Animation Video Gallery 2010 (August)

Animation profiled here are short films whose availability this past month are either newsworthy or simply a creative cut above the rest. The following is a collection of student films, music videos, and commissioned projects. Notable animation from August 2010: an introspective peek at the diminishing conscience of a young girl, jailed for being imaginative; one of the last animation efforts by the late Satoshi Kon; and an exquisitely composed CG student film about an apprentice monk. {catch-up: "July 2010"; or search A.I.: "VidGallery_2010"}

from "The Forest"

Antonia is a twelve-year-old girl. She often daydreams. However, her surrounding environment is stifling her personal affirmation: school feels like a prison, home life is edging on abusive, and the wares of social life is devoid of individuality. This is David Scharf's "The Forest" -- produced last year -- a chronicle of one girl's fight against a corrosive urban environment {watch video}. If things get ugly in the real world, she evades her problems by escaping to a land of dreams. But the hostile outside world catches up with her, "I had ignored these problems for too long, and now they were here to seize me," she ponders.

"The Forest" is a somber but still very beautiful six-minute production, with superior 2D/CG design strategy employed by director Scharf, who created the short film at the University of Applied Sciences (Augsburg, Germany). "The Forest" won the Grand Prize in the category of Student/Graduate Short Films at SICAF 2010 (Seoul, South Korea), this past month. Visuals: David Scharf; character design: Andre Ljosaj (Augsburg, Germany); music: 48 Billion Atoms (Brighton, UK).

from "History of Greed"

The CG short "History of Greed" is a technically rich film under the conduction of Sao Paulo, Brazil-native Mauricio Dal Poggetto {watch video}. The humorous animation is about a hungry caveman on the run from a couple of innocent monkey-creatures; the caveman is eager to protect the few pieces of fruit he's managed to find. But things are looking up: the grunting and lumbering behemoth learns by accident how to plant fruit as a crop, and so begins farming trees to harvest his new source of food. As "History of Greed" continues, the caveman suddenly espies a cavewoman, and his one-track mind thus kicks into high gear.

Dal Poggetto's short film saves its most lovely punchline/kicker until the final few seconds, but is full of beautiful animation and color balance throughout. The animator/director created "History of Greed" as a student in the 3D Animation & Visual Effects program while enrolled at Vancouver Film School (Vancouver, BC); music is by 5 Alarm Music (Pasadena, CA).

Twenty-something Australian folk solo-artist Sam Buckingham's voice is delightfully soothing; her song lyrics just as gentle, as with "Gravity" {watch video}. The title track of her third album, Gravity (2009), the song is the sweet but not too sugary tale of two people who can't help but find they are drawn to one another. It helps, of course, that the music video for this song features amicable claymation blob figures. Buckingham's voice flutters with a genuine sweetness and sensitivity, helping the characters claim their emotions by track's end. Her previous albums include My Own Hoarse (2008) and Daydreamer (2006). Animation for the song was provided by DeePee Studios, also based in Australia, directed by Darcy Pendergast; animation: Michael Greaney, Seamus Spilsbury, Josh Thomas; vfx/editing: Matt Hobson; music: Sam Buckingham.

from "Ohayou"

"Ohayou" is a one-minute short film by the recently deceased Satoshi Kon {watch video}. The short film, produced in 2007, was one of more than a dozen components of a promotional collection commissioned by Japanese broadcaster NHK. The collection, AniKuri 15, solicited to fifteen popular anime directors the idea of creating a self-contained animated short only one minute in length -- there was no limit to the subject matter. Satoshi Kon chose to animate a woman waking up, rustling around her apartment.

"Ohayou" is just one clip, one scene, of one character's everyday life, but the film's visualization of the woman's somnolence with an almost phantom-like etherealness is true to Kon's style [recent A.I. news: "Remembering Satoshi Kon" (09/2010)]. Other directors who contributed to AniKuri 15: Mamoru Oshii, Makoto Shinkai, Kazuto Nakazawa, and Michael Arias.

In the student film "The Monk and The Monkey" -- completed earlier this year {watch video} -- a gutsy but compassionate apprentice monk goes in search of a sacred fruit to complete his training. Brendan Carroll and Francesco Giroldini, once students of the Ringling College of Art & Design (Sarasota, FL), generate a warm and full CG environment for their aspiring monk to climb and venture. Although the short film has a few continuity errors, the composition is exquisite and the music and sound design is perfect. Animation: Brendan Carroll and Francesco Giroldini; music: Erez Koskas; sound design: Gadi Raz and Ohad Tzachar.

from the Cartoon Network Redesign

For Cartoon Network, breathing new life into its entire brand identity, across all platforms, was no easy task. The assignment? Retain the cable channel's "visual heritage" while pursuing a fresher aesthetic that is 100-fold more adaptable, interactive, and colorful. The result is the Cartoon Network Redesign and brand expansion oozing with confidence, by the international design folks at Brand New School {watch video}.

Aging viewers accustomed to the old school checkerboard may gripe about the network's new scheduling versatility, mixing in some live-action with its animation, but Brand New School's new design sensibility for Cartoon Network does well to emphasize interconnectedness.

This interconnectedness could refer to daytime programming, distribution platforms, or even the network's organizational approach in general.

Per the video reel, Brand New School added color, complexity, and expanded the logo's usefulness with added caricatures, individually exploring the checkerboard's letter forms. Creative director: Jonathan Notaro; art directors: Eric Adolfsen and Mike Calvert; associate art director: Forest Young; music: Mad Decent and Michael Kohler.