“Paraphernalia” by Sabrina Cotugno

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For your viewing pleasure, CalArts undergrad Sabrina Cotugno‘s third year film, animated mostly at Gobelins in Paris.

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  • http://www.ramonar.com mitzie

    that is sooooooooooo awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • http://quietsnooze.net Vanessa

    Aww, this turned out to be very cute! I watch her on dA, and got to hear through some of her progress, but this is absolutely lovely. (8

  • Iritscen

    Wow, great backgrounds, nice character animation, really good use of music (esp. for a student film), and a great sense of timing in the direction. Can I just say that those mid-face construction lines are really distracting? If Ms. Cotugno loses those lines in her future work, it can only improve her art. Anyway, I shouldn’t nitpick, because this was quite enjoyable to watch. Brava!

  • uncle wayne

    Beautiful! And I luv this style! Thank you!

  • Sat

    AWWWWWWWW. Loved Night Parade too. I can feel a great talent for direction.

  • Inca

    I concur with Iritscen’s comment re: the mid face construction line. That approach works sometimes but with these simple, elegant characters it lessens their charm. The sweet ending was a pleasant surprise. This film might play well if screened at a Steam Punk convention.

  • http://www.facebook.com/pages/JM-Urbina-Animation-Director/138440486216374 J.M. Urbina

    So Girly.

    Nice Music, Nice Whinnie the Pooh eyes, Also like the story cause that’s exactly what women do…change their minds last minute.!

    • Shawn

      Girly’s not a bad thing. When animation keeps getting degraded into fart jokes and dude-bro humor, it’s great to see something feminine. More women would stick with this industry if their work wasn’t constantly undervalued.

      And also, thanks, for writing off every woman as flighty, as well as the entire emotional arc of her work. Women really dig being stereotyped and shortchanged.

      • http://Juanmanimation.blogspot.com J.m

        It takes bad reading skills and idiocy to misinterpret a comment like mine.

        It IS so girly, but then again….What makes you think I implied Girly is something Bad?.
        It is not. The short just is, and that’s a nice thing too.

        sorry about writing of every woman as “flighty” on Mother’s day, I’m sure since you know me so well ,I will suffer the consecuences of these terrible opinions.:)

  • AaronSch

    I also concur with the comments left previously by Iritscen. That was 4 minutes of pure bliss. I just hope these student artists find a place to create without being heavily constrained by the popular conventions.

  • http://thisisonlya.blogspot.com robcat2075

    I like that very much.

    2 questions…

    -A CalArts student’s film is animated at Gobelins? How does that happen?

    -With everything else quite polished, why the construction line in the middle of their faces? Do I need convincing that the nose is in the right place?

    It’s a bit like a subtitle that keeps blinking “Don’t forget, this is painstakingly hand drawn, 2D animation!”

    • Jesse Jordan

      Student exchange program. She did her first semester at CalArts then transferred to Gobelins for her last semester.

      • http://thisisonlya.blogspot.com robcat2075

        Wow! That sounds like a fabulous opportunity.

        Since these student projects are probably quite supervised, I have to conclude that at some point a faculty adviser said “Yes, keep the construction line.”

        I’d be curious to hear that person’s thinking on this.

      • CB

        It might be due to time since the films are due and she probably felt it was either cleaning up the lines or doing effects and felt the latter was more important.

  • eeteed

    It’s very nice to see someone making a 2d animated film in which they put great effort in drawing an animating properly.

    These days it seems there’s a glut of work with poorly drawn characters that rarely move, and when they do it’s just a jittery mess. And in the spots of these films where clever and creative bits of storytelling should be placed, they instead put something rude and disgusting.

    Great work, this. I hope to see more!

  • cbat628

    I thought this was beautiful! I hope Ms. Cotugno continues to create more wonderful work like this. Also, respecting others’ differing opinions, I did not find the construction lines distracting at all.

  • Chelsea

    I found this not even a week ago looking through the grapevine from another CalArts student film that was posted here. I’m excited to see it now getting it’s own featured spot on CB! I think this is a gorgeous and very well animated student film, and in my opinion top-notch for third year work, because I’ve seen senior student films coming from CalArts that were not nearly this complicated, well-staged and detailed (with tons of great little character moments). I can’t wait to see Sabrina’s 4th year work. This film was/ is really inspiring to this fellow art student.

  • Glowworm

    That was adorable!

  • Jesse Jordan

    Well done, Sabrina! Beautiful work!

  • Mister Twister

    The best 4 minutes of animation in the history of ever.

  • James

    Ok. Ok. I thought the lines on the faces were distracting, the running scene near the end could have been done better, and the final facial expressions were a little over-the-top.

    Over than that?

    D’aaaaaaaw!

  • http://stringstornasunder.blogspot.com Chris Powell

    Its like an indie comic brought to life! and yes that is a good thing! This was wonderful, kudos to the creators. and thank you Brew, for posting inspiration like this :)

  • http://www.youtube.com/user/VujadeEntertainment#p/u/0/3HaupcJwAdk Steve Schnier

    Sweet little movie. I loved the location – like an American Pickers ‘dream site’. A nice story, very well done. I didn’t mind the mid-face construction lines, but did find the over sized “eye-circles” (during the blinks) to be distracting though.

  • PeteR

    The backgrounds are well drawn, but the animation is characterless and derivative.

    • Sardonic Tuba

      Are you kidding me?!? For a student film, it’s f-ing great. If I were able, I’d hire her as a layout artist or apprentice animator tomorrow.

  • http://champarampa.com RELD

    Beautiful work! really inspiring!
    2D animation has something that it’s really hard to achieve in 3D. I don’t know why, but 2D will never lose the real magic. (I’m a 3D animator and 2D is still the thing that really kicks me!)
    Keep up creating dreams!

  • Tony C

    This is not my thing really… but there’s no arguing against the craftsmanship of the piece, everything in it was beautifully executed.

    I just question the merit of a fair few things being in there. There is a host of what I see as unnecessary motion. The intro where she’s at her table was a little lifeless for me as it was filled with little motions that had no discernible motivation for them. Secondary motion was added a lot as an accepted process without question it seems. So at times she can look like a puppet that’s having it’s hands placed on things by someone else holding her by the wrists.

    The layouts were wonderful and the scene was totally believable and well constructed. It’s the saving grace as her character is shown through how much she knows the environment she’s in as she’s slipping around with ease.

    Despite my criticisms this is a wonderful piece. Bags of charm and a great achievement for a student film. Though if I were the girl I’d be asking who was gonna pay for my roof.

  • Some Girl

    Hope to see some of her work in the future! She is a bright future indeed.

  • Dr. Truth

    Wow!!! That was beautiful!! Very nicely drawn!!!! CB has been on a roll with these Cal Arts finds!!
    This was a great film, Sabrina!!

  • Gray64

    Beautiful and charming. Made me think of Miyazaki even before the flying bike showed up.
    One thing though, and I know this has been mentioned, but the visible center lines on the faces is a bit distracting. That along with the Little Orphan Annie dot-eyes made me think I was watching a “doll come to life” piece (the tea-set added to that, too–like the whole thing was in a little girl’s discarded doll house). That impression faded pretty quick, but there you go. The film has so few weaknesses, in my opinion, that that one kind of shouts. Really, though, well done, well told, and very engaging. I want to see more from Ms. Cotugno!

  • The Gee

    It is awfully nice. It has a lot of charm to its various parts.

    But, the construction lines do make me see a “living doll,” too.

    It wasn’t until the adventurer’s face is shown that I realized she is definitely “real.”

    But, given his eyes and mannerisms (the acting) were more naturalistic, like others have mentioned it still came across like she was a doll.

    I’m sure most any one will like this short. So, whatever I saw as being a couple of obvious influences (one of which was mentioned) they don’t ruin the piece, they add some oomph to it. Overall, the piece is nice, and, she certainly does have decent sense of telling the story. Her future endeavors can only get better.