12
Mar
08
2010
Oscars Animated Short Winner and Nominees
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WINNER: Logorama

 

Nominee: French Roast

 

Nominee: Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty

 

Nominee: La dama y la muerte (The Lady and The Reaper)

 

Nominee: Wallace and Gromit in A Matter of Loaf and Death

 

It’s no surprise that Pixar’s UP won Best Animated Feature at the Oscars, but there isn’t usually a great deal of fuss around the Best Animated Shorts. Here are the 4 nominees and overall winner. Although Logorama is very clever, after the initial novelty of seeing the world made out of corporate logos, the story doesn’t grab you as much as it could have and consequently the film could have been shorter. I thought A Matter of Loaf and Death should have won and there was unfortunately no sign of Alma which is one of the best short films of the year. It must have been overlooked by the voting panel and should have at least been given a nomination.

Dec
21
2009
The Gruffalo: Christmas Day BBC One
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The Gruffalo YouTube Trailer

The Gruffalo was created by Studio Soi and Magic Light Pictures for the BBC. The short 30 minute animated film combines both CGI and Stop-Motion techniques to create a stylistic look which is faithful to the original book

Here’s a great interview with Axel Scheffler as he talks through his initial Gruffalo book illustrations.

If you don’t manage to catch it on Christmas Day, the DVD is available now.

The Gruffalo DVD
Dir: Jakob Schuh & Max Lang
Voice Cast: James Corden, Rob Brydon, Robbie Coltrane

Aug
10
2009
Alma: a Short by Rodrigo Blaas
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Alma Short Film in HD on Vimeo

Excellent short animated film entitled Alma by Pixar animator Rodrigo Blaas

There are two main characters in the film. Mainly the girl, but also the doll shop itself, which takes it’s architectual influences from Gaudi’s House in Barcelona, to become something out of the ordinary.

Even though the film is beautifully animated and rendered, it just goes to show that a good story will leave you wanting to watch it over and over.

The film was recently shown at Siggraph 2009 in New Orleans and won the Jury Honorable Mention award.

Visit the Official Alma Website for an insight into the film.

Apr
24
2009
Short Film: Machu Picchu Post
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Machu Picchu Post Short Animation


Screenshot From Machu Picchu Post

Machu Picchu Post  is a short film created by 3 final year Supinfocom students. It tells the tale of a Peruvian boy and his pet lama and what happens when a mail plane loses some letters over the boy’s house. What stands out for me, is not only the overall design and excellent use of painterly camera mapped textures, but the cleaver direction of transitions between the normal and psychedelic worlds. The Machu Picchu Post CGsociety Article focuses on the production of the film, illustrated with concept art and wireframes. You can find more production designs on the Machu Picchu Post website.

Apr
19
2009
Pixar Short Film: Partly Cloudy
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Production Still From Pixar’s Short Film Partly Cloudy

Where do delivery storks get their babies from? This question is the basis of Partly Cloudy, the new short animated film by Pixar. The story features a stork called Peck who handles various dangerous baby animals sculptured by Gus the insecure grey cloud. Keeping with tradition, the short will be shown in cinemas proir to UP.

The CGsociety Article entitled Sky-High Talent introduces production artist Peter Sohn as a short film director at Pixar.

Feb
23
2009
Animation At The Oscar’s
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WALL.E Wins Best Animated Feature


Octapodi Just Loses Out On An Oscar

WALL.E deservedly received an Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film, but my favourites, Pixar’s Presto and Octapodi by students at Gobelins L’ecole de L’Image lose out in Best Short Film (Animated) category.

Dec
16
2008
Lost and Found Animation By Studio AKA
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Screenshot from the short film Lost and Found

Lost and Found is an award winning childrens book by Oliver Jeffers and has been adapted by Studio AKA The 25-minute CG animation, directed by Philip Hunt and narrated by Jim Broadbent will be screened for the first time on Channel 4 in the UK at 2.30pm on Christmas Eve and repeated at 12.30pm on Boxing Day. It will also be broadcast simultaneously on Channel 4 HD.

Clip of the film posted on the Studio AKA website.

Read an interview with the ocean effects designer, Rob Chapman.
Various scenes were animated by London based freelancer Boris Kossmehl

Dec
15
2008
Lost and Found Books and DVD
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Lost and Found DVD
Dir: Philip Hunt
Narrator: Jim Broadbent


Lost and Found: The Story of The Film
by Oliver Jeffers


Lost and Found
by Oliver Jeffers

Oct
01
2008
Fame and Fortune Animation By Nick Pitera
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Fame and Fortune animated short on YouTube

Excellent animation created and sung by Nick Pitera at Ringling College of Art in Florida. Nick has deservedly landed an animation position at Pixar

Jun
24
2008
Big Buck Bunny 3D Animation
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Poster For The 3D Short Big Buck Bunny



Low-Res YouTube Video. Download Hi-Res 1080p Movie here

Big Buck Bunny could easily be mistaken for a production by Blue Sky or Dreamworks, with brilliant character design, animation, lighting and above all, an excellent comedic storyline. I found this movie to be much more appealing than Blender Foundation’s previous work Elephants Dream although it is still a very well produced piece of work.

The entire production was created with the 3D Open Source Software Blender This proves that feature film quality can now be achieved by 8 guys in a room using free community based software.

Blender Foundation have released the character and scene production files for users to mess around with here

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