2023 Reel

Anime Rock Opera

This one got a pretty good review in The Guarian (four stars): Inu-oh review – medieval anime rock opera rips Noh theatre a new one

New NFB Treasures

The National Film Board of Canada has been producing many great animations for decades. This one is part documentary, part animation, maybe visual poetry mixed in?

The Storm, Monica Kidd, provided by the National Film Board of Canada

There is more where that came from: https://www.nfb.ca/animation/

2D Animation for Cinephiles

Gkids distribution, which brough the hit "Belle" to cinemas last year, has released a trailer for their upcoming 2D animated movie "Pompo the Cinephile"

Once again via BoingBoing

#StandWithUkraine

«the hearts of the living will always ache for the thousands of innocent #souls killed»

Volunteer animation artists of #Ukraine conveyed all the pain that they feel over these 42 days of war.

Disney goes to Mars

A bit of Disney tekevision history, an ABC presentation on NBC

While fascinating the whole time, the various marttian creature at seven minutes are, well, out of this world, and there is a kind of animated short included at 13 minutes.

GLAS 2022 Portfolio Reviews & More

Glass Animation festival has some free events you can sign up for:

Looking for your next gig to be a director, starboard artist, character designer or other animation professional and interested in having some of the industry’s top recruiters take a peek at your work? Please take a moment to fill out this form and we’ll get your portfolios in front of their eyes. No matter what stage you are in your career, all portfolio submissions are welcome. Please note that call backs are not guaranteed. LINK TO FILL OUT FORM HERE

You’ve been working hard on your portfolio and you’re dying to work in the animation industry. You want to be a storyboard artist, a background designer, concept artist, animator, layout artist, but don’t know where to start. How do I know what to put in my portfolio? Is it better to be a generalist or a specialist? What are recruiters looking for? This panel with some of the industry’s top recruiters will answer all your questions and provide insights into getting the gig you’ve been dreaming about. Panelists Brooke Keesling (Bento Box Entertainment) Melanie Young (Nickelodeon) Lou Bones (Psyop) Patty Willert (Warner Bros. Animation, Cartoon Network Studios) Moderated by: Terrence Masson (SVA) FREE FOR EVERYONE Click HERE to register!

You’ve been working so hard on this new idea. You can tell that this is the one. You’ve never been more excited. Now, you just have to pitch it. Pitching can often be a confusing process for filmmakers. Who do you pitch to? Is this idea appropriate for TV or would it work better as a short film? Is the network looking for work in this genre? I hear Europe has funding for shorts, can I get in on that? I wish someone could give me a straightforward answer! Have no fear, this panel will elucidate the many facets of putting together the perfect pitch. In this conversation, a range of executives, talent managers, and producers will go in-depth on the ins and outs of pitching across the spectrum: from TV series to independent short films. Panelists Jayro Giron ((Director of Series, Warner Bros. Animation) ) Lou Bones (Creative Talent Director, Psyop) Meghan Bradley (Director of Development at Cartoon Network Studios) Jason McConnell (Vice President of Animation Development for Nickelodeon & Paramount Animation) Moderated by: Jeanette Jeanenne (GLAS) Click HERE to register.

Animation Loop cerated mainly in Krita

Big Guy, Small Fella from Wobbe on Vimeo.

Stop Motion Animators and their Puppets

Very interesting thread on Twitter

Paint on Walls Animation

And nt just the walls, all srufaces in the room are fair game. I had seen this one before, but enjoyed it again when it was redently posted to Boing Boing
 

 
Now you might think that was a lot of work. There is more where that came from: blublu.org. The above is actually just a small part of this much longer animation:
 

2D Animation Grows Up

Check out this article in the Guardian: Life drawing: why is adult animation bigger than ever? and see there still is a furture for 2D animation

Playing With Krita

Can we wrap our heads around why man can be so attached to their cars?

Rendering frames the hard way

If you think the current group animation is taking forever to render, compare it to this process:

The making of 'The Tapestry' - BBC World Cup 2018 from Xander Hart on Vimeo.

Here is the result:

The Tapestry - BBC World Cup 2018 from Xander Hart on Vimeo.

Worth the effort?

Animation Reels

    Hey everyone, here are two really good demo reels that I found online. The first one is an Animation reel that features primarily 3D work. It is around 2 minutes and 30 seconds long and I really enjoy the different models that he showcases throughout his work. He also handles the audio throughout the reel very well because the different clips he shows have their own sound in them so you do not want the music to overpower the original audio in the video. The second reel is by Joanna Davidovich. She has a variety of professional work assembled from her freelance jobs over years and also some of her own self work. She references below a shot list with details of what she did for each clip and gives thanks to the different studios that allowed her to us the work she did. The thing I enjoyed the most about both of these reels was the variety of clips and how it was displayed. The different styles allow the viewer to see the artist is not just one dimensional and can express their work in multiple mediums.

First Reel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYGjnuK8nYo

Second Reel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsP8_H_65yk

Animation Reels!

 Heyya, everyone, Alyssa here to bring you a couple of demo reels that I personally found interesting to look at. I found these all from an animation subreddit of people ranging from students to professionals sharing their works through demo reels and other methods. Here they are:

Owen Smith - First Person Animation Reel 2020

This one is from Owen Smith, and this one primarily focuses on his capabilities with first-person animation. I have plenty of nice things to say about it, especially in the presentation. A lot of times with these styles of animations, it can get monotonous real fast when you're just watching various guns being shot over and over again. However, he keeps it dynamic by changing up the background by making it animated and changing color per gun as well (a demo reel I decided not to show here had the problem of having a monotonous background in these demonstrations). The main critique I have, however, is the use of copyrighted material. Although he credits it all at the end, he uses a Rolling Stones song and various sound effects from other video games for the gun sounds. I also do not know what those projects were for initially. It would have also been nice to indicate which of the model credits go where, and it can be done in the description of the video. Overall, way to make what could be a monotonous specialty to display more interesting!

Sarah Abbott Demo Reel Fall 2020

This next one is from Sarah Abbott, a 2D animator. She really does a good job with music choice, prioritizing her best work in the front, and giving a brief variety with her projects. There is a perfect amount of time spent on each animation, and they each have a purpose and reason for fitting on the reel. My critiques for this one I'll keep brief: in the section with the dialogue, one of the character's lines get awkwardly cut off mid-speech and it's a little jarring on an editing standpoint. She could have cut it off before that character started the line. In addition, I cannot tell what role she had in these animations, whether she did some aspects of it or all of it. Those can be recorded in the description as well, so it can be easier to tell from someone looking at this in an internship standpoint what she did. Either way, I found this animation to be relatively smooth (with the exception of that one editing mistake) and displays the variety of what she can do.

David Han - Character Animation Reel

Time for a professional one to end it off. This is David Han, a professional character animator who has worked on numerous studio films, and won an Annie for his character animation work on Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse. I thought it would be intriguing to include an accomplished professional on this list to see how a professional does a character reel. It's clear that he has a specific style in his character animations, with a lot of the scenes in display being action-heavy scenes with a few more toned down scenes in the mix (such as the segments with dialogue from Storks and Into the Spiderverse). I also found it interesting that he included play-blasts as well to demonstrate an aspect of his process un-rendered. In the description, he says that this is a "for funsies" version of a demo reel, but the way that the content is included and the fun framing device for the reel can serve as inspiration. Again, music is from a video game so we need to make sure to avoid those styles of music for our personal projects. Either way, this is definitely one to look at. 

That's all I have for now, and I'm looking forward to putting together mine for what's to come!

Alyssa out!

The Horror of Gekimation

For all of you who love Japanese animation, or who enjoy painstakingly painted cutout animation, the first ever Gekimation feature length movie has been released. On Blu-Ray.

Read more in today's The Guardian: 'Gekimation': Japan takes a post-Ghibli leap into another dimension

MetroCAF 2020 Tomorrow!

This is your chance to see the best computer animations created last year by students in our area, and this year it is free and you do not need to come into the city.

MetroCAF 2020 will premiere this Thursday at 7:30 PM as an on-line presentation at https://metrocaf.org/metrocaf/2020/show/

Acid

This animation is playing at the Ottowa International Animation Festival.

Rick and Morty Exquisite Corpse from Matt Taylor on Vimeo.

Senior Show Animation

Did I really not post this yet?

Virtual Senior Show!

Red Giant After Effects Plug-ins now free for students

Red Giant Complete is now free for students and educators at a high school, university, or college. Complete includes Trapcode Suite, Magic Bullet Suite, Universe, VFX Suite, and Shooter Suite. Read the article on No Film School