Results tagged “weekend animations”

This one is a middle of the school semester edition! At least, I think that’s where we are, right? Am I close? I’ve been out of college for a little while now and I’ve lost all track of how semesters run (and don’t even ask me about quarterly semesters or those other things, I have no idea). What I do know is that December is closing in on us and that means that there are two things on the rise on college campuses across the country:

1. Coffee consumption (gotta power load on caffeine)
2. Power Studying

So I’m here to help*! We’re going to learn about chemistry by following Oxygen around the playground in a doomed attempt to play nice with the other elements. Then we’ll have a short physics lesson in Down to Earth (which also covers some basic biology, in terms of ecosystems)…kinda.

You’ll see. In any event, these videos entertain and enlighten and, I promise, they’re better than the movies you saw in school. Let’s play with Oxygen, shall we?

Oxygen
by Christopher Hendryx

The Filmmaker says:

This is Oxygen, produced at the Ringling College of Art + Design as my thesis for the department of Computer Animation.

As a recent graduate, I am hoping this film along with a number of effects I have done for other students will help me get a job doing vfx for film, tv, or games.

Visit my website at http://particleart.com to see my reel and (not quite so fantastic as this) other work!

A Short Love Story in Stop Motion
by Carols Lascano

The Filmmaker writes:

A couple of pencil-outlined birds escape from a little girl’s drawing, leading us through the life she dreams of.

You can find more about the making of at this link: http://www.carloslascano.com/

Overflowing with both style and emotion, this is yet another example of conquering both style and substance. This film has flavor. You’ll see what I mean.

If you enjoyed this one, or if you’re looking for darker fare, then you might also want to check out Carlos’s Legend of the Scarecrow [Spanish, no subtitles].

There was a time when the term “horror film” didn’t mean “gross out film.” A time when the blood, if any was shown at all, was minimal. How did that work? Instead of going for the shock moments, they gradually built up a sense of dread and unbalance. In those films you had this uneasy feeling in the pit of your stomach that things were somehow worse than even you, a member of the audience, were being led to believe.

This idea hasn’t been completely abandoned. It’s the reason why we occasionally see an “art house” horror film gain steam and make a splash across the country, like Paranormal Activity or The Blair Witch Project before it. The other way to find them is to turn to outside channels from the mainstream. My friend and fellow Suvudu blogger, SpinMatt, coordinated film screenings through his site, Shocklines, that showcased some really fun and pretty creepy international and/or smaller screen horror films. Each of them got the job done without going crazy throwing around buckets of blood (with the exception of Dog Soldiers, which was fun, tense, and bloody).

Well, in the spirit of Halloween, I’ve picked out a couple of films short animated pieces that carry on the spirit of those tense, dark films. The first has such a great execution and payoff that I don’t even want to summarize or tease it for fear of giving it away. The second one follows in the footsteps of the big monster movies. I think you’ll enjoy them.

Happy Halloween!

Hemlock
by Tyson Ibele

The film’s creator writes:

“Here’s a film I made for the latest CGSociety challenge…the theme was to adapt an ancient myth to steampunk stylings. I chose the myth about the fountain of youth for my topic.”

SPOILER WARNING: I’m putting up the spoiler warning in case any of you out there have seen a film called The Fountain. I’m reminded of that film here, but that’s only because of the ending. Finding that fountain of youth is supposed to be such a great thing, right? Well, actually…

Great job by the filmmakers here.

Let’s call today Saturday Morning Panoramas! We’re featuring two films today that examples of long panoramas that tell the story of a place and not only a character.

I enjoy stop motion work. It has a weight and tangible feeling that I haven’t yet seen replaced in digital animation. Maybe that’s an indictment of my own viewing habits, but I don’t think so. It isn’t always as smooth and polished as its animated cousins, but you can’t say it isn’t a labor of love as these shorts alone can take nearly a month to complete. Feature length movies, you can imagine, take much longer. For instance, Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, required 12 shots for every one second of finished film (source) and took a crew of 200 animators/puppeteers three years to complete (source). That’s just a thought.

Now, I don’t want to confuse you so I’ll tell you right out that the second of these isn’t stop-motion (the film making style I just rambled on about), but is a mash-up of hand drawn images being animated into that panorama-style of storytelling and I love it. I dare you not to feel inspired to create something after watching these two. Maybe it’s a drawing, a story, a tune, whatever; if you’re like me, these are the types of things that really get your creative mojo pumping. Uh, so to speak.

In any event, the videos below are fantastic and a bit of a change of pace for this humble little series of posts. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

This Is Where We Live
by 4th Estate

The Filmmakers write:

Welcome to our city - to our world - of books. This is where we live.

A film for 4th Estate Publishers’ 25th Anniversary. Produced by Apt Studio and Asylum Films.

The film was produced in stop-motion over 3 weeks in Autumn 2008. Each scene was shot on a home-made dolly by an insane bunch of animators; you can see time-lapse films of each sequence being prepared and shot in our other films.

Hello and welcome to the first episode of Saturday Morning Animations here on Suvudu! We’ve come a long way in digital animation and storytelling, as I hope this little series (I have no idea how long this will run, but I have enough to get us through this month and the next). You’re not longer tied to enormous production houses to create a digital film with high production values.

Of course, that’s not to say I’m going to restrain myself to only the slickest and most polished of productions, that would be far too limiting. The joy of finding animations across the web is in the free-for-all creativity and, as you’ll see today, you don’t have to be photo-realistic to put together a ripping good video.

To kick things off we’re starting with one video that’s so funny it had me in tears and another one that had me in awe at its storytelling from top to bottom.

Enough preamble - let’s get things started! On with the show!

Star Wars: Retold
by Joe Nicolosi

If you’re even remotely aware of the original Star Wars trilogy, then you’re probably going to get a kick out of this one. If you aren’t, then you’ll probably still get a kick out of this video. I watched it at work and ended up with tears in my eyes, a bright red face, and an office full of co-workers who were getting pretty concerned for my well-being. It’s that funny. Star Wars: Retold is a recounting of the first three movies’ story arc by someone who hasn’t actually seen the movies. It was also the winner of the ‘George Lucas Selects’ award in the 2009 Star Wars Fan Movie contest. Enjoy!