Hasta La Motion!

The Oscars have been announced and social media platforms are floored with updates and appreciation. Apart from the fan-favourite categories, Toy Story 4 won the 92nd Academy Award for best animated feature on Sunday, 9 February.

This is the 13th time Disney film has won the golden lady; and the second film in the Toy Story franchise to win the award for best animated feature category, the first being Toy Story 3 in 2011.

Toy Story 4

Toy Story 4 was one of three front runners headed into Oscar weekend alongside Laika’s Missing Link, which won the Golden Globe in January, and Netflix’s Klaus, which took home the BAFTA for best animated feature film last week. 

Toy Story 4 takes up after the end of Toy Story 3, where a college-aged Andy gifts his toys to a little girl named Bonnie. Early in the film, Bonnie crafts together Forky, a plastic spork with googly eyes, broken Popsicle sticks for legs, a clay mouth and a twisted pipe cleaner for arms. He is now her favourite toy and Buzz Lightyear, Woody and the gang embark on an adventurous ride to convince Forky, who strongly believes he is not a toy.

Besides Toy Story 4, Hair Love also won the prestigious award for the Best Animated Short Film. It depicts a sweet and joyful story about an African-American father learning to style his daughter’s natural hair in his wife’s absence. The film portrays the beautiful relationship with smart and less use of words; gestures and expressions of the father’s poignant endeavour.

In Hair Love, young Zuri tries to fashion her thick curls into a stylish hairdo using the directions of a vlogger, but when she struggles to make it work, her dad steps in. He starts out frustrated and bewildered by the array of hair tools and products, almost giving up until he seeks help from the natural hair vlogger.

The film spreads the message of embracing and loving your natural hair, which was transported to the ceremony itself on Sunday. The producer couple of Hair Love, the actress Gabrielle Union and the former N.B.A. champion Dwyane Wade, invited a black high school student in Texas who was suspended because of the way he wore his dreadlocks, to the Oscars ceremony.

Accepting his Oscar, Hair Love writer Matthew A. Cherry said he wanted to draw attention to the Crown Act, a law first passed in California that bans discrimination based on natural hairstyles and that backers hope to pass in other states. “I wanted to see a young black family in the animated world,” he said.

Hair Love stood out in a year where Oscars nominations have noticeably lacked racial diversity, despite efforts in the film industry to shift the narrative, except Cynthia Erivo of Harriet, to be nominated.

The post ‘Toy Story 4’ and ‘Hair Love’ bag Oscars for animated films categories appeared first on AnimationXpress.

Leading kids’ entertainment specialist CAKE has secured a global deal on behalf of Fresh TV with Cartoon Network and Boomerang for the new long form CGI animated series Lucas the Spider.

Based on the worldwide YouTube hit, the series is owned and produced by award-winning Canadian producer Fresh TV (who acquired the IP in 2018) in association with Toronto’s WexWorks Media with CAKE handling international distribution.

Lucas the Spider follows the adventures of an adorable little spider named Lucas as he and his friends try to navigate the big and curious human world around them. Retaining the authenticity and running alongside Fresh TV’s ongoing production of original YouTube shorts, the new Lucas the Spider series will focus on Lucas and his innocent and endearing perspective of the world, while introducing longer narratives, new characters and an expanded universe. The series is going to have 78 episodes in seven  minutes.

CAKE CCO and MD Ed Galton said, “A partnership with Cartoon Network is a significant step for Lucas. Strategically, they are the right partner for this project and together, we are looking forward to extending the brand and building Lucas into a global phenomenon. This latest collaboration is testament to the strength and success of the continuing relationship between CAKE, Fresh TV and Cartoon Network, which has spanned over 12 years.”

Lucas the Spider

Lucas the Spider was originally created by accomplished animator Joshua Slice as a series of animated shorts (voiced by his nephew), which premiered on YouTube in November 2017.  Currently, Lucas has amassed over 300 million views, over 3.3 million subscribers and has launched a successful line of toys and licensed goods. 

“CAKE and Fresh TV are some of the best partners we’ve worked with and co-developing a beloved and viral short to series globally on Cartoon Network and Boomerang is a really exciting partnership to be a part of, ” added Cartoon Network Content Acquisitions and Co-Productions VP Adina Pitt.

Noted Fresh TV president and exec producer Tom McGillis, “We are so excited to take the magic of Lucas the Spider to the next level. Together, we will deepen the already special relationship Lucas has with his millions of fans around the world.”

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Global prodco Rainbow, Italy based company behind global classics like the legendary Winx Club saga, recently launched its animated hit 44 Cats on CCTV 14 China, and ratings have already established it as a leading show on the channel.

Starting from 4 February 2020, 44 Cats has been airing daily on China’s major kids content channel. The 52 x 13’ preschool show follows the daily adventures of Lampo, Milady, Pilou, and Meatball – four adorable kittens living in lovely Granny Pina’s house and playing their songs as a music band named The Buffycats. Always ready to help their friends finding creative solutions to any kind of problem, the Buffycats are conquering broadcasters across the globe thanks to their cuteness and universal attributes, their stories dealing with central themes such as tolerance, diversity and altruism, and their unique way of combining positive values, action and comedy in a sophisticated CGI production. Distinctive feature of the show is the wonderful music score, made up of original songs from the Italian tradition, developed and sung by the famous children choir of the Antoniano Bologna. 

“We are really proud that 44 Cats has reached the Chinese audience with its positive values and entertaining adventures”, commented Rainbow CEO and creator of the serieds Iginio Straffi. “We are confident that the audience will appreciate the passion and dedication we put in this show”. 

44 Cats keeps growing meowtifully, and on the licensing and CP landscape the brand is gaining rising popularity across the world. Guangzhou Art-land Holding Co. Ltd. is consumer product agent for the brand in Mainland China, Taiwan e Hong Kong. 

Rainbow’s explosive mix of music and comedy is ready to charm the Chinese audience, while a second, enthralling season of the best loved cat friends team on screen is already in production. 

The post Rainbow’s Pawesome Success ’44 Cats’ On CCTV 14 appeared first on AnimationXpress.

Name : Phantom Creative Effects Pvt. Ltd.

Location : Chennai

Projects : Ghostbusters, The Little Mermaid, Underworld-Bloodwars, Supergirl, Pixels, The Walk, Sense 8, Van Helsing, Wu assassins, Project blue book,Nippon Commercial, Man in the high castle, A Christmas love story, Avengers, Transformers, Flash – TV series, Pete’s Dragon
Baahubali 2, 2.o, Vishwaroopam, Syera, Saaho, Kaithi.

PhantomFX

ABOUT:

As a TPN-certified creative studio, PhantomFX has excelled in providing high-end visual effects solutions for commercials, feature films, and television media globally. The focus of the company is to provide creative, reliable, cost-effective, and high-quality VFX shots at competitive prices. PhantomFX is a full-fledged end to end creative studio specialising in Creature animations and CGI environments, based in India with offices operating in the US. The state-of-the-art designed studio infrastructure at Phantom adds a perfect balance for work and creativity. With advanced workstations and secure systems, the studio base scales well with the workflow. The experienced and core-talented artist crew along with a reliable pipeline makes Phantom capable of synergistically constructing any complex creative scripts and operate in line with the speed, volume and quality demanded by the clients. The company has the flexibility to work on any kind of project, either small or large, with faster turnaround and scalability to generate long-term value for the client.

As more and more international studios are stepping in, there is a wide variety of opportunities for the artists to learn and evolve in the VFX space. Indian talents are poised to compete with the global counterparts, which helps us to raise our quality standards for the Indian film market as well. This trend helps both the studios and artists to remain in the forefront. As the number of talents increases, Indian VFX industry can successfully participate in the battle of well-constructed markets such as US, Canada and other countries.

2. What are the challenges in this ecosystem?

Even though the potential for talented animation and VFX artists is proliferating each day, there still exists a talent shortage. The lack of qualified talent pool and the increasing number of under-skilled students passing out every year is the biggest challenge I see. Hence it remains a big hurdle for VFX companies to bridge the gap between the existing huge demand and the poaching of good talents from a well-trained organization. Studios should start focusing more on creating a balanced ecosystem of talent acquisition and training of skilled artists. It is only through the right training that good talents can be tapped in so that they provide consistent quality to their clients and help organisations grow ahead in their business.

The one thing that today’s aspiring VFX enthusiasts should know is how to practice their skills. “Practice! Practice! Practice!” is the mantra to succeed and hone your skills. There remains a huge demand for talented artists in the sphere, and all it takes is practice, training and creative skills to make yourself stand out from the rest of the crowd to get noticed. Keep on exploring new trends and hone up your artistic abilities and skills with an aptitude for creative mindset. All you can do is make the best use of all the online resources available to learn, look up for good artistic works and try to imitate and achieve the same quality to train yourself and develop your abilities. And again, didn’t I mention ‘Practice’, and that is what will set you apart.

Life at PhantomFX is dynamic and fun. Having a diverse group of talented artists, developers, and producers, we make efforts to lift up one another. The work culture here uplifts the mood and infuses a sense of togetherness, thus making the workplace more enjoyable, productive and creative. A career with Phantom guarantees you several learning opportunities and a huge support network to help you become the best.

The post Studio of the week | Phantom Creative Effects appeared first on AnimationXpress.

Over the years, social media has proved to be quite an effective medium for content creators at different scales to showcase their work, to a large number of audience. Most creative minds across the nooks and corners of the world, who have less means of publishing their work to reach the masses, resort to this medium as it’s powerful and interactive. With digitisation and cheaper internet, content is now travelling like never before.

One such content creator and animator is Andrea Love, whose animated videos have gone viral on Facebook, Instagram and more, courtesy – she animates wool! Her social media is flooded with appreciation for these adorable tiny videos that she single handedly creates.

Andrea Love and the wool frog

Based out of Port Townsend, Washington, a beautiful little Victorian seaport in the Pacific Northwest, Love became familiar with needle felting in 2012. “I had just begun animating, and thought it would be a great material for my stop motion puppets. From there I started incorporating it into more and more aspects of my work, until I was making entire videos out of wool. I am fascinated by its properties and how it lends itself to animation. I began experimenting with animation in college, and created some of my very first films around 2010.  I didn’t plan on pursuing a career in animation, and treated it more like a hobby for several years. I was in my mid 20s when I started freelancing, mostly for local businesses. It was 2016 when I decided I wanted to be known for my work animating with wool. Most of my projects since then have worked towards that goal, ” Love shared with Animation Xpress.

After receiving B.A from Hampshire College in 2010, with a concentration in video production and film studies, she spent several years making content for businesses, nonprofits and narrative films, teaching herself along the way. Eventually, she started having followers online, and exploring her love for wool animation.

Love runs a full service animation studio from her basement and creates commercial work, as well as short narrative and documentary films. Her work has been screened at film festivals around the country including the Tribeca Film Festival and the LA Shorts Fest. 

Talking about her inspiration for these lovely videos, she added, “Wool is my inspiration, and I am constantly trying to think of new and exciting ways to experience it. I have been using Instagram as a testing ground for ideas and techniques, which gives me a great idea of what people respond to, like to challenge myself to make everything out of fibre, even when it would be easier not to. This often results in some unexpected discoveries and tangents to follow. I find the videos that resonate the most contain things that most everyone can relate to -cooking or painting for example- and frames it in this new way.  This type of animation is not as well known as something like claymation, but I believe it will continue to grow in popularity as more and more people learn what it is.” 

Her basement studio has grown into a full functional service space, and brings contract workers for help with various tasks here and there. Though Love is largely on her own, she hopes to build up a small team sometime soon. Love is involved in every step of the process, and her personal Instagram videos tend to be pretty spontaneous and improvised. But the long form works contain many steps.

“Usually it begins with an animatic to break down what each shot will be.  Then after designs have been approved, it’s onto puppet and set fabrication. I use wire armatures, and build sets on rigid foam.  Once the set and puppets are complete, I set up my lighting using various stands and an overhead PVC grid. I animate on twos, so 12 frames per second, using a Canon 6D paired with manual Nikon lenses. I use Dragonframe to capture the stop motion and then edit in Final Cut. I often work with sound designers, voice actors, composers, and post production artists to fill out all the other aspects of production,” said she.

Love is currently working on an eight minute stop motion adaptation of Thumbelina, titled Tulip, where she’s collaborating with children’s book author and illustrator Phoebe Wahl, another Northwest artist. 

‘Tulip’ set

Tulip tells the story of a tiny child who gets lost in the garden and goes on a woolly adventure to find her way home. They are in the animation stage right now, which will take some months to complete. All her past films have been for clients, so it’s a big step for her to generate original work where she’s in the driver’s seat. “We are running a Kickstarter in February to raise the rest of the money for production. I am so pleased with the way that this project is coming out, and can’t wait to finish it and get it out into the world.  I also have more cooking videos in the works, which will be released on Instagram and YouTube periodically throughout the year. There is no animation industry here, so it is doubly important for me to be online sharing my work,” concluded Love.

With the powerful medium of social media, creators and artists like Andrea Love are able to hone their talent and cherish their dream of becoming successful by garnering more eyeballs and getting noticed eventually landing up with lucrative opportunities.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

@tulip_film is about to take a giant leap forward with an official Kickstarter campaign launching next week on 12/12! @phoebewahl and I have been pouring our hearts into this film and we hope you will consider pitching in to help us get it across the finish line. We are going to be offering a ton of awesome merch and will be introducing more characters and sneak peeks of animation. Stay tuned! . . . #stopmotion #animation #kickstarter #crowdfunding #shortfilm #womeninfilm #needlefelting #fiberart

A post shared by Andrea Love (@andreaanimates) on Feb 7, 2020 at 11:27am PST

The post Meet Andrea Love who animates wool with love! appeared first on AnimationXpress.