ETC Faculty Member Moshe Mahler’s Short Film Honored With Best in Show

by Hannah Kobre

In 2017, Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) Assistant Teaching Professor Moshe Mahler began working on his short film “The Art of Weightlessness.” Almost seven years later, Mahler’s film has won Best in Show at this year’s SIGGRAPH conference. “When I finished the film in 2023,” Mahler said, “my son pointed out that this film took his whole life to make!”

SIGGRAPH is the world’s premiere computer graphics conference; each year, they host a festival of digitally animated work called Electronic Theater. The winners are chosen by an internationally recognized jury of peers working across various sectors of the industry, including video game development, digital animation, and special effects.

“The Art of Weightlessness”chronicles the evolution of Pittsburgh-based artist and performer Bill Shannon. Shannon, born with a degenerative hip condition, uses crutches; as a result, he’s developed new ways of dancing and skateboarding. CMU Professor Golan Levin introduced Mahler to Shannon because Shannon expressed interest in using motion capture to catalog his movement style and technique. “Once I saw Bill’s performance art, I was immediately interested in collaborating with him,” Mahler said. “We eventually began discussing the evolution of his crutches, skateboarding, and breakdancing, so a documentary format quickly became the target for the piece.”

Mahler began work by recording interviews with Shannon and utilizing CMU’s Motion Capture Lab in Wean Hall to record Shannon’s one-of-a-kind way of moving. “The strength of performance capture is that we can leverage unique talents from any performer. … The data that I capture is exceptionally accurate. A typical motion capture system can capture 120 frames per second with a sub-millimeter accuracy,” Mahler said.

Mahler blended his performance capture of Shannon with hand-crafted keyframe animation, motion graphics, rotoscoping, and simulation. “An animator’s job is to bring forth the details that are important to the story to better engage the audience. And these varying styles of animation opened the door for less literal and more fantastical imagery in the storytelling as well,” Mahler explains. “My goal was to tie the visual complexity to the evolution of Bill’s skill and his ability as a dancer, and animation presents the perfect medium to do this.”

The nine-minute film tracks Shannon’s individual and artistic development — following him from a childhood spent trying to keep up with other kids while on crutches to an adulthood where his crutches became part of his distinctive performance style. “Bill’s circumstances led to this evolution, which resulted in a very tangible and beautiful expression of art and movement,” Mahler said. “So, the piece is not about overcoming adversity but understanding that we should strive to evolve throughout our lives.”

Mahler teaches animation in both the ETC and Integrative Design, Arts, and Technology (IDeATe) programs, including courses focusing on technical character animation and 3D animation production. Over the seven years it took to complete, the film, Mahler worked with ten students through paid apprenticeships: Michelle Ma (CFA + CS ‘17), Jean Cho (CFA, ‘24), Faris Elrayes (ETC ‘23), Emma Franklin (CFA ‘21), Yukti Gupte (ETC ‘23), Sophia Videva (ETC ‘22), Ayushman Johri (ETC ‘21), James Krahe (CFA ‘13), Claire Yuzhu Zhou (ETC ‘22), and Sheenu Yu (ETC ‘23).

Mahler said that they were “extremely helpful in keeping the project moving forward over six to seven years, and I genuinely appreciate the talent and hard work our students brought to the project. I think winning an award of this caliber is a testament to the quality of our students at Carnegie Mellon.”

“We are immensely proud of both Professor Mahler and the students who worked on the film,” said Keith Webster, Helen and Henry Posner, Jr. Dean of the University Libraries and director of Emerging and Integrative Media Initiatives. “The success of the film is a credit not only to CMU and the ETC but also to the incredible talents of the people who work and learn here, and it is always wonderful to see them celebrated.”

Mahler accepted the prize in-person at SIGGRAPH on Monday, July 29th at the festival award ceremony following a screening of winners. His next step? A potential campaign for Best Animated Short Film, as Electronic Theater winners automatically qualify for Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences —- better known as the Oscars.

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