Nickelodeon looking for Artists

Hey all. I've been away those last weeks because of all my assignments for my university. After I’m done I am thinking about posting everything here hoping to get some feedback from anybody : )

Anyway, back to our topic now I just read somewhere that Nickelodeon Animation Studios is looking for several artists for its newest show, Robot and Monster: Best Friends Forever!

So for anybody interested here is the link at cartoonsnap where you can read some more information about it and why not apply too! ;) 

cya

Oscar Nominations in detail – Best Animated Short Films

Many of the smaller Oscar Film categories tend to get ignored so we’ve decided to profile all the short films that are nominated for Academy Awards in 2010. First of all we’re taking a look at the 5 films up for Best Animated Short Film, and have posted our review and the films below (or trailer if its not available) so you can watch them all.

French Roast 
This 7 minute French short film has no need for subtitles as there’s only a few words of dialogue. It’s a simple and revealing portrait of everyday habits as we follow a French customer at a cafe and his interactions as he realises he has forgotten his wallet. Wiht some great moments of comedy it’s easy to see why this one is on the Oscar shortlist. It comes from filmmaker Fabrice O. Jouberts who has worked on feature animation titles like Flushed Away, Shark Tale and Wallace and Gromit Curse of the Were Rabbit and French Roast has already won the Best animation award at the ANIMA Animation Festival last year In Argentina.

Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty  (my favourite)  :p
This short by Irish filmmaker Nicky Phelan is a humorous look at how we treat the elderly, as a Grandma reads her own version of Sleeping Beauty to her granddaughter at bedtime. With a mixture of animation styles in granny’s version Sleeping Beauty was punished by her granny because Beauty’s family ignored granny as they thought she was old – it wquickly becomes clear Granny O’Grimm’s is bitter about how she is treated by her own family as an old person. This is quite funny and at only 6 minutes long its well deserved of its nomination.

The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)





We have posted the trailer for this short 8 minute film below but you can watch the whole thing at the films offical site at http://212.227.136.88/press/ . This Spanish short comes form first time filmmaker Javier Recio Gracia and tells the tale of another old lady but this one is patiently waiting for her death so she can join her husband in heaven. However when she finally does die she wakes up to find she has been saved from deaths door by a doctor.

Watch the Video

Logorama
This film won the Best Short Film at the Stockholm Film Festival last year and is a film by French collective H5 (filmmakers Francois Alaux, Herve de Crecy and Ludovic Houplain). It is a satirical and intersting look at corporate branding as its set in a world full of literally hundreds and thousands of logos, where the characters are all well known brand representations such as the Michelin man and theres even a gun-toting Ronald McDonald. Its full of violence and swearing so beware before you watch!

A Matter of Loaf and Death
The last short on the list will be known to most frontrow readers already as it is Nick Parks tale of the lovable duo Wallace and his dog, Gromit. In this tale Wallace and Gromit open a bakery but someone is out to get the bakers so they have to keep their wits about them. Its hilarious and by far my favourite on the animated short list but then I’ve loved Wallace and Gromit since early childhood. It’s probably the favourite for the Oscar as well having won a last years Bafta’s among others. We can’t post the whole film but here’s the trailer – this is also the only film that is currently available to buy.

A Matter of Loaf and Death from Hormoz Zamanpour Siahkal on Vimeo.

Thanks to:   Front Row Reviews

From YouTube to Hollywood!!

A film producer from Uruguay got an offer for a 30 million dollars contract from a big production company in Hollywood (Ghost House Pictures), after he uploaded an animation video on youtube.


The 5min short movie directed and animated by Fede Alvarez with the title "Ataque de Panico" (Panic Attack) shows Giant robots invading Montevideo!


You can find the music of the film in the soundrack of the movie 28 Days Later, made by Godspeed You Black Emperor

DC Universe - Mass Animation - Animation Contest

This December DC Universe is making an Animation Contest giving us already rigged models, animatic, sound and most important the software!! (Maya) Have some free time? Choose the scene you like the most from their list and download the files to start animating.

Here is the link for the trailer:
www.massanimation.com

And here you can find everything you need for the contest:
DC Universe Animation Contest @ Facebook

Enjoy Animation Time!

An Animated Chat With 'Up' Director Pete Docter

"The animated 3-D movie Up — directed and co-written by Pixar veteran Pete Docter — became the first animated film to open the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. An adventure story featuring a grouchy old man, a chubby, dauntless scout, a 13-foot flightless bird and a house borne aloft by balloons, it was a buoyant summer hit for Pixar, earning ecstatic reviews and taking in more than half a billion dollars at the global box office. It's out now on DVD and Blu-ray. "
 Read More / Listen to the story!

 Script Docter: Writer-director Pete Docter co-wrote Pixar's summer hit Up and earned a story credit on 2008's enormously successful Wall-E.

"Mariza" By Constantine Krystallis

A very special Animation with great potential for Nickelodeon Animation Festival 2009 representing Hellas (Greece) is the one following, made by Constantine Krystallis.




Vote for it!!
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Movie's Page
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Director's page

Tim Burton: A retrospective

A collection of movie stills, drawings and other artwork produced by the famed director is on display at the New York Museum of Modern Art.

A cinematic artist

Artist, illustrator, photographer, writer and director Tim Burton appears at New York's Museum of Modern Art on November 17 to help launch his career retrospective featuring drawings, paintings, puppets and films.

A jaw-dropping entrance

The show of Burton's works, which runs at MoMA until April 26, shows artwork generated during the conception and production of the director's films, pieces from unrealized projects, student art, his early non-professional films and work for non-film endeavors.

 

A close-knit group

Joining Burton at the museum was his girlfriend, actress Helena Bonham Carter, second from left, frequent collaborator Johnny Depp, left, and actor Danny DeVito, right.

A wide-eyed view

These figures, including Stain Boy, center background, and Robot Boy, right, are part of Tim Burton exhibit's at the Museum of Modern Art.

Up in arms

This sculpture, which looks like many of the dark, menacing characters in Burton's films, is one of the more than 700 works of art on display.

Like minds

Tim Burton on set with actor Johnny Depp, who frequently works with Burton, during the filiming of "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" in 2007. The movie is about a man unjustly sent to prison by a lecherous judge who vows revenge.

Take that!

Johnny Depp starred as the title character in Burton's "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street." The director often has taken classic tales and put his own dark spin on them.

Romance on the job

Bonham Carter and Burton discuss a scene on the set of "Sweeney Todd." The British actress has been in several Burton films, starting with "Planet of the Apes." They have been a couple since working on the 2001 film and now have two children together.

Inspiration for exhibit

It was while watching Burton's "Charlie and the

Chocolate Factory" (2005) that MoMA assistant curator

Ron Magliozzi dreamed up the exhibit.

A director and his 'Bride'

 Tim Burton on the set of the movie "Corpse Bride," which he co-directed in 2005.

 

An unlikely match

"Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride," an animated movie is set in a

19th-century European village, tells the story of young Victor,

who is whisked away to the underworld and wed to a mysterious

Corpse Bride, while his real bride, Victoria, waits bereft in the land of the living.

Not a happy face

This shows an image from "Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas" storyboard from 1993.

A 'Christmas' affair

This movie still from "Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas" (1993) shows Sally and Jack. The movie is about Jack Skellington, aka the Pumpkin King, who is bored with his job and feels that life in Halloweenland lacks meaning. He stumbles upon Christmastown and promptly decides to make the Yuletide his own.

An unwelcome guest

Michael Keaton stars in "Beetlejuice," directed by Tim Burton in 1988. The movie is about a dead couple who attempt to scare a modern family out of their house with the help of a "bio-exorcist."

It all started on paper

This 1990 sketch of the character Edward Scissorhands is one of the many artworks on display.

Feeling blue

This sketch comes from Burton's 1997 children's poetry book "The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories." Some of the characters in this book would later appear in a Flash series called "The World of Stain Boy."

Going at it

Another sketch from 1982–1984 that would inspire stories for Burton's children's book, "The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories."

A strange land

This 1982 sketch would inspire "Frankenweenie," a live-action film Burton released in 1984.

 The big staredown

"The World of Stainboy," written and directed by Burton, was released in 2000. He drew this image with pen and ink, watercolor wash and colored pencil.

 Let's call this one "Six"

This piece, created with pen and ink, marker, and watercolor wash on paper, was produced in 1982.

Musical influence

The artist-director shows his musical taste in this drawing called "Untitled (Ramone)."

Shades of 'Beetlejuice'

Burton created this pen-and-ink collage, called Untitled (Trick or Treat), in 1980.

wanna see more?

Taken from msnbc.msn.com

Bradfod Animation Festival 2009 *starts tomorrow

I am really so excited about the BAF (Bradford's Animation Festival) that's starting tomorrow!! I also just got my full pass from my Uni (YAY!!)

So I was looking at the diary page to see the timetable and  after all the cool events I found that as an opening film for Baf's festival they have Mary and Max!!!

 The other thing that's really amazing (even though we all knew it would happen) is that the passes for BAF are all SOLD OUT!! Even so if you don't have a pass for the festival you can still get a ticket for some events. More information and for a schedule visit BAF's web page