Monday, December 16, 2013

Sharing Animation - Fast Film (Virgil Widrich, 2003)

For so long have I waited to find a good version of this animation online so I could share it here. I finally found one, and by the will of the biggest animation god (or goddess) out there, I will share it today!

This short film is absolutely brilliant. It's so complex, so insane and so beautifully done, that I think anyone would 'wow' at it.

This short is called Fast Film, directed by the austrian Virgil Widrich.

So this short uses printouts from films. They would choose a little bit of a film, cut it from the original and print every single frame in different pages so they can fold it and use it as a different object. So yes, for the films to be kind of screening inside the obects, the objects would have been printed, folded, photographed and replaced for the next one for every frame of film, which is 24 for each second. I would say in some parts there's definetely 10 or more films going on in different objects at the same time, so with simple math, they would have printed and folded and photographed around 240 objects for each second of film. Now the short has around 14 minutes! And it was photographed as a normal stop-motion animation, frame by frame, with a camera and a computer.

When you start to understand how this film was made, you start imagining how crazy it's making might have been done. And yes, it is crazy. All sort of fun facts: They watched around 1200 films to compile with around 400 of them every little piece they needed; They used around 65000 printouts and printed around 80000 pages out of one printer. So imagine the toners... they say it was around 12.000,- Euros of toners; There were 12 people working in the short, how hard would it be for them to fold those 65000 paper models. It took them about one year to do so.

I think this is so cool. The level of frame by frame manipulation is gigantic, I imagine the struggle to keep everything together without losing their minds!

HERE is the official website for this short.
Here's the MAKING OF:




The short was screened all over the globe, in 323 international festivals and won 36 awards. So here's Fast Film by Virgil Widrich!





Check out the other short movies from the Sharing Collection HERE!!


See you soon with another awesome short from this incredible art form that is animation!


No copyright and related rights infringements are intended with these sharings, all these animations are properties from their respective authors or studios always credited in the post.

Friday, December 6, 2013

Sharing Animation - Steamboat Willie (Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks - Walt Disney Studios, 1928)

Coming back from a long streak of animated music videos I want to return to, well let's call them normal short movies, but hopefully they don't have anything normal about them!

And of course, I wanted to come back BIG, so what else but a big classic!
One of the biggest in fact, Steamboat Willie, directed by Walt Disney himself and Ub Iwerks.

YES this is the short in which Mickey Mouse has that classic whistling song of his in the ship's wheel! This shirt is actually not the first Mickey appearance, he appeared in two other cartoons prior to this one, Plain Crazy and The Gallopin' Gaucho. But nevertheless, the original release date (November 18, 1928) was later considered Mickey's official birthday!

This was the first cartoon with synchronized sound. It was a parody of a Buster Keaton film, Steamboat Bill Jr. It is quite crude and as you may see, not at all the gentle Mickey we got to know over the years. But it's mad fun to watch how he grew!

I'm sure there's tons and tons of fun facts and other stories about this short, but I don't want to elongate myself here, since this is such a well known short.

So without further ado, here's Steamboat Willie by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, in the old times of Walt Disney Studios.



Check out the other short movies from the Sharing Collection HERE!!


See you soon with more and more sharings!


No copyright and related rights infringements are intended with these sharings, all these animations are properties from their respective authors or studios always credited in the post.

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Sharing Animation - Music Video - Strawberry Swing (Shynola, 2009)

It has been a while since I don't share some more animation even though I have this huge list yet to be shared! =) So I'm back to wrap up the animated music videos, at least for now. And yes, I chose a good one for last.

This music is Strawberry Swing by Coldplay, and the video is from the amazing artists from Shynola.

Shynola are a little less and a little more than the usual animation studio. They are only three (when they started they were four), so I guess that's for the less, but they are all great friends that met in college and got together just to make the stuff they love. And that surely is a lot! In the end they are not a usual animation studio because they don't make just the usual animations, they go further.
They are mostly known for their work with music videos. Coldplay (yes, this one), Radiohead and Queens of the Stone Age (the last one HERE) to name a few. They also animated some parts and bits for filmes, like the title sequence for Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and some animated bits for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
HERE you can see their official website and the music videos they produced.
HERE is a link to their Vimeo channel.

Now I'll take my time talking about how it was made, since it's so good looking and it was in fact a work that required much sweat.

First things first: Yes it is Chris Martin in the video.
One of the main logistics about this video is that the animation had to be very very well planned prior to the recordings. When Chris went to the studio to record (they did it in one week and the whole project took 3 months to be done), the Shynola guys had already a fully planned animation to follow as reference, in which the character played by Chris was an animated CG character.
It WAS all drawn on the floor with chalk. Of course they had only to draw and rub the parts that were going to move, which in big mass parts, like a cloud or something you can even see that the pattern in the middle stays the same. But nevertheless it really is an amazing accomplishment!
Since they had it planned and animated prior to the shooting itself, they could use that as reference, they would carry a portable screen in which they could see the reference video and a live streaming of the actual scene (for the knowledgeable people out there, it works like a normal stop-motion software, where you can see live what you're doing and through "onion-skins " see the frame(s) before or reference videos)
About the hero narrative in the whole thing, the story doesn't really relate to the lyrics, Shynola's team tried to take the mood of the song instead of going directly to the words, they say they would have nothing to add and it would be less interesting for them to produce, which only shows us again how this guys are doing what they like to do!

And what they like to do, we like to see! Strawberry Swing by Shynola.



Check out the other short movies from the Sharing Collection HERE!!


See you soon with another animation treat! Next time won't be a music video (unless I cross with some absolutely amazing one!)


No copyright and related rights infringements are intended with these sharings, all these animations are properties from their respective authors or studios always credited in the post.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Sharing Animation - Music Video - Baby I'm Yours (Irina Dakeva, 2010)

Coming back from a huge hangover of long hours animating (and a few resting) I'm finally back to share more animations with you all!
And I'll continue with the animated music videos today!
This one was one of the firsts in my list to share, but only now did I feel that it was it's time.

This one is called Baby I'm Yours, the video directed by Irina Dakeva, and the music by Breakbot.

About the music composer first. Breakbot is his stage name, his real name is Thibaut Berland and interestingly enough he's also an animation guy! He co-directed an animation short with two other fellow students while in university. His short is called Overtime and can be seen HERE. Awesome right? He must have had some input in his music video as well... I can only guess, of course.

Now about the short. Irina Dakeva is a producer working in WIZZdesign, Paris (link to website). In a interview, she told how sick she was of digital looking animations, and thought of this music video as a fresh way to make it. The short itself was made out of rotoscopy (most of it at least, when you watch it, you can definetly see which parts used a live-action film and which parts didn't), with more than 2000 watercolor drawings made by Dakeva herself. The whole project took about 3 and a half months to be completed. Not that much if you consider conception, production and post production, huh?

It's definetly a very much enjoyable video and a good quality work!
Baby I'm Yours, by Irina Dakeva.





Check out the other short movies from the Sharing Collection HERE!!


See you soon with the last animated music video before going back to them good old animated shorts!


No copyright and related rights infringements are intended with these sharings, all these animations are properties from their respective authors or studios always credited in the post.

Friday, August 30, 2013

Disney Family Album - Frank Thomas!

Definitely the best episode of disney family album I've seen so far. This guy was simply amazing. =')






Thursday, August 22, 2013

Quick share about hand animation

While I don't find the time to continue my short sharings, I want to quickly post here this very cool work, which, to look at hand animation, is a very very good one!

Taken out of the Spline Doctors blog (link in the "Awesome Animation Links" list at the left), seen it for the fist time in one of the AnimationMentor.com lectures, this pencil animation by Mark Oftedal, 4pm.

http://splinedoctors.com/movies/4pm.mov

Awesome.

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Martin K - Animation Blog: Eric Goldberg Wisdom

Absolutely awesome stuff! Great blog as well!

Martin K - Animation Blog: Eric Goldberg Wisdom: I know it's been out there for a while, but it's still pure gold. What's missing in CG and hand drawn reels: Method of char...

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Disney Family Album - Milt Kahl and Ward Kimball

My Class 4 mentor from Animation Mentor send us every week a collection of links and references and videos about great animators, which is absolutely amazing!

Two of the animators he talked about and sent us some reference to watch were two of the Nine old Men, the great legendary animators that developed many of the Walt Disney animations that we know today!

So I wanted to share what seemed to be a television show about those great animators, called Disney Family Album! The first about the great draftsman and animator, Milt Kahl, and the second one about the toy and train nut, Ward Kimball.


MILT KAHL











WARD KIMBALL












I'll return with more of those awesome legends!

Thursday, July 4, 2013

Sharing Animation - Music Video - Look (Mrzyk & Moriceau, 2011)

Continuing with the animated music video sharing, this may look as a controversial one (mostly for the XX chromosome people out there).

The name of this one is Look, and it was directed by the great french artists Petra Mrzyk and Jean-François Moriceau.

Although it may be unnecessary to some people to watch this (mostly when diamonds appear... you'll understand that in a minute!) this animation has a very unique way to show cycles in work and great animation in a very stylish look! And also, to understand this you have to understand the song writer, SĂ©bastien Tellier (this song is from his album Sexuality, coincidently enough), who apparently is considered quite a sexual guy in France. Well, I'm not surprised he has that fame, not after watching this definitely R-rated music video. I didn't know any of that before my little research... I just loved the song. I wonder what that says about me.

Anyway, talking about the Mrzyk & Moriceau duo! You can find a ton of stuff from this two around the internet. But so you know who we're dealing with, HERE is a link with more of their animted work and HERE is a link with some of their illustration work.

This music video is great, and I hope you enjoy it!
Look, by Mrzyt & Moriceau.




Check out the other short movies from the Sharing Collection HERE!!


See you soon with another animated music video. (IF I can find the video, this one is being hard on me!)


No copyright and related rights infringements are intended with these sharings, all these animations are properties from their respective authors or studios always credited in the post.

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

My Animations - Animation Mentor Class 03: Advanced Body Mechanics

Another term, another progress Reel!! Class 3 in Animation Mentor surely had as much fun as hard work!

My mentor this term was another great animator, this time from Dreamworks, called Drew Adams. In Dreamworks he worked in Kung Fu Panda 2, Puss in Boots, Rise of the Guardians and The Croods. Prior to that he have done some pretty cool stuff as well, like animate on 9, and in the game Call of Duty: Finest Hour. Also worked in 2D as an "inbetweener" in Atlantis, Treasure Planet and Home on the Range! Such a nice career!

Anyway, in Animation Mentor they started with a new program that is collaborative work among classes. Which means, that me and the rest of my class (being mentored and directed by Drew) we worked out a complete sequence (a very very short short, one and a half minutes). So for this term I have 2 new shots, a quick one, made just to get the engines started, and then we started pitching out ideas for our little story. My story actually won the voting process, although in the end we changed it quite a bit, so I don't even consider it mine, I consider it a story made by all of us.

This shot I made was the last shot of the sequence and it was the biggest shot I've ever made. Well, in Animation Mentor anyway. But unfortunately, due to some personal issues, I didn't manage to finish the polish phase completly, that's why the shot is not rendered and it's not so easy to look at as the other one =)

I'll finish it soon enough, right now I'm concentrating on the 4th term already, and this one surely will be a big challenge, since we're starting with the very important art of ACTING! Now things really start to get interesting, and difficult and subjective and... I'm so excited!

Ow, and another thing, I animated both shots with one of the new characters from animation mentor, my dear Stella! The only problem with this one, are the pony tails. Well, not a problem, more like a time consuming issue. But I loved animating her!

Here we go, I hope you enjoy it!



This time I wish you all a happy summer, and enjoy the sun for me! (I won't be seeing much of it!)

See you in 3 more months!

Monday, July 1, 2013

Getting into the acting mood!

Last week I started my fourth class in Animation Mentor! And now, after many many weeks working in making a character move in a believable way, now we not only have to do that, but make them move with a purpose, with inner feelings! Sounds crazy fun, and crazy hard!

To get into the acting mood here's a video of a very expressive animator! Amazing stuff! Thanks Joana Ullan for the share!


Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Sharing Animation - Music Video - Apache (Ned Wenlock, 2011)

One more animated music video to share!!

This one is actually really short, but ever since I first watched it, I got kinda hypnotized! It's a simple concept, but I think is simple, fun and entertaining.

The name of the music is Apache by the band Danger Beach, the video was directed by Ned Wenlock and the character animation done by Rodney Selby.

The thing I like the most about this animation is the way that it's all set in a little stage-like environment, where everything is happening is that small place, and the characters are almost holding still! And the background, moving around in a circle, is kinda recycled in the back! The two dimension of the graphics is totally assumed, and the landscapes have this good taste design in it.

The song itself is not very elaborated, even the animation ifself is not very elaborated, but although it's simple, is also very fun to watch!

So enjoy this short sharing =)




Check out the other short movies from the Sharing Collection HERE!!


See you soon with yet another animated music video!


No copyright and related rights infringements are intended with these sharings, all these animations are properties from their respective authors or studios always credited in the post.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Sharing Animation - Music Video - The Music Scene (Anthony Schepperd, 2009)

Continuing the animated music video fever, today I'll share yet another completely mind blowing project!

It's funny because this music video is from the same year as my last sharing, and also I saw them both for the first time in the same day! Obviously my professor has very good taste!

The name of this one is The Music Scene, by a band called Blockhead and made by the genious artist Anthony Francisco Schepperd.

He has a very unique visual approach, and as he says: "Animation gives us the rare opportunity to spill our most coveted attribute, the imagination.", and he does! It's always a beautiful thing when someone uses animation to do something that only this wonderful craft can create, and he definetely takes it far, far away! I simply love the sketch-like drawings that he leave as it is, and of course, the bright colors couldn't suit it better! And it's very clear that he is a great draftsman!

He has made many different projects, but the ones that he stands out the most are the music videos.
HERE you can see his Vimeo page and take a look at his other projects. He's certainly a pro.

Enjoy this trip (it really is!) and admire The Music Scene by Anthony Francisco Schepperd.




Check out the other short movies from the Sharing Collection HERE!!


See you soon with more music and more fluidity in movement!


No copyright and related rights infringements are intended with these sharings, all these animations are properties from their respective authors or studios always credited in the post.

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Sharing Animation - Music Video - No Corras Tanto (Cesar Diaz, 2009)

Hey! For the next sharings I thought I could go on a Music vibe! So today I'll be sharing my first animated music video ever! =)

And of course, I couldn't start with just any animated music video, I'll start with one of my big favourites! This is my favourite not because of the music, of course, the only important thing for me in this sharings are the animations!

So I'm sharing with you guys No Corras Tanto by Cesar Diaz.

I think this work is so awesome mostly because of the technique. Sand animation is my least favourite animation technique, and that's precisely because I've never seen before one film that I actually enjoyed visually. But Cesar Diaz came to change my whole oppinion about sand animation, mostly with this music video. So that's why I love this video so much!

HERE is the making off video where you can see a little bit about how it's done.

And now enjoy No Corras Tanto by Cesar Diaz.





Check out the other short movies from the Sharing Collection HERE!!


See you next week with another animated music video!


No copyright and related rights infringements are intended with these sharings, all these animations are properties from their respective authors or studios always credited in the post.

Monday, April 8, 2013

Sharing Animation - Gerald McBoing Boing (UPA - Robert Cannon, 1950)

Today I wanted to share one old classic, an old and very funny classic short animation. I loved this animation since my first glance at it, since its first "words" to me, or should I say, since the first "BOING"!

Yes yes, it was time already to share Gerald McBoing Boing!

I love this animation for many reasons. First of all the story, and old classic too. Firstly it's a Dr Seuss story, and for those who don't know that name, that tells A LOT. Well want to know why? The Lorax, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Horton Hears a Who! and The Cat in the Hat rings a bell? Yup, all Dr Seuss stories, and that's just for the Feature Film cathegory. It's an odd little boy, who doesn't seem to fit anywhere. His way of being is just not understood! Well, of course that singularity of his is exactly what, in the end, will make him famous and rich and loved! An old classic, as I sad.
But I also love this animation because of the design of it, the visual aspect. The backgrounds are so simple and yet so expressive. And the characters itself are bent in ways that are just... perfectly expressive!
And the final reason why I love this animation is his special gift itself! Not only he is doing it with his voice (I love sound effects with voices! I shared one very good animation with real voice sound effects a while ago, HERE is the link for it) but also he is professionaly one thing that I find amazing, sound designer/sound mixer! Very cool stuff! But I won't ramble about it.


This is a very light short animation that I'm sure everyone will enjoy! Produced by UPA, distributed by Columbia Pictures and directed by Robert Cannon, this is a must see for all animation lovers, for sure.

Sit back for this very short 6 minutes and enjoy! Gerald McBoing Boing by Robert Cannon.





Check out the other short movies from the Sharing Collection HERE!!


I'll see you soon with more of this fantastic animated world!


No copyright and related rights infringements are intended with these sharings, all these animations are properties from their respective authors or studios always credited in the post.

Annecy 2013 - I'm GOING

It's more than official! And I am soooooooooooo happy about it!

I'm going to Annecy 2013! Make that 2013 cheers! =)




Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Sharing Animation - Madame Tutli-Putli ( Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski, 2007)

I wanted to get back to my animation sharings, so I decided I would choose one of my favourite animations!

This particular short is an incredible trip to the inside of a very deep character. The whole movie has a mistery to it and many feelings that are very intrinsic. The feelings of the movie are so important that the directors, Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski chose a very unique way to portray them on a stop-motion puppet.

The short I'll be sharing today is Madame Tutli-Putli.

The movie makes you feel very uneasy with all those uncomfortably small spaces and the too close up shots of the characters faces. It's never ment for you to feel confortable and the original score by David Bryant and Jean-Frédéric Messier is incredible successful to help the mood be spot on.

Although the animation is great, the sound is great and the visual is great, the one thing that make the short be so incredible are the way the eyes of the characters were done. The special effects man for the movie was Jason Walker and he ultimately made the short work, as the directors visualized.
Here's how it's explained on the official website for the short: "In the end, the solution arose when Jason tested the tracking and re-timing of live action human eyes onto a stop-motion scene. This test led to the creation of a remarkable production process whereby live action human eyes were added to almost 20 minutes of stop-motion animation in a manner that was perfectly seamless and completely unobtrusive. Jason developed a system of separating and analyzing the previously shot stop-motion puppet moves, choreographing, rehearsing and shooting a human actor's corresponding "eye performance" to match each puppet move, at the same time recreating as closely as possible all light and shadow passes original to the stop-motion. Once the human eyes were shot, each eye was individually positioned, scaled, re-timed and digitally composited onto the puppet scenes. As different actors were cast for almost all the characters, the requirement was not only to integrate the human eyes onto each puppet, but on a frame by frame basis, match the subtle movement of the puppets, the camera, and the train – all the while retaining the flow of the acting. "This required every trick in the book and more!" exclaims Mr. Walker. The creation of the film and this extraordinarily painstaking process took 4 years from concept to completion."

It was genius.

HERE you can find the Producer of the short talking about it in a 4 minute video.

And without further adieu, nominated for the Oscar here is Madame Tutli-Putli by Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski



Check out the other short movies from the Sharing Collection HERE!!


Hope to keep it up sharing with you all this incredible animations!

See you soon with another incredible animation!


No copyright and related rights infringements are intended with these sharings, all these animations are properties from their respective authors or studios always credited in the post.

My Animations - Animation Mentor Class 02: Psychology of Body Mechanics

My animation journey has taken another step! After three more months, I finished my second Class at Animation Mentor with improved skills and hopefully a good progress reel!

My mentor this Class was a fantastic artist originally from Belgium called Marlon Nowe, that today is working as a supervisor animator at Disney Animation Studios! Before that he worked at Blur Studios and at Rhythm and Hues! If you're curious you can find HERE his website and one cool thing about his website is that you can watch some of his early animations while he was a student! That for me is so valuable, it's a way for everyone to see that you have to start somewhere to go to the top! HERE you can watch his reel prior to getting into Disney, and HERE and HERE you can find his film reels for Bolt and Tangled, respectively.

It was a fantastic class and we learned so much that I'm still astonished! My love for animation has never been so big and my will to follow my dream never been so strong! I hope this term goes even better!

So here's my progress at Animation Mentor so far! I can really tell how much I'm improving each shot I animate but I want to get soooooo much further! If you never quit, you can never fail, right? Hope you enjoy this little reel! (Also includes my Class 1 shots)




So if last time I wished you all a Happy Christmas and a Happy New Year, now I wish you all a Happy Easter!

See you in 3 more months with another progress reel!