Carnival by Susan Young

Beautifully animated  movement! Susan Young is currently an animation Research student at the RCA.

Mars by Joe Bichard and Jack Cunningham

One of my amazing classmates at the RCA did this animation in collaboration with another amazing classmate of ours from Foundation course in Brighton. I discovered it on Vimeo some time ago and was thrilled to realise that I know the creators! Great concept and visuals!

Revolver by Jonas Odell

Just finished a group sound project at the RCA. Our teacher showed us this great animation. I like this description I found on youtube 'Looped animations by Jonas Odell of FilmTecknarna. Genius.
Co-directed with Stig Bergkvist, Marti Ekstrand & Lars Olsson'

A Tale of A Sickly Whale

Beautiful animation by my classmate Zuzanna Weiss and Rosanna Wan made for BBC Radio series 'Short Cuts'.

Learning about storyboards

So the first week of the Animation course at the RCA is over and I finally had some time over the weekend to realise what happened. Apart from inductions and welcome talks we had to work on a rather fast paced project which involved drawing storyboards and characters in twenty seconds or a minute(if we were lucky). I found it particularly challenging since I spend quite a long time on my illustrations and have no knowledge of camera angles, pacing etc. This is a scan of 'The Storyboard Design course', an incredibly useful book by Giuseppe Cristiano which is my first introduction to film language.

So I learned a lot and switched from drawing faded pencilpen lines to attacking the paper with a 4B pencil. I suddenly became aware of the fact that I haven't done any observational drawing in a very long time. So I got a sketchbook just for observational drawing and will do as much drawing as possible. Needless to say I am definitely not proud of most of the drawings I have done so far in my sketchbook haha.

So I am a student again!

It is exciting going back to University!  These last couple of days have been very stimulating but exhausting at the same time.

Yesterday we watched a screening of Chris Sullivan's Consuming Spirits. My favourite bits from the film where these very expressive hand drawn scenes. Unfortunately I can not embed the trailer from Vimeo but you can watch it here. 

Lovely animation by Jiek Weishut

Great combination of adorable visuals with rather violent subjects. Really like the sounds too! Thank you Kritona for the link!

Gamasutra

My brother sent me a link for an incredibly useful article with tips about how to create successful animation in games. You can read the article here. There are some playful sprites illuminating the article as well as a teaser for Paul Robertson's latest work. The above sprite is one of my favourites! It is a clear example of exaggeration in animation. These frames don't do it justice so I urge you to click on the link and see the animated version!

Be a Vegetarian from Glossyret

Lovely animation using the Puppet pin tool. Oh Puppet pin tool how I miss you...it's been a long time since I've used you!



and the making of:

Globologos Characters by Martin Allais

Can you think of how to draw words with rather ambiguous meanings such as The Self, Hope and Philosophy into characters? Martin Allais did a really good job illustrating characters out of philosophy concepts! Animated by Stephane Poirier and David Leclerc.

Belly by Julia Pott

Julia Pott's RCA thesis animation is finally online. Beautiful colors, characters and narrative. Enjoy!

Newton physics After Effects plug-in

So tempted to get this physics animation plug-in for After Effects...the animation is almost hypnotizing!

I'm moving out of my studio and my house which is quite stressful. My everyday structure/routine is changing which, on one hand is amazing since I felt a bit stuck in Brighton and on the other a bit challenging cause I don't know what's to come. I will have another studio in Cyprus for the summer and then move to London in September to be a full time student once again.

Lorn - Ghosst(s)

This makes me want to learn how to do hand drawn animation!

I am moving out of my studio soon which is strange...and I still can't believe I'm going to be a student again!

Shiva and Vishnu

I've been doing some research for a narrative I am writing and found these beautiful images. The first one is Shiva and Vishnu as one being and the second one shows the Trimurti (Hindu Triad) - Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva - with their wives. In Hindu philosophy Brahma creates the Universe, Vishnu protects and Shiva destroys it.

I've also been looking at beautiful yoga poses to animate and have to admit that the handstand scorpion is one of my favourites. I have asked my yoga teacher whether she knows anybody who can perform this pose so that I can observe how one gets in and out of it and it seems there is nobody in Brighton. I could always use Kino's videos as references but it would be nice to see it from different angles. I definitely find it one of the most impressive and visually interesting yoga poses.

The Eagleman Stag by Mikey Please

A beautiful BAFTA award winning short film by the amazing Mikey Please whom I also had the pleasure to meet at the Pictoplasma conference/festival in Berlin. Beautiful story and visuals!

I have started an illustration on ecology. It is still at a very early stage since I have to do quite a lot of things at the same time like self-promotion and learning 3D Max. I have an interview for the RCA Animation course on Tuesday which is exciting!

MAHAHULA: The giant rodent of happiness by NOMINT

This was one of the short animations screened at Pictoplasma 2012 that really caught my attention. I really like it's magic atmosphere and vibrant glowing colours. It was made by Nomint, an award winning animation-production company based in Athens and London.

Giant series Episode Two - Sun!

Created by Celine and Yann. Visit their blog and see more of their beautiful work here. This is Episode two of a their Giants series. According to the creators the idea behind the series is to travel through the world of the Giant and discover the untold truth about them and their conflicts with humans. Great story and looks lovely too!

Been doing 3d Max tutorials pretty much all day today...it takes me ages to do something and I still find the navigation really tricky. Also preparing some ideas for an interactive comic I will be making with a my developer friend! Too many technical issues to overcome but I'm sure we will make it in the end! I want to incorporate a few 3D elements in it as well. Will reveal more about the project soon!

First by Peppermellon

I like the story of this animation by Buenos Aires Animation/Design studio PepperMelon.

Nearly finished my animated type project and will reveal it once the project is published. It was nice to work on a small project for a change. I'm also working on my showreel which is trickier than I thought since a lot of my animations are different sizes and some are interactive. I'm excited though, it's nice to see the best bits of my work put together.

I also started reading Murakami's 'A Wild Sheep Chase' yesterday. I haven't read a novel for a long time mainly because I find it hard to concentrate on one thing. I want to do everything at the same time.

Some time ago I decided to concentrate on practising Ashtanga yoga and now I miss running and since watching the London marathoners yesterday I've been feeling this urge to train for a marathon. But then again people say you can not be a serious runner and yogi since your joints need to be superflexible for yoga which is not ideal for running. My knees are already beginning to complain when I run but maybe they'll get used to it.

Anyway that animation is cool!

Lovely 3D animated type

There is something really nice about 3d animated type. The first and last screen grab is from 2veinte's showreel (a Buenos Aires motion graphics studio) and you can watch it here. The middle one is from Glitch's trailer and you can watch it here. I'm inspired!

Animade's animated button

This animated button by London based animation studio Animade made me laugh. Check it out here.

Can't wait to see them at Pictoplasma in Berlin next week!