The Visual Effects Society and Autodesk will be presenting the Student Award during the upcoming 8th Annual VES Awards. The call is out for fresh VFX sequences or short films from students who created the work this year. Both the Visual Effects Society and Autodesk are on board, with the enthusiastic blessing from none other than Steven Spielberg.

When Autodesk's Vice President of the Digital Entertainment Group, Stig Gruman, presented the first-ever student award at the VES Annual Awards show on February 21 this year, the winners were Australians Sandy Widyanata and Courtney Wise, who created their short film, 'PLASTIC,' as a graduation project while studying at the Australian Film Television and Radio School.

Sandy Widyanata and Courtney Wise accept their VES Student Award in February 2009.

'PLASTIC' is a live-action film about the obsession for the perfect body image. An animation and visual effects feast developed using a variety of technology, including Autodesk Maya.
Sandy Widyanata and Courtney Wise are this year developing a couple of feature film scripts while working as freelance artists on adverts and broadcast projects in Sydney, Australia.

"When we won the VES Student award the welcoming response in L.A was overwhelming," says Sandy. "Courtney and I were introduced and invited to various studios and post production facilities, where we got an inside view into how the 'big guns' in Hollywood work. We met wonderful and very talented people. VES and Autodesk gave us a very memorable time."

“We were thrilled when one of our earliest supporters, Autodesk, committed to making this important award possible,” said VES Executive Director Eric Roth. “We hope this student recognition will become an annual rite of passage for the Steven Spielbergs of tomorrow.”



History
"The VES has been pretty dedicated to getting the student award going for a long time," said Jeff Okun, chairman of the Visual Effect Society. "When we gave Stephen Spielberg the lifetime Achievement Award, on stage he challenged us to do this. Our good friends at Autodesk jumped to the challenge and came aboard as well. So with their sponsorship and belief in recognizing great work of student our dedication to fostering the next generation of talent, we carefully built this event together."

Okun continued. "This is the opportunity for younger artists to have their work up in front of the leaders in the visual effects field. If they win, of course, they are flown over for the award, but are also made welcome and introduced to all the studios and all the directors. When Sandy and Courtney showed up, we picked them up at the airport, we had a luncheon for them, Autodesk presented them with free software. Those two girls really surprised us because they really used their time to make the rounds and meet as many people as they could, to get the feel of the industry. It was a really win-win for both sides. They were stunningly delightful."

Last year, the challenge was to include the VFX into a finished story. This year, the VES is looking for really well executed shots, and if they're part of a good story, that's even better. The works have to have been created sometime in the year 2009 while the student, was a student at an accredited school. Now, 'accredited school' means that it is a recognized school." Get going, cos the PDF is downloadable from the link below. Then work through the conditions and application form and then upload to the VES server from Nov 16 to Nov 30.

"In order to get a job in this industry, you need to get your work seen. Even if it is shortlisted or nominated, there's a feather in your cap right there for trying." - Jeff Okun.