Adam and dog: by Minkyu Lee

Happy New Year 2012! I know it's been quite a while since my last post. 2011 was a tough, busy year and it was quite a task to keep up with it all. I've heard many people relate similar stories and feelings about last year, so let's all hope that 2012 is a whole lot better.

One amazing project that I was fortunate enough to help out and work on a little bit during the past year was my friend Minkyu Lee's film "Adam and dog". A completely independent, hand drawn short film that I'm very happy to say has been nominated for the Best Animated Short Subject category in the 39th Annual Annie Awards.

Sketch of Adam by Minkyu Lee.


Still frame image of dog from the film.

Minkyu has recently put together a wonderful trailer for his film that has been making the rounds and gathering lots of buzz on the Internet that you can watch here:

Adam and dog Trailer from Minkyu on Vimeo.

He has also started a tumblr for the film where you can find out more information about it and get updates on future screenings here:

http://adamanddog.tumblr.com/

I hope that everyone gets a chance to see the film soon!

Murakami Yutaka & Yoichi Kotabe

On my last trip to Japan in 2010 I bought quite a few books. Here's a couple images from them. These are only two of the many artists I've found to be interesting and inspirational from Japan. Murakami Yutaka works in the field of illustration and Yoichi Kotabe worked in animation.

Murakami Yutaka





Yoichi Kotabe

I really like the simplicity, as well as the rough and organic quality in both of these artist's work. Hopefully I can get to posting more here about these particular artists as well as some of the other interesting artists and books I found in Japan as time goes on.

Hill Farm

Here's another animated short that I really enjoyed seeing at animation festivals while I was younger.

It's a film called "Hill Farm" by Mark Baker.

It's fairly long for a short film, running at approximately 15 minutes, but if you have some time to spare I think it's really worth watching. The animation in this film is fun, caricatured, and beautifully done. I also love the fact that there's not a word of dialogue in the short, only the sounds of the animals, props, environment and the music.

Thanks to Minkyu Lee for sharing the link with me.

Richard Condie

I really love these Richard Condie films. Seeing his work at animation festivals while I was growing up was a big inspiration for me.

This first film, "Getting Started", was funny to me when I was younger mostly because of all the crazy physical gags that happen in it. Now that I'm older though, I can really relate to the main character's battle with procrastination, and it's even funnier.

The second film, "The Big Snit", is also another favorite of mine.

House of Cats

Many of my fellow graduates and friends from CalArts worked on this. It turned out really well. Congratulations to everyone involved.

I remember when my friend Sean Jimenez told me that Court Lomax had invited him to go to Austria and France for a few months to help develop a commercial for Swarovski, I thought it sounded like an awesome opportunity and would be a great experience. When Sean came back and showed me some of the story boards and animatics he had done with the ideas that he and Court had come up with for it, I was really impressed. They were for the first cat Emily.

House of Cats from Courtland Lomax on Vimeo.

Credits:

Co-Created by Courtland Lomax and Sean Jimenez
Directed by Courtland Lomax
Music by Brian Young
Compositing by Ethan Metzger
Backgrounds and Designs by Brigette Barrager
Storyboards and Layouts by Sean Jimenez

Animation:
Adam Muto
Jules Soto
Shiyoon Kim
Bert Youn
Matthias Bauer
Erik Fountain
Courtland Lomax
Leo Matsuda
Matt Pugnetti
Jennifer Hager
David Nam

Cleanup:
Sean Jimenez
Esther Shin
Jinyoung Park
Juliana Park
Kelli Kuest
Matt Pugnetti

I attached links to everyone's name that I could. Please check them out.