Austin Motion Graphics Festival 2010
October 18th through 24th
New Motion + New Sound + New Code = http://MGFest.com

Austin TX --- The Austin Motion Graphics Festival provides seven days of educational, entertainment and networking events featuring artists such as: Herzog & de Meuron, Lucas Arts, N.A.S.A. w/ Tom Waits and Kanye West, Basement Jaxx, Warp Records, Ninja Tune, Royksopp, The Crystal Method, Puma, The Flashbulb, Carl Burgess, The Mill, Dvein, Pleix, Psyop, Max Hattler and many more.

A full week of entertainment events kick off Monday with the Austin Film Meet, a networking event for those passionate about creating films, movies, and new media projects. Tuesday night, MGFest premiers a Screening Series featuring the best of international call for entry submissions as well as selections from Stash's DVD Magazine and Lumen Eclipse's video art exhibits in Boston's Harvard Square. Curated from international talent, the screenings set the tone for MGFest's focus of showcasing innovative local and global artists. Wednesday night, Android meets free beer at the Austin Flash Group Meetup, a short speaker series including Ryan Stewart, a special guest from Adobe, covering AIR for Android, a Flash framework review, with free pizza and beer. Thursday night's installation art showcase, "The Digital Made Analog," takes place at the US Art Authority and features Austin-local installation, interactive, and projection artists in a buffet of media mayhem.

As the week transitions into weekend, The Austin Motion Graphics Festival culminates into Art Outside, a 3-Day camping festival at the beautiful Apache Pass festival grounds near Rockdale, Texas. The site features hundreds of acres of grassy camping areas and lush pecan trees scattered throughout. Over the weekend, festival participants experience the creations of over 300 Artists including: Random Rab, Gift Culture, Artificial Life Preserver, The Wave Farmers, Psymbolic--visuals, Win Win Creative, VJ Mason Dixon, Paul Baker, Michael Christian, Art of Such-N-Such, Life-Size Mousetrap, Ricochet, Elemental Uprising, 999 Eyes Freakshow, Agent Red, Blockhead, God-des and She, Spoonfed Tribe, Community Art Makers, The Art Department, George Krause, Minor Mishap, Gyronauts, T-Bird and the Breaks, Heyoka, Brownout!, Govinda, Anahata Sound, plus many more!

MGFest's educational program consists of daytime, hands-on workshops Monday through Thursday at LumenBrite Training in the Design Center of Austin. Workshop topics include: Maxon's Cinema 4D with Mograph, programming-based animation with Adobe Flash ActionScript, and creative motion design with Adobe After Effects and Photoshop.

The Motion Graphics Festival is the premier creative conference for motion design, visual effects, sound design and interface technology - presenting a wide array of events including: art showcases, workshops, studio tours, theater screenings, industry mixers, and audio visual showcases.

MGFest Austin is sponsored by: Adobe, Maxon, Stash, United States Art Authority, Art Seen Alliance, LumenBrite, VidVox, IdN, Netdiver, Gen Arts, Resolume, Boris FX, Livid Instruments, Red Giant, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Digieffects, Lumen Eclipse, Toolfarm, Noise Industries, lynda.com, Total Training + more!

Full Event Information + Registration

Advance Ticket Links:

$25 MGFest Austin Weekday Arts and Entertainment

$7 MGFest Austin Thursday Digital Made Analog Pass

(All Arts & Workshop Passes below include the Art Outside weekend)

$85 MGFest Austin All Arts Access Pass (Midweek Special)

$119 MGFest Austin Monday Animating w/ Actionscript 3 Workshop

$119 MGFest Austin Tuesday Interactive 3D in Actionscript 3 Workshop

$119 MGFest Austin Wednesday Creative Techniques w/ After Effects & Photoshop Workshop

$119 MGFest Austin Thursday Cinema 4D Essentials Workshop

$155 MGFest Austin All Arts Access Pass w/ Art Outside RV

MGFest Austin is sponsored by: Adobe, Maxon, Stash, United States Art Authority, Art Seen Alliance, LumenBrite, VidVox, IdN, Netdiver, Gen Arts, Resolume, Boris FX, Livid Instruments, Red Giant, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Digieffects, Lumen Eclipse, Toolfarm, Noise Industries, lynda.com, Total Training + more!

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Year-long Call for Entry Guidelines + Entry Form

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Organized by Psymbolic

Written by John Patterson
President at Hollywood Farms, Owner at Influence Ecology, Founder & President at Chicago Convergence

Seeking "Idea Sponsors," is how Mason Dixon, co-director of the Motion Graphics Festival differentiated the 2010 event. In it's fifth year, MGFest is known nationally as the "premier creative conference for motion design, visual effects, sound design and interface technology."

Chicagoans Mason Dixon and MGFest Directors Julee Wood and Troy Milstead (thru their Audio/Video event engineering company Psymbolic) have been a major source of creativity, not only here, but have produced the festival in Austin, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Orlando, Washington DC and this year, Philadelphia and San Francisco.

What is so unique about the festival is that, although it's focus is motion design, the experience is about discovery, interactivity, education and creativity. "Creativity happens, not in the convention centers and hotel ballrooms, but in the little nooks and dark spaces," says Mason. This art is "not about presenting something, the way television talks to you, but it is very interactive, more of a dialog; a way that people can engage motion design... and the way motion design engages people."

With official plans to be unveiled this month (unique sessions, labs, imagination college, receptions, community pavilion, networking and press opportunities, entertainment & art parties, art directors features, meet-the-team discussions and unconference discussions), MGFest, which used an invented currency (designed by Shepard Fairey the OBEY Giant) for their 2009 circuit, are always experimenting; not just with content - but with the event's very structural nature.

For example, 2010 will see "Artists as Curators," says Dixon, "Chicago has many internationally renown artists... not always known or celebrated here; hidden talents that will provide their unique vision," Dixon claims. The intent is that Artists as Curators will allow the entire experience to unfold organically by all those that participate; in essence every participant becomes an artistic collaborateur. A shorter event than in previous years, MGFest Chicago 2010 is five days packed with potency and promises "an unprecedented degree of event integration."

As with anything cutting edge, "most larger brands don't understand how to plug into the festival because it doesn't fit the traditional model," says Milstead. "We definitely have a menu of ways for large sponsors to benefit from the event, but we also seek their own ingenuity." With participation online and through live events, MGFest connects artists, participants, curators and sponsors not just locally, but across screening events in over 30 cities nationwide; most large-scale metropolitan areas are included providing an artistic experience that falls somewhere between Burning Man, Lollapalooza and Chat Roulette. The festival audience is immense and provides the rich creative soup that fosters the evolution of artistic expression in a digital age.

Psymbolic, also a multimedia label "represents a select roster of audio, visual and multimedia artists available for bookings and commissions worldwide." Julee, Troy and Mason are not only intellects of artistic merit (their experimentation likened to a digital/graphic Bauhaus), but have woven their business into a ever-expanding artist, client, and brand fusion that tests the limits of motion design and artistic experience.

MGFest 2010 Chicago :: September 15-19

For more information on MGFest 2010
For more information on Psymbolic's clients and services

Boston Motion Graphics Festival 2010
April 1st through 5th, All Around the City
New Motion + New Sound + New Code = http://MGFest.com

The Motion Graphics Festival launches its 2010 tour by returning to Boston from April 1st to 5th. MGFest will bring a new wave of artists and technologists to awaken those sleeping synapses. Witness and participate in a convergence of motion, sound and interactivity, embrace new ideas, celebrate the inquisitive spirit, and at evening's approach, dance.

MGFest stands as the premier creative conference for motion design, visual effects, sound design and interface technology, presenting a wide array of events including: art showcases, workshops, panel discussions, studio tours, theater screenings, industry mixers and audio visual showcases.

Featured artists include: Herzog & De Meuron, Warp Records, LucasArts, N.A.S.A., Yoshi Sodeoka, Jean-Paul Frenay, Alan Sondheim, Addictive TV, Liquid Stranger, Royksopp, Assassin's Creed 2, Three Legged Legs, Larry Carlson, Pleix, Dvein, Psyop, The Mill, The Crystal Method, Ken Adams, Jen Stark, Shantell Martin and many more.

The Festival debuts the 2010 schedule with screenings by Lumen Eclipse, "Psychedelia" and "Somatic Death, Soma Life". Journey down the road set by thirteen artists exploring a new mind-manifesting experience, challenging afresh perceptions and pointing towards a reawakening unhindered by the prosthetic body.

The Boston Motion Design Conference on Friday, April 2nd is a full-day conference featuring diverse topics and inspiring presenters from AVID, Fox, MIT, Maxon, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a keynote presentation from technical lead of the Processing.js project that is porting Ben Fry's Processing language to javascript. He will be featuring the new 3D capabilities of the next version of the Firefox web browser.

Friday night's Best of 2009 screening by Stash DVD Magazine highlights music videos, virals, short films, commercials, broadcast designs and game cinematics from top-tier studios across the world. Something will grab your attention, setting off a chain reaction thus igniting a fresh set of ideas.

Hands-on Workshops happen Saturday, April 3rd with Maxon Cinema 4D Essentials, Animating with ActionScript 3, and Animation in a Browser with jQuery.

Saturday night's realtime A/V performance in the 2012 Lounge at Machine features Liquid Stranger with the Psymbolic visual show and Z.E.E. The visuals are rendered in realtime, seamlessly spread across 3 full-HD resolution projections. The entire evening experience brought to you by Zebbler, Vermin Street and MGFest.

Monday April 5th, MGFest hosts a Boston Meetup and Barcamp, encouraging meetup groups across the city to overcome the alienation of specialties and explore the patch panel of skills and technologies that contribute towards great video, audio and code-based design. The super-meet promotes healthy cross-pollination for a creative industry that regularly celebrates our diversity. The event is an open-discussion for designers, artists and programmers to have an interactive, collaborative environment to begin and innovate next-gen visual-audio projects, and takes place from noon to 4pm at the Bocoup Hack-space. Participating groups include: Boston Motion Graphics, Boston Final Cut Pro Users Group, Boston PHP Meetup, Upgrade! Boston, Boston jQuery, Boston Anime & Japanese Film Meetup Group, Boston Web Design Meetup Group, Nettime.org and more.

For those further interested in animation and video on the web, MGFest concludes by hosting two jQuery presentations, one beginner, one advanced. Michael Bourque of Boston PHP presents Intro to jQuery at MIT, while at the same time across town Paul Irish of Molecular will be presenting an advanced jQuery development workshop.

The Boston Motion Graphics Festival is sponsored by Maxon, MassArt, Lumen Eclipse, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Stash, Future Media Concepts, Bocoup, Netdiver, IdN and Cambridge Arts Council.

Boston MGFest Schedule

Boston MGFest Tickets & Registration

Year-long Call for Entry Guidelines + Entry Form

MGFest stands as the premier creative conference for motion design, visual effects, sound design and interface technology. The Motion Graphics Festival presents a year-long, regionally focused program of events including: art showcases, workshops, classes, panel discussions, studio tours, theater screenings and industry mixers.

MGFest 2010 Teaser designed by Lift sound by Gift Culture

Major events in over 15 US cities including: Austin, Boston, Atlanta, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington DC

MGFest is actively seeking sponsors to partner with in a variety of ways.
Contact us and we'll reply w/ the Advanced Info Kit.

Written by Jameson Wallace
Professor, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Advertisers designing retail spaces have coined the term "Experience Design" to describe the full coordination of the digital technology used in the store.

Event producers on the other hand create temporary versions of these designed experiences, and with the proliferation of digital devices into nearly every area of our lives, those that produce large-scale multimedia events are increasingly looking to new emerging media forms to enhance the excitement of participants.

Event producers like Psymbolic's Troy Milstead and Julee Wood orchestrate mediums such as music, video, lighting, digital kiosks, flat panel televisions, mobile devices, camera crews, actors, interior decorating, installations, sculptures and web-enabled interactive custom devices.

"As artists, we strive to create something that engages an audience and captures their imagination without distracting them from the social environment around them." Troy explains.

In 2008 for the first time, the Chicago Convention & Tourism Bureau integrated live video projection and new media elements into their annual Burnham Bash by working with Psymbolic. This annual event is a gathering of approximately 1,000 of Chicago’s top industry professionals and decision makers as well as distinguished representatives from government, non-profits, civic organizations and the media.

In follow up to the gala, creative director, Rani Woolpert expressed, "Psymbolic mixed a gorgeous canvas of imagery that played out beautifully in the space. I loved the montages of four images at a time. They were like master canvases. Combined with the lighting, the video canvases you created put guests into a rich landscape of color and a celebration of Chicago as a beautiful city. The space seemed to inspire people."

Rani continued, "I spoke with at least two individuals who have produced events in the Navy Pier's Grand Ballroom who said they had never seen it look like that. I wish you could have seen the look in the eyes of the person I was talking with, who is the president of one of the leading destination management companies in the city. He was just in love with the room. You get the idea. I am still living in the painting, and it is beautiful. Thank you for your professionalism and aesthetic sensibilities. I am so glad you were available for this event! To many more!!!"

Another event being an award ceremony put on by 40 North | 88 West - Champaign County's Arts Council presents the ACE Awards for recognition in Arts, Culture and Entertainment given out annually during the National Arts & Humanities Month.

In 2008, 40 North called upon Psymbolic to create an effective way to capture, display and visually communicate the award ceremony. What was being awarded, the meaning of the award, and the background information about the award winner was visually delivered to multiple rooms of the venue uniting the entire audience. Following the award ceremony, Psymbolic performed again during the after party showing real time visuals coordinated to live performances and diverse music.

In follow up to the award ceremony, director of operations, Steven Bentz expressed, "I want to thank Psymbolic again for the outstanding efforts surrounding last week’s 40 North ACE Awards. Your video elements helped make this year’s ceremony a complete success and something that people around the community are still commenting on." The Champaign News-Gazette, in one of their two follow-up articles praised the "glitzy" production values at the event.

Steven continued, "[Psymbolic's] excellent pre-production and live execution gave the ACE Awards a much greater impact for people attending the event, and we can’t thank you enough for your support. With your help, 2008 was the smoothest, most effective ACE Award presentation yet."

Psymbolic has been invited to design the experiences of both events again this year.

With the ever increasing speed of computer processors and mobile devices, these technologies offer a bold new palette of options for event architects.

"We're living in a time where computers are finally fast enough to be used for high-resolution realtime visual performance." commented Troy. "There's nothing quite like the feeling of introducing something new and witnessing the amazement. The art and challenge is to create visual environments that synchronize with the mood of the moment."

Psymbolic started out as an artist name for Julee & Troy (soon to be renamed V-DUO) and over the past decade Psymbolic has evolved into a Multimedia Label representing a select roster of audio, visual and multimedia artists that go above and beyond to create memorable events.

You can learn more about these newest changes in multimedia event production at Psymbolic's nationally touring Motion Graphics Festival. The Festival offers educational workshops on many of the technologies used to create unique event experiences in addition to showcasing the explosive artists and creators that develop them.

Vote for Motion Graphics at SXSW

5 panel proposals

http://www.MGFest.com/spread_the_word/

Motion Graphics Panel Proposals at SXSW need your vote to become a reality:

First Login Here, then vote for the following Motion Graphics Panel Proposals.

+ Artware and the Future of Soul
Visualization leads software design, yet the tools for visualization are primarily designed by engineers for business purpose. How can Artist’s re-envision ways of creating with computers that are more appropriate to their practice? How can technology help us to preserve those things that make us human?

+ Motion Design’s Most Wanted
Motion Graphics incorporates visual effects (vfx) and special effects techniques, but uses them, less as reconstruction of fictions made to look real, and more as a exploration of how our minds perceive repetitive imagery as objects in motion. Five top motion designers show their style and discuss their techniques.

+ Motion User Interface : Design Strategies
New interface technologies like Flash, Ajax and Microsoft Surface enable a new breed of rich-applications that merge animation with interactivity. This panel considers from two angles: technically, what can be done with this new software, and how should we re-think traditional UI and HCI design theories because of them.

+ Online Events and Ubiquitous Computing
Obama’s inauguration was the biggest test to the infrastructure of the internet and the websites that broadcasted the event. MMO campaigns, tweetups, flashmobs, virtual dance parties, and physical events with interactive online components, the synchronization of online and offline experiences is the front lines of ubiquitous computing.

+ Visual Music and Realtime Interactive Performance
Computers are finally fast enough to be used for high-resolution realtime audio-visual performance. This panel explores how to engage audiences, foster collaboration, remix, mashup, create opportunities for dynamic improvisation, and prepare for tomorrow’s advances in live performance.

Attend MGFest in Washington DC, Nov 18-22 to win a SXSW 2010 Gold Badge

Motion Graphics Festival 2009
Atlanta, Georgia :: July 10-12
http://www.MGFest.com/09/Atlanta/

The Atlanta Motion Graphics Festival showcases explosive artists and motion picture creators including: Shepard Fairey, Nine Inch Nails, David Byrne, Chuck D of Public Enemy, KRS-One, Addictive TV, Digital Kitchen, The Mill, Passion Pictures, Animal Logic, Post Panic, Dvein, David Lobser, Integrated Visions, The Secret Life, Sensitive Chaos, GalaxC Girl, Quetzatl and more.

The ATL-MGFest will be hosting workshops and lectures about the shift in motion-picture audiences and explores the new technologies that motion designers will need on the video internet frontier. Motion design, sound design and interactivity, are all featured during July 11th and 12th, with daytime workshops at Atlanta's Adobe Certified Training Facility, Sterling Ledet. Evening screenings and live performances will be hosted at Atlanta's Internationally-renowned portfolio school, Creative Circus.

This festival in the fast moving field of design technology has opened it's Art & Entertainment events for only $7. Rather than charging the typical $500-$1500 conference fee, the Motion Graphics Festival encourages participants to stop complaining about the economy, and spend their money on something that will upgrade their tools, technique and aesthetics. Software, DVDs and music will be available at a discount rate throughout the festival week.

MGFest Sponsors include: Maxon, Sterling Ledet, The Creative Circus, SAIC, SXSW, IdN, Ableton, Stash DVD Magazine, Livid Instruments, Lumen Eclipse, UnScene, RE:Vision Effects, Create Digital Motion, All City Technology, Future Media Concepts, DigiEffects, VidVox, Resolume, GarageCUBE, Lift Motion Design, Boris FX, Toolfarm, Wondertouch, Clif Bar, FXAppDeveloper, Grapeseeker and AtlPsy.

Silent Auction for over $18,000 in software, DVDs and training materials.

.: Motion Graphics Festival :: http://www.MGFest.com

Spread the Word --> http://www.MGFest.com/spread_the_word

MGFest09 Austin events :: View Photo Stream

Motion Graphics Festival 2009
Austin, Texas :: May 11-22
http://www.MGFest.com

Austin is known for supporting Indy Artists and Alternative Cultures throughout the year, but specifically, this month the Austin Motion Graphics Festival brings independent culture creators to the big screen. From filmmakers to musicians, MGFest unites artists across the divides of genre and medium to celebrate the weird, imaginative and other-worldly visions that use the technology of sequential images and the illusion of motion.

The studies of motion design, sound design and interactivity, are featured during the weeks of May 11th through 22nd. The apex of festival activity takes place during May 14th through 17th with entertainment events across the city, including: an art showcase with the Austin Museum Of Digital Art (AMODA), studio tours at top Austin design companies, screenings of local and international motion artists, a full-day educational conference, an open collaboration summit, and two weeks of industry workshops on creative software by Microsoft, Maxon, Adobe, Ableton and the local innovative Livid Instruments.

This year's Austin Motion Graphics Festival begins May 11th, 2009 featuring internationally recognized artists including: Shepard Fairey, Nine Inch Nails, David Byrne, Chuck D of Public Enemy, KRS-One, Addictive TV, Digital Kitchen, The Mill, Passion Pictures, Animal Logic, Post Panic, Dvein, Post Modern Times, David Lobser, Ken Adams, Yoshi Sodeoka, Larry Carlson, Robert Rich, Jen Stark, Bob Sabiston, Sandy Stone, Dr. Bleep, Paul Baker, Entranced, Init String, Gift Culture, Artificial Life Preserver and more.

This festival in the fast moving field of design technology has opened it's Art & Entertainment events for only $7. Rather than charging the typical $500-$1500 conference fee, the Motion Graphics Festival encourages participants to stop complaining about the economy, and spend their money on something that will upgrade their tools, technique and aesthetics. Software, DVDs and music will be available at a discount rate throughout the festival week.

Austin MGFest presented by Microsoft Expression Studio 2 and thirteen23.

Additional MGFest Sponsors include: Maxon, Austin Museum of Digital Art, IdN, Livid Instruments, Lumenbrite Training, Lumen Eclipse, SXSW Interactive, Stash DVD Magazine, Create Digital Motion, All City Technology, Future Media Concepts, DigiEffects, VidVox, Sterling Ledet, Boris FX, Resolume, Toolfarm, UnScene, GarageCUBE, Lift Motion Design, Monstrous, RE:Vision Effects, Ableton, Bleep Labs, Wondertouch & Clif Bar.

Silent Auction for over $30,000 in software, DVDs and training materials.

.: MGFest Schedule + Registration :: http://www.MGFest.com

See Co-Director of “Money,” Paul Griswold, speak at the Chicago Motion Design Conference.
http://MGFest.com/09/Chicago/screenings/paulgriswold.php

Director/animators Syd Garon and Paul Griswold, recently co-directed a music video for the band NASA (North America South America). The song, titled Money, features Grammy, Oscar and Golden Globe winning singer/songwriter David Byrne and Chuck D, leader of the rap group Public Enemy. The music video features artwork by contemporary artist and designer Shepard Fairey, who recently gained national notoriety for his design of the Barack Obama “Hope” campaign poster.