Lineboil » Ron

Make Way For Stevenson’s Pigeons

Ron — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 14:45:15 +0000

This animated short by Michael Stevenson, his senior film from San Francisco State University, is a bright and colorful masterpiece of claymation.

According to his website – Pigeon Pilfer was completed in four months with sixty pounds of clay, a digital SLR camera, and one tiny hot room.

Give The Cat Piano a Play

Ron — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:36:37 +0000

With its consistently blue color schemes, beautifully composed shots, exquisite lighting, smooth animation, brilliant effects, meticulously rendered layouts, and masterfully deliberate pacing, The Cat Piano is a fantastic short film by The People’s Republic of Animation. Narrated by Nick Cave. Directed by Eddie White & Ari Gibson. Produced by Jessica Brentnall.

The cool, jazzy, mysterious vibe reminded me of one of the short stories in Jim Davis’ Garfield’s Nine Lives graphic novel. Its atmospheric tone and poetry made thoughts of Edgar Allan Poe’s stories pop into my head. It’s impeccably stylish art direction and film noir design sense alone is worth the watch.

Book Review – Great New Characters

Ron — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 15:57:36 +0000

With every great piece of character animation comes striking, innovative, stylish, or original character design. In recent years, some animation artists have published their own books on the subject; David Coleman’s The Art of Animal Character Design, Mike Mattesi’s Character Design From Life Drawing and Tom Bancroft’s Creating Characters With Personality just to name a few.

But I now present to you the mother of all Character Design books to inspire any animator.

Great New Characters is spectacular 670 page cube-shaped book with so many character designs to drool over that you won’t know what to do with yourself. It was created by Zeixs in collaboration with the cutting edge publishing house Feierabend Unique Books, and the ground-breaking design agency 12ender, with a brilliantly illustrated cover by Patrick Morgan.

From their hugely popular Design Cube Series, which has several volumes covering the art of Graphic Design, Typography, Poster Design, T-Shirt Design, and Logo Design, comes this superbly illustrated edition that brings together an unsurpassed collection of the most creative and inventive characters from designers and artists from around the world. Featuring a huge variety of styles and mediums – including 2D, 3D, animated, illustrated, digital, vinyl, paper, plush, textile, street and urban.

If you are a character designer of any sorts, you’re visual cortex will be appropriately stimulated by this bible of pioneering design samples.

Medusa Gets Her Hair Did By Pysop

Ron — Mon, 18 May 2009 17:53:12 +0000

Back in April we posted a gorgeous CG milk ad from Psyop. Another one has emerged, this one playing off milk’s protein, which can help hair grow strong and healthy. It also apparently tames a nasty case of snake hair. The ad is for the California Milk Processor Board and the agency behind the Toma Leche campaign is Grupo Gallegos.

The Goat Animation Hits From 3

Ron — Mon, 18 May 2009 15:38:41 +0000

NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar called Earl ‘The Goat’ Manigault the best basketball player he ever matched up against, but Manigault’s most intense foes were drugs. Arnoux Anthony, Dessinges Rémi and Fesquet Guillaume students from French animation school Supinfocom Arles, created this homage to The Goat, titled From the Hoop, which illustrates the tough streets of Harlem, where he grew up.

Watership Down Meets Full Metal Jacket

Ron — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 17:27:22 +0000

Check out this strange and violent trailer/pitch for an animated series by the name of Cat Shit One. It was directed by Kazuya Sasahara, and it’s based on the manga property Motofumi Kobayashi (released in the USA as Apocalypse Meow). The series is due out in 2010.

Kidney Processes Fight Like Apes Music Video

Ron — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 14:28:54 +0000

Check out this watercolor-style rotoscoping for Dublin-based Fight Like Ape’s new Tie Me Up With Jackets music video, directed and produced by Eoghan Kidney.

Bonnaroo Line-Up By Ghost Robot

Ron — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 17:11:19 +0000

Ghost Robot and director Elliot Jokelson just wrapped up this amazing commercial to announce the line-up of the 2009 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival. This piece seems to be referenced from the style of Jen Stark’s amazing paper art.

Innovative concept, wicked animation and transitions, awesome typographic work, great art direction and a superb soundtrack to wrap it all up nicely. They even did a full 3D version.

Warner Bros. Animates To Fight AIDS

Ron — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 16:09:33 +0000

In a partnership with the U.S. Government, The Warner Bros. Entertainment Group has joined the fight against AIDS. In doing so, Warner Bros. Motion Picture Imaging has produced a series of animated shorts to promote and encourage responsible sexual behavior. These shorts, which are in Swahili, don’t actually have anything to do with HIV/AIDS, so they’re not PSAs. Instead, they’re CG-animated shorts promoting the characters and storylines of a video game, titled Pamoja Mtaani (Together in the Hood). The five animated shorts, including this one below titled Lefty, can be found at the HIV-Free Generation website.

Animated Monsters Overtake Belgium

Ron — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 18:04:20 +0000

The gang at Volstok Telefunken have created an online series of animated monsters set loose in our world. The Belgian team composited these colorful characters against live-action footage, and the result is often quite charming. Here’s one titled Buskot Ronny, and you can see dozens more over at the demonsters.be website.

Joris Bergmans worked on the project. Spotted at motionographer.com.