Stoopid Buddy Stoodios - The pros behind Robot Chicken give us a class!

The price is a bit crazy for a 2 hour video... but it does sound very very interesting instructional video!

Cruisr / All Over Music Video - cool for all reasons!

Pretty damn awesome it is!

Aaron Blaise - Former Disney Animator

Wow...

His website HERE.

The 2014 Animation Oscar Contenders

Here's a list of next year's Oscars Animation contenders preview by Variety!

http://variety.com/gallery/oscar-animation-contenders-preview/

I expect some of the Nominees to be the obvious choices, but hopefully some surprises will arise.

Anyway, in a matter of support, lets put on some images of the *cross fingers* nominees.

Hjalti Hjalmarsson in The Joy of Animation: Tips Tricks and Techniques - Blender Foundation

Some people get to stardom for pure merit =) very interesting and helpful talk and very funny also.
I wish this kinds of talks didn't have time constraints, I have a feeling that Hjalti would been able to talk for a long time! And I would love to listen!

Sharing Animation - Music Video - Freak of the Week (Juanjo Guarnido, 2014)

It's actually pretty rare for me to share something as recent as this one short I am about to, but I have to say I was expecting this excitedly, and since it's finally here, oh boy I do love it! And also, let's be different since this is the official number 50 Must Watch Animation I've shared in this blog! And there's plenty more to come.

Juanjo Guarnido, the acclaimed artist of the comic book Blacksad and once a Walt Disney Studios animator himself, had this kickstarter going to create a music video for Freak Kitchen and now, after almost a year in production, it's here for all of us to enjoy!

HERE you have a blog dedicated to Blacksad where you can see the craft of this master draftsman.

But with no further delay, Freak of the Week, music by Freak Kitchen and animation by Juanjo Guarnido.

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

See you soon with some more 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.

Eric Goldberg talk at CTNX

It's not too much to aspire to this kind of mastery =)

Big Hero 6 - Character Study showing the Power of having well defined characters

This is amazing! The power of acting and well defined characters all over. This would be an awesome exercise for anyone studying animation.

Amazed.

Sharing Animation - The Hat (Michèle Cournoyer, 1999)

Lately I've been thinking more than usual about adult content (meaning the whole range of material that isn't considered for children, and not just sex or violence) in animation and how unfortunate it is that animation is considered mainly a children audience medium. It's clear that a lot of animators and directors enjoy the thought of an animated film more directed to adult audiences, and you can actually see some examples of that, but you might agree that most of them are either japanese or sometimes french. But still I can't help but feeling that so many good story opportunities and good films, theoretically, are lost because of that... should we call it a stereotype? And this is a pretty well known subject inside the industry as well...

... which brings me to my sharing! I had this one saved for a long time, it's a brilliant short, but as you can see, this kind of movies are made in a quite experimental way. Do you think it might happen to be produced a mainstream, animated movie 'for adults' anytime soon?

The not so recent animation short, The Hat, by Michèle Cournoyer.

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

See you soon with another cool 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.

Brazilian Fiat spots for safety in the streets looking awesome!

This spots are looking brilliant, and the studio has more cool stuff! Check out their Vimeo channel HERE.

Vacilão - Karina

Vacilão - Ernesto

Vacilão - Pereira

Vacilão - Armando

Love movies

Awesome awesome.

Sharing Animation - The Wrong Trousers (Nick Park, 1993)

Laika`s stop motion, and very expected movie The Boxtrolls will be coming out soon, and so the buzz for the stop motion animation is everywhere! Being so, I`ll share a classic one too that has been on my list for a loooong time!

They really were pioneers in this art form, pushed animation forward as a whole, made it bigger and better (and funnier) plus they kinda revolutionized stop motion! Of course I`m talking about the english gurus from Aardman Studios, of course I`m talking about the Academy Awarded short The Wrong Trousers AND of course it was directed by Nick Park.

Wallace and Gromit first appeared in 1989 in their first short A Grand Day Out, and Nick and those beloved characters already won 3 Oscars and were nominated for 1 more.

I feel, though, that Wallace and Gromit, Nick Park and Aardman don't need much of an introduction, and I really just wanted to share this wonderful wonderful stop motion short.
(I have a tiny huge crush for stop motion, even if I never really made one)

Enjoy Wallance & Gromit in The Wrong Trousers, by Nick Park.

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

Will be back!

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.

This is old but this is gold - An Evening with The Creators of Aladdin

I've seen this a while back, but only now am I sharing. Still awesome though.

Final Year Shorts Gobelins 2014

Gobelins is always impressing! And the work of the students coming out of that school is simply amazing! The true awesomeness! It just came out the last ones for 2014 and damn are they cool!

HERE's the website for the Gobelins l'école de l'image

And here they are!

MEET MEAT by Eve Guastella, Mael Jaouen, Christine Shin, Juliaon Roels, David Martins da Silva.



MORTAL BREAKUP INFERNO by Paula Assadourian, Marlène Beaube, Débora Cruchon, Maxime Delalande, Thibaud Gayral de Luca, Batiste Perron.



UN CERTAIN REGARD by Simon Masse, Semiramis Mamata, Anne Courtin, Rayane Raji.



DUO by Janis Aussel, Aron Bothman, Elsa Boyer, Mapie Demessant, Dorian Lee, Laurent Moing, Guitty Mojabi.



FOL'AMOR by Augustin Clermont, Gilles Cortella, Clément de Ruyter, Marthe Delaporte, Mailys Garcia, Pierre Rutz, Gaspard Sumeire.



WAND S WANDER by Nadya Mira.



EDGARD Eve Ceccarelli, Maud Girard, Mathieu Gouriou, Léo Schweitzer, Raphaelle Stolz.



8.9 by Pedro Vergani.

Studio Ghibli future?

Man... This news about being possible that studio Ghibli will stop making movies really sadened me.
If there is one studio that I REALLY was hoping to endure much longer was this one. I hope it's not true...

http://www.animationmagazine.net/features/ghiblis-future-remains-fuzzy/


A tribute for Hayao Miyazaki I found today on the internet. =')






And my little contribution tribute to the studio.

These amazing films

Sharing Animation - The Thomas Beale Cipher (Andrew Allen, 2010)

Sometimes I do share animations just for the technique and not for the story, and out of those most often it's because of the animation itself. This one I like the mood of it, the way it's told more than what it's telling. But also the technique is amazing.

Being an animator, I tend to dislike rotoscopy (wikipedia for that cute word), but this one is pretty awesome. It is rotoscoped, but it nevertheless makes us feel that we're in an animated movie, and that's what I like about it so much!

The story is based on an american legend (well legend seem to make it kinda even older, but it actually go back to the 1800s) that you can read about HERE (wiki as well). I guess it stands alone without knowing about the story.

One fun thing about this film is that, being about an undeciphered code, it has codes in itself. The director hid messages in the film, which I didn't lose much time trying to find, but I can recognise it's actually very cool!
HERE you can find the official website for the awarded film.

Here is The Thomas Beale Cipher by Andrew Allen.

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

This was my first share in Paris! That's why I've been so away from this, kinda busy times! Want to get back on track! See you with more soon!

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.

Big Hero 6 Excitement

Well this is exciting!




And this awesome posters!!!

New Job! Illumination Mac Guff Paris!

Now it's official and I would like to share! Finishing Animation Mentor Online school in last april, it was with great surprise, and a HUGE amount of happiness that I was called to work in a animated feature film at Illumination Mac Guff in Paris!

For those of you who don't know the studio by name, it's the production company behind huge box office successes such as Despicable Me and Despicable Me 2 and  Dr Seuss' The Lorax. It's a filliated company of Universal Studios. Having this opportunity for me is a dream come true, having my first step in the industry and working in such a huge studio means so much to me that I still don't quite believe it! Mostly when they're making me move to Paris! What a bummer right? =D

It was definitely hard work to get here, but the real work is what comes now, and I plan to grab this chance by the... hair, and from here just keep improving myself and my skills and art! It will be a huge challenge and I'll do my best to keep up with the awesome work the studio delivers worldwide. I can't imagine no place better to improve and do AWESOME work at the same time and work with such talented artists!

I'll be working on their next production (after "Minions" that premieres July 2015) which doesn't have a name yet! =)
You can find what it's out about the movie HERE and HERE.

I'm starting in July 28th! And yes, the moving process is already on going! Here I come Paris!! YEAH!

Amazing little short

wow

Awesome Cartoon Network Adventure Time Commercial

I still don't know much about the show, but this is awesome! Many animators united to do this.

Professional Work - Doctorhome TV Commercial by Black Ink Productions (May 2014)

This is my third professional work on animation! A short commercial.

This time the client was DoctorHome, a medicinal platform. The production company was once again Black Ink Productions!

Now this was my first professional project since I finished Animation Mentor, and it was exciting to really feel as a professional at work. But this was a very short gig I must say, only 4 days of work, working around 10 hours a day. And I animated every character (and the helicopter sort).

It was a fun project, there was a main character, but there was to be a lot of background characters, and it was really fun creating them! Just thinking of very short animations to be reproduced and fill up the backgrounds! I think I'm more proud of some of those background character animations than the main characters at some points, but you can hardly see them! Valuable lesson though, I think everything should be well done, even if it won't be seen much.

Again I thank Manuel Santiago and Black Ink Prods for calling me to help in this project!

Here's the final video!



One more, hoping for many others!

Professional Work - JP Inspiring Knowledge by Trix Productions (January 2014)

Another professional work! This one was made a few months ago, but only now have I noticed it's online so I can share!

The client was JP Sá Couto, a portuguese technology and education company that is best known for its lap-top computers designed for young students. The production company was Trix, a well based portuguese company that have been in the market since 1996.

I was in the middle of my most stressful time in Animation Mentor Course when I was invited to work on the project, so in the beginning I was really thinking that I wasn't going to be able to be a part of this. My only option was to try to work from home as a part-time animator. I was very glad Trix allowed me to do this! The animation production in this short took a little bit more than a month, but I was only able to work on it for 4 weeks, around 25 hours a week. It was a real pleasure to work with the crew (that I met once a week at their studio) and this well organized production. I think it was their biggest CG production!

Although I couldn't spend as much time on this as I wanted, since I was animating my own shots for school, I surely did learn a lot through this project, mostly in tools and organized production pipelines, which for me was a first experience! I thank João Sacadura, Manel Sacadura and Rita Amado for calling me in for this project!

We were three people animating the characters and I animated 6 shots, so it was a small contribution =) Here's the final video.




Hope many more to come!

Script writing process by awesome Dustin Lance Black

This is amazing.

Time Out list of the 100 best feature animated filmes

Hey! Cool list from Time Out!

I've watched 62 of them! Many more to watch hey! Cool stuff.

Here it is.

http://www.timeout.com/newyork/film/the-100-best-animated-movies

Sharing Animation - Balance (Wolfgang and Christoph Lauenstein, 1989)

After a long while without sharing a short animation, I thought I could come back heavy. And heavy it shall be.

With a heavy subject and a heavy mood. The short is Balance, by the german twins brothers Wolfgang and Christoph Lauenstein.

For me it's interesting because most often than not I like short films that not only have a good story but also have something technical that is very well done. But in this short, the whole merit goes to the script and the idea. It's so simple that I think not many technical things could be achieved, although maybe its simplicity and enough to tell the story is the brilliant technical part.

Anyway, even though the animation isn't brilliant, the puppets aren't perfect and the very simple background isn't very appealing by it's own, this short is simply brilliant. So much is told with its simplicity, and that's brilliant.

This short won the oscar that year, and yes you must watch to know why. It was their school project! Awesome right?
The Lauenstein brothers have done some other stuff, like commercials in their own style, HERE in their website you can see some of their other work.

Enjoy! Balance by the Lauenstein brothers.

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

See you soon hopefully with another great short!

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 - Final Show Reel: the end of Animation Mentor Character Curse!

I've been skipping this for a LONG time now, my progress from Animation Mentor doubled since the last time I posted something in here, but this is it! I finished the Character Animation Course! After the last year and a half I've been animating my heart out and learning all sort of cool stuff from this amazing mentors, whom I'm gonna list in a little bit, and tried my best to develop my skill to get into the animation industry out there!

First and foremost, I shall thank and bow to my mentors:

Class 1: Anthony Wong

Class 2: Marlon Nowe

Class 3: Drew Adams

Class 4: David Weatherly

Class 5: Nicole Herr

Class 6: Jay Davis

It's funny, ever since I started learning about acting in Class 4, for some reason I stopped posting my progress in here. Maybe it's because the overload of work and new things I was learning!!! And truth be told, it was harsh and I was hard at work the whole time! Acting is tough, and all of a sudden, animation got MUCH harder as well. But man, I had some great mentors to help me out along the way.

Being stuck at home working full time isn't an easy way to do it either. I struggled for quite a bit during this period but fortunately I ended up finding my inspiration, will to work and the thought that I will not ever give up on reaching that dream job kept me going.

So here it is! My final show reel, ready to go out there and hopefully impress recruiters enough so they give me my big chance to prove myself in a production environment. Now don't think that I'm just gonna be sitting around and waiting for the miracle to come to me. I will continue hands on in my work and keep getting better and better. This is my 'just out of school' reel, but many more new things are yet to come!

I'm very proud of what I've accomplished so far, but I'm well aware that my road is still big ahead of me, and I still have so much to learn.

Behold a future character animator first big step.

Many steps still to make. But one closer.

Thanks to my dad for all the support he's been giving me. Without him I would be learning this all by myself and certainly be way behind of where I stand now.

The Simposons Couch Gag by Sylvain Chomet

This is one of the bests! So cool.

Annecy 2014! I'm going!

Yeaaaaaah! Just today I bought my accreditation to the Annecy Animation Festival next June! For the second year in a row I'm so excited that I'll be going! Can't wait, it's an invaluable experience! Here I go again France!!! =)

Glen Keane about Animation

This has all the reasons for one to love all of this. Animation is truly wonderful. I couldn't have chosen anything else better to do with my life.
Truly inspiring.

Seth Godin speach about career and so many things more

I recently found out about Chris Oatley website, and boy is that amazing. There are a TON of great info in there, some stuff apply mainly to Character Designing and painting etc cause that's he's art but some of it applies to all kinds of artists, and some of it actually to your whole life!

HERE's the link to his website.

An example of great stuff that you can find there, is this video, that are one of the most important 20 minutes you need to think about your career and your choices and your way of thinking about your future. Totally totally worth watching!



Amazing!

Professional Work - BES Piggy Pops As Cores da Poupança (December 2013)

Today I come to talk about my first professional work in animation!

It was for a 2 minutes commercial for a Portuguese Bank (BES) produced by Black Ink Prods.
BES website
Black Ink Prods website
Black Ink Prods Facebook

For this commercial I animated almost every single shot (except the one with the bike) and had a very very VERY short period of time to do it. The whole animation production was done in 7 days and one morning. It was crazy but I would be lying if I say that I didn't had a blast!

The style of animation was immediately chosen as for a simple way to do it so the production would be faster. The one big influence and reference was Pocoyo. Not long before I was looking frame by frame at one episode from Pocoyo and I was amazed how those guys used timing and spacing, the fast transitions and huge holds and how it worked perfectly. I said to myself that I would love to try that someday, and the oportunity came much faster than I thought!

The characters were very simple, which was good and bad at the same time. It was good because I had less controls to animate (making it simpler and faster) but it was also not so good because I couldn't do much to their expressiveness, except make them bounce around and use poses that read well enough. Also I had to be extra carefull not to break the geometry or create a (very) strange silhouette.

I animated it all in 3ds Studio Max, which was the first time I ever looked at the software. It was really scary in the beginning, but the guys from Black Ink were absolutely awesome helping me out in everything I needed!

In the end I can't say that I am totally proud of the animation, although the lighting and rendering work done in post-production sure added A LOT, but I know I did the best I could do considering the time limit I had (I was doing something like 14 seconds of animation each day... to put things in perspective: in the last semester of my animation school I had around 9 weeks to animate 20 seconds... with quick math that's 1 second for 3 days of work. You can see the difference. Welcome to the real life right?).
And I think the final product is quite good! I think it achieved the goals that were settled and it hits the right audience. And one thing is true, that song won't come out of your head easily!

It was an honour for me to be called for this project and I have to give a special thank you to Manuel Santiago who contacted me and called me into the project, Diogo Barbosa for suggesting me and helping me out in everything I needed, and to Sergio Martins for talking about me to Diogo (I mean, I didn't even apply for this job!).

Behold the final result:



It sure is amazing to work professionally in something that we love so much to do. Here's to the first of many! Hopefully.