The Great Harlot and the Beast

The Great Harlot and the Beast is yet another terrific animated film from The Animation Workshop's graduating class of 2015. The short follows a naive marionette prince and his co-stars as they attempt to entertain their audience of children throughout the day. But what happens when night falls on the puppet theatre, and the weight of a new audience's expectations become too much for the prince to bear?  Can the prince and his princess manage to make it through their last performance without losing their dignity?

Wonderfully animated and thematically heart-wrenching; The Great Harlot and the Beast was a captivating short from start to finish. The short is a unflinching satire of popular entertainment and how the darker appetites of audience gratification can become ever more insatiable and cruel as the entertainers permit.

Laika's Coraline was an obvious design inspiration for the film's asymmetrical hand-made aesthetic; with an emphasis on sharp angles, grungy set colors, blocky silhouettes and disconcertingly cheerful expressions juxtaposed against base and darkly comedic indignities. Check out the film's official production blog for more awesome behind-the-scenes clips and making-of concept art!

All Hell Breaks Loose In "Make It Sound Fat"

Tempted by the siren call of a mysterious box of donuts, a musician and island dweller finds himself transported to a strange, heavenly cloud realm. His musical inclinations and overwhelming curiosity ultimately end up cranking open a pandora's box of chaos on the inhabitants, until the actual master of that realm intervenes.

Created in a CG format, I definitely got some hints of McBess with the way they stylized the characters in this world, especially the blank eyed master and the noodly arms on all the characters. Make It Sound fat was created by a total of seven artists as a graduation film from the Bellecour 3D Program. It kind of felt like a modern and twisted version of Fantasia, in the best way possible of course.

Surreal Geometric Landscapes Pervade In "Mother"

Abstract, surreal goodness galore in Mother, a 3D short directed by Fabrice Le Nezet in collaboration with Benjamin Mousquet and an excellent ambient sound treatment by Azel Martinez. The black and white short has a simulated tilt shift feel to it, giving the viewer a God's eye perspective over this strange, constantly moving world.

Kind of feels like the beginning of a really cool indie puzzle title if you think about it.

"Tsume" - Her Grudge Remains

Haunted by a decision that ultimately cost the life of her classmate, Tsume narrates the downward spiral of a girl who makes a terrible error in judgement. A grudge is held, and this classmate comes back to haunt her and drive her insane over the course of this CG animated short.

Enjoyed the elements of Japanese horror strewn throughout Tsume (Fans of The Grudge will know what I'm talking about), including some subtle yet unsettling choices by the folks at Topless including making the end credits scroll horizontally to create a sense of unease.

Anatomy Of Desire (NSFW)

Claire Dejoe's Anatomie du Désir (Anatomy of Desire) goes into the dilemma of a voluptuous vixen, who finds herself spoiled for choice amid a sea of hapless men. Dejoe employed a really cool low-poly look alongside an animation style resembling crude stop motion, and the result is pretty intriguing to look at. The end result is pretty hilarious.

My first short film, directed alone in six months, during my 4th year at Supinfocom/Valenciennes!
Barbie & Ken are made for each other... Unfortunately, this eternal love depends only on the fact that there's only one Barbie and one Ken. And if we multiply Ken, things become complicated.

Bord De Mer - Some Boys Just Like To See The World On Fire

Bord De Mer ('Seaside' in French) is the animated representation of the stuff my nightmares are made out of. Created by Lucas Navarro as his third year project at Supinfocom, we get to witness a young sociopath in the making after his deliberate actions cause an animatronic display of a beach to go haywire, self destructing in a spectacular fashion.

Faces melt, circuits catch on fire and we get to watch a young lad smile very creepily at a world set on fire by his own hand. Really have to say awesome job to him for coming up with such an out of the box way of cluing in the audience as to the truly f***ed up nature of this kid. That final shot did the trick.

Locked Up

The age old tale of wisdom and patience is prevalent in Locked Up, a third year Supinfocom film by Gabriel Gapperon about two frogs sitting about in a creek. The older one simply sits and waits, while the younger frog eagerly pursues a clever fly into a trap. While the narrative isn't groundbreaking by any means, Gapperon confidently pulled off commercial quality CG visuals in this solo project. Check out his showreel after the break, featuring more top notch work.

Johnny Express - An Awesome Animated Short From Korea

Johnny Express was directed by Alfred Imageworks, an animation collective based out of Seoul, Korea. Featuring an aloof intergalactic delivery driver hurtling through space to deliver his latest package in his autopilot ship, he comes to realize that something is a little bit off about this certain job. While sipping on a can of soda and contemplating the microscopic size of his delivery, an entire planet finds itself thrust into an apocalyptic scenario. It's somewhat rare to see CG projects intended for a more western audience come from Korea, so this was quite an awesome find.

It's 2150. There are all sorts of Aliens living throughout space.
Johnny is a Space Delivery Man who travels to different planets to deliver packages.
Johnny is lazy and his only desire is to sleep in his spaceship.
when the spaceship arrives at the destination, all he has to do is simply deliver the box.
However, it never goes as planned. Johnny encounters strange and bizarre planets 
and always seems to cause trouble on his delivery route.

Mite - What Happens In The Underbelly Of "The Shining's" Hotel?

Directed by Walter Volbers, Mite is a really interesting short that walks a fine line between a tribute and an original short all it's own. Opening up with a shot of the dark halls of the Overlook Hotel present in Kubrick's The Shining, we're eventually thrust into the iconic patterned carpet into a gorgeous alien world inhabited by microscopic organisms unaffected by the horrors above.

The short took a total of ten years of on and off work to complete, which is reasonable considering that Volbers used it as an opportunity to transition out of more traditional cell animation into CG, using the now discontinued Softimage XSI modeling software to accomplish his curious vision.

Priorities

Following an unexpected crash landing on a remote island, a young man who seeks to survive finds himself challenged by hist best friend: A dog who only wants his owners attention. Directed by Gints Zilbalodis, this unique CG short was created using a mixture of Maya, After Effects and Pro Logic X.

Aside from the faux low-poly aesthetic that Gints accomplished with Priorities, the camera movement that he captured is truly unique, effectively emulating a handheld camera look in this tale of survival and ultimately, friendship. The overall feel reminded me of a mix of David O' Reilly's body of work and Minkyu Lee's Adam And Dog, which we'd both highly recommend checking out.

The Mega Plush - Episode II

Remember The Mega Plush? Back in late 2013 Matt Burniston put out an action packed short revolving around a fluffy teddy bear showing a gang of sock monkeys who owns the block. The followup, simply dubbed Episode II focuses around a different corner of this seedy underbelly, and one pissed off tiger.

The tension in the city is high as the SOC’s manhunt for the vigilante group, The Mega Plush, wages on. With the promise of a handsome sum of money dangled before them, many business owners have joined forces with the SOC cramping The Mega Plush’s extracurricular activities. Armed with his two trusty knives and an I don't give a stitch! attitude, Mega Tiger welcomes any foe who dares to interrupt his hunt for booze and broads.

Takashi Murakami's "Jellyfish Eyes" - Coping With Fukushima

Before taking on his first film project, Takashi Murakami built up a reputation with his ultra colorful, stylized paintings featuring a wide array of strange creatures. I ran into Murakami's work countless times over the years in modern art galleries, which familiarized me with his 'superflat' style, which borrows from traditional Japanese art and post-war culture.

In his directorial debut titled Jellyfish Eyes, it seems that the main theme of the scifi film revolves around an anti-nuclear message, and to serve as an indirect reminder for younger audiences about the devastation that Fukushima had on people's lives. The addition of the Pokemon-esque elements definitely makes the message en easier pill to swallow. Despite that the movie looks visually stunning, and I hope to catch a screening during it's limited US tour, which begins on May 1st.

Jellyfish Eyes tells the story of Masashi, a young boy who moves to a sleepy town in the Japanese countryside with his mother in the wake of a natural disaster. After returning home from his new elementary school one day, Masashi discovers a flying jellyfish-like creature whom he befriends and names Kurage-bo. Masashi soon discovers that all his classmates have similarly magical pets, known as F.R.I.E.N.D.s, which are controlled by electronic devices that the children use to battle one another. Despite their playful appearances, however, these F.R.I.E.N.D.s turn out to be part of a sinister plot that will threaten the entire town.

Shake It!

Directed by Alexandre Veaux, Shake It! is a short film about an insect who draws inspiration from his surroundings to cure his own solitude. Upon witnessing a house party off in the distance, this charming little insect rigs up his own version of a good time using a neglected lamp.

Really dug the emulated low poly art style employed for creating the insects, which gave them quite a unique look. The short was created during a 5 month period at Supinfocom, with the goal of delivering an entertaining short with an unorthodox visual style. I think he accomplished both goals quite nicely.

Free Will - Freeing Yourself From Boundaries

We all deal with boundaries that we impose on our selves. Some of us choose to challenge them, some of us choose to live by these invisible boundaries that exist within the confines of our heads. Free Will by Quentin Pointillart visualizes this concept, offering us a brief tale of someone who ultimately decides to not be controlled by this force that follows him around like a dark cloud.

Created during his 4th year at Supinfocom in France, I especially loved the distinct look that he managed to capture with the short. Using some awesome lighting work and cool custom crafted shaders, he was able to imbue his characters and environments with a really cool chalky look that visually took this short to the next level.

Versatile - Finding Hope In Unlikely Places

When you find yourself in a rut, sometimes it's an external force that brings you back up to a better place. That is the premise of Versatile, a light hearted short by Margaux Lahuppe created as part of her fourth year at Supinfocom. Using a simple CG style that I really enjoyed, Versatile opens up with a girl heartbroken over a break up, ultimately choosing to end her life on railroad tracks.

Yet just when things are close to ending on a negative note, an unlikely force helps her change her mind. Overall it was a very cute short with a positive message, and I really enjoyed the Animal Crossing vibe I got from the female protagonist (Must be that triangle nose!).

Izbor - A Bite Sized Scifi Thriller

Space and loneliness- two things that simply seem to go hand in hand. Space and madness? By pop culture's defintion, inseparable. Created as part of Mehdi Aouichaoui's fourth year project at the Supinfocom animation school, Izbor plops us into a crucial moment of a scifi expedition gone horribly wrong. Clutching a photo of someone dearly beloved, we witness an astronaut's final moments of utter fear and hopelessness.

Izbor is noteworthy for Mehdi's usage of a hybrid style, mixing elements of 2D (Like the astronauts head) with CG environments. From a narrative standpoint the choice of making the creature a completely organic, 2D entity also strengthens the fact that it's an otherworldly, alien entity in this vessel. Short but sweet, a fun romp through a variety of scifi tropes.

How To Train Your Dragon 2 Gets A New Trailer

The excitement builds for the long awaited sequel to 2010's Dreamworks feature that well..Didn't feel like the average pop culture filled feature we'd come to expect from the studio. Continuing where the first movie left off, the sequel will follow Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) as he stumbles onto a mysterious ice cave filled with hundreds of new dragons. Along with an encounter with his estranged mother (Cate Blanchett) and a power hungry individual named Drago, who seeks to harness the power of dragons for his own bidding, it's shaping up to be an excellent follow up.

Dreamworks also released a new poster for the flick, featuring Hiccup's friends all slightly grown up: Snotlout, Ruffnut, Astrid and others. The movie will be hitting theaters around June 20, so get hype for some more Toothless action.

Dysco

Simon Russel's Dysco is a strange but compelling hybrid short about a dystopian, surveillance society overrun with drones. We are given a glance at a gray world devoid of organic life, and ultimately the noises of these drones and a mysterious entity come together to form a rather unique dubstep style track. Wub Wub.

The shape language really takes me back to musical beat games like Rez and Audiosurf, which is not a bad thing to be reminded of at all. You can check out the making of Dysco after the break

Monkeyshot #1-7 - Audiovisual Experimentation In CG

Part of any good creative work environment is giving artists the ability to dabble or experiment with new processes or side projects. Whether it's an hour a day or once a week, giving people the chance to do their own thing sometimes results in some surprising discoveries or new ideas altogether, as well as helping keep morale up.

Monkeyshots are little animations created at the Monkeymen collective under such a pretense, allowing their artists to create new audio visual pieces from scratch to finish. These include follow ups to an idea that got lost during a job, a technical experimentation or just the desire to get their hands dirty. Check out the other 6 experiments after the break!

In any case we are very happy that we can maintain the Monkeymen Project over the years besides our daily work. We find it very important to create a creative refuge where our Monkeys can play around without getting hurt.

Beyond

Created by Florent Arnould during a 6 month period at Supinfocom Valenciennes, Beyond is a visually abstract, bite sized short about an alien realizing that the world around him is much larger than it actually seems. Nice usage of color to push the narrative forward.

Florent also uploaded a 2 minute making of, chronicling the short's progress from concept to production, as well as various experimentation in 3D. Check it out after the break!