The Animation Hub is a collaborative initiative between staff and students of the Irish School of Animation (ISA) at Ballyfermot College of Further Education (BCFE) and Trinity College’s Graphics, Vision and Visualisation Group (GV2), and the animation studio Giant Animation. The Animation Hub is managed by Gareth Lee, the manager of Animation Skillnet.
The aim of the Animation Hub is to unite the technological/scientific knowledge of the GV2 group with the artistic/storytelling knowledge of ISA and the professional and creative leadership of Giant Animation on short creative projects.
The initiative is funded by the Irish Film Board, Trinity College, Ballyfermot College and Science Foundation Ireland.
To date two projects have been completed by the Animation Hub: The Last Train (2011) and The Duel (2014)
The Last Train (2011)
A one minute animated short, fusing motion capture techniques with naturalistic 3D character animation, about a man being chased by an unrelenting force. This short was been nominated for an IFTA award for Best Short Animation and also won a Digital Media award for Best Animation and has over 275,000 views on Vimeo.
You can see the short here:
And a making of the short here:
The Duel (2014)
A short animation made in collaboration with Sir Terry Pratchett, inspired by the Discworld series. The short is about two wizards duelling over a book in the Unseen library.
You can see The Duel here: