Georges Schwizgebel, the internationally renowned experimental animation director and titan-level animation master, offered a 5-day animation workshop at the Huairou Campus of the Beijing Film Academy from April 22 to April 26, 2024 - Patterns in Images: Animation Creation from the Perspective of Georges Schwizgebel.

Mr. Schwizgebel’s workshop not only provided students with an opportunity to have a close interaction with the animation master, but also deepened and broadened their animation concepts.

Opening chapter of the workshop: Launch and expectations

Schwizgebel’s personally arranged original manuscript art exhibition opened on April 21 in the A1 exhibition hall of the Animation School. The unveiling of the original works exhibition laid a solid foundation for the launch of the workshop with Schwizgebel’s unique artistic perspective and solid creative skills. The opening ceremony of the workshop was held at 9:00 am on April 22 in front of the exhibition hall in Building A. Professor Sun Lijun, Vice President of Beijing Film Academy, warmly welcomed Schwizgebel and emphasized the artistic and philosophical qualities of his animation works. He encouraged the students to cherish this opportunity to interact with Schwizgebel and try their best to complete the coursework during the workshop.

(Speech by Sun Lijun, Vice President)

(Speech by Georges Schwizgebel)

Mr. Schwizgebel’s teaching snapshots: Strict loop and encouraging teacher

Mr. Schwizgebel laid a clear learning path for the upcoming courses with cut-up sulfuric paper and teaching handouts he brought from abroad. During the 5-day courses, he offered an in-depth teaching on animation creation around the exclusive animation technique of loop. His works appear to be free-style, and the deformation of images under the camera is as smooth as magical, but actually it follows certain patterns. Schwizgebel has developed a complete “loop” system to be widely learned and used, which creates patterns in seemingly casual images. Patterns and orders in the technique lay a solid foundation for the creation of work, whether to input emotional expression or tell a complete story. He prepared a loop table for each student and demonstrated it with 9 grids. He divided a picture into nine equal grids and numbered them, and showed the students how to transit from one element to another, how to displace the nine grids clockwise within the picture, and how to construct an inner loop for visual images through deformation to create fantastic, grotesque and vibrant visual effects.

(Loop table)

(Handouts about loop)

Schwizgebel tried to communicate with the students in Chinese as much as he could to have everyone fully understand his teaching by the end of the workshop. He followed the progress of each student and walked back and forth between the three sets of tables. Always holding paper and pen in hand, he kept noting down the names of the 22 students in the workshop, the contents and characteristics of their drawings, and their existing problems. From the explanation of the patterns to the later rounds of coursework guidance and comments, Schwizgebel provided the students with the most pertinent advice and the warmest encouragement to prevent them from doubting or denying themselves. At the end of the courses, every student completed their own work using the loop technique that lived up to Schwizgebel’ efforts.

A total of 22 students were selected for Schwizgebel’s workshop from the Animation School, Digital Media School, Fine Arts School, Photography School and Photography Department of Beijing Film Academy. Professor Sun Cong, Professor He Cheng and Professor Chen Liaoyu from the Animation School also provided teaching assistance for the workshop. Under the guidance of the professors, the students took advantage of their strengths and created imaginative works under the loop concept with different styles, elements and perspectives, integrating their different majors with the discipline of animation.

(Students under the guidance of Professor Sun Cong)

(Students under the guidance of Professor Chen Liaoyu)

(Students under the guidance of Professor He Cheng)

Master’s open lecture: Inspiration VS techniques

In order for more students to master his creation methods and principles, Schwizgebel carefully prepared a two-hour open lecture on animation creation in addition to the small class teaching. The lecture attracted not only teachers and students from Beijing Film Academy, but also many external audiences who were passionate about animation art. Schwizgebel shared his creative inspiration of his five films: The Ride to the Abyss, The Young Girl and the Clouds, The Man Without A Shadow, Romance and Erlking. He elaborated on the stories and emotions behind the creation of each work, showing the audiences the charm and depth of animation art. For example, The Young Girl and the Clouds was inspired by Jacques Roubaud’s novel Heaven and Earth, which gave him the idea of using clouds to tell the story of Cinderella. Another film Romance was created based on Rachmaninoff’s piano and cello duet. The music not only determined the structure of the film, but also inspired the creation of the story. In the open lecture, Schwizgebel also shared his creative thinking and creative process without reservation. He used specific animation episodes to analyze his works in detail, not only showing the production process picture by picture, but also comparing the draft and finished pictures through shot-by-shot analysis. He demonstrated the application of different techniques in different works, showed how inspiration was extended and presented in his works, and revealed how he integrated loop, deformation, spatial movement and music in his works. It is most worth mentioning that Schwizgebel has integrated his understanding and expression of life, human nature and the world in every animation work. He has deeply impressed the young artists with his love and pursuit of animation art and his profound philosophical thoughts in his animation works.

(Part of the presentations in Schwizgebel’ open lecture)

An interview with Georges Schwizgebel:

In order to further explore his philosophy of animation creation, post-doctoral fellow Shi Xiaoyu and Dr. Mai He from the Animation School of Beijing Film Academy jointly conducted an in-depth interview with Schwizgebel. Schwizgebel talked about how he came to know Beijing Film Academy and expressed his deep affection for the school. He learned about Beijing Film Academy through A Da, the animation master he became acquainted with at Shanghai Animation Film Studio. The school’s commitment to pure artistic creation has encouraged him to share his animation creation techniques and concepts here.

When talking about creative inspiration, he pointed out that art has no borders and artists should create works on common emotional or cultural dilemmas. He is often inspired by music, novels and exhibitions from different countries. For example, the animated work The Year of the Deer was adapted by Schwizgebel from the essay The Deer of Linjiang written by Liu Zongyuan, a Tang Dynasty literary figure, when he was studying Chinese from a teacher. During the interview, he talked about his favorite Ukrainian experimental animation director Igor Kovalyov. Igor’s works have a grotesque artistic style and unconventional narrative style, leading to mixed reviews from both academia and audiences. However, as an experimental animation professional, Schwizgebel believes that it is necessary to make breakthroughs and research in the ontology language of animation, during which pressure from critics and audiences is inevitable but valuable.

When asked about why he adopted the traditional hand-drawing method using pigments for animation creation, Schwizgebel answered that focusing too much on technical methods would overwhelm the artist with the choice of technique itself rather than the artistic expression and ontology language. The most traditional hand-drawing technique of Celluloid enables directors to clearly express their creative ideas while developing their own artistic style. Schwizgebel also shared his opinion on the hot topic of AI technology nowadays. He believes that young artists need new technologies, but should not get lost in them. He has seen many AI-produced animations with gorgeous techniques and visual effects but no soul. True animation works should convey the artist’s understanding and thinking about life.

Closing ceremony: Achievements and prospects

At the closing ceremony, the students of the animation master’s workshop presented their coursework of short films produced with the loop technique taught by Georges Schwizgebel. These works not only reflected the progress of the students during the five-day courses, but also demonstrated the charm and vitality of Schwizgebel’ animation creation concepts. In his online speech, Vice President Sun Lijun expressed sincere gratitude to Schwizgebel for his hard work and commented on each student’s work. Schwizgebel also recognized the creative attempts of the students and expressed his expectations for their future development. He hoped to meet the students again in the near future to share inspirations and create better works together.

(Teachers and students watched the coursework films together)

(Group photo of the closing ceremony)

(Schwizgebel received a poster with signatures of the teachers and students of the Animation School)

After the closing ceremony, Schwizgebel led the students to the exhibition hall on the first floor to take a look at his manuscripts and shared the creation process of these works. During the visit, Schwizgebel shared with the students without reservation the details and inspirations of his creation as well as interesting tips in the drawing process, such as the selection of special pigments and paper surfaces, and the use of sulfuric paper combined with color powders to quickly copy and modify the picture to achieve smooth transition between shots. During the sharing session, he elaborated on not only the details of his creation, but also the overall creative ideas, revealing to the students his whole creation process.

(Schwizgebel was explaining his manuscripts to the students)

Looking back on the five-day animation master’s workshop, Schwizgebel not only unveiled the specific creation process behind his visual wonders to the students, but also impressed every young animation creator with his pure love for animation art. We can’t help but feel honored and proud to have this close interaction with the titan-level international animation master. Schwizgebel’ dedication to his lifelong dream of animation will definitely ignite a more passionate animation dream among the students. Going forward, we will pass on his spirit and skills to contribute to the development of the animation industry in China.