Apres la Pluie and other Gobelins shorts

Another stunning list of student work has just been released by the french animation school Gobelins. My personal favorite, Apres la Pluie seems to be beyond the work of students. Credited to a few students by the names of Charles-André Lefebvre, Manuel Tanon-Tchi, Louis Tardivier, Sébastien Vovau, Emmanuelle Walker, this is an animation that any studio would be proud to execute. Gratifyingly different than most animation out there, this follows an aestetic closer to Tekkonkinkreet than a Pixar movie..this is no easy task. There are a couple making of videos that show the depth of research and exploration that went into this film.

Not to be forgotten though are the other films, which all display the amazingly high standard that Gobelins has for it’s students. Another great animation worth seeing is California Love.

Apres la Pluie making of:

“Après la pluie” / Making of / Manuel Tanon-Tchi from manu tanon-tchi on Vimeo.

via Liftingfaces

Posted on 31 December 2008 by jsaunders	(28 votes: 4.96 out of 5) Comments (1)

Max Groff

Max Groff, recent graduate of the Art Center College of Design, has a portfolio brimming with beautiful work.  Don’t miss the videos sprinkled throughout his site, including the entertaining Fossil Fools, created with fellow students Kenny Ceron, Jun Kwak, Michael Relth and Calvin Prieto.

On the design side, Max shows great acumen for compositional balance bolstered by his bold, jewel-toned palettes. On the directing side, I love that Max isn’t afraid to make cuts and vary his shots in order to further the story. Most young animators are ruled by the tyranical desire to tell every story in one long shot. Max knows better.

Thanks for the tip, Cody!

Posted on 16 December 2008 by justin	(6 votes: 4.33 out of 5) Comments (3)

Visionale Trailer

A group of German students from the University of Applied Sciences in Damstadt created this polished trailer (sorry, couldn’t resist the pun) for the visionale08 festival in Germany.

There’s some superb character animation, fantastic attention to detail, and each vignette flows nicely to the next—all making for a very pleasant bit of viewing.

Credits

Posted on 7 December 2008 by justin	(16 votes: 4 out of 5) Comments (1)

Bastiaan van Rooden: Border

Vancouver Film School student Bastiaan van Rooden put his character animation skills to the test in his short film, “Border,” which required Bastiaan to pump personality into both an alien and a robotic gate. Bastiaan worked hard to create some chuckle-worthy points in the narrative while keeping the overall story simple and clean.

Oh, and notice the lipstick at the end? It appears our alien friend leads a secret life…

Posted on 3 December 2008 by justin	(8 votes: 3.13 out of 5) Comments (0)

Michael Glen: Latte?

For Michael Glen’s final project in animation and interactive media at RMIT University Australia, he developed a unique and quirky look for his short film, “Latte?”

The narrative is a surreal tale of competition from the dawn of capitalism in the imagined Eastern European town of Annexia. The Borat-like pidgin English of the film’s stars and their obsession with outdated modes of “stylings” add to its weirdly charming brand of humor.

The credit sequence at the film’s conclusion gives you a little peek at the technique Michael used to create his characters.

UPDATE: Michael has put together a great motion capture tutorial using Maya and Boujou.

Posted on 1 December 2008 by justin	(13 votes: 2.92 out of 5) Comments (0)

Tim Lovett/Oddfew: LUNATIK

LUNATIK, Tim Lovett’s final film for his animation degree at The Queensland University of Technology in Australia, mixes an edgy soundtrack with a fiercely cross-media approach for a disturbing stream-of-consciousness trip to the edges of sanity.

The film tumbles from scene to scene, shifting suddenly between internal “imagined” places and external “real” places. Although it was ostensibly for Tim’s animation degree, it sports some excellent editing and camera work.

Reese Sachse nailed the soundtrack. The play between his work and Tim’s drives the piece frantically forward.

Posted on 20 November 2008 by justin	(26 votes: 3.92 out of 5) Comments (2)

Iran: A Nation of Bloggers

Four international students at Vancouver Film School, Aaron Chiesa, Hendy Sukarya, Lisa Temes and Toru Kageyama created a thought-provoking short film entitled “Iran: a nation of bloggers” for their final term 3 project.

I have a penchant for posting visual essays, and this one is on a topic I knew next to nothing about. The primary thrust of the project is that blogging is a cultural outlet for thousands of Iranians, despite it being a sometimes dangerous practice. Blogging is, in essence, a means of revolution.

Visually, the project benefits from restraint. The visuals are completely justified by the script, with very little eye candy and a deadpan seriousness befitting the subject matter. That doesn’t keep them from being entertaining and engaging, though.

Posted on 19 November 2008 by justin	(27 votes: 4.26 out of 5) Comments (6)