Aleksandr Petrov - The Old Man and the Sea

Found @ OnAnimation

The Gershwin Piano Quartet

It's hard not to imagine what this would look like if it was animated! It just looks so cool, and if you cover their heads it looks even better! The song is of course brilliant too.

The Making of Legend Of The Guardians

Really cool to see animators acting out how they want to see their references!



Animator Brandon Body, who worked on this title said:

I feel I should mention that although this was a process favoured by many animators including myself, not everyone did it or found it useful. Some would get frustrated at their inability to capture the performance they wanted or were not comfortable in front of the camera. They would prefer and were perfectly capable of finding a great performance internally or through drawing. There is no one way of working that is right for everyone and all animators have to find what leads to the best end result for them.

Found @ On Animation

Milt Kahl

Found @ Flooby Nooby

We Are The Strange

Surreal film made by Mike at M dot Strange. He makes animation films by himself and documents his process for this film on this blog.

Showtime Short Stories

Showtime have been commissioning and releasing these short stories for a while now, but for me these two were well worth mentioning.

Walks of Life by Cyriak Harris


The Deep by PES

Ishihara

Stumbled across this in my Vimeo feed. It's simple, very simple but affective. Using only the dots and colours from the Ishihara Colour Test, Yoav Brill created a great piece of animation and storytelling for his graduation project. Congrats!

The Illusionist (L'illusionniste) Pencil Test

The pencil test looks awesome! I can't wait to see the film. Check out another one HERE

Dead Space Aftermath

Wow, this looks epic! Just as much as the game.



Via TAG Blog

Animation in England

It's over a year on since this was first reported on BBC news and nothing has changed. Despite BBC news scare tactics, the animaton industry has not 'gone off the rails'. However, all I read today is how Canada, America, India, France and Korea controls the market for animation and the industry is booming for them and slowly dying here.

The Department of Culture is mentioned in this report, but have a look at their website, I can't find animation anywhere! Fairness (HA!) has nothing to do with it.



Via Bryn Richards

Don Hertzfeldt's Shorts

Don Hertzfeldt is back with another bizarre and satirical animation. If you haven't watched his animation before, brace yourself!



Previously to this new one he made Billy's Balloon.



Most infamously; Rejected



And many other animations.

Headless Productions - I'm A Monster

A couple of days ago, I watched the above great short film, called I'm A Monster. Great story and very nice animation. It was made by the Spanish animation studio Headless Productions.

Today, one of my favourite blogs has published an interview with the creators and founders of the studio. Read it HERE on the Character Design Blog


Soundtrack: Oingo Boingo - Weird Science

Learning Animation Online

A couple of weeks ago I posted on the subject of education and the cost, while the students protested in London. It triggered me to think about my own education past, present and future. However, don't go looking for the post. It was a bit too personal for publication so it's gone, for now.

Today, through the EIG (endless-interweb-grapevine), I read a brilliant and in-depth blog post comparing the two (arguably) major online animation training programs going, by someone who attended both. Rastko (if that's even the persons name) wrote about his/her own experiences at the two leading programs; Animation Mentor and iAnimate. You can read the article HERE

I have been thinking about taking the AM 18 month program next year, but now I am leaning more towards iA. I still don't know the total cost of iA (is it $5994/£3871.41 for the whole shebang?... 6 workshops at $999/£645.23 each?), but I have a feeling it's a lot cheaper than AM's $18k (£11.6k) and taught in a way more to my liking. Rastko's summarises - with slightly bias comments to which he acknowledges - that iAnimate is better (for him/her) because it is made to get you to be the best animator you can be, in as much time as you need.

So if anyone is reading this and have their own opinion about...
Animation Mentor vs iAnimate
Online Animation Programs
or anything else... please share your thoughts.

Another online program mentioned in the blog was AnimSchool, and I also know about animationAteam but I have yet to look into these in any detail. If anyone can shed some light on to these programs please leave a comment.

Once I get all the information I need I want to make a table/graph to illustrate the differences more clearly for myself and others who are also thinking about it.

Google Docs Animation

I love this kind of creativity! Well done to the 3 animators (Tu+ Uthaisri, Nam Doan and Arthur Metcalf) who made this.



Via Laughing Squid

Bill Plympton Interview

I remember watching Idiots and Angels at Uni and loved it. I have to confess though, I didn't know who made it, or even who Bill Plympton was. But now I know, I will be checking out more of his work. Very unique and appealing animation.

Animation Checklist

Over at the brilliant Animation Tips & Tricks blog, Mike Stern has written a thorough process he goes through to tackle important shots. It covers...

Checklist of Questions at the Launch
Checklist for Planning a Shot
Blocking
Getting Feedback
First Pass
Getting More Feedback
Pushing for the Final
Shipping it

Check it out HERE

Wikirebels Documentary

This documentary explains a lot about the currently hot topic of conversation; Wikileaks. It starts at the beginning and ends on what's recently happening. It's an interesting documentary that highlights not Julian Assange's rape charges, not Wikileaks vs USA, but more most importantly, transparency in democracy!









Be warned, you may find the end of part 2 and the beginning of part 3 very upsetting to watch.

Toy Story 3 Art Timelapse

This awesome footage of a Toy Story 3 poster timelapse, by Nico Di Mattia makes it look so easy, but he is stunningly talented!



Via Flooby Nooby

Soundtrack: Led Zeppelin - Rain Song

Animation Showreel Winter 2010

It's finally here! I've got my new showreel ready and I hope that this will be more useful to me in the new year, than my last showreel.



To celebrate the new showreel, i'm giving away 8 million pounds I updated my website!!

The Making of Aladdin

One of the awesome blogs I follow has posted the entire Making of Aladdin from YouTube in 13 parts! One of my favourite childhood films I can't wait to see it. Check it out HERE

Cartoon Brew's 2010 Christmas Gift Guide

I saw yesterday on the Cartoon Brew website, that they had published their ideas for christmas gifts. There are quite a few suggestions (about 24) and I haven't had the chance to check all of them out yet, but they do look good. Check out the article HERE


Soundtrack: Queen - Play The Game

Despicable Me: Mini Movie Collection

Recently, Illumination Entertainment have been releasing some very well made, awesome, funny mini-movies/short animations from the Despicable Me franchise (I dislike that word so much, but I think it's necessary to use). The three stories centre around the little-yellow-minions of the lead character Gru. I think my favourite so far is Banana. Check them out and say which one you think is great.







Be sure to check out more great videos on GruTube, and purchase the DVD!

KOOKY

"This film is based on the true story of a teddy bear"

This looks absolutely brilliant! I love the combination of different animation, though it looks like most of it is composited CGI.

"The English trailer for Jan Sverak’s Kuky se vrací (Kooky Returns) has been revealed. The Czech film features a mixture of live-action footage, stop-motion and puppetry."

Via Lineboil

Meet Buck

I've been waiting to see this short film for a while now. From TeamCerf, the (French Graduates) creators of Salesman Pete now comes Meet Buck. Fantastic overall style, great animation and some really nice surprises like when the car crashes through the house at 1min 34sec. Check it out...

Ultraviolet Andromeda

Date: 27 October 2010
Location: M31

Click the picture to be taken to the original site, or read on.

Ultraviolet Andromeda

Credit: UV - NASA/Swift/Stefan Immler (GSFC) and Erin Grand (UMCP)

Optical - Bill Schoening, Vanessa Harvey/REU program/NOAO/AURA/NSF

Explanation: This stunning vista represents the highest resolution image ever made of the Andromeda Galaxy (aka M31) at ultraviolet wavelengths. Recorded by NASA's Swift satellite, the mosaic is composed of 330 individual images covering a region 200,000 light-years wide. It shows about 20,000 sources, dominated by hot, young stars and dense star clusters that radiate strongly in energetic ultraviolet light. Of course, the Andromeda Galaxy is the closest large spiral galaxy to our own Milky Way, at a distance of some 2.5 million light-years. Just slide your cursor over the image to compare the appearance of this gorgeous island universe in optical light with its ultraviolet portrait.

Via Flooby Nooby

Tell No One - Lo-Fi Video Experiments

I just came across more inspiring videos under the name Tell No One, by London based film-makers Luke White and Remi Weekes. They experiment with video editing techniques and effects to produce nice visual art. Here's what they say about the idea behind it...

"Intended to be a peek into our experimental process, we hope to post our on-going ideas, inspirations and processes. Think of this as like an informal brainstorm."

Via Flooby Nooby

Abstract Animation - Michel Gagné

Michel Gagné creates stunning abstract visualisations and animations for film and music. His previous work includes Ratatouille and more recently Sensology. Very inspiring! Check them out...

Star Wars/Dr. Seuss Mashup

USA (Seattle, WA) based cartoonist Adam Watson is making a cool series of drawings in a little project he's calling "Dr. Seuss does Star Wars"



Via Flooby Nooby

Soundtrack: Skalpel - Enigma Of Skalpel

The Ultimate Dog Reference Video

Via Jean-Denis Haas

Thought Of You

There is an animation that is heavily going viral at the moment and it's fantastic to sit back and watch while it picks up attention. But I decided today that I would post a little bit about it for anyone else who hasn't had the opportunity to watch it yet.

Thought Of You was a collaborative creative effort by animator Ryan Woodward and dance choreographer Corey [unknown].

As far as I know the film is not completely finished yet. But here is 3 minutes of stunning animation.

THOUGHT OF YOU...


MAKING OF...


Furthermore, Ryan stated in a comment on Vimeo that one of his influences is from Animator/Director Michaël Dudok de Wit. To view the similarities, here is a film by Dudok de Wit called Father and Daughter...



HERE is an old interview with Ryan Woodward conducted by Randall Sly of the Character Design Blog.

For Pay or Not For Pay?

I'll keep this short and brief, but it's very important to say and I don't think anyone has said it as succinctly than Harlan Ellison...



Since graduating from Uni and trying to find my first step on the ladder to my career, I am constantly (and not alone with this struggle) faced by people who want me to work for free (this equates to the amount of time spent learning the craft, my time creating the work and the huge amount of money I have invested in both). I have so far had three people; two film-makers and a writer, come to me (not the other way round) asking for animation work to be done for free with the INCENTIVE of great publicity or money later on when investors take interest and capital begins to grow.

Now, I have just read this rule of thumb blog post by Arnie Fenner (via David Martinez), which gives some good advice to artists across the board. The last paragraph though, really stands out for me and relates to the issues artists today face with amateur, young, students doing work for free.

"Don't Work On Spec
That's not the same as doing pro-bono or charity work, both of which can and should be done as you deem appropriate. No, what I'm talking about is when someone has a simply TERRIFIC idea—but no money—and wants the artist to work some magic for them so the entrepreneur will have something to show prospective suckers...er...investors to make the project a reality. These sorts of pie-in-the-sky projects almost never come to fruition or, if they—miracle-of-miracles—do, they virtually never turn into a paycheck for the artist. Work for pay, get everything in writing, and don't fall prey to the shysters. Likewise, if someone wants to use your art, demand compensation of some sort. Harlan Ellison, in an absolutely magnificent outburst in Dreams With Sharp Teeth, talks about paying the writer: it goes the same for artists."

At times, I know it can be very difficult to make that decision; to work for free or not. But even if that free work is going to look good in the showreel or on a portfolio, we have to remember that in the long run it harms the industry for the people at the top, which I hope will one day be me!

How To Approach A Shot

An old blog post by an excellent character animator Nick Bruno, highlights a personal checklist full of useful questions to ask yourself what you need to do and look for before opening the animation software.

The points he raises are:
- Know the character
- Study the sequence
- What is the point of that moment in the shot
- Check storyboard panels
- Look around the set
- Listen to the audio
- Your own personal experience
- Draw thumbnails and experiment
- Act it out
- References
- Revise the 12 principles

There are many more he includes from his own personal experience. Check it out HERE

Via David Martinez

The Chase (Short Film)

Love the style. Love the pace. The music works very well!

Here is a short animation by Ron Doucet. He states that in the inspiration comes from Samurai Jack, Dark City and Run Lola Run. That's probably why I like this piece so much! =D Well done, nice work Ron.

Interview: Glen Keane (Disney Animator)

Check out this interview with Glen Keane who recently co-directed Tangled. He most famously animated Ariel in The Little Mermaid, the Beast in Beauty And The Beast, on Tarzan, Aladdin, Treasure Planet and more.

"Have a goal that’s worth fighting for. If you don’t, the computer is like a used car salesman. It’ll always make you walk off the lot with something you don’t want."

Via Roberto Genito