Superhero animation competition from HP and Intel

HP and Intel announce six week challenge to create a short film based on a superhero character, Mr. Z.

To support the launch of the Z-Series Workstation, HP and Intel today announced the start of a six week challenge to create a short film based on a 3D Superhero character, Mr. Z.

Armed with a suite of design tools that can adapt to any crisis, Mr. Z is a Superhero designer that shares the characteristics and strengths of the new Z-Series Workstation and Intel Xeon Processor 5500 series’; performance, style, speed and reliability.

Some of the UK’s leading creative/design agencies have agreed to take part in the challenge whereby they will each create a 30 second film clip using the Mr. Z character. Inspired by the game ‘Consequences’ each of the participating agencies will be allowed to use their own creativity and specialist skill sets in 3D and 2D animation, graphic design or video to create their clip. At the end of the challenge, each of the clips will be combined to create an innovative short-film capturing ‘A Day in the Life of Mr. Z’.

To create their clips, each of the agencies will be given a Z-800 Workstation, a DreamColor monitor and a selection of Adobe’s latest Creative Suite software including AfterEffects, Premiere Pro and Photoshop.

All the film clips will be located on a designated website www.hp.com/uk/MrZ. On the website, there are also links to Mr. Z’s Facebook and Twitter pages, as well as end user reviews supplied by each of the agencies trialing the equipment.

Jane Zeal, Personal Systems Strategic Planning & Marketing Manager, at HP said: “We specifically wanted to enable end users to trial the equipment and really put it through its paces. The Mr. Z challenge will not only allow the agencies to trial the product, but do so in an innovative way.”

“By providing a fairly open brief, each of the agencies will be able to utilise the versatility of the Z-Series for a range of applications. We have some of the country’s most creative minds working on this project and we’re looking forward to seeing the end result.”

At the end of the competition, all participants will be invited to a ‘Movie Premiere’ where a panel of judges will present a Z-Series Workstation, fully loaded with Adobe’s Master Collection Creative Suite to the participating agency that produces the most creative individual clip.