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.
February 28, 2013
"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:
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
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 27, 2013
February 26, 2013
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
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.
Photograph by Dalton Ghetti / Solent News
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.
Photograph by Dalton Ghetti / Solent News
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.”
Photograph by Dalton Ghetti / Solent News
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!
Photograph by Dalton Ghetti / Solent News
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.”
Photograph by Dalton Ghetti / Solent News
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.”
Photograph by Dalton Ghetti / Solent News
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):
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.”
Photograph by Dalton Ghetti / Solent News
Photograph by Dalton Ghetti / Solent News
Photograph by Dalton Ghetti / Solent News
Photograph by Dalton Ghetti / Solent News
Photograph by Dalton Ghetti / Solent News
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
February 22, 2013
February 21, 2013
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)
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
