Animated Short Film : Burning Safari

Burning Safari, once again, is made by Gobelins’ student- Aurélien Predal. It’s a simple animation about a war between robots and a monkey.



This film doesn’t have too much to say. It’s a typical “Gobelins-style” animation. Excellent art design, outstanding animations and short story. The real thing I want to introduce from this film is actually the creator- Aurélien Predal.

If you have ever visited his blog, you might be quite amazing about his works and animations. It’s just too good to believe that all of them are made by a young student. In his old stuff blog, you can see a lot of sketches and paper settings of characters or scenes. His sketch ability is real solid. It’s maybe the most stable power for him to do all kinds of creations. His paintings by hands or computers are both awesome. His hand drawings present a kind of mid-tone between watercolor and advertisement pigments. On the other side, computer drawings use a lot of fluorescent colors to make the visual effects more special.

In his new stuff blog, there are works he made after he graduated from Gobelins. His art design seems to promote to a higher place. It becomes more mature and classic. Some of his new creations uses a big area with the same color but contains elaborate details. This kind of art style is really special and makes people have great esteem to him.





Sometimes I would wonder how could that be possible a young guy performs like a senior art master. However, the guy really exists. Aurélien Predal, is such a terrible talented artist.

Aurélien Predal old stuff blog
http://mr-teckel.blogspot.com/
Aurélien Predal new stuff blog
http://aurelien-predal.blogspot.com/

Animated Short Film : Cubic Tragedy

Cubic Tragedy is a short animation film made by a NTUST student Ming-Yuan Chuan. The film was selected in Siggraph Electronic Theater and got People's Choice Award in 2005.



As to Siggraph, few people know about it or heard about it. In Taiwan, even students who major in animations or multimedia may not know what Siggraph really is. Siggraph, actually, is a special interest group on graphics and interactive techniques. It held conference and animation festival every year from 36 years ago and now its awards in animation are some of the most important ones in this field. The winner of Siggraph Best in Show Award, as I mentioned in Animated Shotr Film : Oktapodi, can be directly nominated by Academy Awards Best Animated Short.

Since Siggraph animation awards are so important, there are always a lot of creators from every countries send their films to attend Siggraph every year. Cubic Tragedy is the first Taiwan student animation selected in animation festival and even in Electronic Theater. Moreover, people who attended this Electronic Theater voted Cubic Tragedy as their favorite film. Finally Cubic Tragedy got People's Choice Award.

What causes this film so successful is maybe the theme. Cubic Tragedy, in fact, is not that kind of animation for ordinary people to see. It’s about some jokes in 3D computer software and technique. A woman who lives in 3D world tries to make herself pretty, but she uses these 3D tools badly and doesn’t know how to undo it. Seeing this story, audiences in Electronic Theater – mostly were animators, would felt funny and just like seeing themselves because they may met the same embarrassing situation in front of the computers before.

Regardless of the theme, the animation in this film is quite good too. I like its opening of one cube to drag another cube into the same shape. They look so cute and elastic. It can also show that the creator of this film is very good at character animations.

Animated Short Film : Voodoo

It’s still an excellent animated short made by Gobelins’ students – Voodoo.



In fact, this film wasn’t very hot or popular at all. Maybe the reason is that the year which this film was completed is also the year another two Gobelins’ great films were completed – Oktapodi and Blind Spot. The above two films got as many awards as you can image in festivals and competitions. Anyhow, Voodoo is still a very good animation film and has something better than them indeed.

I like their character settings and performances very much. It’s just remarkable. The creators used only ten seconds to describe three treasure-hunters’ personalities clearly. The first man with a hat is the vanguard of their team, and with his action details we can easily know that he is a sissy guy. The second one is a middle age man who has a big beer belly and a treasure map in his hand. His looking is so greedy and arrogant that means he is the leader. Then the third one is a strong and tall white man. However, he looks so timid and fearful with all the baggage on his back.

These three absolutely different guys to be a team is a quite interesting setting. It will make audiences can’t stop image what kind of things they will meet afterward. With a successful character setting like this, we can even exchange whole the story of this film but still fascinating. For instances, these three guys can change to rob a bank, catch a bus to office or go fishing together and so on. Audiences will also wonder what funny things would happen between them. As to me, the character setting in this film is a fine example for we animators to learn.





Besides, I like their humor very much. They will use little shots to present something interesting, like the man inserting the bomb into the wall with his little finger lifted or the man’ two legs running fast with his upper body trying hard to stop. I feel a little sorry for this film indeed. It’s good enough in quality to get some big awards, but there is none. Maybe the problem is the story, the topic or just a little lack of good luck.

Draft of A Comparison of Two Pictures

Here we got two posters of Star Wars Episode II : Attack of the Clones. At first sight you might think that they are very similar, but actually they are different in details and have their own meanings.

When it comes to similarity, these two pictures have absolutely the same layout. The title of the movie, the subtitle of the movie, the formation of background characters and the pose of the main character are all the same. Even the directions of two main characters’ lightsabers are very near. The left one Mace Windu seems serious and ready for a big fight, and the right one Count Dooku does too.

On the other hand, these two main roles and their background guys stand for totally different sides. Mace Windu is a jedi master who belongs to justice troops in the movie. Behind his back are a group of jedi knights coming to help this war. Count Dooku, however, is a sith who wants to conquer the world by using clones army after him. Another difference is the hues of these two pictures. It uses warm color tunes to good ones yet cold color tunes to evil ones. Most comparatively, Count Dooku was a jedi master, too. He betrayed jedi army and brought some secrets to sith army many years ago. After all, it is not only a war between light and dark but between honesty and disloyalty.

Nowadays, using this similar layout and hiding some different messages in details is a common way for producers to advertise their movie. Although for people who are not interested in it they are just a series of same pictures, people who are fascinated with it like them very much and can always find trifles and hidden fun from them.