On Thursday, June 1st, 2023, at 18:00, Lecture by Panagiotis Rappas, internationally acclaimed animator, storyboard artist, screenwriter, director, and producer of mainly animated films, at the M.Sc. program "Digital Culture, Smart Cities, IoT, and Advanced Digital Technologies" of the University of Piraeus.
On Thursday, June 1st, 2023, from 18:00 to 21:00, Panagiotis Rappas, the internationally acclaimed animator, storyboard artist, screenwriter, director, and producer primarily known for his work in animation, will be a guest speaker at the M.Sc. program "Digital Culture, Smart Cities, IoT, and Advanced Digital Technologies" of the Department of Informatics at the University of Piraeus.
The lecture is organized as part of the M.Sc. program in Digital Culture, Smart Cities, IoT & Advanced Technologies and the #UNESCO Chair: "Creative Cities in Motion: Urban Sustainable Mobility and Utilization of Cultural Resources," which has been awarded to the Laboratory of "Digital Culture, Smart Cities, Internet of Things (IoT), and Advanced Digital Technologies and Services" at the University of Piraeus.
#digitalculture #smartcities #IoT #internetofthings #lecture
Title of the Speech: ………………
Brief Biography
Panagiotis Rappas has worked for almost all major Hollywood production studios and has been involved in many European 2D and 3D Animation co-productions. The core of his work revolves around children, particularly adapting children's literature into animated films. His work has received numerous international awards in Europe and the USA. With extensive experience in film production organization, he often serves as a special consultant for relevant productions and occasionally teaches the art of Animation through intensive seminars at Schools of Fine Arts and Colleges. He has also worked for the theater, one of his great passions alongside painting, and has illustrated books for children. He is a lifelong member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of the USA (A.M.P.A.S.).
A Few More Words About His Work...
After completing his secondary education in Hydra, Panagiotis Rappas continued his studies in Germany, studying engraving under Felix Jomü and Animation alongside Wolfgang Urchs, one of the filmmakers who signed the Oberhausen Manifesto in 1962, and Hal Clay, a former collaborator of Disney studios in California.
He participated in two feature-length films for the cinema in Berlin and Munich before the end of the 1980s. He was later invited to be one of the first artists to staff the studio that Amblin, Steven Spielberg's production company, and Universal were jointly preparing in London, which would eventually become DreamWorks. He participated in all the films prepared by the studio. In the mid-90s, he co-founded Stardust Pictures in London and, as a creative producer, took part in the production of parts of several films for major Hollywood studios such as Warner Bros, Paramount, Nickelodeon, DreamWorks, as well as European studios like Trick Company and Munich Animation. In a dual role as a Producer and Layout Artist/Animator, he supervised the production of parts of the film "1001 Nights" for the Los Angeles Philharmonic based on the paintings of Yoshitaka Amano, directed by Mike Smith.
In 1998, he moved to Los Angeles to participate in the productions of Paramount, Nickelodeon, and Klasky-Csupo, namely "Rugrats the Movie" and "Rugrats in Paris," as a Layout Supervisor and Sequence Director. Here, he also founded the production company Time Lapse Pictures, based in Los Angeles and Athens.
In 2001, he returned to Greece, where he continued to work for various Hollywood and European studios, participating in productions by Paramount, Nickelodeon, Klasky-Csupo, Columbia, Filmax, and Munich Animation. Concurrently, he attended sculpture classes with the teacher Nikos Tranos.
In Athens, he started collaborating with Professor of Criminology at the University of Reading and renowned children's literature author Eugene Trivizas. This collaboration was particularly fruitful and creative, leading to the production of two Animation Christmas TV Specials in co-production with the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT). These specials were "The Little Mouse Who Wanted to Touch a Star" / Panagiotis Rappas and Angelos Rouvas, 2007, and "One Tree at a Time" / Panagiotis Rappas 2009. Both films were screened at numerous international festivals worldwide and received warm reception from critics and audiences. The film "One Tree at a Time" was voted as the best animation TV film by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the second-best production for children and adolescents in 2009. The music for the film was composed by Dimitris Papadimitriou, one of the most significant contemporary Greek composers. Their collaboration continued with the film "The Fountain of Youth " based on the narrative by Lefkadios Hern - Yakumo Koizumi. The film will premiere in 2011 at the Onassis Foundation's Cultural Center, during an evening dedicated to the great Japanese author, who was born in Greece to an Irish father and Greek mother. The event will include readings of his works and an exhibition of his books from the collection of Takis Efstathiou. The film and the evening will serve as an opportunity to introduce the author to his home country.
In 2015, a new collaboration begins with Ever After Tales, a Los Angeles-based company that creates electronic book applications for children based on children's literature with animated illustrations. Panagiotis Rappas takes on the role of Art Director and Animator for the company's applications. The book "The Feather of the Roc and Little Emily," designed based on a fairy tale by Eugenio Trivizas, will receive the prestigious Kidscreen Award for the best electronic book of the year in the United States.
Special effects and digital cinematography are also an important part of his creative production, and as an experienced VFX Animator, he has frequently taken on the direction of this crucial area for 3D Animation and Live Action films.
During the period of 2018-2019, he worked for Cartoon Saloon (http://www.cartoonsaloon.ie/), where he worked on a series for Amazon Video Kids based on the bestselling children's book, "Pete the Cat," according to The New York Times. The series features music by Elvis Costello, the enfant terrible of the London rock scene in the '70s and '80s. To this day, Panagiotis Rappas is an associate of the Onassis Foundation. He also handled the animation for the film "I Recognize You by Your Face" by the Commission 2021.
#digitalculture #smartcities #IoT #internetofthings #lecture
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MSc program "Digital Culture, Smart Cities, IoT, and Advanced Digital Technologies"
University of Piraeus
For more information about the MSc program, please visit:
Website: https://dcsciot.unipi.gr/
Email: dcsciot@unipi.gr
01 Jun 2023
