Short Animated Films - Cortometraggi d'Animazione

Unimagined Friends from The Animation Workshop

My passion for animation was dwindling, I admit it, in the past few years.  I think that I stopped watching other people's work because I was feeling so down  about what I perceived as a failure with my own project Hick!  No matter how much I wanted the film to be complete so I could show it off to people, it just wouldn't get done.

So it became painful to watch other animated short films. Suddenly, something that had so sparked my imagination, passion and own creativity in the past had become a bucket of chilled water on that small flame that was my drive to keep moving on with the project.  Fearfully I decided to shelter that flame from the outside world and shut the door on my love for animation saying to myself I'd get back to watching amazing shorts when Hick was done.  This of course, was all unconsciously.

In turning a new page with my strategy on getting my film finished, I have also decided to turn a new page with regards to watching other people's short films. Just because I'm not done doing my film doesn't mean I have to punish myself by not enjoying all the wonderful projects out there. If anything, watching other people's work now may help to cheer me on and forwards.  I've decided to share some of the great shorts I've come across with you readers.  Whether you're into animation or not, whether you're young or old, these shorts will surely brighten your day.

The first was sent to me by my sister-in-law after I had told her that Sera had an imaginary friend.  It's called UNIMAGINED FRIENDS and was created by The Animation Workshop as a student film.  Enjoy!

Unimagined Friends from The Animation Workshop on Vimeo.

La mia passione per l'animazione stava diminuendo, lo ammetto, negli ultimi anni. Penso che ho smesso di guardare il lavoro degli altri, perché mi sentivo così triste a causa di quello che ho percepito come un fallimento con il mio progetto Hick! Non importa quanto volevo che il film sia completa, semplicemente non sarebbe riuscivo a farlo.

Così è diventato doloroso vedere altri corti animati. Improvvisamente, qualcosa che aveva così scatenato la mia immaginazione, passione e creatività, è diventato un secchio di acqua gelida su quella piccola fiammella che era il mio sogno di progetto. Con tanta paura, ho deciso di nascondere quella fiamma dal mondo esterno e chiusi la porta sul mio amore per l'animazione.  Diceva a me stesso che potevo gaurdare i corti dei altri  quando Hick è stato fatto . Questo, naturalmente, era tutto un ragionamento fatto inconsciamente .

Siccome sto girnado una nuova pagina con la mia strategiariguardando il lavoro sul film, ho deciso di aprire anche una nuova pagina per quanto riguarda la visione di cortometraggi dei altri. Solo perché non ho finito facendo il mio film non significa che devo punirmi, non godendo di tutti i meravigliosi progetti là fuori. Se non altro, guardando il lavoro degli altri ora può aiutare a tirarmi su e in avanti. Ho deciso di condividere alcune delle grandi corti che ho trovato con voi lettori. Sia che siate in animazione o no, se sei giovane o vecchio , questi short sicuramente illuminare la vostra giornata.

Il primo è stato inviato a me da mia cognata, dopo che le avevo detto che Sera aveva un amico immaginario. Si chiama UNIMAGINED FRIENDS ed è stato creato da The Animation Workshop come un film studentesco. Buon divertimento!

♥ Jess

♦

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Sneak Peek at Hick!

I talk so seldomly about my animated film. I've been working on it for nearing 5 years now (it started in 2009) and yet the people who know me have very little ideaas to what it's all about.  Tisweek I'm getting back to it after the long holiday lull.

The project is carried out online. I'm the director, screen writer and producer of the film while artists around the world contribute their skills and animate, provide technical work or design skills. Really, the film wouldn't be anything without them.

I thought the best way to let you blog readers into my little animation world was to show you the current state of the animatic... I never do this. Friends and family have rarely seen the work in progress and it's actually quite scary making it public now. I don't know why I'm so protective about this project. It's probably because I'm insecure about it and care about it very much. I don't have the same issues when it comes to any of my crafting creations, but I bet I'd be equally sensitive about any paintings I did, if I ever started painting again.

Let me just explain that an animatic is a little movie with the film from start to finish with each of the shots at the exact state of development they're currently in in any given point in time. Some of these scenes are nearing completion and some need to be started. Some need to be completely re-done and some can be scary or confusing. Let me assure you that the film will be very different from this version when finished. If it's ever finished.

On a side note I had a dream last night that there were no computers left in the world that were able to render the film because the technology had become obsolete. It's becoming a very real possibility but I'm trying tnot to think about it until I get there. Aren't we supposed to try to live in the moment?

This is a scary moment for me, but here goes...  May I present to you the current state of my cimatographic brain-child: Hick! 

Wow. I hope you liked it and aren't too put-off by the unfinished quality of it. I hope you'll all get to see the final version soon.  Thanks for watching and I hope that you leave comments! Good or bad! I can take it!

 ♥Jess

PS, if you'd like to work with me on Hick! you can head over to http://hick-film.ning.com and sign up! I'm always looking for more talented help on the project!

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layout done on Hick!

why do old ladies always want to touch pregnant bellies?

Creating an animated short film isn't easy, especially when you're as easily distracted and yet ridiculously over-ambitious as I am.  Not only does it take hours and hours of creating, imagining and then setting up the characters, files and situations, but then you have to animate easy and every shot, frame by frame (even if it does seem 'easier' than the olden-days of hand-drawn animation).  I'm lucky enough o have been able to work with some fantastic new artists on my own short-film project and it takes a bit of the edge off but it's still a molassesly-slow process.

I'm thrilled to announce however that we have reached a milestone this week with Hick!! Both Scene1 and Scene2 (there are only two scenes thank goodness) are out of the 'storyboard' phase in production and we have completed layout for all 94 shots.  In other words, we'll soon be ready to push through an intensive animation-only phase of the project.

I'm in the midst of finishing up some work on the 'new' rigs and when that's done will start recruiting new animators for the workload, as well as taking on a lot of the shots myself. It's a huge relief to watch the animatic without any more storyboard illustrations as well, even if they were beautifully done.

Baby steps my friends, baby steps. Working on Hick! one frame at a time.

For more info about Hick! or to sign up to be part of the team visit http://hick-film.ning.com  We're looking for maya animators, riggers, texture artists, sfx specialists, premier editiors and technical fx specialists.

dream home - office space

I spend a lot of time at home. It's my sanctuary, my workplace, my own personal restaurant when I can order (and of course prepare) anything on the limitless menu, my spa and beauty salon, my gallery and its also where my favourite people in the world happen to live. Of course I spend as much time here as I can! It's the best place in the whole world (for me)!

But spaces and homes also need to be functional and my house, how I have it set up at the moment, isn't ideal in every way. What it needs is the perfect office space. Here are my criteria:
Bright with lots of natural light
Organised and neat
Flexible and able to host different activities
Inspiring
Comfortable

My current office is a converted closet nook which the previous owner used to hang laundry in. It has no windows, and both my craft desk and computer desk are built into the bookcases. It's pretty great considering the space I had to work with but because its so small it does get cluttered and claustrophobic at times.

as you can see it's not the neatest or most organised of spaces

My dream office will need to allow me to:
Meditate
Practise yoga
Work on my film Hick!
Relax and read books in
Work on my blog
Sew
Knit
Do other random crafting projects

Though there's no new house on the horizon at the moment I have been collecting images and inspiration for this dream space. Here are some suggestions for very small offices that could fit in a wardrobe. Maybe I could try something like that!

Adam Selwood's Basement office Ikea Hack

Modern Home Office by Austin Interior Designer Claudia Cowperthwaite

Other larger spaces.

Maybe I'd actually finish some crafts for once?

Overhead library - DREAMY

This amount of light would be nice

and a corner for wellness?

Well, I can keep dreaming for the moment. But as most motivational speakers will tell you, visualising the best case scenario and letting your mind run free is the best way to actually achieve your goals and come to realising them.

What does your ideal workspace include? If you could plan it to be anything at all what would it be like? I'd love to hear about your dream spaces.

Self-Interview: "Hick!", My Day Job

I don't currently earn an income. I haven't for ages now. I'm lucky enough to have a primary breadwinner in my household so I can concentrate on raising Sera, taking care of our home and pursing my hobbies and interests.

I do however have a self-imposed day job and have been working for the same company now on the same project for coming on 4 years. I have no boss, which most people would like, but I don't earn anything either, which most people wouldn't find as nice.  I'm at my computer for several hours a day working working working.

The project is called Hick! and it's an animated 3D short film.  It's an on line collaboration with artists from all over the world and me at the helm. What I get out of it is much needed help in the creation of the works, what they get is feedback, exposure and work under a director. Everyone is a volunteer and adds what they can for as long as they can and then moves on. What follows is an interview with the part of my person that is the artist, filmmaker, director and producer of the project:

Q. Back in 2009, why did you first decide to create an animated short film?
A. In the summer of 2009 I had just finished Animation Mentor, an online intensive character animation school based in San Francisco and was trying to figure out what to do next. I'd been interviewing for animation jobs here in Milan with little success. The 3D market here doesn't call for specialisation of that kind and instead hires 3D generalists, which isn't what I wanted to do with my life. I went to Annecy, France for their annual animation festival that June and realised tat although here in Europe there weren't the huge studios like Disney or Pixar, I could still be an animator on a smaller scale and on my own terms. I was inspired!  My brain started churning for an idea for a short.

Q. Where did the idea eventually come from?
A. In all honesty, I don't know! I was in an airport in transit back to Montreal for the summer and suddenly the whole film came to me in a flash. I had a half hour and wrote it out right there in the departures lounge. It's changed very little since.

Q. Did you always plan to invite other artists to collaborate?
A. It's a huge undertaking to create an animated short film.  At first I planned to do it all by myself but the script wasn't really conducive to that. The film has 13 characters in it which means 13 times the development resources were needed. Also, right from the start I was pretty specific about how I wanted it to look, and I'm neither a character designer nor a rendering specialist. I knew I would definitely need help sooner or later.

Q. And how did you find that help?
A. Online! The Internet is a marvellous thing! Soon after I started production I started to look for my character voices. I found them on Voice123 which is this amazing site to find voice over artists looking to expand their portfolios. Then I found my character designer, Lorenzo Milito, on facebook through friends of friends. He was brilliant in bringing the characters to life.  After that I stumbled upon Devils, Angels & Dating which is a similar online contributer's film and its director Michael Cawood gave me some tips on how to get started... including how to use Dropbox for file sharing and Ning for network communications with all the project members.  Help can be found in loads of forums as well. It's important for me to keep up on the recruitment side of the project as well as the production side to keep everything running smoothly.  Today the project boasts 252 members, though not all are active.

Q.What stage are you at now?
A. It's an exciting phase for the project as we're finishing up the 2nd round of character rigging, getting through the texturing phase and finishing all the scene layouts. It's hard to put dates or time-scales on the project as it's all volunteer based. I don't feel right giving strict deadlines, but so far it seems to be working out ok.

Q. Have you ever been discouraged?
A. Almost every day! I find the hardest part of this project not being the actual work but the motivation. It's hard to wake up and put yourself in front of the computer every day when there's no one to check what you're up to and there's no check in the mail! There are only 2 factors keeping Hick! alive. One is that I feel I have a moral obligation to all the artists that have worked with me and dedicated so much of their precious time and the second is that I believe in the content of the short. I have become friends with the characters, as wacky as they are, and without my constant trucking on, they won't ever really come to life.

Q. What will happen to Hick! when it's finished?
A. I'm hoping to submit Hick! to animation festivals such as Annecy.  Maybe we'll win a prize or two. In my dreams, having worked on this film will lead me to writing and producing others. Maybe Hick! could be picked up as a series.... who knows?


More on Hick! and my journey as a film-maker to come. Stay tuned!