The boys at Spline Doctors, a loose teaching collective comprised of Pixar animators, hosted an animation contest on their site that asked readers to animate a certain infamous piece of dialogue by Christian Bale. Their call for entries generated over twenty-five entries. Go here to see the winners along with all of the other contest entries.

On a sidenote, the antics of Christian Bale are proving to be rich fodder for animation artists around the world. French illustrator Laurent Blachier and BusterDesign.tv also created this Christian Bale piece.

Swedish graphic design student Tomas Nilsson, inspired by Röyksopps music video Remind Me, reinterprets the fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood.

(Thanks, Nina Paley)

A lot of young artists apply to CalArts and get rejected. But what happens if you’re accepted into the prestigious program and can’t afford to attend? That’s the situation that 25-year-old Canadian artist Dan Caylor finds himself in after receiving a letter of acceptance last week.

Dan writes on his website, “Unfortunately, my family isn’t rich, and being from Canada, I’m not eligible for any government loans or funding. With a price tag of $200,000, I’ll need all the help I can get. I’m doing everything I can to make my dream a reality, including asking everyone for anything they can spare. Desperate times call for desperate measures. If enough people can help me, I can turn my bittersweet acceptance letter into the beginning of a dream come true. Every penny counts.”

After looking at his blog, it’s obvious that Dan is not only a talented artist, but that he’s also a passionate student of animation, its history, and understanding the individual elements that comprise successful filmmaking (storytelling, shot selection, staging, movement, design, etc.). His blog is also a nice resource for other artists offering excerpts from Don Graham’s classic book Composing Pictures and high-quality video of Michael Caine discussing his acting techniques.

This is the first time I’ve ever seen a student post a public appeal for funds to attend CalArts. And it would be a shame if he couldn’t attend, especially after reading about all the effort that Dan made to get accepted into the program. So Cartoon Brew is not only going to encourage donations, but on behalf of Jerry and myself, we’re throwing $40 into the pot to get Dan started on the road to Valencia. Find out how to give a few bucks to the cause at OnAnimation.com.

The University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts is presenting an open screening on Thursday (3/5) showcasing the latest films by its students and recent alumni. The John C. Hench Division of Animation & Digital Arts (aka DADA) will present its annual Adobe First Frame screening, at the Directors Guild (DGA) Theater Complex at 7920 Sunset Boulevard (at Fairfax) at 7:30pm.

The program features 19 animated films spanning a range of genres and techniques - including stop-motion, 2D and 3D CG, character and experimental, all by Hench-DADA BA and MFA students. The program running time is 80 minutes. The event is FREE. No reservations necessary. Wine and dessert reception following screening. For more information check the Hench/DADA website

When I presented my 2008 animation picks last week, I didn’t offer up any student shorts on my list. That’s not because I didn’t see any good student work during this past year. Far from it, I saw quite a few nice pieces. Nothing blew me away though to the extent that I had to include it on the list. That’s all changed now because I’ve just seen Story from North America, an awesomely excellent film animated by Kirsten Lepore and Garrett Davis, with music written and performed by Davis. Created at the Maryland Institute College of Art, it is a combination of surprisingly poignant song-driven storytelling and some of the most crazily inventive and funny hand-drawn animation I’ve seen in recent times. The short may have less polish and sheen than other student films, but its originality and creative use of the animation medium makes it one short I won’t be forgetting anytime soon.

(Thanks, Kelly Toon)

French animation school Gobelins has released the latest batch of their student films. From a purely technical standpoint, the quality of this school’s work never ceases to amaze me. It’s certainly better than a lot of professional work that comes my way. My personal favorite in the current crop is California Love, a CG short with the design sensibilities and expressiveness of hand-drawn animation. The film was created by Lucie Arnissolle, Yann Boyer, Vincent Mahe, Mael Gourmelen and Stephen Vuillemin. At the film’s website CaliforniaLove-LeFilm.com, you can see various ‘making of’ videos showing the individual contributions of each of the team members. Solid work all around.

Another curious entry is For Sock’s Sake, which is a stop-motion short produced by one person, Carlo Vogele. Though Vogele graduated from Gobelins, he made this film during an exchange semester at CalArts. I’ve seen pieces of clothing anthropomorphized like this before but the quality of acting and personality in Vogele’s animation is particularly impressive and shows a promising animator in the making.

(Thanks, Pete Shand)

31 comments  permalink  posted in CGI, Stop Motion, Student

Happy Halloween!

October 31, 2008 1:13 am

Attack of the Giant Vegetable Monsters by Ken Turner.

(Thanks, Daikun)

16 comments  permalink  posted in Shorts, Student

French student film Gary

October 19, 2008 1:11 pm

Gary is a French student CG film created by Clement Soulmagnon, Yann Benedi, Sebastien Eballard and Quentin Chaillet at Supinfocom. The stylized illustrative look, while not exactly new, is refreshing to see in a student short. Film clips and pre-production artwork can be viewed at Gary-LeFilm.com.

(Thanks, Matt Jones)

9 comments  permalink  posted in CGI, Shorts, Student

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