes documentary animations, such as “Moczarski’s Case” and the animated part of the documentary “Mała Zagłada” (directed by Natalia Koryncka-Gruz). His films have been presented at many festivals, incl. Annecy, Clermont-Ferrand, Cannes, Hiroshima, Utrecht, Zagreb, Uppsala, Stuttgart, and Krakow.

We invite everyone interested in joining the group!

If you want to join the group, register for Film Spring Open Workshop.