How to use this Page

Discover the art of Jeffrey Thompson, Cartoon Brew's Artist of the Day!

The post Artist of the Day: Jeffrey Thompson appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

Discover the art of Dylan Glynn, Cartoon Brew's Artist of the Day.

The post Artist of the Day: Dylan Glynn appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

Graduation film made by Alice Lemma at Sheridan College.

The post ‘Beauty’ by Alice Lemma appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

Our Pick of the Day is the winner of this year's Annie Award for best student film.

The post ‘Ed’ by Taha Neyestani appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

Lucy, who lived in the pines, was once bored out of her mind, but what she would discover was a thing like no other: an unexpected friend she would find.

The post ‘Lucy and The Limbs’ by Edlyn Capulong appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

Discover the art of Garrett Hanna, Cartoon Brew's Artist of the Day!

Discover the work of Jiani Cao, Cartoon Brew's Artist of the Day!

Today we look at the work of Gyimah Gariba, Cartoon Brew's Artist of the Day!

Today we look at the work of Robin Joseph, Cartoon Brew's Artist of the Day!

Osaka, Japan-born Ami Thompson works in 2D and 3D animation drawing character and concept art. She has completed 2D animation internships at Walt Disney Animation Studios and Studio Ghibli, and a 3D animation internship at Microsoft Studios.

Ami’s drafting skill allows her the freedom to use confident line work while drawing convincing forms in space.

Here is Ami’s final film from her studies at Sheridan, Basilisk:

See more work at Ami’s portfolio website.

The Cartoon Brew Student Animation Festival is made possible by JibJab and their strong support for emerging filmmakers.

Clocking in at a brisk eighty seconds, Sun of a Beach by Natan Moura is the shortest film debut in Cartoon Brew’s 2013 Student Animation Festival. Moura made the film as a graduation project at Sheridan College in Oakville, Canada.

Every year, we receive numerous student film entries that are under two minutes long, but few of these micro-shorts exhibit the storytelling and filmmaking discipline that accompanies Moura’s film. Moura understands the value of not just every second, but every frame in his film, and uses it to his advantage. He uses his precious amount of screentime to put together a complete film with a character who has an arc and a story that has a beginning, middle and end. Moura communicates his ideas with a fun, bold visual style that seamlessly combines computer animation and hand drawn techniques.

Continue reading for comments from the filmmaker:

THE IDEA

During the making of my film I came to think of it as a kind of tribute to my childhood. I moved from Brazil to Canada at a young age and being on a beach has always been a magical place for me. Over the years, playing with my two very young brothers has brought me back to my own childhood and shifted my focus to more playful and whimsical stories. Like most of my ideas, it came to me at three in the morning while doodling. The the final story eventually came together when I was able to spend time observing people on the beach while living in Los Angeles the following summer.

TOOLBOX

My film was a 2D and 3D hybrid done in Flash and Maya and composited in After Effects. I was interested in experimenting with a more graphic 3D aesthetic. I felt like a flatter environment made the story more playful by bringing the sun closer to the people on the beach. This was mostly achieved by using an almost orthographic perspective in Maya and eliminating 3D lighting all together. The lighting effects were done in After Effects where they wouldn’t ruin the flatness I was going for. I also animated the smaller characters in Flash to more easily control their design. The entire film came together as a single After Effects file with over 300 layers! How the program didn’t crash is beyond me.

LESSONS LEARNED

The most important thing I learned is how to edit a story into only the essentials. It’s not something I believe needs to be done for every story but it’s a worthy exercise. Some of the best structured stories I’ve seen are commercials, simply because they have to hold your attention and have no time for anything but the basics. When I completed my first animatic at three minutes it was clear that my idea only needed a minute and that every second had to be justified. I think it’s important to not only ask yourself how long a story needs to work effectively, but also how much of someone’s time your idea is really worth.

INSPIRATIONS

In the earlier stages of story development I rewatched the film Before Sunrise and was reminded how effective a sustained shot can be in bringing the viewer into a story. Many people I talked to discouraged me from this limitation but I thought it would add a sense of realism to my film and also help maintain a flat aesthetic. I really believe that picking limitations is the most liberating thing you can do creatively and it couldn’t have helped me more in this case. I later decided to add a single cut to emphasize the tipping point of the story.

WHERE YOU SEE YOURSELF IN FIVE YEARS

I enjoy animating first and foremost but this early in my career I still feel there is much exploring to be done. While filmmaking was originally what attracted me to animation I see a lot of potential in new alternate forms of storytelling. I’ve recently become interested in the interactive possibilities of stories primarily in games and apps. Working at JibJab over the past couple of months brought me closer to programmers for the first time which has inspired me to think of stories from a different perspective. Being able to experiment and problem solve is what keeps things exciting for me and I hope to always have that kind of flexibility. [EDITOR'S NOTE: When Moura's film was selected for inclusion in the festival, we were not aware that he had recently been hired by the festival's sponsor JibJab.]

FILMMAKER WEBSITES

Portfolio Website
Blog

Emily Carroll graduated from Sheridan’s classical animation program before moving to Vancouver where she has since worked on animation productions and as a comic artist and illustrator.

Emily experiments with online comics storytelling such as Margot’s Room, an interactive clickable comic that requires the reader to explore panels to reveal the story.

Above is an alternate Adventure Time comic cover that Emily painted.

Emily also organizes the fan art she draws. Her Dune art is here and video game related pieces here.

Visit Emily’s portfolio and blog for more.

For the fourth year in a row, we are delighted to present the Cartoon Brew Student Animation Festival, the premier online showcase for animated short premieres by student filmmakers.

Our 2013 festival offers one of the strongest and most dynamic slates of short films since we launched the festival. Chosen from a record-breaking 266 film submissions, the eight films in this year’s festival represent a remarkably high level of creative vision and filmmaking skill. The films selected were made by adventurous filmmakers who show a commitment to exploring the narrative and visual possibilities of the animation art form, and whose ideas and concepts are fully realized.

More quality student work was submitted than ever before. In fact, half of the films in this year’s festival are from schools that haven’t been in the festival during its first three years—Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, DePaul University, University of Southern California and Massachusetts College of Art and Design. On the other hand, Eric Ko is the first filmmaker who has been selected twice for the festival; his junior film Troubleshooting was a part of our festival last year.

Each of the eight filmmakers whose work is featured in this year’s festival will receive a cash award of $500 (US), thanks to the generosity of our festival sponsor JibJab. Further, Evan Spiridellis, the co-founder of JibJab, will select one additional film to receive the Grand Prize and an extra $500, for a cash prize totalling $1,000 US.

The festival will debut on Monday, July 8th, and a new film will be presented every week throughout July and August. And now, we proudly present the 2013 class of Cartoon Brew’s Student Animation Festival:

Lady with Long Hair
Directed by Barbara Bakos
School: Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design (Hungary)
Synopsis: An old lady relives memories of her life contained within her hair.
Running time: 8 min 45 s

Sun of a Beach
Directed by Natan Moura
School: Sheridan College (Canada)
Synopsis: Shunned for shining a little too brightly, the poor sun feels alone in its search to connect and be wanted.
Running time: 1 min 20 s

Dumb Day
Directed by Kevin Eskew

Brain Divided
Directed by Josiah Haworth, Joon Shik Song and Joon Soo Song
School: Ringling College of Art and Design (USA)
Synopsis: The story about an ordinary guy who meets a not so ordinary girl, but his brain cells can’t agree on how to go about winning her over, which leads to Conflict!
Running time: 5 min

Our Son (우리 아들)
Directed by Eric Ko
School: Rhode Island School of Design (USA)
Synposis: Celestial bodies and the fragility of happiness.
Running time: 4 min 30 s

i
Directed by Isabela Dos Santos
School: California Institute of the Arts (USA)
Synopsis: Hand-drawn animation and dance performance intersect and interact in this short piece that deals with a well-known question: Who am I?
Running time: 3 min 35s

Wolf Within
Directed by Alex Horan
School: Massachusetts College of Art and Design (USA)
Synopsis: A father prepares his son for a world without him.
Running time: 9 min 35 s

Passer Passer
Directed by Louis Morton
School: University of Southern California (USA)
Synopsis: An animated city symphony celebrates the hidden world of background noise. Field recordings from the streets of Los Angeles and Tokyo drive imagined characters and cycles that build to form a living musical creature.
Running time: 3 min 47 s

Toronto-based Seo Kim studied animation at Sheridan. She draws funny slice-of-life comics and humorous illustrations and characters.

“Chocolate Chip Cookie Disease” is one of many unique comics found on her blog. Seo has two more active blogs for her comics and drawings as well.

Today, as part of Cartoon Brew’s Student Animation Festival, we’re delighted to present Ballpit by Kyle Mowat of Canada’s Sheridan College. What begins in pure abstraction slowly reveals itself to be an evolutionary tale—albeit an unconventional evolution that blends organic materials with the mechanical. The film could be dissected, but the total effect is what makes it memorable. Ballpit delights the eyes and yields visual suprises at every turn. The riot of color, the patterns of colors, the rhythms of movement—it is the joyous possibilities of animation distilled into 90 seconds.

Click HERE to read an interview with the filmmaker Kyle Mowat.

Cartoon Brew | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: Kyle Mowat, Sheridan College

Today, as part of Cartoon Brew’s Student Animation Festival, we’re delighted to present Ballpit by Kyle Mowat of Canada’s Sheridan College. What begins in pure abstraction slowly reveals itself to be an evolutionary tale—albeit an unconventional evolution that blends organic materials with the mechanical. The film could be dissected, but the total effect is what makes it memorable. Ballpit delights the eyes and yields visual suprises at every turn. The riot of color, the patterns of colors, the rhythms of movement—it is the joyous possibilities of animation distilled into 90 seconds.

Continue reading for comments from the filmmaker Kyle Mowat:

THE IDEA
The idea came out of some sketchbook work of mine. I was doing a lot of explorations of vague organics and eventually they started looking like microscopic systems of a surreal sort. I made drawings and paintings of these things, using a bunch of different mediums and such. I knew I wanted to focus my short on how these things may move, form and interact and I ended up using some loose concepts of natural selection as a framework for that. I distilled it into two “forces”; organic life and more generally geology, things like gradual changes in the environment, natural disasters etc. The ball shapes and the block shapes came to represent the two forces,respectively.

TOOLBOX
I did everything for the film digitally. Animation was all in Flash, the backgrounds Photoshop and all the compositing and such was done mostly in After Effects with a bit of Premiere for later.

CHALLENGES
The biggest challenge was probably finding the look for the short. The initial concepts were way too elaborate to really use in full. I needed to distill them into something simple, usable and cohesive while still having them function in the way I initially intended. This process went on well into the animation stage; I was often re-designing things as I animated them. It was a difficult position to be in sometimes.

INSPIRATIONS
I was looking at a lot of books on coral reefs and deep ocean life while working on the film. There’s some crazy stuff down there. I watched at a bunch of films by guys like Norman Mclaren and Charles and Ray Eames. Mostly for ideas about pacing a film that isn’t necessarily carried by its stories but more by its visual elements. Some other things that inspired me: the work of Moebius, the giant baby from Akira, the band Ponytail, and, of course, my peers and fellow students who helped create an amazing creative atmosphere to work in.

FILMMAKER WEBSITE:
Website
Vimeo page

Cartoon Brew | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: Kyle Mowat, Sheridan College

Welcome to a special mid-week edition of Cartoon Brew’s Student Animation Festival. Today, we’re excited to present the online debut of Pest by Nooree Kim of Oakville, Canada’s Sheridan College. This is either genius—or the stuff of nightmares. Inspired and subversive, Pest is our kind of cartoon fun. Outrageous character, silly pranks, beautifully staged and fully realized. Oh yeah, and leaving you wanting more: the true mark of a successful project. Kim can draw, has a point of view and is funny.

Click HERE to read an interview with the filmmaker Nooree Kim.

Cartoon Brew | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: Nooree Kim, Sheridan College

Today, as part of Cartoon Brew’s Student Animation Festival, we’re delighted to present Pest by Nooree Kim of Toronto’s Sheridan College. This is either genius—or the stuff of nightmares. Inspired and subversive, Pest is our kind of cartoon fun. Outrageous character, silly pranks, beautifully staged and fully realized. Oh yeah, and leaving you wanting more: the true mark of a successful project. Kim can draw, has a point of view and is funny.

Continue reading for comments from the filmmaker Nooree Kim:

THE IDEA
My process for developing this film might be a bit backwards compared to other people. I consider myself more of a design person then an animator or story artist. I wanted to focus my attention on designing strong characters first and then developing a story around them. After I had more or less locked down my designs, I tried putting him in different situations and I imagined how he and the people around him would react to them. Eventually I realized that with such an impish character, it was only right that he should think that he is in charge of most of the situations that he gets into, up until the point where he gets what he deserves.

TOOLBOX
I used Photoshop to design all the backgrounds, Flash for animation, After Effects for EFX/compositing scenes and Premiere to composite everything.

LESSONS LEARNED
While working on my film, I realised that I had to reassess my time management skills. I kept lingering on particular scenes that were giving me trouble and completely lost track of time. After hitting a couple of these speed bumps, I realised that I couldn’t afford to dwell on these scenes so I decided to keep moving on unless I noticed any glaring problems. This decision allowed me to finish on schedule and also have time to go back and tweak scenes if needed.

INSPIRATIONS
Different art bloggers such as Anthony Holden, Julien Le Rolland, Vincent Giard and Willie Real have widened my perspective on the types of talent in the industry. Their work is really inspiring and is also a constant motivation for me to continue on in my path. My fellow animators/friends are also a big part of what inspires me. During the process of making this film, they were a constant positive presence and we kept each other motivated with 2am Mario Kart races and cookie baking.

FILMMAKER WEBSITE:
Nooree Kim

Cartoon Brew | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: Nooree Kim, Sheridan College

We’re delighted to announce the selections for Cartoon Brew’s third annual Student Animation Festival. This year we topped over 200 submissions, which made programming this year’s festival a challenging task. We chose filmmakers whose work displayed confidence and maturity while being unafraid to experiment with new ideas, techniques and styles.

(A brief note: for the first time, we have multiple selections from two schools: Rhode Island School of Design and Sheridan. In particular, there are three films from Sheridan. We received a record two-dozen entries from Sheridan this year, and we appreciated the diverse range of voices coming out of there, as well as the consistently high technical proficiency of the school’s students.)

Each of the ten filmmakers below will receive $300. Further, we’re introducing a new twist this year. After all the films have debuted, we will conduct a poll where viewers can vote for their favorite film. The winner of the audience choice award will receive an additional $500.

Cartoon Brew’s Student Animation Festival is made possible by JibJab, our major sponsor for this year’s festival. JibJab has consistently demonstrated generous support for young and emerging talent, and we are proud to recognize them as the sponsor of our festival.

Once again, a hearty congratulations to this year’s selections in our Student Animation Festival. Mark your calendars: the first film will debut on Cartoon Brew on Monday, July 2.

The Ballad of Poisonberry Pete
Directed by Uri Lotan, Adam Campbell, Elizabeth McMahill
School: Ringling College of Art and Design
Country: USA (Florida)

Ballpit
Directed by Kyle Mowat
School: Sheridan College
Country: Canada

Gum
Directed by Noam Sussman
School: Sheridan College
Country: Canada

Money Bunny Blues
Directed by Ellen Coons
School: College for Creative Studies
Country: USA (Michigan)

Otzi
Directed by Evan Red Borja
School: School of Visual Arts
Country: USA (New York)

Peace One Day
Directed by Angie Phillips and Phoebe Halstead
School: Kingston University
Country: UK

Pest
Directed by Nooree Kim
School: Sheridan College
Country: Canada

Troubleshooting
Directed by Eric Ko
School: Rhode Isla

Glorious multimedia work from Nayoun Kim. Seen last night at Sheridan College’s illustration programme’s grad show at the Glass Factory, Toronto. Unfortunately it appears the show was open only the one night. Hey, funding bodies at Sheridan - your illo students deserve a week-long show at least!

Canada’s Sheridan College is well known for the quality of their animation program and the work of their students (alumni include Dean Dublois, Michel Gagné and Danny Antonucci). Here’s a sneak peek/montage of this year’s graduate films – 63 of them in 2 minutes – which will screen publicly on Industry Day, Thursday April 26th. Beautiful looking stuff – can’t wait to see the full finished films.

Cartoon Brew | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: Sheridan College

Today is World Alzheimer’s Day, which gives us the opportunity to share this 2010 stop motion film by Carla Veldman, who made it while attending Sheridan College. The film has played in over a dozen film festivals, including Annecy last June. It explores the topic of Alzheimer’s through the eyes of a young boy who finds it increasingly difficult to communicate with his grandmother, who is dealing with the onset of Alzheimer’s.

Cartoon Brew: Leading the Animation Conversation | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: Canada, Carla Veldman, Sheridan College

The ninth selection in our Student Animation Festival, Sheared, was created by Nikolas Ilic, a recent graduate of Canada’s Sheridan College. Sheared may be the most traditional animated short in our program this year and we mean that in the best way possible. Hand-drawn, funny and cartoony, there is no denying the superior level of storytelling skill achieved in this mere 90 seconds of twisted, poetic justice. Ilic’s character designs and layouts, though inspired by past masters, look fresh and exciting. There isn’t a wasted frame; it’s a sharply timed and thoroughly delightful visual experience. (Elliot J. Marshall’s original score and sound effects work are equally deserving of praise).

Comment on the film or read production notes from the filmmaker on Cartoon Brew TV.

Cartoon Brew’s second annual Student Animation Festival is made possible through the generous support of Titmouse and JibJab.

Cartoon Brew: Leading the Animation Conversation | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: Nikolas Ilic, Sheridan College

The ninth selection in our Student Animation Festival, Sheared, was created by Nikolas Ilic, a recent graduate of Canada’s Sheridan College. Sheared may be the most traditional animated short in our program this year and we mean that in the best way possible. Hand-drawn, funny and cartoony, there is no denying the superior level of storytelling skill achieved in this mere 90 seconds of twisted, poetic justice. Ilic’s character designs and layouts, though inspired by past masters, look fresh and exciting. There isn’t a wasted frame; it’s a sharply timed and thoroughly delightful visual experience. (Elliot J. Marshall’s original score and sound effects work are equally deserving of praise).

Nikolas (pictured above) offered some thoughts on the creation of Sheared:

Going into my final year of Animation at Sheridan College, my main goal was to make a film that was visually appealing to the audience. The question was what story would I create to accomplish my vision. I knew I wanted to make a comical film. I first started creating characters from different time periods. From the Vikings to the Romans to the Greeks . I kept on drawing pages upon pages until I came across some Scottish characters I enjoyed and started putting them into a scenario. At first I was going to have a Scottish rock throwing competition between two Scots. I then drew a sheep and something clicked. I thought to myself wouldn’t it be funny to see a Scottish farmer struggling with his sheep and that is how the idea evolved. Ever since then sheep drawings never stopped. Doing the pre production for the film was a lot of fun. I did a lot of exploring within the characters and designs. Deciding on the Farmers kilt was definitely a challenge as there were so many color options. I also had to keep in mind I would be animating it traditionally so I could only push it so far. It was very enjoyable to shape the final outcome of the film. Since my main focus was design, this phase was definitely very fun and rewarding to do.

The next step I took was thumb nailing out my film. I did about three passes at it before I went into production. I found that the sooner you stick with an idea, something will evolve out of it , even though there are times you want to start from scratch. Once I was in production ,there was a lot of late nights. Making your own film is definitely a challenge, not only artistically but mentally as well. You have to be very organized and good at time management. I thank a lot of my fellow colleagues for pushing me and also for some good critiques. I definitely grew as an artist by making many mistakes and learning from them. Early on, I decided the film would be animated traditionally as well as the clean up since I was most comfortable with it. There were times where I was considering doing it digitally but thought I would stick with the roots we have been taught at Sheridan. Making this film was an awesome experience and wish I could make another. To have complete control of a whole film is something you don’t get very often. I am now a graduate of the Sheridan Animation BA program and excited to see my career possibilities. I hope people get a laugh out my film and ultimately enjoy it throughout.

Filmmaker Website
Nik’s blog: Nikolas-Ilic.blogspot.com

Cartoon Brew’s second annual Student Animation Festival is made possible through the generous support of Titmouse and JibJab.

Cartoon Brew: Leading th

Death Buy Lemonade created by Kyu-bum Lee at Sheridan College is the shortest film in Cartoon Brew TV’s Student Animation Festival. Don’t be fooled by its running time though. Within its brief length is contained a solidly constructed story, personality-driven animation and chuckles. To learn more about the production of the film and to comment about it, please take the time and visit Cartoon Brew TV.