The first edition of Creanimax (www.creanimax.com), a festival with the objective of fomenting the creation of businesses and professionals dedicated to animation and video games, took place in Guadalajara from October 13-15 and featured everything from workshops and conferences to a contest of shorts produced in 2D and 3D.

For three days Expoguadalajara, the setting for the event, became a noteworthy forum for those animators that arrived from all over the country, with participants involved in areas such as special effects, software development, traditional animation, stop motion animation, engineering and publicity.

less is more
Jan Pinkava (geri´s game)

During the three days of the event there was a line-up of top figures in the world of animation and videogames, among them: Enrique Navarrete, the most internationally known Mexican animator, who spoke about his experiences within Dreamworks and participating in films such as Shrek and Madagascar, as well as his project to produce a feature film with his production company los Hijos de su Madre.

Colin Brady supervisor of animation for companies such as Pixar, ILM and Rhythm, which gave a small exhibition on the process of animation production with topics such as history, storyboarding, editing, animation and illumination.

Jan Pinkava, renowned animator of Pixar and winner of the Oscar in 1998 for Geri's Game, who emphasized the importance of the history of animation, invited the participants to create animation without regards to your budget or resources.

And the conference of Bill Plympton (Guard Dog, Hair High, Parking, The Fan and The Flower) entitled "Surviving as an independent animator" where he explains his method of working: participating in festivals, selling animation to associations of professionals and all the possible markets where you can work as a freelance animator.

We should leave clear, we don't cost less, we're just better
Ernesto Gálvez CEO Inmersión Games, Colombia

Workshops emphasized the quality of instructors; with themes such as the design and rigging of characters, matte painting, tracking and digital composition, post production, organic modeling, support software, etc. Among the experts which presented was René Castillo (hasta los huesos, sin sostén) who explained to us the process of stop-motion, Chris Nichols (Sony, Imageworks) who spoke to us about the technical aspects of Iluminación Global, Ernesto Galvez, CEO of Inmersión Games, a Columbian company developing video games, which stressed the potential that Latin America has within the videogame market and how his company is making headway in the North American and Asian markets.

And the winners are...

During the entertaining closing ceremonies, which had the musical presence of Belanova, Plástico and Buró, prizes were awarded to the winners in the 2D and 3D categories:

Best Stop Motion Animation
First Place:
"Catrina Posada y la Gran Piedra "
by José Ángel García Moreno

Best 2D Animation
First Place:
"Anatomía de la Mariposa "
by Andrea Robles & Adriana Bravo

Best National 3D Animation
First Place:
"Berlitad" by CONACULTA and Pablo Ángeles

Best Video Games
First Place:
"OmegaFenix" by Miguel Angel López Sáenz"

Though modest, this festival represents an effort to develop Mexico into a multimillion-dollar industry with great creative potential and a generation of employment; although these types of events always give me the feeling that we arrived late to the party and, as always, globalization does not pass by my neighborhood.

Juan J. Del Río