NoFilmSchool » animation

25 Years in 25 Minutes: Behind the Scenes of Pixar with John Lasseter

Ryan Koo — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 02:24:19 +0000

Disney has released a 25-minute documentary following Pixar chief/director John Lasseter over the course of a day of work. I know, I know, this isn’t DIY/indie film at all, but come on… everyone loves Pixar. Except maybe the Cars movies, for which this is being released as a promo — the Cars films are, for me at least, a tad crass with their commercialism. And while the first part of the doc is mostly focused on Lasseter’s personal life, it does get into the group movie making/creative process at Pixar — which includes reviewing shots on an iPad on the way to work in what looks to be a custom Pixar app (note: driver required). I found it to be an interesting look behind-the-scenes, but if you only interested DIY filmmaking, feel free to skip this free 25-minute documentary: (more…)

Short of the Week Presents™ Launches with 'A Family Portrait,' Brings Greater Exposure to Short Films

Ryan Koo — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 23:27:21 +0000

The terrific crew over at Short of the Week has launched Short of the Week Presents™, a curated series of shorts premiering online. SotW helps with with online launch planning and by bringing media and industry connections to the table. It’s open for anyone to submit; here’s “A Family Portrait,” their ~~first~~ third curated launch (other than their own Thomas Beale Cipher), a deservedly award-winning rotoscoped film by Joseph Pierce: (more…)

DIY Animator M dot Strange Returns with 'Heart String Marionette'

Ryan Koo — Mon, 09 May 2011 18:06:46 +0000

As you know, this site is about DIY filmmaking and independent creativity, and few filmmakers are a better example of these pursuits than fellow 25 New Face M dot Strange, who self-distributed his animated feature We are the Strange in 2007. Now he’s back with a trailer for his new project, Heart String Marionette. More than just an atmospheric Tim Burton-esque trailer, the video also includes a call-out to an associated product that speaks volumes about forging an independent DIY career: (more…)

Joanna Lurie's Atmospheric 'The Silence Beneath the Bark' Mixes 2D Photo Textures with 3D Characters

Ryan Koo — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 16:35:12 +0000

With so much ongoing coverage of NAB, it’s easy to get lost in the technical side of filmmaking. I don’t want to give the storytelling side short shrift, however, so here’s the evocative and beautiful dialogue-free animated short “The Silence Beneath the Bark,” which was shortlisted for an Oscar this year. Joanna Lurie filtered and modified photos in Adobe Photoshop to create abstract, textured backgrounds, and then brought to life animated 3D characters. It’s easy to forget about the technical details and get lost in the fictional setting, however — as it should be: (more…)

Short of the Week's 'The Thomas Beale Cipher' and Festival vs. Online Distribution

Ryan Koo — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 16:23:13 +0000

I meant to post this months ago, but like so many stories on this under-staffed (single-staffed) site, it slipped through the cracks. Then the NewTeeVee article Forget Festivals, Go Online Instead re-brought it to my attention, and so here it is: if you haven’t already seen The Thomas Beale Cipher, the animated short directed by Andrew S. Allen and produced by Jason Sondhi (both from Short of the Week), here’s the 10-minute texture-tastic mystery in full: (more…)

Ruairi Robinson's Live Action/CGI Short 'Blinky™' Makes You Rethink the Roomba

Ryan Koo — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 20:58:49 +0000

Oscan-nominated Irish animator Ruairi Robinson directs this 13-minute short starring Where the Wild Things Are‘s Max Records, in which robotic home companionship comes with a price. Don’t be fooled by the smiling face: this isn’t G-rated. (more…)

World's Smallest Stop-Motion Animation 'Dot' Stars 3D-Printed Characters

Ryan Koo — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 18:52:35 +0000

The filmmakers behind Wallace and Gromit have created what is billed as “the smallest stop-motion animation ever.” Shot on a CellScope attached to a Nokia N8, and with a main character standing at 0.35 inches short, I don’t think anyone’s going to argue their claim. The main character, aptly named “Dot,” was too small to animate with standard stop-motion techniques, so the filmmakers employed a new strategy: they used a 3D printer to print out 50 different poses, and replaced her in each frame. Check out the ingenious result: (more…)

Malcolm Sutherland's Hand-drawn Short 'Umbra'

Ryan Koo — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 20:39:56 +0000

“Umbra” is the latin word for “shadow”, and makes for a fitting title for Malcolm Sutherland’s enchanting short. Malcolm was recently selected to provide an animated promo for the Vimeo Festival + Awards, and I found the Canadian animator’s latest to be an immersive and otherworldly 5-minutes, worth watching more than once: (more…)

Banksy Animates The Simpsons Opening

Ryan Koo — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 12:27:02 +0000

Last night’s episode of The Simpsons featured an opening directed by none other than street artist Banksy. In the opening, Banksy sends up the Simpsons’ long-standing practice of outsourcing their animation overseas to Korean production company Akom by portraying Asian laborers animating the sequence and manufacturing Simpsons schwag: (more…)

Desktop Effects Have Come a Long Way: Russian Transformers Shot on a Canon T2i

Ryan Koo — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 20:07:08 +0000

This DIY Russian “adaptation” of Michael Bay’s Transformers was shot in two hours and edited in a month. Despite it copying the worst Hollywood has to offer (the second Transformers was one of the least-entertaining action films I’ve ever seen, and I’m not the only one to think that — it has a 20% rating on Rotten Tomatoes), props to these guys. Presumably they will get paid effects work out of this demo, and in that regard it’s a good calling-card type of project. Remember when you used to need a room-sized computer to do this kind of stuff? Shot on a Canon T2i (known as the 550D overseas) and Nikon D5000, animated in 3ds Max. (more…)

Pixel - a pixel art documentary

Ryan Koo — Wed, 26 May 2010 13:20:39 +0000

Pixel art, along with its musical counterpart the chiptune, describes a game, video, or song produced on old computer equipment (or produced to seem like it was produced on old computer equipment). I suppose pixel art is no different from any revivalist pursuit, but there’s something uniquely funny about designing for a 192×160 screen (which is less resolution than the image at left) in an era of 1080p (and higher) resolution content. In an era of over-produced pop stars and slick but empty movies, perhaps that’s exactly the point! Simon Cottee’s 10-minute documentary on pixel art makes for an interesting follow-up to the retro-yet-high-tech short PIXELS posted here a couple weeks ago. (more…)

PIXELS by Patrick Jean: soon to be an Adam Sandler feature?

Ryan Koo — Fri, 14 May 2010 20:33:44 +0000

For whatever reason I’ve been featuring a lot of animated shorts here lately, and considering they’re averaging about 0.37 comments per post, why stop now? Patrick Jean’s eye-catching animated short PIXELS came out a month ago, but now there’s news that it is being adapted into a feature by Adam Sandler’s production company Happy Madison. Something tells me I’ll end up liking the original more… (more…)

The Terrible Thing of Alpha-9

Ryan Koo — Fri, 14 May 2010 13:59:11 +0000

Animator Jake Armstrong spent a year and a half animating this six-minute short in Flash. You’d never know, because there’s nothing “labored” about it. A thesis film at SVA, Armstrong said of the film that he thought it would be much better with music; I think one of the best parts is the relative silence (they’re in space, after all!). (more…)

The Return of John Frum

Ryan Koo — Thu, 13 May 2010 13:22:52 +0000

The animation in this short by Christian Schlaeffer is amazing. The story… well, I’m not sure you can call it a “story.” If you take illegal substances as a method of escape and/or enhancement, you might want to do so before watching this surreal and gorgeous short! Viewed sober, it doesn’t make a hell of a lot of sense. Which is exactly what made me want to watch it a second time… (more…)

Moviestorm: machinima minus the video game part

Ryan Koo — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 16:00:48 +0000

No one’s going to make a (good) feature with this, but there’s definitely room in the toolbox for a cheap and fast 3D renderer like Moviestorm. For generating secondary content or doing pre-visualizations, Moviestorm could be yet another filmmaking tool that’s disruptive from a price standpoint (costs $8/month):

[via Mashable]

Short: Pivot

Ryan Koo — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:00:13 +0000

I find motion-captured performances (see: Robert Zemeckis’ CGI films) to be comparatively lifeless when measured against hand-animated fare (see: all of Pixar’s movies). The Netherlands-based crew behind Pivot employ a low-poly look not just to give their short style, but to make their characters expressive.

[via Short of the Week]

Seen: Rejected

Ryan Koo — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 17:00:59 +0000

I can’t imagine why the Family Learning Channel would reject these. NSFW if you consider excessive cartoon gore to be NSFW. (more…)