The first Masterclass i went to was Phantom Boy. Loic Burkhardt took us through the sound design of Phantom boy. It was incredibly interesting to see how Foilimage produced work, and their design process. While everything is quite flat and simple its very expressive, definitely a style i feel i could work with quite well. The area that Loic really focused on, sound design, i found incredibly interesting, he gave examples of the way he changes sounds to resonate differently in different areas, such as rain when outside and rain when in a car, also considering sound from where the camera is placed compared to where the character is placed. This interested me a lot as sound design has often been the area that I feel i work well with, and is an important element to making an animation fleshed out.
When actually watching phantom boy i was quite impressed, i enjoyed the simplistic style, and will always be an advocate of 2D feature length animation. The story itself was pretty generic and full of obvious tropes but it's a film aimed at children so i am more forgiving of the obvious tropes because of this. Some other areas i had trouble with was some lines of dialogue felt quite uncanny, obviously because it will have been translated from french, but often the odd cheesy line that doesn't quite sound right really took me out of the film. Aesthetically i loved it.
The next Masterclass i went to was Blue Zoo HooDoo, in which Catherine Salkeld and Tom Box gave us a sneak peak of their VR animation HooDoo. It was interesting to see a fully 360 animation but i was more interested in Catherines character design and storyboarding and the way she developed her idea, furthermore the way that Blue Zoo works, with budget planned for a self directed project from the studio. It is clear to me that i care more about the pre production for this project moreso that the animation itself, the design for characters and backgrounds were bright, colourful and interesting.
Third up was The Making of Ethel and Earnest which i loved. For similar reasons as Phantom Boy, namely 2D feature length animation. It was interesting, but also quite intimidating to see the level of detail that went into it. It was also funny to see the interaction between the animation director and the producer, with the director being enthusiastic about the creative elements and the producer reeling him back in to be more professional. Regardless i was impressed with what i saw and will definitely check it out when its shown at christmas.
The last masterclass (Which i had to leave half way through for meet the experts) was with studio AKA. It mostly made me feel better about working on projects for "The Man" the amount of creativity you can get out of a project is the amount you put in, and just because you'd be working on an advert doesn't mean you can't have fun with it. I am still drawn to animation for entertainment but from what i got out of this talk i feel much more comfortable with working on smaller animations for ads, especially as this will likely be the first work i get.
For meeting industry professionals please see its own dedicated blog post.
Now for the animation list, This is not the order i saw them in, but the order they are printed in the guide.
JONAS AND THE SEA (ZEEZURCHT) - Saw at LIFF, love the animation and style
BIRDZ
SPOON
OF SHADOWS AND WINGS... (D'OMBRES & D'AILES...) - loved the style, the message was cool, i was asleep for the first half
THE AERONAUTS (LOS AERONAUTAS) - find these types of models creepy but was still v cool
THE INVERTED PEAK - Love the brothers McLeod style, but i just didn't quite get this one
PARADE - animation was a little choppy but i thought the message and concept were cool.
COLD COFFEE (CAFÉ FRIOD) - wasn't a fan of the weird 2D/3D combo, but got sucked in quickly.
JOINT-TENANTS (COLOCATAIRES) - Story was very very unclear, unsure about what was going on, very difficult to get into
THE HEAD VANISHES (UNE TÊTE DISPARAÎT) - style reminds me of Lloyds ad. Creepy character design but good message. Didn't enjoy it but can't fault it.
FOX AND THE WHALE - BEAUTIFUL animation, but no idea whats really going on and it was very very long.
BROKEN: THE WOMEN'S PRISON AT HOHENECK (KAPUTT) - The rubbing out and working over the top of each frame has a good effect for this subject, with lines staying permanently in the frame even if made a little faint , works well with the subject matter of being trapped
MAMIE - Depressing animation about a depressing character. Didn't enjoy this one.
HOW LONG, NOT LONG - Frames printed out in black and white and coloured over. Felt a bit lazy. Didn't like it.
UNDER THE APPLE TREE - The rhyming worked quite well but sort of fell apart in the middle, timing of it was a bit weird too. Not a fan of puppet but the aesthetic went really well with the subject matter. Shouldn't have liked this one but i did.
THE WRONG END OF THE STICK - Hillarious, loved the gumball style of 2D over live action backgrounds.
IN OTHER WORDS (BEMILIM AHEROT) - Needed to be longer, felt like it was building up to something but it finished before it got there.
SLINKY - Style was dumb, message was even dumber. didn't like this one.
BIRDSANDBEES - so much happens in such a short space of time, it needed to be double the length. Loved the mixture of styles.
HUM - Wall-e with a different aesthetic. wasn't a huge fan.
WILDFIRE - Love the Gobelins style. Loved the set up, wanted way more though.
SCENT OF GERANIUM - I liked it. was cool.
I, THE ANIMAL (JA, ZWIERZ) - feels a little unrealistic, often documentary animation isn't exaggerated as this. Wasn't bad but just felt a little over the top.
TOUGH - Great animation, great subject, but the interviewer asked so many terrible questions
FISHWITCH - Can't fault, didn't enjoy though
ONCE UPON A TIME - Hillarious minimals style. Captures feelings well.
WHITE SILENCE (HA YAN CHIM MUK) - Much darker than expected from the style but very good dark humour.
MR MADILA - Festival favorite, got a chance to watch a copy online, want to make something this funny
GAINING ALTITUDE - A good message but a strange message in my opinion
AMA - very cute story, needed more character development though, quite short for such a cool subject.
HOUND - DOGGOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (i liked it)
POST - Nice style, reminded me of borderlands, very much my kind of style, animation was a bit boring though.
UNTIL DAWN - didn't understand it at all. AT. ALL.
EYE FOR AN EYE - Dark. Rotoscoping worked well. Kept it real and serious but without being too graphic.
IKTSUARPOK - Very good, very cute, sad message though
COWBOYLAND (KOVBOJSKO) - very fun, but the ending was unsatisfying
PERCHED - cute
WITCH DOCTOR - models were quite obviously models in some areas, a bit of clipping and characters quite clearly more T posed. Liked it though.
HONG KONG SEVENS 2016 DESCENDS - this is the kind of animation i love, with effects added to make something mundane seem cooler. If only real sports were this badass.
ONE PERCENT - strangely Niche, but beads were cool
WEATHER THE STORM - a bit slow, a bit bland, but cute and nice animation
WAITING FOR YOU TO NOTICE - Pretty. Sad subject though.
LANDGRABBING - Strange focus on the negatives of Bio Fuels. Didn't like it because of this.
ANIMALS SLACK - Cool message, simple and ingenious way of saying each persons differences benefit a project as a whole.
TRUE FREE RANGE - More stop motion ads featuring their product. It was smart and cute.
MORNING RITUALS
HAMMERSMITH - untidy animation. Wasn't clear.
WHITE HORSES - Amazing backgrounds, song was pants though
A SELF COMPASSION EXERCISE - EVERYONE SHOULD WATCH THIS SHORT IT IS AMAZING, style was cute and informative.
QUAND C'EST? - Cancer is always happy subject... Loved the performance/animation combo, animation over live action is also my jam.
MYTOPIA - Didn't find it that entertaining.
BE TOGETHER NOT THE SAME - seen this animation around already, not the biggest fan of style, but nice play on the rock paper scissors trope.
INVISIBLE BARRIERS - Love the visual style
SPACE ROCKS! - I LOVE SPACE I LOVE THIS TOPIC
THE LAST JOB ON EARTH - Love the style, sci fi elements are cool, especially how individual elements are animated
DOORS - wish it was a bit longer and elaborated on their stories a little more
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEAR - Cool but super childing. reminds me of fettle.
START WITH THE ART - the "success" of students was a bit all over the place, i wouldnt consider 4000 followers a success
SPROUT BOY - Fuck the BBC, it was an excuse to show famous people.
FOR THE REFUGEE - strange jewish focus.
FOREST 500 - cool style once again but the strange dots to simulate print was quite off putting
WHITE NIGHT - so pretty, but pretty surface level.
FLEISCHWELT - VERY CONFUSING BUT ALSO QUITE PRETTY
MODERN LOVE: A KISS, DEFERRED - Cute adaption of a real life story. I love stories based in real life its cool.
BELGIAN NATIONAL LOTERY - cute but not a big fan of the style
ABOUT TO CRACK - holy shit love the 90s skater punk style very cool. Short but effective.
MORE STUFF - Not the biggest fan of the style but ok.
FULL ANL - Same with this one, was kind of funny though
ONE MINUTE ART HISTORY - Experimental but very cool to see, spotting small art movements within the piece was cool.
ONCE UPON 3 TIMES - cute, like the style mix again.
DEAD AHEAD - love the isometric top down approach to storytelling, reminds me of sim city and stuff
RIGHT AHEAD
TABOOK - liked this animation a lot, very cute.
REMOTE - Dumb slapstick, wasnt a huge fan
THE DANCING LINE - I like these sorts of animations with nice fluid movment with simple objects. I should do some of this.
BACK THEN - Good idea, Naff execution
STEMS - very cute, very interesting, love the idea of characters making themselves
THE BELIEF - Was ok, only so much emotion you can show with boots though
FOX TALE - gross.
BINGO - feisty old people and animation go together so well
THE MOMENT - poorly written, the punchline was obvious from the get go
APPLE
SOLE MUSIC - cute shoe animation. liked it a lot, was cool seeing characteristics portrayed through shoes.
JAZZ ORGIE - Pretty colours, love animation that tries to portray sound
NOT MUCH (QUE DALLE) - noticing everything that comes out of gobelins has the same style
FOR THE BEST - i dont remember what i thought but i wrote "FUCK THIS" in big letters so i dont think i liked it.
ECLIPSE - Liked the animation but the story felt pretentious
SIXTEEN
MIRRORS
IN ONE DRAG (EIN TIEFER ZUG)
BEAMS - This one confused me
THIS IS NOT AN ANIMATION (CECI N'EST PAS UNE ANIMATION) - Loved it, the perfect animation to follow up after a bunch of pretentious bullshit
AT THE CAFE CHICHI - Nice message, models looked a bit rough
THE RACE - Cool animation, like the colours of characters
BASED ON PHOTO - okay animation, but its about nothing
THE SCARECROW - very very dark, colour pallet was weird.
CHARLIE'S BUCK TEETH (CHARLIE ET SES GRANDES DENTS) - Cute, loved the bright colours
SHUMA (SUMA) - Confusing but cute and enjoyable.
ONE LAST DANCE - Cute and sad.
SWARM - Got bored quickly and didn't understand the story. animation was nice.
When actually watching phantom boy i was quite impressed, i enjoyed the simplistic style, and will always be an advocate of 2D feature length animation. The story itself was pretty generic and full of obvious tropes but it's a film aimed at children so i am more forgiving of the obvious tropes because of this. Some other areas i had trouble with was some lines of dialogue felt quite uncanny, obviously because it will have been translated from french, but often the odd cheesy line that doesn't quite sound right really took me out of the film. Aesthetically i loved it.
The next Masterclass i went to was Blue Zoo HooDoo, in which Catherine Salkeld and Tom Box gave us a sneak peak of their VR animation HooDoo. It was interesting to see a fully 360 animation but i was more interested in Catherines character design and storyboarding and the way she developed her idea, furthermore the way that Blue Zoo works, with budget planned for a self directed project from the studio. It is clear to me that i care more about the pre production for this project moreso that the animation itself, the design for characters and backgrounds were bright, colourful and interesting.
Third up was The Making of Ethel and Earnest which i loved. For similar reasons as Phantom Boy, namely 2D feature length animation. It was interesting, but also quite intimidating to see the level of detail that went into it. It was also funny to see the interaction between the animation director and the producer, with the director being enthusiastic about the creative elements and the producer reeling him back in to be more professional. Regardless i was impressed with what i saw and will definitely check it out when its shown at christmas.
The last masterclass (Which i had to leave half way through for meet the experts) was with studio AKA. It mostly made me feel better about working on projects for "The Man" the amount of creativity you can get out of a project is the amount you put in, and just because you'd be working on an advert doesn't mean you can't have fun with it. I am still drawn to animation for entertainment but from what i got out of this talk i feel much more comfortable with working on smaller animations for ads, especially as this will likely be the first work i get.
For meeting industry professionals please see its own dedicated blog post.
Now for the animation list, This is not the order i saw them in, but the order they are printed in the guide.
JONAS AND THE SEA (ZEEZURCHT) - Saw at LIFF, love the animation and style
BIRDZ
SPOON
OF SHADOWS AND WINGS... (D'OMBRES & D'AILES...) - loved the style, the message was cool, i was asleep for the first half
THE AERONAUTS (LOS AERONAUTAS) - find these types of models creepy but was still v cool
THE INVERTED PEAK - Love the brothers McLeod style, but i just didn't quite get this one
PARADE - animation was a little choppy but i thought the message and concept were cool.
COLD COFFEE (CAFÉ FRIOD) - wasn't a fan of the weird 2D/3D combo, but got sucked in quickly.
JOINT-TENANTS (COLOCATAIRES) - Story was very very unclear, unsure about what was going on, very difficult to get into
THE HEAD VANISHES (UNE TÊTE DISPARAÎT) - style reminds me of Lloyds ad. Creepy character design but good message. Didn't enjoy it but can't fault it.
FOX AND THE WHALE - BEAUTIFUL animation, but no idea whats really going on and it was very very long.
BROKEN: THE WOMEN'S PRISON AT HOHENECK (KAPUTT) - The rubbing out and working over the top of each frame has a good effect for this subject, with lines staying permanently in the frame even if made a little faint , works well with the subject matter of being trapped
MAMIE - Depressing animation about a depressing character. Didn't enjoy this one.
HOW LONG, NOT LONG - Frames printed out in black and white and coloured over. Felt a bit lazy. Didn't like it.
UNDER THE APPLE TREE - The rhyming worked quite well but sort of fell apart in the middle, timing of it was a bit weird too. Not a fan of puppet but the aesthetic went really well with the subject matter. Shouldn't have liked this one but i did.
THE WRONG END OF THE STICK - Hillarious, loved the gumball style of 2D over live action backgrounds.
IN OTHER WORDS (BEMILIM AHEROT) - Needed to be longer, felt like it was building up to something but it finished before it got there.
SLINKY - Style was dumb, message was even dumber. didn't like this one.
BIRDSANDBEES - so much happens in such a short space of time, it needed to be double the length. Loved the mixture of styles.
HUM - Wall-e with a different aesthetic. wasn't a huge fan.
WILDFIRE - Love the Gobelins style. Loved the set up, wanted way more though.
SCENT OF GERANIUM - I liked it. was cool.
I, THE ANIMAL (JA, ZWIERZ) - feels a little unrealistic, often documentary animation isn't exaggerated as this. Wasn't bad but just felt a little over the top.
TOUGH - Great animation, great subject, but the interviewer asked so many terrible questions
FISHWITCH - Can't fault, didn't enjoy though
ONCE UPON A TIME - Hillarious minimals style. Captures feelings well.
WHITE SILENCE (HA YAN CHIM MUK) - Much darker than expected from the style but very good dark humour.
MR MADILA - Festival favorite, got a chance to watch a copy online, want to make something this funny
GAINING ALTITUDE - A good message but a strange message in my opinion
AMA - very cute story, needed more character development though, quite short for such a cool subject.
HOUND - DOGGOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (i liked it)
POST - Nice style, reminded me of borderlands, very much my kind of style, animation was a bit boring though.
UNTIL DAWN - didn't understand it at all. AT. ALL.
EYE FOR AN EYE - Dark. Rotoscoping worked well. Kept it real and serious but without being too graphic.
IKTSUARPOK - Very good, very cute, sad message though
COWBOYLAND (KOVBOJSKO) - very fun, but the ending was unsatisfying
PERCHED - cute
WITCH DOCTOR - models were quite obviously models in some areas, a bit of clipping and characters quite clearly more T posed. Liked it though.
HONG KONG SEVENS 2016 DESCENDS - this is the kind of animation i love, with effects added to make something mundane seem cooler. If only real sports were this badass.
ONE PERCENT - strangely Niche, but beads were cool
WEATHER THE STORM - a bit slow, a bit bland, but cute and nice animation
WAITING FOR YOU TO NOTICE - Pretty. Sad subject though.
LANDGRABBING - Strange focus on the negatives of Bio Fuels. Didn't like it because of this.
ANIMALS SLACK - Cool message, simple and ingenious way of saying each persons differences benefit a project as a whole.
TRUE FREE RANGE - More stop motion ads featuring their product. It was smart and cute.
MORNING RITUALS
HAMMERSMITH - untidy animation. Wasn't clear.
WHITE HORSES - Amazing backgrounds, song was pants though
A SELF COMPASSION EXERCISE - EVERYONE SHOULD WATCH THIS SHORT IT IS AMAZING, style was cute and informative.
QUAND C'EST? - Cancer is always happy subject... Loved the performance/animation combo, animation over live action is also my jam.
MYTOPIA - Didn't find it that entertaining.
BE TOGETHER NOT THE SAME - seen this animation around already, not the biggest fan of style, but nice play on the rock paper scissors trope.
INVISIBLE BARRIERS - Love the visual style
SPACE ROCKS! - I LOVE SPACE I LOVE THIS TOPIC
THE LAST JOB ON EARTH - Love the style, sci fi elements are cool, especially how individual elements are animated
DOORS - wish it was a bit longer and elaborated on their stories a little more
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEAR - Cool but super childing. reminds me of fettle.
START WITH THE ART - the "success" of students was a bit all over the place, i wouldnt consider 4000 followers a success
SPROUT BOY - Fuck the BBC, it was an excuse to show famous people.
FOR THE REFUGEE - strange jewish focus.
FOREST 500 - cool style once again but the strange dots to simulate print was quite off putting
WHITE NIGHT - so pretty, but pretty surface level.
FLEISCHWELT - VERY CONFUSING BUT ALSO QUITE PRETTY
MODERN LOVE: A KISS, DEFERRED - Cute adaption of a real life story. I love stories based in real life its cool.
BELGIAN NATIONAL LOTERY - cute but not a big fan of the style
ABOUT TO CRACK - holy shit love the 90s skater punk style very cool. Short but effective.
MORE STUFF - Not the biggest fan of the style but ok.
FULL ANL - Same with this one, was kind of funny though
ONE MINUTE ART HISTORY - Experimental but very cool to see, spotting small art movements within the piece was cool.
ONCE UPON 3 TIMES - cute, like the style mix again.
DEAD AHEAD - love the isometric top down approach to storytelling, reminds me of sim city and stuff
RIGHT AHEAD
TABOOK - liked this animation a lot, very cute.
REMOTE - Dumb slapstick, wasnt a huge fan
THE DANCING LINE - I like these sorts of animations with nice fluid movment with simple objects. I should do some of this.
BACK THEN - Good idea, Naff execution
STEMS - very cute, very interesting, love the idea of characters making themselves
THE BELIEF - Was ok, only so much emotion you can show with boots though
FOX TALE - gross.
BINGO - feisty old people and animation go together so well
THE MOMENT - poorly written, the punchline was obvious from the get go
APPLE
SOLE MUSIC - cute shoe animation. liked it a lot, was cool seeing characteristics portrayed through shoes.
JAZZ ORGIE - Pretty colours, love animation that tries to portray sound
NOT MUCH (QUE DALLE) - noticing everything that comes out of gobelins has the same style
FOR THE BEST - i dont remember what i thought but i wrote "FUCK THIS" in big letters so i dont think i liked it.
ECLIPSE - Liked the animation but the story felt pretentious
SIXTEEN
MIRRORS
IN ONE DRAG (EIN TIEFER ZUG)
BEAMS - This one confused me
THIS IS NOT AN ANIMATION (CECI N'EST PAS UNE ANIMATION) - Loved it, the perfect animation to follow up after a bunch of pretentious bullshit
AT THE CAFE CHICHI - Nice message, models looked a bit rough
THE RACE - Cool animation, like the colours of characters
BASED ON PHOTO - okay animation, but its about nothing
THE SCARECROW - very very dark, colour pallet was weird.
CHARLIE'S BUCK TEETH (CHARLIE ET SES GRANDES DENTS) - Cute, loved the bright colours
SHUMA (SUMA) - Confusing but cute and enjoyable.
ONE LAST DANCE - Cute and sad.
SWARM - Got bored quickly and didn't understand the story. animation was nice.
No comments:
Post a Comment