Today is a sad day because we’re presenting the tenth and final selection in this year’s Cartoon Brew Student Animation Festival, but it’s a happy day because we’re debuting the excellent Peter and the Space Between by Sitji Chou, a recent graduate of Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Chou’s film—”about a man who tries to understand the futility of creating human connections when they have been impeded by the microcosmic void between material particles”—addresses a difficult topic with artfulness and poignancy. The elongated and sharply angular design of Peter suggests visual distress in a German Expressionist mold, and the experimental effects animation and abstract graphics communicate Peter’s inner thoughts better than any literal character animation could possible do so. The minimalist score and sound design by Raphael Choi hits the right tone and adds another layer of meaning to this thoughtful short.

Sitji (pictured above) shared these thoughts on the creation of Peter & the Space Between:

The process of making this film was really difficult. I changed my mind so many times, and I lost about 4 months working on other film ideas before I finally decided on this one. The change came from an idea when I watched Jumpers, a documentary about people committing suicide on the Golden Gate Bridge. There were interviews with survivors who cited that before they hit the water, they changed their minds about their decision. I thought this was a beautiful idea because it deals with an acceptance of the things you commit to, the fleeting confidence you have with something and the futility of trying to change the situation. When you make a decision, sometimes you have to stick with it. At the same time as when I watched this, I was also randomly learning about physics, and was inspired by the spacial void between molecules and people. I thought it was really neat but at the same time really tragic that there is this physical distance between people.

I tried to make it so that each time you watched it, you would see, or hear something different, or understand more of it. At first, it’s kind of overwhelming with the visuals and the dialogue, but when you let the film wash over you, I wanted the feelings of futility and loneliness to translate through. I think my biggest challenge was to make the dialogue not too confusing, but at the same time, complex enough so that it takes another viewing to fully understand it.

Since I lost so much time at the beginning of my production, I needed to find an animation technique I knew I could do quickly and cleanly. I decided to use Photoshop and animate with the lasso tool, using After Effects to do my compositing. The sound design was provided by Raphael Choi, a very talented friend I knew from high school. He really helped me pull it together and we discussed how the more elaborate the images and escapist Peter’s attitude, the more musical the sound becomes.

Fun fact: I watched every episode of Futurama while making my film! My favourite episode is “Jurassic Bark”.

I really hope you enjoy the film! It was amazing to make, and I had a lovely and supportive team helping me the entire process.

Filmmaker Website
Chou’s website: Sitji.com
Chou’s blog: Sitji Chou Production Blog

Cartoon Brew’s second annual Student Animation Festival is made possible through the generous support of Titmouse and JibJab.

The ninth selection in our Student Animation Festival, Sheared, was created by Nikolas Ilic, a recent graduate of Canada’s Sheridan College. Sheared may be the most traditional animated short in our program this year and we mean that in the best way possible. Hand-drawn, funny and cartoony, there is no denying the superior level of storytelling skill achieved in this mere 90 seconds of twisted, poetic justice. Ilic’s character designs and layouts, though inspired by past masters, look fresh and exciting. There isn’t a wasted frame; it’s a sharply timed and thoroughly delightful visual experience. (Elliot J. Marshall’s original score and sound effects work are equally deserving of praise).

Nikolas (pictured above) offered some thoughts on the creation of Sheared:

Going into my final year of Animation at Sheridan College, my main goal was to make a film that was visually appealing to the audience. The question was what story would I create to accomplish my vision. I knew I wanted to make a comical film. I first started creating characters from different time periods. From the Vikings to the Romans to the Greeks . I kept on drawing pages upon pages until I came across some Scottish characters I enjoyed and started putting them into a scenario. At first I was going to have a Scottish rock throwing competition between two Scots. I then drew a sheep and something clicked. I thought to myself wouldn’t it be funny to see a Scottish farmer struggling with his sheep and that is how the idea evolved. Ever since then sheep drawings never stopped. Doing the pre production for the film was a lot of fun. I did a lot of exploring within the characters and designs. Deciding on the Farmers kilt was definitely a challenge as there were so many color options. I also had to keep in mind I would be animating it traditionally so I could only push it so far. It was very enjoyable to shape the final outcome of the film. Since my main focus was design, this phase was definitely very fun and rewarding to do.

The next step I took was thumb nailing out my film. I did about three passes at it before I went into production. I found that the sooner you stick with an idea, something will evolve out of it , even though there are times you want to start from scratch. Once I was in production ,there was a lot of late nights. Making your own film is definitely a challenge, not only artistically but mentally as well. You have to be very organized and good at time management. I thank a lot of my fellow colleagues for pushing me and also for some good critiques. I definitely grew as an artist by making many mistakes and learning from them. Early on, I decided the film would be animated traditionally as well as the clean up since I was most comfortable with it. There were times where I was considering doing it digitally but thought I would stick with the roots we have been taught at Sheridan. Making this film was an awesome experience and wish I could make another. To have complete control of a whole film is something you don’t get very often. I am now a graduate of the Sheridan Animation BA program and excited to see my career possibilities. I hope people get a laugh out my film and ultimately enjoy it throughout.

Filmmaker Website
Nik’s blog: Nikolas-Ilic.blogspot.com

Cartoon Brew’s second annual Student Animation Festival is made possible through the generous support of Titmouse and JibJab.

The eighth selection in our Student Animation Festival, Playing For Keeeps, comes to us from Dylan Hayes who graduated last spring from the Rhode Island School of Design. Playing For Keeeps is both witty and violent, primitive and sophisticated, and through all its strangeness, surprisingly poignant. Hayes uses hand-drawn animation to startling effect, creating a stark, ominous environment with a minimalist drawing style. The motivations of each of the film’s characters is crystal clear, yet the message one takes away is open to viewer interpretation. Perhaps a clue lies in Hayes’s film synopsis, in which he outlines the rules of his world:

Lesson 1. Everyone gambles, not everyone loses.
Lesson 2. The world is full of traps.
Lesson 3. You cannot win if you don’t take risks

Hayes (above) wrote these background notes on the creation of Playing For Keeeps:

It’s hard for me to pinpoint exactly where this project started off. When I returned to RISD in the fall, I knew I vaguely wanted to work with the ideas of risk taking and gambling for my Degree Project, but wasn’t sure where to go with it. I ended up making a lot of visual maps, and became interested in opposing concepts like frugality and risk taking, passivity and aggressiveness, and the idea of traps, rituals, and relationships. I was also reading about a lot about various mythologies, specifically, how life, death, spirits and the afterworld are perceived by cultures in New Guinea and Haiti, the world of Vodou, and a little bit of Japanese folklore to top it off. I wasn’t interested in recreating or depicting these traditional myths so much, but in creating my own mythos with its own rules, structure, and logic.

I spent most of the year doing little animation sketches and doodles, comics, songs, whatever, around all of these concepts, started making connections, and basically began fabricating a story about these four beings in a forest. I didn’t get around to actual real production until February, which admittedly, is later than I would have preferred. A lot of that early experimentation and basically procrastination of “real work” came from my fear to commit to a project, especially a year-long project, but in the end it worked out great because it allowed me to really explore these ideas and characters. The further you go you just keep discovering more and more relationships between seemingly disconnected concepts, which was really exciting for me.

As for the actual production of the animation, the whole piece was hand drawn in pencil, occasionally painted, and then all of the masking, compositing, and general post production was done with a combination of After Effects and Photoshop. I’m a big fan of the aesthetic of pencil drawings, and didn’t want to lose the physical, personal feeling you get when flipping through someone’s sketchbook. The sound design, which is the real fun part, was either recorded live or created in Ableton Live, usually a combination of the two. Other than that, this was a crazy piece to work on (and get in on time), but it was a good project that really pushed my own reservations in commitment and risk taking. I’m not exactly sure what’s next, but something science fiction might be on the horizon. Or maybe more ghosts?

Filmmaker Websites
Dylan Hayes website: Haaaay.com
Dylan Hayes blog: Ahayhoy.blogspot.com

Cartoon Brew’s second annual Student Animation Festival is made possible through the generous support of Titmouse and JibJab.

The seventh film in our Student Animation Festival, The Story Of A Nice Girl, comes to us from Jean Yi who produced it at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore.

Yi’s film is an animated therapy session that reflects raw, real feelings in a perfectly charming way. Part of that charm comes from her vocal track which connects the viewer immediately to her story, her conversational performance being powerfully authentic and engaging. Her line drawings are deceptively simple. She draws herself as a simple stick figure, while others are drawn with more heft and personality. She uses color sparingly and for effect: gray lines for action or fantasy creations, pink for her band-aid, full color for her live “hand”. All this adds up to a perfectly satisfying autobiographical short that’s personal, sweet and yeah, dare I say it… nice.

Yi (above) provided us with some background on making The Story Of a Nice Girl:

Every now and then for the past year I wonder why I chose this subject for my thesis piece. As I’ve heard from a number of people, my animation is incredibly personal. Sometimes I still can’t believe I leapt from wanting to do something simply pretty to doing an animation where I’m narrating and drawing myself. Actually, being able to do a personal project initially sounded like an exciting once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I jumped at the chance. Unfortunately in my hasty naivety, I did not correctly account for the fact that I abhor drawing myself and hearing my own voice. Fortunately, 23 years of living have armed me with both tolerance and a self-belittling sense of humor. I have spent the majority of the past year bouncing between regretting my decision and being spurred on to finish such a tremendous project.

Just in case you were unsure, my animation is about me. My film even mirrors my ‘nice-ness.’ My story isn’t trying to pin anything on anyone. It’s just me trying to show a snippet of my life. I’m trying to share something that people can relate to and can take something away from. Yet at the same time, I’m not trying to force it down anyone’s throat. Through its many forms and evolution, I see my thesis struggling to find balance like I am. In my pessimistically hopeful way, I doubt my film and yet still hope that it shares something.

I’ve always been interested in how people react to my ‘nice-ness.‘ I think at first I come off as being amicable, polite, and on the shy side. Once people start seeing me as a ‘nice’ girl though, things usually get amusing. Some people, who were at times also called ‘nice,’ see a fellow peer they can be a little mean to. There are also people who read my nice-ness with mistrust and suspicion. Of course there are always those who watch out for us and make sure we don’t get ourselves into trouble the way nice people do. The ones I find most amusing though are the ones who want to see me angry. The popular request in middle school was asking me to repeat a swear word or to yell loudly for no reason. These different reactions and their variations have always been a big part of being ‘nice’ for me. They bring out certain sides of people and help me in turn figure myself out. If it weren’t for those kids in elementary school, I would have never developed my ‘why yell when punching is faster?’ policy.

Filmmaker Websites:
Check out Jean Yi’s sketch blog and her portfolio.

Cartoon Brew’s second annual Student Animation Festival is made possible through the generous support of Titmouse and JibJab.

The sixth film in our Student Animation Festival, The Fisherman, comes to us from Ferg Brennan who produced it at the Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art Design and Technology in Dublin, Ireland.

The film is an incredible piece of theater, a dark psychological drama with an exquisite monologue performed by Irish actor Diarmuid De Faoite. Brennan’s CG animation fits the narrative perfectly, and his stylized design of the lead character captures the manic despair of the lonely, lower class fisherman. It’s the acting, by both voice actor and animator, that pulls the film together—and (pardon the pun) reels the viewer totally in. The film’s sophistication stands apart with its powerful portrayal of a man facing his own madness.

Brennan (above) provided us with some background on making The Fisherman:

The thing I was most apprehensive about was working with an actor for the first time. The idea of having somebody else reading lines that I had written was intimidating, however Diarmuid made it easy for me by being so gracious and professional. The bulk of the narration is a contiguous section of the first take- he basically nailed it first time which was a huge relief. The recording happened in a makeshift sound booth constructed by some friends of mine, whose band had some audio equipment. I was nervous about the sound quality but they did a great job and we were able to create a professional atmosphere despite the fact that it all took place in a booth covered with duvets in the corner of a living room.

The story is inspired by the Irish myth of “The Salmon of Knowledge”, in which a character gains “all of the world’s knowledge” by eating a special salmon. I liked the idea of taking an idea from an old story with a uniquely Irish identity, but then completely imposing my own artistic sensibilities onto it. It was also important to me that a viewer wouldn’t have to get all the references to find the film engaging, so I tried to emphasize the character and the emotional content.

I’d be interested to hear what people think of the film, and happy to answer any questions.

Filmmaker Websites:
Check out Ferg Brennan’s personal website, his Fisherman’s blog and this link to his other films.

Cartoon Brew’s second annual Student Animation Festival is made possible through the generous support of Titmouse and JibJab.

We’re back from our Comic-Con hiatus with the fifth film in our Student Animation Festival. The Impossible Moon comes to us from Meinardas Valkevičius who produced it at the Vilniaus Academy of Arts in Lithuania.

The Impossible Moon asks the audacious question, Was the Apollo 11 moon landing a hoax? Conspiracy theories have floated around for decades, but Valkevičius succeeds in refreshing the controversy by avoiding a pedantic conspiracist approach. His cockeyed glance at the topic is funny and good-natured, and casually raises questions in an entertaining package. The incorporation of documentary footage is an inspired touch, and the dramatic heft is heightened by Valkevičius’s cinematic approach to filmmaking and exquisite sound design.

As much as we like the film though, we probably won’t be showing it to Buzz Aldrin anytime soon.

Meinardas (above) provided us with detailed production notes about how he made The Impossible Moon:

Film creation process took around two years. Everything started back in 2009, when I was studying my third year at the Academy and taking the directing course. I was discussing possible topics for animation films with my lecturer. Unexpectedly the topic changed to the Moon and the possibility of a fictional landing on it in 1969. This idea struck me and I started researching the topic intensively.

I managed to find tons of information about it on the Internet. NASA was celebrating its 40th Moon landing anniversary that year. I’ve looked through as many movies as possible and understood that the topic is really valuable due to continuing interest in it. All the people I’ve been talking to about the landing on the Moon were excited and highly engaged in the discussion. All this motivated me and I was excited realizing that my movie will raise even more questions than answers and people will be forced to question the reality after seeing my movie’s funny interpretation of the various landing details.

The next step was drawing sketches. By 2010, I had gathered loads of information and written around forty versions of the script. I was getting advices from people around me, especially my lecturers. It all led to the start of experiments with the animation itself. I had already had the characters drawn at that time, although they’ve been constantly updated throughout production. Next, I made a storyboard, which was very long. In fact, after creating the animatic I realized that it was even longer than 10 minutes, so I cut some scenes out and changed the script so I could complete the movie by the diploma deadline.

The movie was created using Photoshop, Flash and After Effects. The longest stage was the script, which took over a year to produce. Production (animation, illustration, sound) took an additional 9 months. The sound for the movie was being created at the same time with the help of the sound director Meinardas Brazaitis. I was updating him constantly with the newest animatic version and we were both trying different sounds. Sound effects in the movie were created professionally as well as the main sound track “Selling Dreams,” which was created by the London band called Besureis after I showed them the movie trailer and they became really interested in the idea.

The most exciting production stage for me is the animation itself, especially character animation. If you look closely, you’ll notice that every character has his own unique features—one is calm, another very optimistic and the third one is a little foolish. I also tried to create their visual look according to the real astronauts.

Lastly, I decided to add real documentary fragments, which brought my movie even closer to the reality. The whole movie design is targeted at a wide audience, whether you are young or old, intelligent or just starting to understand the world. Therefore I wanted it to be colorful, with Hollywood-style sound effects and vivacious story.

Filmmaker Websites
Meinardas Valkevičius’s portfolio website and blog

Cartoon Brew’s second annual Student Animation Festival is made possible through the generous support of Titmouse and JibJab.

The fourth film in Cartoon Brew’s Student Animation Festival is a monstrous achievement—quite literally. Blenderstein! by Zach Bellissimo was produced at New York’s School of Visual Arts. The film draws upon an appreciation of classic horror movies and traditional animation principles, but Zach also adds a personal voice that is completely original. There are many highlights—funny character animation, excellent color, superb staging—and the end product looks as professional as any piece of hand-drawn animation being produced today. No surprise then that Zach was hired straight out of school by the New York arm of Titmouse, which is a sponsor of this year’s student festival.

Zach (above) provided us with detailed production notes about how he made Blenderstein!:

I had just seen Jake Armstrong’s The Terrible Thing From Alpha 9 at the [School of Visual Art's] Dusty screening one year and I knew I wanted my thesis film to look as good as that. I didn’t start thinking about it until midway in my third year at SVA. I had a couple ideas fluttering around until I realized I should probably pick something with a subject matter that would hold my interest, like classic horror movies.

I had created these characters during my freshman year but hadn’t done anything with. It was for a color theory assignment and I drew a demented monkey scientist (Dr. Frappe) pulling a lever and activating a blender on the head of a gruesome monster (Oogle) while a warty hunchbacked henchman (Boyle) stood by with a sign that read “Evil Milkshakes for Sale”. I thought it was a funny idea and originally wanted to make it into a comic, which never happened.

So I started re-developing these characters for my thesis. My initial idea just had Dr. Frappe, Boyle and Oogle together in a story but I found that it was too one-sided, so after watching some old horror films to get my juices flowing, I realized I should add a victim! Again, I went back into my old sketchbooks and found a girl character that I used to draw in tons of scary situations. Once I redesigned her she became Sydney and everything else fell into place.

The film is called Blenderstein, (STINE, not STEEN) as an homage to Frankenstein, even though none of the characters are actually named Blenderstein. The whole short is actually an homage to classic horror. Actors like Vincent Price, Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, and Peter Lorre were all people I drew blood from to stitch together my final monstrosity. I think characters like Frankenstein’s monster, Dracula, and Wolfman are just as iconic as Mickey Mouse or Spongebob. So I strived for the design my characters to be just as recognizable as any of them.

The film took me about 8-1/2 months to finish, from afternoon storyboarding in August to all nighters of clean up in March. I did all the animation, inking and coloring in Flash. The backgrounds were drawn in dark pencil and then colored in Photoshop. I colored the exterior backgrounds and Tara Billinger colored the interior ones, to help lighten my load. Also many talent-budding underclassmen helped me with coloring, as did my good pal Nico Colaleo. I also got constant critique and advice from Michael J. Ruocco and constant reminders to take breaks and live a little from Danny Jackson. You’re going to kill yourself if you do absolutely nothing but work all the time. My film would be nothing without the help of these fine people.

Despite all the grueling hard work, multiple all nighters crammed in a studio with my other SVA peers, scorched by the heat of the Cintiqs…I had the time of my life making this film. Being around my fellow classmates, dealing with the same issues, helping each other, going completely mad together (we were a hot mess especially in the wee hours)…it’s a great experience that I will never forget and hope to relive it only if it produces the same results: a project I’m very proud of and a slew of likeminded people to call my friends.

So I hope everyone who sees my film enjoys it and feels the same way about it as my grandma did. She said, “Oh Zach, I loved your Blenderstein. But keep him locked up; I don’t want him to get me or any of the neighbors! Anyway does your fax machine work? I want to send you a recipe for shrimp cakes.”

Filmmaker Websites
Zach Bellissimo’s Blog and Deviant Art

Cartoon Brew’s second annual Student Animation Festival is made possible through the generous support of Titmouse and JibJab.

Cartoon Brew’s Student Animation Festival continues today with the third film in our line-up: Chief Serenbe by Evan Curtis from the Savannah College of Art and Design. This stop motion short really stood out to us as we were watching the entries. The film isn’t conventionally narrative, but engages the viewer by taking us into the world of the drifter. It is a surprisingly emotional piece of work and manages to create a distinctive sense of time and place. Curtis’s cinematic approach and use of depth of field makes us forget the star of the film is just a small toy.

Evan (pictured above) provided us with these background notes on his short:

Chief Serenbe was an attempt at an Italian Neo-realist stop-motion road movie, or at least the beginning of such. I specifically wanted a loose narrative, reflective of my experience living in an unfamiliar city and the freedom that comes from not being tied down to any one place. It’s shot entirely on location in Atlanta. I had no script or storyboard, only a short list of locations. The guerrilla-style of filmmaking allowed for the film to grow in a way that was affected more by the locations than by a script. Basically I drove around with my camera, tripod, and character until I found an interesting spot, where I’d jump out and shoot something. I shot with a Nikon D40 and edited the film on Avid. And yes, I got a lot of strange looks from pedestrians while filming but it was well worth it!

Filmmaker Websites
Evan Curtis

Cartoon Brew’s second annual Student Animation Festival is made possible through the generous support of Titmouse and JibJab.