Anamú Animation Base launch the first-ever Irish Animation Database in the Irish Film Centre, Dublin on the 14 April, 2000.
The database exhibits a dynamic range of animations. It also profiles the
Irish animation industry with an online central area for the posting of
jobs, commissions, resources and other festivals. This online resource gives
Irish animators the opportunity to display their artwork alongside their
contemporaries and to spotlight their work on the worldwide web.
Viewers can see the database online at www.ani-fest.com where
animators work with traditional media to utilise the Web as a distribution
channel as well as a creation tool.
Competitions will run onsite, culminating in the Fifth Irish Animation
Festival. The festival runs in the Irish Film Centre in Temple Bar from
November 10 to November 12. Prior to the festival, visitors to the ani-fest
website can vote on their favourite movies from the database, with the
winner being brought to Dublin and their work featuring in the festival.
Ruth Maher and Denise Mulvaney, both animators turned web designers,
developed the ani-fest website out of a need that existed for such a
resource in the Irish animation industry. "We wanted to create a support and
resources area for the animation festival," explained Ruth, "where film
makers can get updated festival news, check out the showcase and running
order of the weekend festival."
"As the festival programme develops, you can see the running order of the
films and animated shorts," said Denise Mulvaney, who is co-ordinating the
animation festival with Ruth Maher. "Animators from around the world are
completing entry forms online and we're screening their work once a week. We
'll have a great mix of animations for the two days of screenings."
Kevin Greene, web developer, explained "The database runs on Cold Fusion,
which should be easy to populate and update as the size of the animation
archive increases. We think this is the world's first community-based
collective of animated films, Shockwave files, Flash movies and Director
presentations. It will give viewers an international flavour of what can be
done by quality animators."
Anamú was established in 1992 to foster the development of animation in
Ireland. Its members have hosted four international festivals, featuring an
eclectic mix of more than 100 animations from 16 different countries.
