While his wife is undergoing slimming treatment, André goes on a discovery tour of this very unusual center…

Directed at Supinfocom Arles in 2010 by Bertrand Avril, Pierre Chomarat, David Dangin and Thea Matland.

slimtime official website

One of the things I like most about Arjen’s work is the unpretentiousness of his work, simple basic rigs, relying on a charismatic illustrative style his focus is on the characterisation and the story itself. Minimal and original!

Manfred is an animated short by Arjen Klaverstijn, a freelance animator who recently graduated from the Utrecht School of Arts in The Netherlands with a Bachelor of Art & Technology.

This animation is just delicious. A perfect example of what happens when good animation skills meets technology.

Moignon looking for a girlfriend on Face-de-Bouc, dressed in a beautiful princess, while Coin-Coin, a valiant knight, sets out in search of events and adventures. Fight epic sub-atomic explosions “should not touch the yogurt Coin-Coin…”

This episode was aired on CANAL+ on June 27, 2010.

Passion Pictures, have done it again! Well, more specifically Pete Candeland has done it with the directorial skills that brought us Rock Band cinematic for The Beatles, he’s recently directed this commercial for Coke Zero called ‘Happy Kingdom’.

The clip was produced by Debbie Crosscup from Passion Pictures and the designated creative agency was Ogilvy Argentina, with the creative direction of: Gastón Bigio, Jonathan Gurvit, Javier Mentasti and Christian Camean.

London 2012 Olympic mascots Wenlock and Mandeville were recently launched with a short CG animation, OUT OF A RAINBOW, written by Michael Morpurgo, produced by Barnaby Spurrier and directed by Mario Cavalli.

The mascots were developed and designed by Iris London over an 18 month period, while the production of the 3 min 45 sec animated film was completed at breakneck pace, from design and storyboard to completion and launch in just 10 weeks.

All pre and post production was done in London, with Cavalli designing the non-mascot characters, working with Teddy Hall on maquettes and Pete Western on storyboard. Production design and backgrounds were by Neil Campbell Ross, editing by Richard Graham, with final grading and output at UNIT.

The animation was done by Crystal CG, the company responsible for the Beijing 2008 Olympics animations and graphics, through their offices in London and Beijing.

Original score and orchestration by Tommy Hewitt Jones. Voice over was read by Simon Russell Beale.

Within 48 hours of launch, the movie on the official LOCOG mascots’ site had already clocked up 750,000 unique hits, while the same video was the ‘most watched’ on YouTube worldwide in the same period.

It feels unsettling because is real and is close to all of us. This animation is a follow up to the award winning short ‘Blokes’ and was animated by Matt Frodsham depicting the word of Mat Lloyd’s poem. They are both tapping into major social issues here, so I am sure it will get all the attention it deserves, and hopefully it will spark some positive reaction, something that goes beyond the exchange of knowing looks between the viewers while they nod in agreement, but then do nothing.

Mat Lloyd says: “I wrote the poem on a canvas with a marker pen the morning after I was attacked.

The night before I was in my local park on the opening day of the skate park I’d helped get built, it was nearly midnight. We’d organised a DJ to play the day out in a marquee and I just popped out to take a leak. In my drunken state I was stumbling to find a bush when I heard, and felt, a sort of ‘boink’ sound. I knew I’d been hit on the back of the head, and I knew it wasn’t with a fist. I don’t remember much else other than being back at the marquee with a bleeding head…”

Matt has kept an in depth step-by-step log about the making of the animation.

After an overwhelming response for the 2009 festival Encounters International Film Festival, Bristol, has once again teamed up with YouSendIt, to accept festival submissions digitally. In a bid to decrease waste and make life a lot easier for Filmmakers, with YouSendIt, filmmakers can upload an entry directly through the Encounters web site.

Submissions open 19 April and close on 30 June. This year sees the return of Animated Encounters and Brief Encounters as the two competitive strands. Films under 30 minutes of any genre are accepted, see the Encounters International Film Festival website for full terms and conditions.

My new reel for twenty 10.

I always struggle to make reels. I start off thinking that they’re going to be a load of fun and then slowly the realisation dawns on me that I’m my own worse client. To start with I’ve seen the work an unprecedented amount of time and although I’m pleased with everything I’ve included, I also know where the problems are — almost by timecode. I know what I’m capable of. I know what I’d like to be capable of and I never give myself enough time.

I had a sudden rush to create this reel after a friend and colleague sent a link to my web-site and a promise of a new reel to a Warner Records executive.

Years gone past I would create a montage of the prettiest bits of my work to my favourite track of the month, but last year i made the decision that I would reveal more of the work than try to hide behind a polished promo of bits. I think when putting a showreel together it’s easy to view other people’s and feel nervous that you have not got enough good stuff to include.

A little girl’s curiosity is sparked by a mysterious creature as she plays in her grandparents’ barn.

Meet Meline is a hyper-realistic and beautifully short film is an independent production by Virginie Goyons and Sebastien Laban. It took 2 years to finish. On their own they completed all the pre-production including script, concepts, previz, characters, set design, sound research and the production, which consisted in the 26 individual shots that form the 7 minutes long of this film.

The sound design was a contribution by Cedric Denooz and the music by Guillaume Roussel. As a nice addition they’ve created this insightful “making of…” documentary.

André Bergs is a Dutch animator creator of the popular-gone-viral short animation Pivot, designed and animated by Kevin Megens, Floris Vos, Arno de Grijs and Andre Bergs, it was nominated for best short film at the Dutch Film Festival, won the “Best Local” award at the Playgrounds Festival and was screened at the Anima animation film festival in Brussels. André trained at the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht, he coaches a Maya workshop on a variety of subjects and runs his own animation Company called Plastiek.

How did you and your team come up the concept and the unique style?

In 2008 I was asked to make a short animation on a Dutch poem. The producers at ilLuster gave me complete freedom to experiment, and what followed was a gritty short where I experimented with a low-poly style and animating on doubles. (you can view that short here).

It was a very rough experiment, but it did show that a 3D low poly style can actualy have a more ‘real’ feeling than some more realistic 3D animations. When ilLuster sent me the scenario of Pivot, we immediately agreed that this kind of story could work realy well with the low-poly style. I then asked Arno de Grijs, Floris Vos and Kevin Megens if they’d like to work on it with me, and take the concept and style to a higher level.

Where do you get your inspiration from when working on a film like this?

We had a couple of evenings where we would all bring in visual inspiration from illustrations, photo’s, animation and films. This was really helpfull to think and talk about the direction where we were going with the film.

Big inspirations were old films, like ‘M’, the ‘third man’, and ‘das cabinet des Dr. Caligari’. Graphically the work of Saul Bass, Oskar Fischinger and the Hellboy comics were a big inspiration. All in all we collected around a thousand images and movieclips for inspiration, so the pool of inspiration was very deep.

How big was the team?

The core of the team consisted of four people. Arno de Grijs, Floris Vos, Kevin Megens and myself. We share a studio in Utrecht and managed the project as a team. The music and sounddesign was made by Alex Debicki. Furthermore we had technical assistance from our intern Bram Vleugel. And when time was getting tight, Patrick Chin helped us out with some character animation. So all in all seven people put their backs into it.

How long was it in production for?

Half a year from start to end. We had a strict deadline, since it was planned to be premiered at the Dutch Filmfestival. And of course we didn’t want to miss our own premiere.

How did you end up as the director of Pivot?

We had a big battle royale where the last man standing would be boss over the rest. And I was the one who faught the dirtiest.

No, really we picked up the project very much as a team. I was responsable for the film as a whole, but virtually all the choices made, were made by the team. And all the conflicts of ideas and discussions we had really brought out the best in the film.

What tools did you and your team use when making Pivot?

The sets and characters were made in 3D studio Max and Cinema 4D. We then imported them in Maya, where we did all the rigging, animation, effects ‚lighting and cameras. The final composit was done in After effects, and the edit in Premiere.

Do you have any suggestions for other aspiring animation filmmakers on how to produce a high quality film like this?

We spent a lot of time on the moodboard, storyboard design and R&D phase. Allthough it made the actual production time a bit tight. It really did pay off in the end. We had a very clear image of where we were going with the film, didn’t have to make big adjustments on the shots from the storyboard and knew which effects would work, and which would not. So we had a very clear path to follow, this way everybody was on the same page and we could really pick up the pace in the production.

As a film maker myself I know that it’s tempting to start making the film as soon as possible. But the time you spend in the beginning will defenitly pay itself back later on. So take your time at the start, and know where you’re going before you actually go.

I understand the film has been getting some positive feedback around the world at various animation festivals. Where can people look out for it?

We’ve had some great feedback on the film from a lot of people and festivals. On Vimeo the views even passed the 160.000, wich is pretty awesome, and it’s really nice to see all the extra effort we’ve put into it being picked up and appreciated so much. For now I know for sure that the film will be played at:

Vladivostock, New Wave Cinema, Russia — 27th March
Rome, Roma International Independent Film Festival, Italy — 8—16th April
Novosibirisk, Cinema Pobeda, Russia — 17th April
Amsterdam, Imagine 26th Amsterdam Fantasic Film Festival, NL — 14—24th April (nominated for a Silver Méliès)
Stuttgart International Animation Trick Film Festival, Germany — 4—9th May
Barcelona, FICOMIC, Spain — 4-9th May
Treplice, Anifest 2010, Czech Republic — 18-23th May
Eindhoven, TAC, The Netherlands — 28th May
Eindhoven, Plaza Futura, The Netherlands — 10th June
Helmond, Filmhuis Helmond, The Netherlands — 10th June
Eindhoven, Broeinest, The Netherlands — 11th June
Breda, Chassé Cinema, The Netherlands — 17th June
Tilburg, Filmfoyer, The Netherlands — 17th June
Oss, Filmtheater De Groene Engel, The Netherlands — 20th June
Den Bosch, Verkade Fabriek,The Netherlands — 26th June

Related links:

1. Pivot Official website.
2. Plastiek André’s Company.
3. Soulbase Floris Vos.
4. Artibite Kevin Megens.
5. Alex Debicki Music production.
6. il Luster Distribution.