Thursday 23 September 2010

THE WORLD'S SMALLEST STOP MOTION FILM



Creators of the Wallace & Gromit series used a 50x cell phone microscope to film this short—which also happens to be the world's smallest. It revolves around Dot, a girl who happens to be only .35 inches tall!
Animators at the UK studio Aardman used a 3D printer to make 50 different versions of Dot, because she is too small to manipulate or bend like they would other stop-motion animation characters. The figurine's tiny features stretched the limit of the printer - any smaller and it would be hard to make distinct limbs. Each one was hand-painted by artists looking through a microscope.
Directors Ed Patterson and Will Studd attached a CellScope to a Nokia N8 12-megapixel camera to film Dot's struggle in her microscopic world. They said Nokia commissioned them to make the film in celebration of CellScope's potential to improve medicine in the developing world.

Friday 18 June 2010

Civilization- Marco Brambilla

I've been slightly lazy with this blog due to my exams. I have two more weeks of crazy time in front of me and after that I'be more involved in this blog, I promise. Till then, here is a video a friend showed me yesterday. I really liked the idea of video collage. I don't have time to explore more about it right now, but I'll do it at some point. Enjoy!

Thursday 3 June 2010

WENDY TILBY- Strings



This animated film paints a vivid portrait of two strangers intimately linked by the shared ceilings, floors and plumbing of their apartments. When an unexpected problem arises, these comfortable connections are compromised. Wendy Tilby uses a painstaking animation process involving painting on glass and stop-action filming. Strings is a film as beautiful as it is haunting. Without words.
Strings was nominated for an Academy Award. It was Wendy's second major film, her first Table of Contents has also been featured here and possesses a not dissimilar theme. Wendy graduated from the University of Victoria before attending the Emily Carr Institute of Art. She has taught at Concordia University in Montreal and more recently at Harvard University. Her When the Day Breaks (also featured here) with Amanda Forbis was also Oscar nominated in 1999.

Friday 28 May 2010

KRAAK& SMAAK- Squeeze me

Cause it's very, very, very nice work!


Kraak & Smaak - Squeeze Me from Kraak & Smaak on Vimeo.

MORPH- Blancmange

I am not really if Morph should be included in History of Animation or not, but I find he's adorable, so I decided to share :)

Wednesday 7 April 2010

THE TALE OF HOW- The Blackheart Gang

Nine months of part time work gave birth to The Blackheart Gang’s acclaimed short film called, The Tale of How. The Tale of How is the second part of a trilogy of works called the Dodo Trilogy. It is to later be flanked by The Tale of Then and The Tale of When. The Dodo Trilogy, in turn, fits into a much greater work called, The Household.In the The Tale of How we meet a giant octopus with a tree growing in his head, the terror of the Indian ocean , OTTO THE MONSTER! His lonley past time is to devour the innocent dodo’s who lived on his head. We then see the dodo’s unite and with the help of a little white mouse, we saw them escape the clutches of the terrible be-tentacled tyrant and sail off into the sunset on their mother the tree.

The Tale of How consists out of a series of 13 prints and a short animated film.

Tuesday 6 April 2010

ROOF SEX- Pes

PES (born Adam Pesapane, 26 May) is a director and animator of numerous short films and commercials.

Receiving a B.A. in English Literature at the University of Virginia, PES migrated to film as a storytelling medium. His use of everyday objects and stop-motion animation to create original material is instantly recognizable. His work has been recognized in the United States and internationally, especially the short films "Roof Sex", "KaBoom!", "Game Over", and "Western Spaghetti." An early influence on PES's animation style is the work of Czech surrealist Jan Švankmajer.

PES's first animated film, "Roof Sex," features two life-sized chairs having sex on a New York rooftop. Though only a minute long, the film took 20 shooting days to complete. In 2002, "Roof Sex" won the Best First Film award at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival. "Roof Sex" was featured at over 100 film festivals worldwide and won numerous awards.

Sunday 4 April 2010

THE CAT CAME BACK- Cordell Barker

Cordell Barker was born in Winnipeg, Canada in 1956. He began his career in 1974 working for Sesame Street and collaborating on a number of commercials. In 1982, he joined the NFB where he made his first film, The Cat Came Back (1988). The short was a huge audience favourite and garnered 16 awards in addition to picking up an Oscar® nomination. He subsequently returned to advertising, directing commercials for major companies (Bell Canada, Nike, Coca Cola, etc.) before returning to filmmaking with Strange Invaders (2001). It turned out to be another sensational hit, winning 16 awards and receiving an Oscar® nomination. Runaway (2009), his third film and third collaboration with the NFB, is likewise an absurd comedy filled with latent social satire. As a filmmaker who focuses on pacing, action and narrative, Cordell Barker enjoys this particular form of expression because it enables him to make the most of his incisive sense of humour.

Saturday 3 April 2010

HEDGEHOG IN THE FOG- Yuri Norstein

Yuriy Borisovich Norshteyn (Russian: Ю́рий Бори́сович Норште́йн), or Yuri Norstein or Yuri Norshtein (born September 15, 1941) is an award-winning Russian animator best known for his animated shorts, Hedgehog in the Fog and Tale of Tales. Since 1981 he has been working on a feature film called The Overcoat, based on the short story by Nikolai Gogol of the same name.
Norshteyn uses a special technique in his animation, involving multiple glass planes to give his animation a three-dimensional look. The camera is placed at the top looking down on a series of glass planes about a meter deep (one every 25–30 cm). The individual glass planes can move horizontally as well as toward and away from the camera (to give the effect of a character moving closer or further away).
Throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, Norshteyn's animations were showered with both state and international awards. Then, in a bitter twist of irony, he was fired from Soyuzmultfilm in 1985 for working too slowly on his latest film, a (presumably) feature-length adaptation of Gogol's Overcoat. By that time he had been working on it with his usual small team of three people for two years and had finished ten minutes.

THE HILL FARM- Mark Baker

Although not as publicly renowned as his National Film and Television School contemporary Nick Park, Mark Baker has nonetheless garnered Oscar nominations for his animated short films The Hill Farm (1988), The Village (1993) and Jolly Roger (1998), and is widely regarded as one of the leading British animators to emerge since the 1970s. His work typically features a deceptively simple, almost childlike hand-drawn visual style, but this conceals a far more sophisticated, adult-oriented view of the world.

Born in London in 1959, Baker made 8mm animated films in his teens (including The King's Jester, 1978), and studied animation at the West Surrey College of Art and Design, where he made The Three Knights (1982). He then spent a year animating television commercials for Richard Purdum Productions, after which he enrolled at the NFTS to study film animation. There, he spent much of the time making The Hill Farm almost single-handed. Dialogue-free, it depicts three very different groups making use of the same part of the countryside for farming, hunting and camping, and shows a vivid awareness of the essentially cyclical nature of country life. Completed in 1988, in addition to its Oscar nomination it won a BAFTA, the Grand Prix at the Annecy Animation Festival and many other awards - and was also highly praised by the great Russian animator Yuri Norstein.

After graduating in 1989, Baker worked as a freelance animator and director for various companies including TVC, Speedy Films, David Anderson Films and Pizazz Pictures. During this period he also worked on The Village, which Channel Four commissioned following widespread acclaim for The Hill Farm. Completed in 1993, it depicts life in a remote village whose inhabitants spend half the time trying to uncover each other's dark secrets, and the rest ensuring that their own stay buried.

Jolly Roger (1998), a lively romp about a cowardly pirate, was the first of Baker's films to make use of computer animation - though the artwork was originally hand-drawn on paper prior to scanning and digital manipulation. The 13-part BBC children's series The Big Knights (2000), co-directed with Astley, returned to the territory of The Three Knights in its sending-up of traditional chivalric myths. Its vocal cast included Brian Blessed as Sir Morris, whose boisterous enthusiasm compensated for his lack of skill.

More recently, Baker and Astley have catered for even younger audiences in the BAFTA-winning Peppa Pig (2004-) and Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom (2007-). The first, about a cheeky piglet and her family, has been widely acclaimed as a model example of pre-school children's animation, matching genuinely witty scripts to brightly-coloured, childlike designs that nonetheless unmistakably echo Baker's earlier work.

Michael Brooke




Monday 22 March 2010

FRENCH ROAST- Fabrice O. Joubert

I decided to publish only a part of the interview here, but you can find the whole thing online.

What was the inspiration for French Roast?
For sure, my inspiration came from a certain nostalgia of Paris. I grew up there...and having to live so far away for such a long time most likely nurtured an idealized Paris in my mind. I naturally used that feeling as a starting point for the story of French Roast. Then, because I am an animator and because I love characters, I wanted to tell a story through pantomime and characterization, thus avoiding the use of dialogue. I also wanted to do a comedy. From that point of view, my main inspiration was Jacques Tati's work. I was also very inspired by Ronald Searle's drawings.

What kind of software did you use to produce the animation and how long did you work on it?
Character and set modeling were done using Maya during the first stage of production at the Méliès School. Then, we mainly used Softimage|XSI for rigging, animation, texturing, FX and lighting. We also used Maya for cloth simulation. Compositing was executed on Nuke.

We first spent a couple of months in development which consisted of me writing and storyboarding, and Nicolas Marlet creating the designs of the characters. Then it took a full year to make the film, with a team of 65 artists and technicians in total.

What was the toughest aspect of the job and which aspect of the short are you happiest with?

From a pure visual aspect, the first big challenge was to translate the graphic look of the original drawings done by Nico into CG, and to create an environment that would integrate the best with those characters. Modeling, texturing and rendering were all crucial in this process. The work done by the texturing department has been essential in getting the painterly look that I wanted for the characters, as much as Julien Georgel's matte paintings did for the backgrounds.

Creating the tramp's curly hair and beard was a pretty tough one, as they were the most intricate elements to translate into CG... We decided to use hair simulation to achieve both the graphic style and the natural behavior that I wanted, and it was eventually quite successful.

The other big challenge was to stick with the idea of a camera shooting a single shot in one axis only. That's how I got the idea of placing a big mirror behind the characters to create the equivalent of a reverse shot without cutting or panning the camera.

The final look of French Roast is a real achievement and I'm proud of it. I'm also very happy with the quality of the animation, and that's a big deal since the narration relies primarily on it.
...

What kind of advice would you give young students who want to do what you've done?

You know, I still consider myself a student. This is my debut film as a director and I feel like I still have a lot to learn. I would encourage aspiring animators to be curious (your inspiration will come from everything you can observe around you...you have to work from life to avoid clichés), to be patient (animation is all about patience, perseverance and focus), and to always see yourself as storytellers (you're not only making things move, you are breathing life into your characters for the audience to believe in them and therefore in the story they're being told).

Tuesday 9 March 2010

MORIR DE AMOR- Gil Alkabetz

Synopsis:
While their owner is having his siesta, two old caged parrots rake up memories from the past.
This leads to unexpected consequences for the three of them.

Dialogue: (in Spanish):
The women: “Pero que bonito es ésto, es verdad?...Tán verde y tán maravilloso”
The man: “Tienes toda la razón, amor mío, es encantador”

Translation to English:
The woman: "It is so beautiful here, isn't it? so green and so wonderful"
The man: "You are so right, my love. It is enchanting"



If you have problems with this video, go to the original page:
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTE2NDM1NDY4.html
I am sorry for the inconvenience, but it's worth of watching!

Thursday 4 March 2010

DREAMS AND DESIRES: FAMILY TIES- Joanna Quinn

Joanna Quinn is an English film director and animator. She was born in Birmingham. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Famous Fred in 1998.
Quinn attended Middlesex Polytechnic. Her student film Girls Night Out was completed in 1987 and won 3 awards at the Annecy Film Festival.
Her commercials for Charmin toilet paper and Whiskas cat food feature her distinctive drawing style, always rendered on paper or cel.
Quinn's 2006 film "Dreams and Desires-Family Ties" has won 14 international prizes, including the 2006 Cartoon d'Or.

Wednesday 3 March 2010

Saturday 20 February 2010

LAVATORY LOVESTORY- Konstantin Bronzit

I already uploaded one film by Konstantin Bronzit so if you have time, check out both of them. "Lavatory lovestory" was nominated for Academy Award in 2009. . Even though it's quite simple, the power of this short is hard to miss. Enjoy!

Tuesday 16 February 2010

HARVIE KRUMPET- Adam Elliot

Harvie Krumpet is an Australian claymation, made in Melbourne by Adam Elliot (Melodrama Pictures). This short (23 min) film won the Academy Award for Animated Short Film in 2003, in addition to numerous festival awards and the 2004 Australian Film Institute Best Short Animation award. Adam Elliot directed Mary and Max as well, marvelous claymation film. Check it out!





Wednesday 20 January 2010

THE ANIMATOR'S SURVIVAL KIT- Richard Williams

Richard Williams (born on March 19, 1933 in Toronto, Ontario) is a Canadian animator. He is best known for serving as animation director on Disney/Amblin's Who Framed Roger Rabbit and for his unfinished feature film The Thief and the Cobbler. He was also a film title sequence designer and animator; his most famous works in this field included the title sequences to What's New, Pussycat? (1965), title and linking sequences in The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968). He also animated the eponymous cartoon feline for two of the later Pink Panther films.

Monday 18 January 2010

LES TRIPLETTES DE BELLEVILLE- Silvain Chomet

The story focuses on Madame Souza, an elderly woman raising her young grandson Champion. Souza notices her grandson is sad and lonely so she buys him a puppy named Bruno to cheer him up. Although initially happy he quickly becomes melancholy once again. After discovering that Champion has a keen interest in road bicycle racing, she buys him a tricycle. Years later, Champion has become a professional cyclist with Souza as his coach.
Eventually, Champion enters the Tour de France but during the race he and two other riders are kidnapped by two French mafia henchmen and brought to the bustling metropolis of Belleville. Souza along with Bruno follow the men but lose their trail soon after reaching Belleville. Lost in the city with no way to find Champion, Souza has a chance encounter with the renowned Belleville triplets, music hall singers from the 1930s, now elderly women turned improvisational musicians. The sisters take Souza in to stay with them and over time she becomes a part of their group. Meanwhile, the mafia boss has a mechanic build a stationary cycling machine for the kidnapped cyclists to race on to create their own mini Tour de France for gambling.
At a fancy restaurant the triplets plus Souza perform a jam session using a newspaper, refrigerator, vacuum and bicycle wheel. The mafia boss who kidnapped her grandson happens to be in the same restaurant, and, with the help of Bruno, Souza realizes he has Champion. She tails one of the mafia's minions and discovers the scheme. That night, several mafia bosses and their henchmen arrive at the mafia hideout and place bets on the riders. Madam Souza, Bruno and the triplets infiltrate the hideout and sabotage the contraption, unbolting it from the ground and turning it into a pedal-powered vehicle on which they all escape. The mob henchmen pursue them, but each of them are disposed by Souza and the triplets. The film ends with Souza, Champion, Bruno, the triplets riding on the vehicle out of Belleville.

Thursday 7 January 2010

MAN WITHOUT A HEAD- Juan Solanas

hehehehe oh well, just watch it :)

THE OWL WHO MARRIED A GOOSE- Caroline Leaf

Caroline Leaf: I made The Owl Who Married A Goose back in the early 1970s, a time when there were no Inuit animators, and the National Film Board of Canada was benevolently trying to tell the stories of all Canadian peoples. I went twice to the Canadian artic to make this film. I chose the story from a written text, and went to Holman Island to work with Nanogak, an Inuit artist who worked for me with cut-outs to suit my sand silhouette animation. While I was there I found out that the old women were great mimics of arctic animal sounds, because as girls they had accompanied their fathers on hunts, where making animal sounds brought the animals within range of the hunters. So, after animating the film in Montreal, I went back to the Arctic, to Broughton Island, with the soundless film and a list of sounds and sound effects I needed. Six old women sat around a microphone and made the sounds and laughed a lot. I got what I wanted, but it was puzzling, uncomfortable work. For example, after I screened the film, which is nine minutes long and involves the eggs of the owl and the goose hatching, one old lady got up and walked out, saying that what the film showed was not true, eggs take two weeks to hatch. I was never sure that I wasn't using the Inuit people. I knew that their stories were truth and history for them, and they didn't tamper with the storytelling or make personal changes. That is why the stories were remarkably the same across thousands of miles of the arctic. And I had had to change the story, to personalize the animals, to make it mine in order to be able to tell it. 

Sunday 3 January 2010

SEXLINEA- Osvaldo Cavandoli

Osvaldo Cavandoli (January 1, 1920 – March 3, 2007), also known by his pen name Cava, was an Italian cartoonist. His most famous work is his series of short animated cartoons, La Linea ("The Line").
Cavandoli  moved to Milan when he was two years old (later becoming an honorary citizen of that city). From 1936 to 1940 he worked as a technical designer for Alfa Romeo. When he developed his interest in cartoons in 1943, he started working with Nino Pagot, who later created Calimero. In 1950 he started working independently as a director and a producer. He became famous for his La Linea, a simply drawn cartoon, first appearing in 1969. In 1978 and 1988 he developed two new characters: sexlinea and eroslinea.