December 31, 2017
December 29, 2017
December 28, 2017
December 27, 2017
December 24, 2017
December 23, 2017
December 22, 2017
December 21, 2017
December 20, 2017
December 19, 2017
December 17, 2017
December 16, 2017
December 15, 2017
December 14, 2017
December 13, 2017
December 12, 2017
Eduardo Quintana brings a famous Richard Williams drawing to life in ‘UNPLUG!’
Eduardo Quintana is currently animating on Sergio Pablos’ forthcoming feature, Klaus, at SPA Studios. In his spare time he created this personal test to pay tribute to master Animator, Richard Williams.
Bonus:
Richard Williams Remembers Milt Kahl and "The Jungle Book"...
From Eduardo:
"UNPLUG!" is the first lesson in Richard Williams’ book: "The Animator's Survival Kit". Richard added some drawings to the lesson, illustrating what happened one day he went to see Milt Kahl.
I've always found those drawings very inspiring and the story was just screaming to be animated. The audio is taken from a Richard Williams’ masterclass video where, luckily for me, he re-enacted the story!.
PS: I did not listen to music while doing this.
Well... just a tiny bit.
Bonus:
Richard Williams Remembers Milt Kahl and "The Jungle Book"...
December 11, 2017
December 10, 2017
December 09, 2017
December 07, 2017
'TImber' by Nils Hedinger
A group of logs is about to freeze to death in a cold, icy desert. When they realize that the only fuel for a warming fire is their own body, things start heating up.
'Rooms' by Andrew D. Zimbelman
Brooklyn-based filmmaker Andrew D. Zimbelman’s lovely animation of a poem by Billy Collins. Collins’ ability to blend of humour with dark rumination resonated with Zimbelman since he first discovered the former U.S. poet laureate’s work, especially due to some personal struggles with anxiety. After a chance encounter at JFK Airport, Collins not only gave Zimbelman his blessing but has since expressed his praise for the project: “I admit I had my doubts, but you have done it, lad. Brilliant!”
Zimbelman approached “Rooms” with the hope that people will find something they can relate to or, at the very least, gain a better understanding of the speaker of Collins’ poem. As he shared with us:
“I moved away from showing the narrator much at all, instead his presence is felt in each room. This allows space for the viewer to walk in his shoes, cast his shadow, and think his thoughts.”
December 05, 2017
December 04, 2017
December 03, 2017
December 02, 2017
December 01, 2017
November 30, 2017
November 29, 2017
November 28, 2017
November 27, 2017
November 26, 2017
November 24, 2017
November 23, 2017
Fight for Good: 3 Spots by Moth & Hornet for 2017 Salvation Army’s Red Kettle Donations
Designed by: Moth Studio, Léonie Després, Manddy Wyckens
November 22, 2017
November 21, 2017
November 20, 2017
November 19, 2017
November 17, 2017
November 16, 2017
November 15, 2017
November 14, 2017
November 13, 2017
November 12, 2017
November 08, 2017
November 07, 2017
November 06, 2017
November 05, 2017
November 03, 2017
Día de los Muertos
A combination of puppet animation, paper cut-out and live action, made by Wolfgang Matzl.
November 02, 2017
'How Improvisation Saved My Life'
Pianist Abduallah Ibrahim shares his experience of Apartheid in South Africa for NPR’s Jazz Night in America with this lovely animated piece by London-based animator Lee Arkapaw and Melbourne-based illustrator Tessa Chon.
November 01, 2017
October 31, 2017
October 30, 2017
October 29, 2017
October 28, 2017
October 27, 2017
October 25, 2017
October 23, 2017
M83 – “Do It, Try It”
A young boy uses his imagination to escape his parents in this fun video for M83’s track “Do It, Try It.”
Written and directed by London-based artist and filmmaker David Wilson.
How ‘Despicable Me’ was developed
This the humble beginnings of animation's highest grossing franchise.
October 22, 2017
October 20, 2017
October 19, 2017
October 18, 2017
October 17, 2017
October 16, 2017
October 15, 2017
October 14, 2017
October 13, 2017
October 12, 2017
October 11, 2017
Cartoon Network’s 25th Anniversary - by Oddfellows
Creative Direction: Colin Trenter, Josh Parker
Design Direction: Jay Quercia
Executive Producer: TJ Kearney
Producer: Jen Szeto, Erica Kelly
Design: Jay Quercia
Animation: Josh Parker, Jay Quercia, Stan Cameron, Khylin Woodrow, Kavan Magsoodi, Paul ter Voorde, Melisa Farina, Harry Teitelman, Sandra Rivas, Jordan Scott
October 10, 2017
October 09, 2017
'The Ventriloquist'
Director and Producer: Stefan Wernik twitter.com/StefanWernik
Writer: Jason J. Cohn
Animator,Compositing and Rigger: Arthur Collie
Designer: Alexander Watson
Backgrounds and additional design: Deanna Hewitt
Character modelling: Tristan Lock
Animator: Jason Cho
2D FX Animator: Quentin Cordonnier
Voice Actors: Natasha Beaumont and Gavin Vance
Music: Stephen Frost stereocouture.com/
October 08, 2017
October 07, 2017
October 05, 2017
October 03, 2017
October 02, 2017
September 30, 2017
September 29, 2017
September 28, 2017
September 27, 2017
September 26, 2017
'Hate for Sale' by Anna Eijsbouts
Based on an original poem by Neil Gaiman, and narrated by Peter Kenny.
Created for the Visible Poetry Project 2017.
Created for the Visible Poetry Project 2017.
September 25, 2017
September 23, 2017
September 22, 2017
September 21, 2017
September 20, 2017
'HEAD' by Stav Levi
Stav's 2016 Graduate film is released online today, he was gracious enough to share some concept art and development sketches he made for the film and I had a chance to do a quick interview with him about the short film.
What inspired you to create this story?
I like when an image seems to be potent with meanings no matter how you turn or spin it.
Feeling really crummy one day, I made a sketch of a man hanging his head, until it just fell off. This is what started the concept for this short.
What technique of animation and software did you use?
The technique I used was classic animation, which is just to say every frame is a new drawing. TVPaint was a great and intuitive tool for this kind of basic approach.
The style looks like it's animated on 4s, did you choose this for stylistic reasons or to be more economical with the traditional animation process?
Like with a good sketch, you wouldn't necessarily feel compelled to refine it more and more. There is a beauty in the bare minimum that still manages to work. Applied to animation in this case - when the motion and nuance seemed to have been conveyed I stopped and moved on.
Of course, the awesome production cost that smoothing everything down and cleaning everything up would require meant to me that I should have a really good reason to pay it - and I didn't, so banking on beauty in bareness seemed right for me. I also enjoyed the flexibility it gave me in the process, very much.
The simple, thin black lines and boiling shapes adds a life to the drawings, what made you go with this visual look?
I believe that if done traditionally, the pencil on paper would have added this life to the visuals. Using the digital format, I wished the life to arise from the "digital space" and its own kind of special randomness.
Do you have another film in the works right now? When could we hope to see its release in festivals?
If all goes well I'll be releasing a short, 30-seconds loop in the next weeks, but it is my greatest wish to start working on a new film in the next year span.
Meanwhile I do smaller things like little loops and illustrations on my website, which I love doing. (www.croovman.com)
Thanks Stav, and good luck on your future film endeavours!
September 19, 2017
September 18, 2017
September 17, 2017
September 16, 2017
September 15, 2017
September 14, 2017
The Rise And Fall Of The Berlin Wall
Educator Konrad H. Jarausch
Directors: Kyriaki Kyriakou, Remus Buznea
Script editor: Alex Gendler
Animators: Kyriaki Kyriakou, Remus Buznea, Mitko Karakolev
Art Director Kyriaki Kyriakou, Remus Buznea
Composer/sound designer: Ana Roman
Narrator: Addison Anderson
September 13, 2017
September 12, 2017
'Aftermath' by Trunk Animation
Director: Layla Atkinson
Producer: Richard Barnett
Poem: Siegfried Sassoon
Animation: Marie-Margaux Tsakiri-Scanatovits, John Harmer, Rok Predin, Jocie Juritz, Jacob Read,
Clelia Leroux
Music: Dom James
Sound: Fonic
Mix: Barnaby Templer
Narration: Julian Rhind-Tutt
September 11, 2017
September 08, 2017
September 07, 2017
September 04, 2017
September 03, 2017
September 01, 2017
Dokumente, die die Welt bewegen
Paper cut-out animations by Wolfgang Matzl. They were made for the 12-part documentary series "Dokumente, die die Welt bewegen" (Documents that change the world) and were broadcast by Arte and ORF III.
August 31, 2017
Zane Plays Proboid
Written and Directed by Steve Wolfhard.
Animated by Matthew Everton.
Voices by Griffin McElroy
Animated by Matthew Everton.
Voices by Griffin McElroy
August 30, 2017
August 28, 2017
For as long as man can remember - animators have been trying to avoid animating cars
In order to save costs, the 101 Dalmatians production team thought up an inventive way to animate the vehicles seen in the 1961 movie. Instead of drawing the vehicle frame by frame the conventional way, a cardboard model was filmed, as effects animators moved it around in front of the camera. Note the black lines that define all edges.
Frames from this live-action footage were xeroxed on to cels before being painted in the ink & paint apartment. The same process was used later on for Edgar’s motorcycle in The Aristocats.
The equivalent in 2D digital animation today would be to model and animate the vehicles in a 3D computer-generated environment, render it out, import them into the 2D animation software and trace over it frame by frame.
Source.
Frames from this live-action footage were xeroxed on to cels before being painted in the ink & paint apartment. The same process was used later on for Edgar’s motorcycle in The Aristocats.
The equivalent in 2D digital animation today would be to model and animate the vehicles in a 3D computer-generated environment, render it out, import them into the 2D animation software and trace over it frame by frame.
Source.
August 27, 2017
August 26, 2017
August 25, 2017
August 24, 2017
August 23, 2017
Tyrus Wong Documentary
PBS will premiere a new documentary next month about the life and art of Chinese-American artist and Bambi production designer Tyrus Wong, who passed away last year at the age of 106.
August 21, 2017
August 20, 2017
August 18, 2017
August 17, 2017
August 15, 2017
TIE Fighter (Remastered) - Star Wars Short Film
This guy took this amazing animated video from Paul Johnson's fan film / passion project and remastered the sound with crisp SFX from 'Star Wars: Battlefront' and music from 'Star Wars: Rogue One'.
August 13, 2017
August 12, 2017
August 11, 2017
'Jueles are you the right man' - Serengeti
Directed by Jonathan Djob Nkondo
Animation by Vic Chhun & Caleb Wood
August 09, 2017
August 08, 2017
Duck Tales - New Show Intro
Creative director: Ingi Erlingsson
Art director: Ewen Stenhouse
Producer: Ant Baena
Additional Design: Marie Ecarlat
2D Animation: Marléne Beaube, Yino Huan, Tim Whiting, Benjy Brooke, Maxime Delalande, Bishoy Gendi, Thomas Eide, Inbal Breda, Alessandra Sorrentino
2D Animation Clean up: Yino Huan, Alessandra Sorrentino, Clementine Gaultier
Additional 2D clean up by Amix Film Studio
3D Animation: Henry Purrington, Thomas Purrington, David Calvet
Compositing: Thomas Purrington, Mike Tyler
August 07, 2017
August 06, 2017
August 05, 2017
August 03, 2017
August 02, 2017
August 01, 2017
July 30, 2017
FREE AF | Canada 150th by Anik Rosenblum
An animated song that celebrates diversity in Canada for its 150th birthday.
July 29, 2017
July 27, 2017
Supernaive - Opal Waltz
Director: Vincent Tsui
Colorscript: Débora Cheyenne Cruchon
Animation: Valentin Stoll, Éva Lusbaronian, Johan Ravit, Pierre Pinon, Hugues Opter, Caroline Cherrier, Hugo De Faucompret, Arnaud Tribout
July 26, 2017
July 25, 2017
Trunk’s Rok Predin creates homage to Sunday morning cartoons!
Trunk’s director Rok Predin has created a brilliant and delightful new short, ‘Pok’, to honour those halcyon days of watching Sunday morning cartoons whilst still in your pyjamas! Discussing the short Rok notes “This is a homage to the types of cartoons we used to watch growing up in the 80s. Everything in this piece from character and layout design, to the music and sound effects was aimed to evoke that distinct feeling of watching your favorite animated shows whilst eating your breakfast.”
Growing up in Slovenia Rok had access to a plethora of European cartoons such as Bojan the Bear, Lolek and Bolek, Mole, Sport Billy and Professor Balthazar. Some of these cartoons often had odd durations and were normally silent or with minimal vocalization, such as with professor Balthazar where the action was communicated by the music alone. ‘Pok’ really captures the spirit and passion those cartoons had, yet plays to a contemporary audience. Indeed Rok has a perfect critic in his young daughter, who inspired him to create ‘Pok’ after he saw how she, like him, loved watching the old cartoons.
Beautifully graded and composited to look like a well watched VHS tape, the short certainly invokes a 1980s vibe. Barnaby Templer at Fonic has created the perfect sound design to provide Sebastian Duh’s score with the right ambiance. The combination of a wonderful repetitive score and that tinny electronic sound evoke those classic video games, which again helps to ground you in a bygone era. The animation was all created using After Effects and has a distinctly cut-out feel that looks hand made. The limitations created by this style of animation ensured the shorts were inventive and full of imaginative leaps to complete the story arcs. Silent and physical the shorts are bursting with that classic brand of humour and stand up to multiple viewing. Rok notes “We’re hoping to develop it further and create more episodes, releasing it online as a web series. Any sponsors are welcome!“
Something that producer Richard Barnett is also keen to do. “The shorts have so much scope, ‘Pok’ is such a great character and has endless potential for those classic simple set ups and fun pay offs, it would be great to find some support for them.”
To watch the video follow this link:- https://vimeo.com/226193351
Credits:
Director - Rok Predin
Composer - Sebastian Duh
Sound Design - Barnaby Templer @ Fonic
Producer - Richard Barnett
July 24, 2017
Animator's Guide to Health and Wellness - Part 3: Corrective Exercises for Forward Head Posture
July 21, 2017
July 20, 2017
July 18, 2017
'The Chosen Generation' by Ariel Victor
An invite to hop on a bus and skip town is broadcasted to a number of youngsters living in an abandoned city. The teens, however, are hugely occupied by their love of technology and Internet habits and have been living deep in solitary with their own gadgets. With only a little time, the teens had to struggle against their ever-growing tech-addiction in responding to the call before the departure.
July 17, 2017
July 16, 2017
July 15, 2017
July 14, 2017
July 13, 2017
‘Toonami – Exquisite Corpse’ by Simón Wilches-Castro
Director: Simón Wilches-Castro
Music: “Let’s Fight” by Amon Tobin
VFX Supervisor: Michael Kuehn
Animation Director: Alex Tysowsky
Animation: Keith Sizemore
2D effects: Edward Artinian, Simón Wilches-Castro
Digital Compositing: Colin Fleming
CG Sequences: Hinge Digital
With animation from: Henrique Barone, Sean Buckelew, Jesse James Dean, Ryan Gillis, Miguel Jiron, Alicja Jasina, Sean Glaze, David Reilly, Yawen Zheng, Katie Tamboer, Louis Morton, Edward Artinian, Kris Merc, Brian Smee, Grace Mi, Katrina Ruzics, Joe Bennett, Quique Rivera, Einar Baldvin, Peter Millard, Jeanette Bonds, Shoko Hara, Grace Nayoon Rhee, Lee Hardcastle, Robertino Zambrano, Alex Grigg, Guilherme Marcondes, Simon Wilches-Castro.
July 12, 2017
July 11, 2017
July 10, 2017
July 09, 2017
July 08, 2017
July 07, 2017
July 06, 2017
Primavera Sound James Rhodes
Pianist James Rhodes shares his favourite music memory in this lovely animated portrait by Barcelona-based studio Bungalow for Primavera Sound 2017.
Directed by: Bungalow
Original Idea: Joan Pons
Creative Director: Alex Julià
Illustration & Art Direction: Bungalow
Character Animation: Bungalow, Khris Cembe & Aim Studio
3D animation & Motion graphics: Bungalow
3D modeling: Bungalow & Xavier Torroella
Music and Sound Design: Nil Ciuró
Narrated by: James Rhodes
Commissioned by: Primavera Sound
Production Co: Igloo Films
June 30, 2017
June 28, 2017
June 27, 2017
June 26, 2017
June 23, 2017
June 22, 2017
June 21, 2017
Ninja of Die Antwoord tells epic story animated by Julien JDM from Bounty Banana
Ninja tells of a day spent playing basketball with Kanye West and Drake while the atmosphere was very tense between the Canadian rapper and Die Antwoord on a previous tour... And while Ninja believes to make a simple friendly match, he realizes that he is actually invited to the Kanye vs. Drake clash.
Production: Vast Be Mess
Animation by Julien Jourdain de Muizon
Animation Producers: Sebastien Guitton, Samson Briand and Steven Briand
Animation assistant: Steven Briand
Storyboard, Layout, VFX and Compositing: Studio Kippik
Action Animator: Etienne Guignard
2D Animator: Dorian-Niels Leclair
After Effects: Hugo Louiset
The Golden Apple
The Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-golden-apple-animated-series-pilot-episode- fantasy-animation#/
The Golden Apple Facebook page: https://www.fb.com/goldenappleseries/
Official website of the series: http://goldenappleseries.com/
The team behind The Golden Apple animated series is inviting their fans to peek behind the scenes of the production. Its creator and art director Dimitar Petrov is sharing secrets from Studio Zmei in a 10-minute video blog. He demonstrates all the different stages of the project – from the character design to developing special software to create Kuker magic based on traditional Bulgarian embroidery. This way, animation fans can get to know what an idea goes through before it becomes an animated film:
The video is aimed at all fans who are following the project, as well as at everyone interested in animation. Anyone who directly supports the crowdfunding campaign for a pilot episode will get access to more of these monthly vlogs documenting the stages that The Golden Apple goes through before reaching the screen.
“The goal is to show our accountability to the people who have helped us make the episode,” says Petrov. The idea is to get the project’s followers as involved as possible in the creative process. The Golden Apple team is also trying to show their supporters why it takes so many people, so much time and resources to create a quality animation production.
The vlog demonstrates in detail the stages that each character and background design development goes through, the planning of each frame, colour treatment and music. Fans will also learn what is the role of the Lead designer and the Art director, why is a storyboard needed, what the terms ‘layout’ and ‘animatic’ mean, and how teams of dozens of animators are able to draw the characters and backgrounds in the same style.
The Golden Apple pilot episode is necessary in order to finalise negotiations with partners and investors for a full season. Studio Zmei will finance its creation with the ongoing crowdfunding campaign. The Bulgarian National Television is a co-producer for the episode and helps with 20% of its budget.
About Studio Zmei and The Golden Apple
The Golden Apple is a project for an animated series inspired by Bulgarian myths, legends and folklore. The story takes place in a fantasy world that is entirely based on Bulgarian folklore, and the narrative takes the spirit and lessons from our favourite legends and folk tales.
Studio Zmei was founded in 2015 and its current team includes over 28 professionals in five different countries, specialised in animation, illustration and folklore.
June 20, 2017
June 18, 2017
June 15, 2017
June 14, 2017
Renters | 20”
The new 20" TVC, which starts to air this week, once again brings together the talents of director Layla Atkinson and illustrator Anna Kövecses. Homebrew, Rightmove's agency, commissioned the duo once again, to create a spot to promote the property companies' massive rental portfolio. With the previous success of the Rightmove 'School checker' campaign, it was always a possibility that they would get the same team back together, and as chance had it, the stars once more aligned.
Working closely with Homebrew, Layla and the team at Trunk helped develop the script and storyboard, in which we follow a young couple as they go house hunting. They visit a wide range of properties, only to find that they’re too high, too low, or too windy! Before finally finding the perfect rental that they both love. Obviously!
Anna, who grew up in Hungary, was challenged to create a very typical British urban environment. Layla notes, 'Along the way we developed mews courtyards, Tudor cottages and Georgian terraces, before settling on our final selection.' The narrative plays out amongst high rises, narrow boats and back to backs, whilst being punctuated by incidental details like the Austin allegro, a celebration of Layla's child hood, cats in windows, and doves on rooftops.
Layla and the animators well-observed attention to detail brings a sense of warmth and humour to the couple's adventure. Subtle and nuanced details such as the woman's shoe falling into the canal, and the guy bumping his head, all help with the playful nature that Rightmove were aiming for, perfectly capturing the sense and meaning of home.
With two beautiful projects in the bag for Rightmove, Layla notes, "It was great to work with Anna again. She's such an amazing illustrator and I love her style so much. The temptation to just ask her to draw things for fun was always tugging at my moral compass! Would definitely love to work together again in the future!" Watch this space.
To see the advert follow this link: https://vimeo.com/219858589
To see the previous one follow this: https://vimeo.com/208675773
-- Credits --
Client: Rightmove
Agency: Homebrew
Production: Trunk Animation
Director: Layla Atkinson
Producer: Richard Barnett
Illustrator: Anna Kovecses @Handsom Frank
Animation: Roland Edwards, Alex Potts, Leslie Dart, Layla Atkinson
Compositing: Rok Predin
Sound Design and Mix: Chris Swain @ Fonic
June 13, 2017
Red Rainbow
Here's a great combination of sight and sound, this film sees the first track off John Kaada and Mike Patton’s recent collaboration Kaada/Patton set to visuals taken from director Rune Spaans and artist Dave Cooper’s short film, “The Absence Of Eddy.”
The Wolf - Workflow Process
“The Wolf” is an animated Music Video for the Argentinian band SIAMES. Produced independently by the Buenos Aires based studio Rudo Company, every frame has been handcrafted in traditional 2D animation with great effort and love. From initial rough to final clean up, each take has been animated by a single person to maintain the mood, style and vision of that artist. Inspired by Japanese animation, we tried to follow a technique commonly known as “Sakuga”, in which the quality of the animation improves drastically to match the dramatic intensity of the moment.
This video highlights the evolution from idea to the finished work. See the film here.
June 12, 2017
“Nunnyunnini” by Tendril
This Toronto-based studio created a wonderful animated short for the opening of American Gods' 5th Episode, the television series based on Neil Gaiman’s novel of the same name.
June 11, 2017
June 09, 2017
June 07, 2017
June 06, 2017
Joshs’ Story
A true story of homelessness and redemption.
SGCH offers housing and opportunities to people like Josh. We worked with them again to create a film showing the true story of another of their tenants.
Credits:
Director: Stefan Wernik twitter.com/StefanWernik
Producer: Guy Jamieson twitter.com/GuyItchy
Writer: Jason J. Cohn twitter.com/JasonJCohn
Production Company: The Magnificent Itch
Designers: Jason Pamment & Alexander Watson
Animators: Darragh White & Arthur Collie
2D FX Animator: Quentin Cordonnier
Character modelling: Tristan Lock
Additional Background Art: Deanna Hewitt
Comping: Jason Morice
Composer: Stephen Frost
Voice Actor: Natasha Beaumont
June 05, 2017
Newgrounds - The Foundation of the Future of Animation
A look at the groundbreaking site that gave young animators an outlet for expression.
UNHCR Adut's Journey
Every year children fleeing conflict are separated from their parents. This is the story of one of them. A film made for Australia for UNHCR a charity that helps fund the UN's efforts to alleviate refugee's suffering.
Credits
Direction:Stefan Wernik
Co-Direction and Design:Alexander Watson
Animation:Arthur Collie
2D FX Animation: Quentin Cordonnier
June 04, 2017
Elton John - Rocket Man
In his own interpretation of Elton’s iconic hit, Iranian filmmaker and refugee Majid Adin reimagines “Rocket Man” to tell a whole new story of adventure, loneliness and hope. The Cut, proudly supported by YouTube, invited filmmakers to create the first official music videos for three of Elton John’s most famous songs: http://eltonjohn.com/thecut
'The Lighthouse' Simon Scheiber
A lighthouse keeper’s surprising discovery pulls him out of his monotonous, daily routine and takes him onto a journey into uncharted territory. Made up of over 14,000 photographs, The Lighthouse is a black and white stop motion short crafted by filmmaker Simon Scheiber over the course of 7 years.
June 03, 2017
Never-Ending Man: Hayao Miyazaki
In 2013, Oscar-winning film director and animator, Hayao Miyazaki, suddenly announced his retirement at the age of 72. But after an encounter with young CGI artists, the director of Spirited Away decided to embark on a new artistic endeavour. This candid documentary follows Miyazaki as he crafts his first CGI film in an intimate behind-the-scenes portrait filmed over two years.
May 31, 2017
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