Yopi the Robot

Yopi is an adorable one-minute student film courtesy of Débora Cruchon and Paula Assadourian, alumni of the prestigious CalArts and Gobelins animation academies respectively. The short, an entry in  CalArts-Gobelins 48-hour collaboration contest, follows a well-meaning robot boy-scout embarking on a nature hike on a journey to set the world right with hilarious results.

The chalky pastel backgrounds and enchantingly child-like sound design combine to create a skit worthy of a Saturday morning cartoon or an awesome bed-time story. Hope to see more work from these two in the future!

Annecy 2014 - "Coil"

Coil follows a similar theme as another Annecy 2014 entry, Hors Champ with the World War I theme- This time following an army dog in 1917 trying to lay out a telegraph cable across a lit up battlefield to the other side of the front. Coil was created by Charles Badiller, Eva Lusbaronian Juliette Peuportier, Julie Robert and Arnaud Tribout.

Annecy 2014 - "String"

String is a brief but visually stimulating acrobatic spectacle with plenty of shadow play and a puppeteering theme throughout- With a variety of performers being driven by the offscreen strings that allow them to execute their graceful movements. Animated by Pierre Bassil, Perrine Bayssat, Yannick Boireau, Mansoureh Kamari and Isabelle Piolat.

Annecy 2014 - "Hors Champ"

Hors Champ (Off camera) takes a much darker, grittier tone in it's approach by recreating a World War I style scene, complete with the 1:1 aspect ratio hearkening to camera technology of that era. Faceless men huddle together in the trenches, desperate rushes are made into oncoming fire, and eventually the camera man meets his maker as well.

The sound treatment for such a bite sized short was especially cool, going for a mostly silent route until a bullet makes contact with it's intended target. Directed by Hugo De Faucompret, Arthus Pilorget Pierre Pinon, Ravit Johan and Valentin Stoll.

Annecy 2014 - "Le Coup De Lapin"

The Annecy International Animated Film Festival kicked off a few days ago, and a bunch of amazing work has begun to slowly trickle out. To kick things off we've got a bunch of work from the amazing Les Gobelins school, used as bumpers for Annecy 2014. An annual tradition for the school, these courte-metrages are a yearly exercise for the school.

To kick things off we have Le Coup De Lapin ('Whiplash'), in which a bunny finds a carrot in the upper mountains of Annecy. As he takes his first bite, something rather unexpected occurs. If you liked the Skrat shorts from Dreamworks, t his will definitely ring a familiar bell. Directed and animated by Emilie Almaida Pierre Butet, Magali Garnier, Clémence Maret and Hugo Weiss.

Seasonal Affective Disorder

Sunlight loving vampires? Sounds like a terrible affliction to have, but that is the premise of Paula Assadourian's Seasonal Affective Disorder. Featuring a vampire working on a beach filled with sun kissed babes as an ice cream vendor, it's a light hearted romp executed in a really fun, mostly line-less style.

Despite the nearly child like visual qualities that the short has, a few scenes drove this short into dark humor territory. Assadourian mentioned that the short was created during a stint in Paris, as part of an exchange program that Calarts is running with the top notch Les Gobelins academy in France.

Jurassic Ploof, Kickflip, Sweatness - Les Gobelins FX Animation Exercises (Part 2)

Following our earlier feature of the Gobelins FX exercises, 30 second animations with an emphasis on animated effects in both 2D and 3D, it seems like more groups have released their pieces online. Among them we have Jurassic Ploof, a fun animated short about a Dinosaur themed waterpark with a bad case of the zombies. The Mike Mignola (Hellboy) inspiration is undeniable, but they pulled it off so damn good! This premise deserves to be expanded into something bigger.

After the break we have Kickflip, which has some Jet Grind Radio vibes with a rather abrupt, painful ending. Last but not least there's Sweatness, a cautionary tale of what might happen if you don't take a moment to dry off that buildup of sweat while you workout. As usual, can't wait to see what these students come up with given a few months of production time!

Khorkhoreh And Prints In The Snow - Les Gobelins FX Animation Exercises

Second year students at Les Gobelins just recently released their FX movies, 30 second shorts with an emphasis on animated FX and a loose storyline tied in. Created by teams of 5, each group had 3 weeks to design, animate and do post production on their pieces.

Khorkhoreh places an emphasis on fantastical tomb raiding, while Prints in the Snow (Des pas sur la neige) offers a more introspective, bite sized piece unfolding in the woods. Loved it all, and can't wait to see what these folks come up when they'll be given a few months time for production. Expecting my mind to get blown, like it does every year from the Les Gobelins group.

C2C - "Delta"

Created by the French animation collective known as CRCR, this newest music video for the incredibly catchy track by the turntable group known as C2C is an epic accompaniment, narrating the tale of an empire's struggle against a mysterious Kubrickian monolith. An emperor contemplates the future of his kingdom, the populace becomes restless, and ultimately a revelation comes about. The team, comprised of former Gobelins students did an amazing job delivering a compelling, epic story that first perfectly with the music in just 3 minutes, filled with mystery, atmosphere and personality. So good!

The Longest Road

Leaving what we have to find out what we left behind.

In this highly atmospheric musical narrative, a prince casts aside the crown and kingdom he was set to inherit in order to find out what he's been missing out on outside the walls of his kingdom. In the process he sheds everything he once had, including his trusty companion to get a taste of liberty, but at what cost?

This is a cool example of a 'circular' narrative, starting and ending in the same place, at different points in time. The score by Matthieu DeLaporta does an excellent job offering us the equivalent of music to represent the protagonists mindset throughout the journey - Alienated, rebellious, hopeful and so on, filling that void left by the choice to go dialogue-less. Some truly beautiful imagery courtesy of director Mandy Wyckens.

Spotted

The latest short from the folks at Les Gobelins is a pleasant stylistic departure from the wor  we've seen as of late, emulating the visual stylings of a dark noir. Excellent presentation down to the excellent sound design and moody lighting bring this rather silly premise to life. The team also chose to bring in 2D FX elements to accent the 3D, which melds seamlessly with the already pushed style of the short.

A fugitive is intercepted by two customs officers as he tries to escape his fate. During a violent interrogation, Big Mike and his sidekick attempt to dismantle his secret network and to put an end to his dreams of liberty.

Un Conte

Un Conte (A Tale) is a seemingly more action oriented short from the Les Gobelins crew, narrating the supposed tale of a knight facing incredible odds in an attempt to save a princess. However, this tale stands out as it unfortunately has no happy ending to speak of. Despite his best efforts, he falls just short of a victory, before we are made to realize that it was all a facade for something much, much darker. Really risque subject matter, but ultimately the message is a positive, if not cautionary one.

Myosis

A wonderfully surreal short by Emmanuel Asquier-Brassart, Ricky Cometa, Guillaume Dousse, Adrien Gromelle and Thibaud Petitpas at the Les Gobelins animation school, Myosis follows a man journey away from his own individuality as he assimilates into a larger, monolithic entity symbolizing conformity and going with the flow. Ultimately memories of his past prove to be too strong to keep him shackled into his daze, and he sets out to do the unthinkable.

I have to say that this was one of the most visually stunning shorts we've run into this year, down to the absolutely incredible setting, staging and the fluidity of the animation, especially during the revolt scenes. Myosis is the constriction of the iris which decreases the diameter of the pupil. It is an unconscious phenomenon which can be triggered by an intense light, fear, or the effect of epiphany.

Wild Casting

The students of Les Gobelins have done it again with the very short, but awesome animation Wild Casting.  Created by a group of second year students, the team was comprised of  Nicolas Caffarel, Thomas Charra, Floriane Marchix, Jérémie Moreau, Baptiste Rogron, and Melvina Wong. Playing on MGM's classic roaring lion, the short tells the story of how such a lion came to be, at least in this short.  Aside from the fun short story, I especially loved the enviorment art, the vast and detailed cityscape.

The Les Gobelins Annecy 2013 Lineup - SeeSaw, The Fancy Family, Copernicus, Sawa

Continuing their yearly tradition of contributing signal shorts to the yearly Annecy International Animated film festival, this year was no different for the students at Les Gobelins animation school. As part of their curriculum, 5 teams contributed their own unique 30-50 second animated bumpers to the festival. We featured The Retake individally yesterday thanks to it's creators reaching out with their extensive making of, so here are the other 4 submitted to the festival this year.

A soft NSFW for stylized nudity in the See Saw and Sawa shorts. The short above was created by Marlène Beaube, Marion Bulot, Thibaud Gayral, Guitty Mojabi and Raphaëlle Stolz

The Retake

Created by a team of students over at the Les Gobelins academy in Paris, The Retake is a veritable painting in motion created as a bumper/ident for the Annecy 2013 animation festival. Despite being just under a minute, the short centers around a frustrated court artist and a King who can't see the beauty in front of him.

The entire video is a visualization of the freedom of experssion and personal pride, an issue typically brought up by artists dealing with clients aloof about the artistic process. The short was created by Maxime Delalande, Nadya Mira, Semiramis Mamata, Laurent Moing and Rayane Raji. Check out the making of the short after the break, going over the entire creation process, including some really cool shot breakdowns.

The Les Gobelins Animation Archive

The folks at the prestigious French animation school Les Gobelins just recently opened up an archive of the last four years or so of animated one minute shorts created for the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, a prestigious event that has been going on since 1960. As an interesting assignment for students at the school, Les Gobelins has contributed unique little 60 second animations as 'stubs' in between shorts and presentations to the festival for the last few years.

The archive is still being filled with more animations, but it was really cool to see some shorts that weren't widely distributed in public. Check out a few of our favorites after the break: Soapy Trip, Dodudindon and Junk Space.

Sediento

Once again, the students at Gobelins amaze us.  A tired, dehydrated man finds himself at a vending machine, just wanting a bottle of water.  A pretty simple need.  But luck is unfortunately not on his side.  The story is pretty simple, but it's the animation that really drew us.  The combination of 2D animation and live action was really well executed.

Les Gobelins FX Animations

Created by a few teams of students over at the famous Les Gobelins animation school in France, these bite sized films are vessels for FX animation exercises. FX animation entails the work that goes into bringing things like smoke, explosions and other ambient effects to life.

Light on plot but heavy on atmosphere, these team exercises are but a stepping stone towards their final animated projects, which we look forward to seeing in a few years time.

Teams and titles:

• Shoot Out: Batiste Peron, Marlène Beaube, Eve Ceccarelli, Clément Doranlo and Maud Girard.
• Opium: Marion Bulot, Elsa Boyer, Rayane Radji, Guitty Mojabi and Raphaelle Stolz.
• Loosaur: Deborah Cruchon, Myriam Fourati, Jonghyun Jung-boix, Nadya Mira and Laurent Moing.

Peste Et Crouton

With the amount of talent at the Les Gobelins academy, it's no surprise that the students regularly engage in full on summer productions with companies. In this case 5 students embarked on an internship with French animation studio Supamonks to create this rather silly short about a duel between generations.

If you grew up glued to your Gameboy, you might find quite a bit to relate with here, especially if you had to deal with parents and relatives desperately trying to get you to take your eyes off of it during scenic roadtrips (Guilty as charged). The short was created by Marion Bulot, Eve Ceccarelli, Jeanne Sylvette Giraud, Sophie Markatatos and Laurent Moing.