February 28, 2013

Exquisite Corpse

17 employees of the French Ankama Animation Studio (Dofus/Wakfu) have taken part to this animated "Exquisite Corpse" (2 versions with alternate endings).





Animators: Naoki Araiza Tokumasu, Floriane Grivillers, Julien Maret, Thomas Fourniret, Büb, David Besnier, Vincent Legarrec, Valerie Ménard, Sophie Dupont, David Decobert, Jean-Philippe Florin, Simon Coroller, Remi Juillet, Kosal Sok, Claudia Delahaye, Benoit Somville, Lucie Mayjonade, Carlo Toselli.

"Pipi" by Mathias Lachal



A nice mix of live action and animation.
See more of his amazing films and experiments here.

"Moon Day" by Jamie Vickers



Jamie Vickers (an american animator who worked a lot in Japan) is working on a personal short film called "Moon Day". Here is a piece of animatic screened last week at Titmouse's 5 Second Day festival.

Here's an animation reel:

365

One year / one film / one second a day project by The Brothers McLeod.

Dogsnack





A new web series from the Rug Burn channel (by Titmouse & Six Point Harness studios for Mondo Media).

Germans in the Woods

Joseph Robertson was an infantryman in the U.S. Army during World War II, where he fought in the Battle of the Bulge. The stark black and white images in this short haunt the viewer, just as Robertson is haunted by his memories from that battle.



Credits:

Directed by: The Rauch Brothers
Art Direction: The Rauch Brothers
Background Painting: Iandry Randriamandroso & Tim Rauch
Producers: Mike Rauch & Lizzie Jacobs
Animation: Tim Rauch
Audio Produced by: Michael Garofalo
Production made by StoryCorps

February 25, 2013

"Tea Ballin!" by Scott MacDonald



A continuous loop created for loopdeloop.org. Each month, animators from around the world create looping animations based on a given topic. This month was Topic was Sports. On the last Tuesday of the month all of the posted loops are compiled and screened to a live audience at Loop in Melbourne, Australia.

Incredible Miniature Pencil Art

elvis-carved-onto-tip-of-pencil

Photograph by Dalton Ghetti / Solent News


Dalton Ghetti is a 49-year old carpenter from Bridgeport, Connecticut, and he has been carving the most incredible miniature sculptures for over 25 years without the aid of a magnifying glass. His canvas? The tiny tip of a lead pencil.


smallest-saw-ever

Photograph by Dalton Ghetti / Solent News

incredible-pencil-art

Photograph by Dalton Ghetti / Solent News


Dalton started carving tree bark when he was a child and experimented with everything from soap to chalk before settling on graphite. It’s second nature now, and for 90 percent of his work, all he needs is a sewing needle, a razor blade, a sculpting knife and a carpenter’s or No. 2 pencil.


carving-a-lead-pencil-tip

Photograph by Dalton Ghetti / Solent News


smallest-hammer-ever

Photograph by Dalton Ghetti / Solent News

“The pencil tip is great; it’s like a pure, very homogenous material,” he said. “It cuts in the same direction, not like wood, which has a grain. But when I tell people how long it takes, that’s when they don’t believe it. That’s what amazes people more, the patience. Because everything nowadays has to be fast, fast, fast.”




tiniest-key-ever-dalton-ghetti

Photograph by Dalton Ghetti / Solent News

screw-carved-into-lead-of-a-pencil

Photograph by Dalton Ghetti / Solent News


Mr. Ghetti often takes years to complete pieces, especially since pencil carving is only a hobby. A standard figure will take several months however the alphabet carvings below took about 2.5 years!


alphabet-carved-into-pencils

Photograph by Dalton Ghetti / Solent News


pencil-nnmchucks-dalton-ghetti

Photograph by Dalton Ghetti / Solent News

Mr. Ghetti has never sold any of his work, and has only given it away to friends. “It’s hard to explain but for me it’s like a sort of meditation. I’m alone with no music on in my studio and in a deep state of concentration, it’s like another mind state I float about in.”

art-on-tip-of-a-pencil

Photograph by Dalton Ghetti / Solent News



amazing-lead-carving

Photograph by Dalton Ghetti / Solent News


“I use the sewing needle to make holes or dig into the graphite. I scratch and create lines and turn the graphite around slowly in my hand. Also, I never buy the pencils, my friends are always giving me them to sculpt or sometimes I use ones I find in the street.”

mini-pencil-art-carving

Photograph by Dalton Ghetti / Solent News


miniature-pencil-sculpture

Photograph by Dalton Ghetti / Solent News


Dalton, who is originally from Brazil, has a box full of more than 100 sculptures that have broken while working on them that he affectionately calls ‘the cemetery collection’. Some of them he displays on a Styrofoam bed to remind him of the time spent on this almost finished works (below):

miniature-art

Photograph by Dalton Ghetti / Solent News

Mr Ghetti has made about 100 carvings, and is currently on an epic piece inspired by the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.
“When September 11 happened I was in tears all day and couldn’t do much for a while. I decided to make a teardrop pencil carving for each of the people who died in the attack, about 3,000. Since 2002 I have carved one every day, it takes me under an hour. When I’m done they will form one big tear drop. It will take me about 10 years but it will be worth it.”


art-carving-on-tip-of-lead-pencil

Photograph by Dalton Ghetti / Solent News


miniature-carving-dalton-ghetti

Photograph by Dalton Ghetti / Solent News



pencil-tip-sculptures

Photograph by Dalton Ghetti / Solent News


amazing-miniature-sculptures-on-tip-of-pencil

Photograph by Dalton Ghetti / Solent News


miniature-sculptures-using-pencil-lead

Photograph by Dalton Ghetti / Solent News

dalton-ghetti-miniature-sculptures-carving

Photograph by Dalton Ghetti / Solent News


SOURCES

The New York Times

The Telegraph

The Daily Mail

Via TwistedSifter




February 23, 2013

"Ursus" by Atom Art

Latvian award-winning animation short “Ursus” is now available to watch online


“Ursus” is a heartfelt story of a motorcycling circus bear's loneliness and search for freedom. The directing debut of Latvian animator and outstanding children's book illustrator Reinis Petersons has been screened in over 70 international film festivals since 2011, including world premiere at Clermont-Ferrand, participation in Annecy, Special Int'l Jury Prize at the Animation Festival Hiroshima, the Best First Film award at Animafest Zagreb, the Best Debut Film award at National Film Festival “Lielais Kristaps”, Latvia, and other awards and special mentions. 

The film is made with charcoal-on-paper technique, drawn entirely by hand. The drawing varies greatly through the film – from sharp lines to criss-cross patterns to fuzzy clouds of charcoal powder mixed with saw dust, depicting diverse environments – the circus, the forest, the meadow, fog and night – with skill and delicacy, as well as showcasing the possibilities of the seemingly limited black-and-white technique.



Director/Writer/Designer: Reinis Pētersons
Composer: Jēkabs Nīmanis
Animator: Mārtiņš Dūmiņš
Sound: Ģirts Bišs
Phonography: Maksims Šenteļejevs 
Editor: Dāvis Sīmanis
Producer: Sabīne Andersone
Studio: Atom Art

The Avett Brothers - Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise [Music Video]



The Avett Brothers have released this video for "Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise," from the band's latest album 'I And Love And You' from July 2010. It's a spare but stunning work of art, featuring the animated paintings of Jason Ryan Mitcham. The video shows the rise, fall and inevitable decay of rampant urban development.

"Head Full Of Doubt/Road Full Of Promise" was written about the temporary nature of our buildings and our mentality," says Scott Avett. "Accepting the temporary state we may be in. (Artist) Jason (Ryan Mitcham) with his landscape paintings, and some that I'd seen that he'd animated, dealt with the temporary nature of the world around us."

Rather than make a bunch of different paintings for the animation, Mitcham gradually altered a single painting 26-hundred times. Ten alterations to the painting equaled one second of film.

February 20, 2013

Rest in Peace - Stuart Freeborn (1914-2013)

British Creature FX Legend Stuart Freeborn – a man whose credits included some of the most influential films of the 20th century – passed away in London on Tuesday at the age of 98, on Feb 7th.

From CNN:
Star Wars makeup artist Stuart Freeborn, who helped create Chewbacca, Yoda, Jabba the Hutt and the otherworldly creatures in the trilogy’s famous barroom scene, has died, Lucasfilm said Wednesday. He was 98. A creature effects artist, Freeborn also worked on other film classics and was responsible for creating the apelike human ancestors in the “Dawn of Man” sequence in 2001: A Space Odyssey
"He brought with him not only decades of experience, but boundless creative energy. His artistry and craftsmanship will live on forever in the characters he created. His ‘Star Wars’ creatures may be reinterpreted in new forms by new generations, but at their heart, they continue to be what Stuart created for the original films." George Lucas said in a statement.
Via PuppetVision