Gobelins films

It's time for the next annual batch of beautiful short films from the students of Gobelins in Paris.  Note: some of these may be Not Safe For Work.

Duel

This was posted to YouTube almost a year ago, but it's new to me. Hope it's new to you, too! Wonderfully simple staging, and clear acting with rudimentary characters. Notice how the timing and the line of action differs between the two duelists, and what that tells you about their attitudes.

Friday awesomeness

This is the only Clash of the Titans remake I approve of:

Thanks to Lineboil for the find.

Rough animation from Chomet's "The Illusionist"

I always love seeing good rough pencil animation, which is why I've subscribed to Pencil Test Depot (and you should too!).  Recently they've featured some clips from the film The Illusionist by Sylvain Chomet, who also directed The Triplets of Belleville (Belleville Rendez-Vous).  I confess I haven't seen Illusionist yet, but it sure looks beautiful, and I'm glad to see 2D animation of this caliber is still being done!

Scottish Drunk Rough from Victor Ens on Vimeo.

Sensology

I normally don't go for experimental animation (or experimental jazz) but I found this clip to be mesmerizing.  It's by animator and auther Michel Gagné, whose style you may recognize, if from no other place than the visualizations of flavors in Ratatouille. He also had a hand at designing some of the VFX in The Incredibles. He's got a wonderful sense of design, timing, and entertainment, all of which come through in this short clip. You can learn more about Michel and this clip over on Cartoon Brew, where I found it.  I suggest you watch it full screen in a dark room, and turn it up!

Perfect Imperfection

Over on Cameron Fielding's "Flip" blog there's an interesting article that analyzes arcs and spacing in real life vs. animation.  He has some really great examples of how "dirty" arcs and spacing can be in live action footage, and how this extra level of detail could bring more realism to your work.  I know I'm definitely guilty of over-polishing my arcs and spacing (and splines) from time to time.  Of course these are all choices we make based on the style of animation for a particular production and our intent in a given scene.  The info in this article wont apply to everything you do, but it's a valuable exploration of natural physics.  I also find it interesting how the arcs and spacing in the dance footage are much more "animation-like", which makes sense because I've always thought of dance as stylized movement, much like animation.  Anyway, enjoy the article!

Congratulations AM graduates!

This weekend I had the honor of attending another graduation ceremony for classes 15 and 16 of AnimationMentor.com.  It was also the 5th anniversary of the school, which I am proud to have been affiliated with since it's launch in 2005.  The gala event was held and the gorgeous Palace of Fine Arts Theater in San Francisco, walking distance from the Presidio (home of ILM and the Walt Disney Family Museum).  If that wasn't cool enough, the commencement speaker was none other than Lee Unkrich, director or Toy Story 3.  It was great to see all the excited graduates and meet a lot of my students face to face.  Congrats, guys!