Posts Tagged ‘ Viewseum ’

“Around The World (And Back)” by Bryan Brinkman

April 27, 2012
By
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Music videos still haven’t gone out of fashion yet. The possibilities of combining of music and art are still endless. That said, here is Bryan Brinkman’s animated music video for Dot Dot Dot’s “Around The World (And Back).” The animation style of the video doesn’t have a label yet, although we’re sure Bryan might have one. The style involves turning our index fingers into characters, and placing them in various locations. The video follows a good-natured finger as he travels throughout New York City to meet his loved one. Interspersed are “finger” renderings of the Dot Dot Dot band members. The video is quirky yet joyous. Bryan succeeds in visualizing something that is both offbeat and good-natured, leaving the viewer with a happy feeling. The visuals really do match the song nicely, which itself is a simple yet uptempo love song. And love appears to be the answer after all. The video is a mixed media that features animation overlaid on live action shots of several key locations around New York. Among these locations are Flushing Meadows, Radio City Music Hall (right near the home of the Jimmy Fallon Show, we might add), and Central Park. Along with the...

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Life In Transition by John R. Dilworth

April 26, 2012
By
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Warning: or just a suggestion, we insist you watch the film before reading on. Really take in the effect of the film. Life In Transition is John R. Dilworth’s opus. Described as “…a visual and symbolic journey depicting the continual transformations of life from birth to death to re-birth”, Life is a personal film that draws heavily from Dilworth’s life, career and knowledge. Not bad for a short film either. The film follows a character called the “Daisy Man”, set against a desert backdrop reminiscent of Salvador Dali’s surrealist paintings. The character’s face pervades the beginning of the piece before floating backwards to give life to his creations (including a few familiar faces, “dirty” and “cowardly” too). Beneath the surrealist imagery, Dilworth tells a very personal tale. The tale at first glance is of a creator giving life to his art, but gradually losing control of his life and the world around him. Every silly and bizarre image that animates has a meaning that carries it along. For example, the Daisy Man becomes pink and elastic for a few moments about one minute into the film. This is meant to show the character’s free-spiritedness and youthful energy. After celebrating...

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Accumulonimbus by Andy Kennedy

April 25, 2012
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If there is an animated short that should keep one’s eyes on it through every frame, Andy Kennedy’s Accumulonimbus is that film. An experimental stop-motion piece, every frame is part of some movement that should keep even the most casual stop-motion viewer mesmerized. Andy refers to the film as a meditation of motion and the life cycle of matter. It starts off with organic shapes (mostly spheres) changing in accordance with the rhythm of the soundtrack (also by Andy). As the music becomes more layered, so does the complexity of the clay and its movement. There is a loud-quiet-loud dynamic in the music that lends itself to the animated objects switching from natural and man-made forms. The animation is expertly timed to the music. The circle is the center of the entire film, both figuratively and literally. Rather than a flat surface or stage for action to take place upon, the animated objects never stop moving along the circular edge. Everything is moving forward, and if an object disappears, another takes its place. Every object moving looks organic, even the pipes and houses. Andy’s website features extensive making-of videos for Accumulonimbus. These videos display both the extensive planning put into...

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Q & A by the Rauch Brothers

April 24, 2012
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This week, we are gearing up for ASIFA-East’s ultimate event, the annual ASIFA-East Animation Festival and Awards Ceremony. In preparation and celebration, the Viewseum will be looking back at a few previous winners. The Rauch Brothers, Mike and Tim, calmly entered the New York animation scene. And in just a short period, they took ASIFA-East, the animation community and the festival circuit by storm with their beautiful collaborations with StoryCorps. Q & A is the Rauch Brothers’ second StoryCorps adaptation, right after their short German In The Woods. This short follows Joshua Littman, a 7th Grader (at the time) diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, interviewing his mother, Sarah Littman. Asperger’s Syndrome is a form of autism and Joshua’s questions for his mother naturally exhibit some of the traits attributed to Asperger’s, such as his hyper-focus on animals, lack in social abilities, and extreme thought put into simple questions. The Rauch Brothers’ animation style is very unique. Their shorts are known for very playful character design, lush color pallets, and expressionistic backgrounds. And yet for all their style’s playfulness and charm, it surprises and succeeds in displaying the various emotions and serious subject matter discussed by StoryCorps’ interviewees. The last 40...

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TIME-LINE (SVA & NYU Animation) by Robert Lyons and company.

March 21, 2012
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Warning: One of these segments includes frontal nudity, but simplified. Probably nothing to get offended over. I love anijams. Whatever or however the grouping works, I love seeing how different artists can be from one another, even with the same guidelines in mind. It’s an excellent project for animation students, and Robert Lyons has proven that here with a 9 minute collection of short animations by various students.             Created by over 40 students, across 8 years, from 2 different schools, Time-Line was an ongoing project in Lyons’s continuing education classes. Begun in SVA (1993-1997) and completed in NYU (2000-2001), each student had to begin and end their individual animation the same way, with a black line bisecting a white frame horizontally.             The idea of beginning and ending with a single line allows plenty of space to improvise. There is some wonderfully imaginative visuals going on here, and there is a distinctiveness to most of them which in turn distinguishes not only each artist’s abilities, but also their own ways of thinking. For example, some artists choose to have the line become part of a structure such as...

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SLIMQUICK ads by Buzzco Associates

March 5, 2012
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(Warning: anything said about this product does not reflect the opinion of the author, Buzzco Associates or ASIFA-East.) This week’s Viewseum entries come via Candy Kugel of Buzzco Associates. The ads are simple yet playfully humorous while successfully selling the product. The simple black, white and blue design successfully conveys a sly sense of humor suggesting the needs and uses of SLIMQUICK.                 The ads were animated by Candy, Rick Broas and Vincent Cafarelli. It is also the last Buzzco project Vincent worked on before his passing in December 2011. Vincent’s passing makes these ads particularly special now. Candy and Vincent co-founded Buzzco Associates, and for years, it has been one of New York’s prime animation studios.

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“Sugar” by Katie Cropper

February 8, 2012
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Katie Cropper’s short film Sugar seems simple enough upon first glance, but it possibly has some more complex undertones to it. It begins with a simplified landscape, forming with sound waves. After the shapes form, we see a colony of ants roaming around the shapes, and then the scene morphs into the ants eating a large apple and other fruits. From then on, the next two scenes show life evolving without the ants, and then the ants are floating in outer space. Since ant colonies are often compared to large working groups of people, it seems like an automatic conclusion to arrive at when watching this short. The colony consumes its resources, but then there comes a point when there is nothing left but space and time. This is Katie’s first personal short. According to Katie: “I just wanted to get to know flash a little better and figure out what kind of animation I find the most comfortable, relaxing, or exciting. It was a self learning experience really.” The experimental  flash animation is paired with an atmospheric electronic soundtrack by Sebastian Schinkel. The combination of the two is very effective. Of the collaboration, Katie says “The sound track...

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