Swinburne wins at Node Fest

Student Jane Novella has won Best Student Ident at NODE Fest 2019, bringing the award back to Swinburne for the third year in a row.

Jane Novella’s fruit characters share the message “spread love, not hate”.

Swinburne Bachelor of Digital Media Design student Jane Novella has taken out the Best Student Ident Award at NODE Fest 2019, Australia’s premier motion design festival. It’s the third year in a row that a Swinburne student has won the award.

NODE Fest is attended by hundreds of local and international designers. The competition is highly competitive and the talented Novella has won a paid internship at high-profile Los Angeles-based motion design studio, Ranger and Fox, at their new satellite studio opening in Sydney next year.

James Berrett and Jane Novella at Node Fest 2019Lecturer in digital media design, James Berrett, and Jane Novella at Node Fest 2019.

Novella’s motion design response is about an apple, who is also an LGBT supporter and finds love in the midst of her unaccepting society. She meets another fruit, a peach, who is also an LGBT supporter. The apple then realises that she is not alone and begins to find hope again.

Novella says the idea for her story started at a brainstorming session in a Motion Graphics Project class at Swinburne.

“After learning how the word ‘fruity’ related to the LGBT community, I wanted to make something more than just a simple fruit animation to convey a message. I researched the LGBT community in general and decided to create an animation with the message of “spread love, not hate”,” Novella says.

Student Jane Novella has won Best Student Ident at NODE Fest 2019, bringing the award back to Swinburne for the third year in a row. Motion design fruit characters by Jane Novella.

“My focus is on the character designs, environments and interaction between the characters to make sure that all aspects of my design, from the lighting and value, to the expression, are enhanced to fit the plot. I want viewers to understand the message in just 15 seconds.”

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