Away from its usual home in Berlin, the Pictoplasma Conference is about to touch down in the heart of Manhattan. On September 5 and 6 the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts at NYU will serve as the gathering place for a diverse crowd of artists, designers, animators, producers and fans who will freely exchange ideas about anything and everything related to character design.



Rounding off the fabulous lineup of international artists, including Tim Biskup (US), Motomichi Nakamura (JP/US), Fons Schiedon (NL), Akinori Oishi (JP), Gangpol & Mit (FR) and Aaron Stewart (US), we've added some more highlights to September's Pictoplasma NYC conference:

Cult animators Tokyoplastic will speak about their projects to date, which range from standard-defying Flash animation to ridiculous sex-toy design and multimillion-dollar ad campaigns. Having worked for clients including Microsoft, Aiwa, Mitsubishi, Guy Ritchie, Dreamworks SKG, AMD and Toyota, Sam Lanyon Jones and Drew Cope have collected just about every award the industry has to offer.

Studio AKA, the BAFTA-winning animation company based in London, never fails to impress with their perfect mixture of breathtaking visuals, to-the-point timing and wonderfully twisted sense of storytelling. Philip Hunt, co-owner and creative director of Studio AKA, will outline the studio's progress so far and share details on some projects he's currently cooking up. A definite gem is the new self-produced short "Varmints" directed by Marc Craste that follows up on his breakthrough "Jojo in the Stars".

Miami based artist duo FriendsWithYou allowed us a sneak peak at the projects they have up their sleeves. They are taking the words "think big" to new dimensions, so don't miss their presentation of gigantic mobiles, immersive anthropomorphic worlds and character filled landscapes.

Meanwhile wiz kid David OReilly has released the next episodes of his epic "Please Say Something" series. The 22-year-old experimental filmmaker from Ireland has developed a unique visual language labeled by boingboing.net as "vectorpunk animation" - something "between Kubrick and Kaufman and Ketamine." After witnessing his lecture at our last animation festival in Berlin Regine Debatty from we-make-money-not-art.com adds: "This guy must be what you'd call a genius." We agree.

Besides a back-to-back program of presentations, lectures and panels, this year's animation screenings promise to further explore how graphical characters previously not associated with the industry are now taking the medium by storm. We are still on the hunt for more outstanding character-driven shorts, motion graphics and music visuals, so please head over to our site for all the details on how to submit your work for the big screen.

And finally - just a subtle reminder - we want you to know that our special early bird rate is about to end. Visit http://www.pictoplasma.com/nyc to find more details on the program, screenings and speakers, and book online to secure your entrance to a full weekend of character galore.