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The House of Cats
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) |
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EVENTS
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wow..that was superb!
Cool! A company is smart enough to use GOOD animation to promote their product!
It’s a great little film !!
Nice animation for the felines! Do you know which medium they used? (traditional medium or flash).
Beautiful–all the way around!
It is impressive how the distinct personality of each cat is established in the first second or two of each vignette. Clean, lovely work.
That was great, that really cheered me up.
Artful and charming.
Animation at its best.
Wonderful!
Beautiful animation.
Though i can only stand seeing cute-sy cat animation for so long..
Nicely designed and animated promo though. Good job.
Love the “crystallized” fill for each cat. Simple yet wonderfully effective overall!
That was mindnumbingly cute! THAT is how you promote a company. That was a seriously nice surprise.
Yeah, Court! Do it! I gotta say, that was a beautiful piece of animation.
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!
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!
get it for your kids mike! or kid’s teacher.
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!
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!
Very nice. Didnt like the cystal fill at first, but it grew on me.
That was great ! Congrats to all involved for making a classy piece of soft-sell advertising which is just fun to watch.
Never in my life thought I would want a pink chrystal kitten…but this animation makes me want “Emily” the cat…
Absolutely wonderful.
So glad Mr. Muto found it and you posted it here. Lovely work, Brigette & co.
Adorable! The characters are appealing and the animation is light and whimsical! Who could ask for more :)
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?
I absolutely love this, there’s no way anyone can discourage me from loving this.
Beautiful and really fun! Theo is the coooolest!
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.)
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.
Brilliant animation, really enjoyed watching this! (=
Great thick and thin line as well!!!
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.
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!
That was really fun! Such personable kitties.
Wolfe had it right; personality animation lives!
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!
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
Beautiful animation! Love the style.
Congrats, that is some really pretty stuff!^__^
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!
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
I just saw it- my heart is soaring! Absolutely beautiful, congrats to all.
What a powerhouse collective of animation talent! Was it Frank Terry who put together the whole CalArts / Swarovski connection?
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.
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.
Great Job everyone!
Wonderful, charming and a breath of fresh air
Thanks for sharing this its really well done and pretty :)