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JERRY BECK
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The House of Cats
by jerry
July 16, 2009 6:30 am


This beautiful little short by Courtland Lomax was made for Swarovski to promote their latest crystal collection. The backgrounds and designs are by Brigette Barrager.

(Thanks, Adam Muto)

07/16/09  6:54am
gary dunn says:

wow..that was superb!

07/16/09  7:41am
Corey says:

Cool! A company is smart enough to use GOOD animation to promote their product!

It’s a great little film !!

07/16/09  7:44am

Nice animation for the felines! Do you know which medium they used? (traditional medium or flash).

07/16/09  7:48am
Scott says:

Beautiful–all the way around!

07/16/09  8:01am
Wolf Lahti says:

It is impressive how the distinct personality of each cat is established in the first second or two of each vignette. Clean, lovely work.

07/16/09  8:26am
Sean says:

That was great, that really cheered me up.

07/16/09  8:33am

Artful and charming.

Animation at its best.

07/16/09  8:46am

Wonderful!

07/16/09  9:26am
Ariel says:

Beautiful animation.

Though i can only stand seeing cute-sy cat animation for so long..

Nicely designed and animated promo though. Good job.

07/16/09  9:30am

Love the “crystallized” fill for each cat. Simple yet wonderfully effective overall!

07/16/09  10:08am
Doofus says:

That was mindnumbingly cute! THAT is how you promote a company. That was a seriously nice surprise.

07/16/09  10:17am
Neil Graf says:

Yeah, Court! Do it! I gotta say, that was a beautiful piece of animation.

07/16/09  10:21am

Thanks for the link and the kudos…it was really fun to work on, too! I did a little post on my blog about it, with a few more details on the project and who all worked on it: http://brigetteb.blogspot.com/2009/05/after-100-years.html

The animation is completely traditional, by the way. Pencil and paper.

I’m glad to see it get such positive responses. Thanks!

07/16/09  10:22am
Mike Johnson says:

Superb. I could watch this all day. I agree with Corey…I wish ALL companies were smart enough to use good animation to promote their products.

Darned if I don’t feel like ordering me some Swarovski kitties right now!

07/16/09  11:28am
Ed says:

get it for your kids mike! or kid’s teacher.

07/16/09  11:59am
Dagan says:

WOW, what a beautiful piece, from A-to-Z.
:)
Soooooo charming and super classy.

Every aspect of this is so beautifully realized, I was really struck by it.
Bravo!

07/16/09  11:59am

Glorious! I have never enjoyed the animated water color technique before as I did with this incredible little film! Congratulations and thanks to all involved! Simply stunning!

07/16/09  12:14pm
Kyle Maloney says:

Very nice. Didnt like the cystal fill at first, but it grew on me.

07/16/09  12:41pm

That was great ! Congrats to all involved for making a classy piece of soft-sell advertising which is just fun to watch.

07/16/09  12:55pm
emily says:

Never in my life thought I would want a pink chrystal kitten…but this animation makes me want “Emily” the cat…

07/16/09  4:07pm
Jenny Lerew says:

Absolutely wonderful.
So glad Mr. Muto found it and you posted it here. Lovely work, Brigette & co.

07/16/09  4:26pm
DC says:

Adorable! The characters are appealing and the animation is light and whimsical! Who could ask for more :)

07/16/09  4:53pm

I giggled in delight at several moments, and watched the whole thing with a happy grin on my face. I will certainly be sharing this with every cat-lover I know, especially my neighbors! They are getting married, and my hubs and I are babysitting their FIVE CATS =0_0=
:3 :3 :3 :3 :3

Kudos to Brigette (awesome name) and congratulations on landing further design work with Swarovski. Have you collected any fine sparkly things yet?

07/16/09  4:59pm
Niki says:

I absolutely love this, there’s no way anyone can discourage me from loving this.

07/16/09  5:56pm
Mitchel Kennedy says:

Beautiful and really fun! Theo is the coooolest!

07/16/09  6:11pm
K says:

What a fresh short! So cool to look at and watch.
Congratulations on the job. Well done!
(Reposting to my one of blogs, with your indulgence. Thanks.)

07/16/09  7:45pm
TheGunheart says:

The wonderful thing is that you can take the Swarovski logo off at the end and you’d never know it’s meant as a commercial, as the short really stands on its own merits.

07/16/09  11:57pm
mldmitry says:

Brilliant animation, really enjoyed watching this! (=

07/17/09  12:15am
Walty says:

Great thick and thin line as well!!!

07/17/09  12:51am

Great looking cartoon…for the most part at least.

Ironically given it was an ad for a crystal company, the one thing I didn’t like was the cheesy “crystal” effect superimposed on all the cats.

07/17/09  1:46am
Zekey says:

MY MIND! I dont think I’ve seen so much cute jammed into a short before. And the motion was all so smooth and perfect. Wonderful!

07/17/09  5:49am
BigHorse says:

That was really fun! Such personable kitties.

07/17/09  6:39am
Daniel J. Drazen says:

Wolfe had it right; personality animation lives!

07/17/09  8:53am
Jason says:

That was just incredible. Flowing and bouncy and spirited and vibrant. And inspiring: There’s a Swarovski crystal store in a mall not far from me. I’ll have to stop by and take a look at the inspiration for this wonderful little cartoon. Great concept and even greater execution. A “rare gem” indeed!

07/17/09  8:56am
3-D Trend says:

Here are the credits for all the CalArts graduates who worked on this:

Credits
Directed by Courtland Lomax
Music by Brian Young
Compositing by Ethan Metzger
Backgrounds and Designs by Brigette Barrager
Layouts by Sean Jimenez

Animation:
Adam Muto
Jules Soto
Shiyoon Kim
Bert Youn
Matthais Bauer
Eric Fountain
Courtland Lomax
Leo Matsuda
Matt Pugnetti
Jennifer Hager
David Nam

Cleanup:
Sean Jimenez
Esther Shin
Jinyoung Park
Juliana Park
Kelli Kuest
Matt Pugnetti

07/17/09  9:59am

Beautiful animation! Love the style.

07/17/09  4:24pm
Moro says:

Congrats, that is some really pretty stuff!^__^

07/17/09  6:07pm
Randy Koger says:

Charming, sweet, delightful…..what more can I say?

It was a real pleasure seeing this….congrats to everyone that worked on this little film. And thank you!

07/18/09  12:57am
mike Gabriel says:

Brigette—All these turned out beautiful and full of joi de vivre for hand drawn character animation at its most endearing. I am proud of you and think you should be proud of yourself for making something that delights and sparkles the animator’s soul within. Congratulations on making magic—not easy and never free. You have to deeply care to put that kind of love into your work. And we all feel it and respond to the sincerity. Keep going girlfriend. It was nice to work with you for a brief while.
Mike

07/18/09  4:30pm
yvette kaplan says:

I just saw it- my heart is soaring! Absolutely beautiful, congrats to all.

07/18/09  7:59pm
steve brown says:

What a powerhouse collective of animation talent! Was it Frank Terry who put together the whole CalArts / Swarovski connection?

07/19/09  3:01pm
Adam says:

How incredibly charming and clever. Each kitty had so much character. I think I may need to find a way to purchase one of them.

Theo, yes.

07/19/09  10:12pm
Courtland says:

Thanks for all the comments everyone.
Yes it was Frank Terry who started the relationship with Swarovski and he deserves a big thanks for making this possible.
I also feel a little stupid because the credits only mention the Production and there was a whole period of three months where I co-created this project with Sean Jimenez at Swarovski HQ in Austria. He is also largely responsible for the success of the project.
Our intention was to create something that not only looked stylish and fit with the Swarovski image but also had really good character animation (something I feel is missing in a lot of commercial animation). I hope we succeeded and can keep doing this sort of work, and possibly inspire others to push for better animation.
Also I should thank Swarovski for having enough vision to try something most companies wouldn’t.

07/20/09  4:58pm
Destiny Wood says:

Great Job everyone!

07/22/09  12:37pm
Antonius says:

Wonderful, charming and a breath of fresh air

08/30/09  10:49am
Thallian says:

Thanks for sharing this its really well done and pretty :)

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