December 22, 2020

December 12, 2020

Coffin



Directed by: Yuanqing CAI, Nathan CRABOT, Houzhi HUANG, Mikolaj JANIW, Mandimby LEBON, Théo TRAN NGOC
Score: Arthur DAIRAINE ANDRIANAIVO
Sound design: Mathieu TIGER
Audio Mix: Mathieu TIGER

Blue & Curt

Requiem For A Dream - The Structure of Self-Destruction

November 20, 2020

Dernier Round

Directed by: Anatole Bournique, Maëva Chaulvet, Katia Hochstetter, Nicolas Jaffré, Thaïs Mercier Music: Augustin Saldjian (Tempo Studio) Ending theme: Dona Sévène Sound edit: Lauriane Loppinet Mix: Olivier Michelot, Lauriane Loppinet

The Adventures of OG Sherlock Kush - Episode 5

The Adventures of OG Sherlock Kush - Episode 4

November 17, 2020

The Adventures of OG Sherlock Kush - Episode 2

Grandway Comics

Jeff & Derek have finally created their own properties, self publishing three of their own comic book titles, they are harking back to the old school roots of the 70s with embiable style. Check out all the issue and merchandise here.

November 12, 2020

"Nobody is Normal" - commercial for Childline campaign

Agency: The Gate Production Company: Blink, Rowdy Director: Catherine Prowse Director of Photography: George Warren Animators: Tim Allen and Tobias Fouracre Puppet Builder: Adeena Grubb 2D Animator and Compositor: Tom Fisher Rig Removal: Ieuan Lewis Color Grader: George Warren BTS: Joe Eckworth Art Department Runners : Feiyang Yin and Stella Chapman

September 24, 2020

WTF-X: How to Make the Best Coffee

Rainbow Six: Siege - Promo Trailers

Director: CRCR Animators: James Molle, Jules Bourgès, Nathan Harbonn Viaud, Gianni Bouyeure, Basile Cortale, Bong Nguyen, Jeremy Pires, Léonard Ferrer Background Artists: Simon Dumonceau, Victor Delorme. Compositor: Benoît Galland. Production: Wizz Design Director: CRCR Producer: Matthieu Poirier Animators: Diego Christofano, Alessandro Vergonier, Pierre Rougemont Background Artists: Bruno Mayor, Francisco Rocha Compositor: Guillaume Cassuto

September 23, 2020

Penguin & Whale

Made in Rudo co. Directed by: Ezequiel Torres, Pablo R. Roldán Music Production: Puerto (Director version), Ker Sound Animation Directors: Ezequiel Torres Art Directors: Pablo R. Roldán, Pablo Cuello Producer: Ruby Valls Line Producer: Ailín Bustamante Character Design: Pablo R. Roldán Color Keys: Pablo Cuello Lead Background Designer: Beto Irigoyen Supervising Animator: Ezequiel Torres Animatic: Ezequiel Torres, Juan Pedro Ramos, Camila Strusa Layout Artists: Gastón Pacheco, Sike, Matias Basla, Mariano Albano Background Painters: Beto Irigoyen, Emilia Calvo, Maria Bazhanova, Mariano Albano, Jesica Bianchi Compositors: Diego Barrionuevo, Pablo Cuello Animators: Ezequiel Torres, Patricio Rey, Beta Boy, Camila Strusa, Emanuel Gimenez, Diego Polieri, Lucia Castez, Memé Candia, Micaela Gabot, Nicolás Sole Animation Assistance, Clean up & Color: Fernando Aguilera, Marina Aquilante, Diego Barrionuevo, Beta Boy, Bianca Valiña, Nicolás Chainis, Nicolás Contreras, Daniela Donato, Mercedes De Santis, Julia Conde, Javier Delestal, Emanuel Gimenez, Lucía Castez, Matilda Segura, Nicolás Sole, Sofia Sosa, Tobías Tembra, Pablo Chamber Agency: Stink Studios Creative Director: Nando Correa Creative Designer: Addie Hao Executive Producer: Katherine Lee Digital Project Manager: Roy Zhang Head of Delivery: Ivan Faerman Client Name: Tencent General Manager: Vincent Li Executive Creative Director: Akae Wang Script and Copy: Akae Wang, Zita Zou Art Director: Ken Lin Assistant Art Director: Songja Xu Producer: Ahjan Huang Project Director: Derek Song Project Manager: Nina Lin Project Manager: Susieshan Li

September 22, 2020

Take Over - League of Legends

Production: The Line in collab with Riot Games Director: Tim McCourt, Sam Taylor Art Director: Antoine Perez Executive Producer: James Duveen Producer: Hanae Seida Production Managers: Samia Ahmed, Lisa A. Smith, Isobel Stenhouse Production Designer: Jonathan Djob Nkondo Storyboards: Louis Kynd, Alexis Mercille-Perrault (Picompo), Lou Victor Karnas (Picompo), Jonathan Djob Nkondo Edit: Peter Baynton, John Holloway, Sam Taylor Concept Artist: Bjorn-Erik Aschim, Henrik Evensen, Agathe Leroux, Antoine Perez, Mike Shorten, Samuel Smith, Matt Vince Character Designs: James Castillo, Damian Fernandez, Vincent Gallut, Amanda Holm, Jess Lackey, Jonathan Djob Nkondo, Ramon Nunez Character Design Cleanup: Joanna Boyle 3D Layout: Ian Beresford, Antoine Birot, Freddie Lewis-Wall, Alexis Mercille-Perrault, Picompo), Antoine Perez 3D Generalist: Klaas-Harm de Boer Background Layout: Antoine Birot, Jonny Hutton, Kévin Roualland, Mike Shorten Backgrounds: Daniel Clarke, Lorenzo Lanfranconi, Antoine Perez, Igor Piwowarczyk, Matt Vince Character Layout: Amanda Holm, Jonathan Djob Nkondo Animation: Mehdi Aouichaoui, Jeremie Becquer, Ludivine Berthouloux, Giovani Braggio, Simone Cirillo, Amanda Holm, Lou Victor Karnas (Picompo), Venla Linna, Pierre Rutz, Mourad Elias, eddiki, Jong Ha Yoon FX Animation: Matt Timms, Naoki Araiza Tokumasu Animation Assist: Paola Costigliola, Jessica Leslau, Elio Lischetti, Francisco Magalhães, Tatiana Mazzei, Alison Oxborrow, Eleonora Quario Cleanup & Colour: Amix Colour Assist: Daisy Evans, Wayne Maslin, Merlin Voss, Skye van der Walt Compositing Lead: Freddie Lewis-Wall Compositing: Ian Beresford, Guillaume Cassuto, Vincent E Sousa, Valérie Guichard, Adam Jackson, Victoria Jardine, Elliott Kajdan, Vincent Meunier, Max Taylor Compositing Assist: Skye van der Walt Graphic Design: Juancho Crespo Production Assistant: Cristina Bojesen Studio Manager: Sophie Bhutta Studio Runner: Laurence Moss IT Support: Rob Riley (Gal Consultancy) Pipeline Developer: Ian Wootten

September 11, 2020

'Siegfried' demo for animated feature film proposal

This is the remastered 2004 trailer/sizzle reel for Alex Alice's film project, now newly remastered. Though the film was never produced, this story was later adapted into a graphic novel.

September 10, 2020

DATS "Showtime"

Director & Editor: OSRIN Animation Director: Yoshiki Imazu Animator: Yoshiki Imazu & Harune Sato Dancer: Dr. Pay & curumi Typography & Graphics: Cota Mori Assistant Director: TAIGA Producer: Kento Yoshida

September 08, 2020

'isle of Chair' by Ivyy Chen

There are so many beautiful little details in this meditative short by filmmaker Ivyy Chen. The way the wind moves across the blades of grass, or the little clouds of dust that appear as the character stands up off the ground. This film explores the theme of mental health and our desire to fix things that we think need fixing. Seen on booooooomtv. Written and Directed by Ivyy Chen Storyboard and Designed by Ivyy Chen Animated by Chen Hao Chuang, Ivyy Chen, Yi Ju Tseng, Liang Hsin Huang Animation Assistance by David Rock Colouring by Yi Ju Tseng Original Score by Sarah Playford Foley, Sound Design and Mixing by Mei Yi Ting Chang Sponsored by Taiwan National Culture and Arts Foundation

September 03, 2020

'The Enneagram' by Doug Alberts & Jonathan Sichak

A minimalist visualization of The Enneagram system of personality typing. The animation presents each of the 9 types used to describe how people interpret the world, manage their emotions, and relate to one another.

August 28, 2020

"HADES" trailer produced by Studio Grackle for the video game by Supergiant Games

Director: Spencer Wan 
Key Animation: Chengxi Huang, Gem, Hartova Maverick, Weilin Zhang 
In-Between Animation & Clean Up / Color: Robby Cook 
Backgrounds: Jane Bak 
Compositing: Craig Nowicki 
Sound Design: Lauren Crist

August 24, 2020

Empress of Darkness

From the creator of 'Nova Seed' and 'Asura's Wrath' comes this new fully hand-drawn indie feature film directed and solo animated by Nick DiLiberto on paper (75,000 drawings), and now available on DVD (+ artbook).
 
It's the Story of Light vs Dark, True Good vs True Evil. The Empress has been Slayed and the world has forever been Cursed to Darkness. You follow our hero Alpha who finds himself on the Journey of a lifetime as he is chased and ruthlessly hunted down by Graxus's Evil Horde who will stop at nothing until his existence is erased from this world. Leaving a trail of blood at every turn there is nowhere to run and nowhere to hide in this Gut Wrenching, Blood Drenched, fantasy Adventure!

August 10, 2020

The Summit of the Gods




The 2D animated feature film, based on manga by Jiro Taniguchi. Directed by Patrick Imber. Produced by Folivari, Julianne Films and Mélusine.

August 03, 2020

'Super Sobaka' by 44 artists



"Super Sobaka - Love" is a collaborational project for Moscow-based dog shelter Super Sobaka (Super Dog). In this project, nine dogs from the shelter will share their thoughts on why they would become great life partners. By the way, each dog can be invited for an actual walk in Moscow.

Shelter manager: Maria Seryogina
Creative Production: Petrick Studio
Idea: Nadya Petrick
Creative director: Misha Petrick
Producers: Nadya Petrick and Polina Fufarova
Art direction: Ruslana Mirzaalieva
Scripts: Natasha Romashova
Jingle: Luna Sasha DZA
SFX: Sasha Maslyuk
Logo: ESH Gruppa
Landing page: Vova Popov and Stas Ivashkin

July 31, 2020

Here Winter



This short is based on the short wordless comics by Korean illustrator Kyutae about coldness and warmth in Jeong-reung and India.

"Winter here is bitter and cold, I must leave before I stay. I leave at the edge of winter. Winter there is warm and gentle."

July 23, 2020

One After The Other



Director: Nicolas Pégon
Animation: Mathieu Bétard, Jonathan Djob Nkondo, Emmanuel Lantam, Nicolas Pégon
Music: Grant Sabin
Sound Designer: Sam Ripault
Sound Editor: Yan Volzy
Audio Mix: Adrien Martre
Production Studio: Miyu

July 16, 2020

Night Runner - Magnum Bullets



Director: Patrick Stannard
Story: Patrick Stannard, India Swift, Chrissy Underwood
Animation: Patrick Stannard, India Swift, Hardik Manktala, Elle Power, David Liu, Nas Pasha
Backgrounds: Michael Doig, Renee Violet

June 24, 2020

'Quaranteen: A tale of confinement' by Favo Studio



Concept: Favo Studio Direction: Gustavo Carreiro Executive Producer: Hugo Raposo Illustration: Pedro Oliveira, Gabriela Araújo 2D Animation: Élio Mateus, Pedro Oliveira, Gabriela Araújo, Gustavo Carreiro 3D Animation: Élio Mateus Music & Sound Design: Carlos Geraldes Lyrics & Vocals: Hugo Raposo

June 19, 2020

Husbands
 – 'Manhorse'



Husband’s track “Manhorse” was made by creative duo Jesse Lamar High and Nik Harper aka LAMAR+NIK (previously featured here). All animations were captured in-camera using card stock and transparency sheets. Scanimation or picket fence animation is an optical illusion that originated in the 1890s. To make the base image for the scanimations several frames of video are combined into one interlaced image and then printed on card stock. A transparent bar mask is printed next, placed on top of the interlaced image, and moved back and forth to create the illusion of movement

June 04, 2020

"Be Mine Tonight" by Breakbot+Delafleur



Directed by Gary Levesque
Production: Wizz (Quadgroup)
Producer: Matthieu Poirier
Animation: Remi Bastie, Gianni Bouyeure, Jules Bourges, Basile Cortale, Nathan Harbonn Viaud, James Molle
Character Design: Jocelyn Charles
BG Artist: Fabio Besse
Compositing: Benoit Galland

June 03, 2020

‘There’s A Cat Under The Car’ by Islena Neira

It was all an adventure making this film because there were a lot of new challenges for me as dialogs, light, lots of different characters, watercolor backgrounds, cars, cats, life. I had a pretty clear idea when I wrote it, but once I did the animatic I saw that It was not the way I wanted to tell this story. So I remade it almost entirely before the animatic’s screening at school.

I’m very happy with this film. I had the chance of drawing lots of cats and watch a lot of YouTube videos about cats… ahem… for reference, yes. It was fun making the music, looking for the awesome kids that gave me the voices. I took lots of pictures of Angoulême because I love this place and I wanted the story to happen here. Drawing for this film was very refreshing, It’s so nice when I can be as direct as possible in my drawings.

May 20, 2020

Rebooted



Written and Directed by Michael Shanks
Produced by Chris Hocking, Nicholas Colla, LateNite Films
Stop Motion Animation by Samuel Lewis
Director of Photography (Live Action): Max Walter
Director of Photography (Animation): Gerald Thompson
Full credits on latenitefilms.com

May 18, 2020

Supernova Design | Brand Film


Through intelligent strategy, beautiful design and memorable storytelling, Supernova helps wonderful products and services shine brighter so they can change the world. This brand film is a luminous explosion of colorful goodness, celebrating our studio’s passion, philosophy and feline namesake.

Supernova Design is a boutique design and animation studio founded by sisters Asavari & Shaivalini Kumar so they could join forces and make awesome work together while living far apart. Their remote team comprises of a multicultural collective of artists that are spread across the US, Denmark, India and Columbia. Combining expertise in communication design and animation direction, Supernova has created award-winning independent short films along with work for clients like Youtube, Google, Slack and Adobe. supernovadesign.net

Coco's Variety Shop

May 12, 2020

'Nigel' by Natasza Cetner



Animation & Direction by Natasza Cetner
Production Company: Royal College of Art
Sound Design: Yiannis Spanos
Sound Mix: Yin Lee
Animation Assistants:
Kyle Peyton, Tanaka Tiriboyi, Joao Gonzalez,
Sahanshil Dangol, Cassie Amis, Becky Vickars,
Gary Wilson, Melanie Campbell, Silvia Zubrinic,
Asheila Amara, Flora Caulton, Voltaire Joshua Gonzalez

April 23, 2020

'Film Crew in Quarantine' by Robertas Nevecka

What is Cinematography?

Pixpa explores this question on their site here, and they enable cinematographers and creative professionals to create and manage a portfolio website of their own.


CinemaTyler also explores the deep inner workings of cinematography in his various series.







April 20, 2020

'The Firefly Grove' by Tomasz Pilarski at EGoFILM Animation Studio




I had a chance to interview Tomasz to talk about his film...

What inspired you to make this story? Are there any elements of real life experiences in here?
My youngest brother was spending a lot of time playing on his console which bothered me deeply and when I could I was trying to pull him away from the console and show him something interesting outside or create some kind of adventure to engage him with real world. Every time he was reluctant but I can be persuasive so after all I’ve got him outside and every time he was happy at the end. I thought that maybe I could try to make an animation that he could watch on the screen - that he was looking on anyway - and that could get him inspired to switch off that screen of and go play outside. That was the loose idea at the beginning... but whole process took me so long and he has grown up so much that at the end he helped my with coloring quite a few shots. [laughter] Also, appearances of the characters are inspired by my siblings, and first location is very loosely based on place from my childhood.




The visual style is quite unique, the sharp, high contrast highlights and shines, the bold and rich coloring/lighting, the large eyes, the compositions, what were your main sources of influence and references?
Thank you! I've heard from audience that it looks like both Disney and Anime (different specific titles and as a general term as well), and I will take it as a good sign. In the process I was gathering lots and lots of inspirational materials from single picture from unknown author to whole body of work from specific artist and what you can see is the result of distillation of them passed thru the lens of main idea for my animation. But if I had to choose one main source of influence it will be Hayao Miyazaki due to quality and target audience, although during the process I realized that his way of approaching animation is different from what I thought it to be before making this animation, so I guess to be more specific my main source of artistic influence was my ignorant idea of what I thought Hayao Miyazaki's films are. [laughter]




How long did it take you to produce the film from start to finish? Was the storyboarding and design process very extensive?
So to answer this question I need to get back to my previous animation called “Whaddup Fish!” (which was featured on Flooby Nooby). It was late 2015 and I finished that animation more than month deep into my final year at University of Arts in Poznań (Poland) which caused rather significant and costly delay in development of “The Firefly Grove” - which was supposed to be my master degree animation there.  
Meanwhile I already had scholarship from ASIFA Hollywood for “The Firefly Grove” so I could afford small team by which I mean: background artist, musician and sound designers that I was working with previously on “Whaddup Fish!”. What’s more my bachelor’s degree animation “But she’s nice..” (also featured on Flooby Nooby) got an attention from Ewelina Gordziejuk from EGo FILM, and she wanted to become a producer of my next animation - “The Firefly Grove”. With producer it become my directorial debut!



With the producer on board we wanted to get funding from Polish Film Institute for realization of the animation, but the time was short. Although I tried my best to get everything that was needed to make the application ready on time, I failed, I missed the deadline… but miraculously the deadline was postponed (due to some internal issues in the Institute), and that gave me exact amount of time that I needed! Then we presented very crude materials before the Institute committee… and we had gotten the funds!

Another miracle because I myself was deeply dissatisfied with the crudeness of what I've made, and to be honest I was surprised that it got us the funds. But I guess, good for me as they say so I'm not complaining [laughter]. Then I got seriously into fixing and polishing the script, storyboard, character design, layouts, animatic and color script, then into animation, compositing and into voice recording - I wanted to make it as good as I could.


And to finally answer your question: whole animation was made in 32 months + 5 months of rushed “development” that I mentioned earlier, it was long and hard road and yes, storyboarding and design process was significant part of that. During that process I went for Dean’s leave at my University but still I couldn’t finish the animation (I was basically the only animator on the project, with only 3 shots made by someone else than myself) so after that I was thrown away… when finally the animation was ready I've got back to the University and got my master degree in 2019.




Did you create any concept art or color script for the film before diving into the heart of the production?

Yes, since “The Firefly Grove” turned up to be my directorial debut I took it seriously even more and I prepared everything that I could think of - which sadly is not practiced at my University at all so I was learning the craft on the job. Here Mathias Zamęcki - the background artist that I mentioned before and the person responsible for color script - was huge help! Before production everything was ready, from script to color script.



The color design and the more cinematic techniques employed, like depth-of-field and soft focus are especially ambitious choices, why did you decide to go this route?
I always wanted to do things that looks professional, which was not the case at my University where "self-expression" is the goal and so the results are amateurish looking. Quality is also a problem when it comes to animation studios here in Poland so this ambitious choices - as you called them - seemed the right way to go for me both as a challenge that I want to tackle with, and as a manifesto of what kind of animation I want to do.
Technology preventing our kids from playing with each other, nature and adventuring being important ways for children to connect with the environment and each other, and especially "guilt" and how kids deal with it in their own ways, have you always been interested in exploring these themes in your storytelling?
To be honest it was my first - and perhaps last - time when I was dealing with it in such clear way. All of my animations are very different depending on what I’m trying to do and I’m not visiting the same topic twice - at least that's how it was so far.




The film is very clean and polished in many ways, including the sound design and musical score, are you happy with how it all turned out? And do you care to share your secrets on how this was funded?

Yes I’m very happy with sound design and music, thank you! It was first time when I was dealing with those aspects on such scale. Before that I just left everything to the person who agreed to take care of it, but now I wanted to be more involve. Sound design was created by my friends from PULSAR Studios (Portugal) Tiago Cardoso and Dinis Henriques - they taught me many thing about how to think about sound. I was personally involved in sound because voice casting and recording took place here in Poland under my direction, which was great challenge in and of itself! 
In terms of music I found Kuba Terrano because I heard an interview with him that my younger brother was listening to, I liked what I heard and so I decided that I need to contact him and to present my idea for our collaboration. He agreed and the fruit of that is whole music that you can hear in “The Firefly Grove” including the song - very first song that was written specially for my animation, it’s called “Catching Moments Forever”. It was amazing when I heard it for the first time! Meanwhile Kuba recorded new album and that song was included in it. 
When it comes to sounds, like I said before I had a modest scholarship from ASIFA Hollywood that allowed me to pay something for Mathias, Kuba, Tiago and Dinis. Then we had got funds from Polish Film Institute but sadly it was not sufficient amount to keep me afloat so I was forced to move back to my parents in order to finish the animation. Luckily, back then I was semi-student-ish so I managed to do that, with major wound on my pride of course, but oh well… If I was about to do the same right now I would be forced to abandon the project in order to avoid getting bankrupt. It was truly a passion project from my side... or maybe madman endeavour if you look at it from the outside. [laugh]



What's next for you and your future animation endeavours?

Right now I took a break from doing my own animation. I’m working as an animator for Flying Bark Productions (Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and now new secret show) and I’m trying to improve my skills in this particular area, meanwhile I’m thinking about what could be my next step as a director - of course with lessons that I’ve learned during the production of "The Firefly Grove" in mind.

My previous animations:
Whaddup Fish! https://vimeo.com/98805860
But she's nice... https://vimeo.com/98805860

Facebook links for the crew:
Written, Directed, and Animated by Tomasz Pilarski https://www.facebook.com/TomaszPilarskiAnimation/
Produced by Ewelina Gordziejuk EGo FILM https://www.facebook.com/egofilm/
Art Director and Background Artist Mathias Zamęcki https://www.facebook.com/mzamecki
Sound Design PULSAR Studios https://www.facebook.com/pulsarsoundstudios/
Music by Kuba Terrano https://www.facebook.com/kubaterrano/