President of the Republic of Finland Tarja Halonen visited Anima Vitae to meet Finnish animation professionals and to get acquaited with the industry. Present were also animation producers Jyrki Kaipainen from Camera Cagliostro and Tom Carpelan from Filmkompaniet Alpha. The producers brought out Finnish animation production which combines the strong technological knowledge and creative content production.

Producer Petteri Pasanen introduced Finnanimation, a network and association created by Finnish animation producers to president Halonen. The president was shown how 3D animation is done. One of Anima's animators Luca Bruno presented how the characters are brought to life and how the role is created with movement and expressions. Bruno was already familiar with president's character since he was the one to animate it in political satire The Autocrats. Jyrki Kaipainen presented puppets and props that were used in Katariina Lillqvist's puppet animations. Tom Carpelan showed the president preview material from the upcoming film Moomins and the Comet Chase. The film will be made stereoscopic.

Anima Vitae's producer Petteri Pasanen emphasized the international nature of animation. Animated characters do not reveal dubbing as do the human characters in feature films. Also the financing in animation productions is often international and the work can be split among several countries.

Finally the president got to do some character modelling herself. President Halonen and CEO of Finnish Film Foundation, Irina Krohn sketched antlers for Niko who is the main character from Anima Vitae's feature length animation Niko & The Way to the Stars.

www.finnanimation.fi